The Suffering by Quensetta William - HTML preview

25. Chapter

Yes, the #9 hit Mike, in the night, and it hit him hard and good. Gert, in the intangible form she possessed could feel the pain he felt louder than she could hear the chaos. The emotion, the things of the mind and spirit, that is what you hear, feel, touch, and smell when you leave your earth suit. This is what she heard: his pain. It was brief but it was loud, like a shriek, like a scream for help. But then it was no more.

After the impact, after the screeching of the buses brakes as it fought to stop, Mike lay there on the cold concrete, trembling and bleeding. Gert knelt beside him, and all she could feel was love, the love she had never felt. She heard his spirit before she saw it, it rose, clean and healthy and strong, and it looked her in her eyes, the eyes only he could see, he smiled that smile. She smiled back, and he reached for her hand. He used his left, because in the other was the napkin with her number. Still.

For both Mike and Gert the loneliness, the trying too hard, the failing, and the suffering were over. The suffering at weddings and at anniversary parties. The suffering of observing young love, or two embracing who have known that touch for 50 years.

The suffering was over for the two of them. They now had each other; for eternity. The suffering. The suffering that comes with the hollowness of a soul that is simply incomplete on its own.

At long last, the silent, lifelong suffering of these two free spirits was over. The suffering was gone.