A mess of conflicted nerves, thoughts and misplaced energy, Laura tried picking fights with her husband over every little things but, unfortunately for her, he always caved. The stress inside the cabin, between them, filled every inch of the abode.

“Lee, I can’t live like this anymore!” Laura shouted, angry. “Either we move or I’m leaving!”

“Bbb..ut!” Lee noted her disappointment but was surprised at yet another demand. “Where do you want to go? There’s not a lot of places that will hire an ex-con, you know.”

“I don’t care! Find something else to do, somewhere else to live or I’m leaving you!”

Lee felt the verbal punch and withdrew. He spent all day walking around town in hopes of finding ‘anything else’ but returned desolate.

“I tried, Laura,” he wrung his huge hands. “I really did but there aren’t any jobs right now.” A half-smile crept across his face. “I even tried to enlist, you know, so I’d be out of your hair for a while and to serve my country.”

Laura sighed heavily, turned and walked away from the dinner she’d sat on the table. Lee sat down to eat alone. A tear lingered in the corner of his eye but he dare not let it slide. She already KNEW how he felt about her; it was her turn to feel something for him. You can’t make anyone LOVE you ... love doesn’t work that way.

That night Lee was out on his second ‘round,’ in the bitter cold but glad of it as it kept him alert, without locking the door behind him.

Shivering awake, the door had blown ajar, Laura scoffed, locked it, then crawled back into the warm bed.

Shortly afterwards, awakened by someone turning the door knob, Laura grabbed the gun out from beneath her pillow.

Whoever it was moved to the window as she patiently loaded the gun. She gasped as they scratched at the icy glass but couldn’t see them for the slick coat.

Laura walked into the living room, both arms extended with the gun pointed straight at the front door.

“Lee, is that you?” She stammered just now noticing that he wasn’t in bed. Obvious to the fact that he couldn’t hear her, she repeated the question. “Lee, is that YOU?”

The door knob rattled again, several times, and then whoever it was began hitting the door. She could see the bulge as they pressed the full weight against it time after time.

“Lee, don’t scare me like that!” Laura screamed outraged. “I’m going to shoot the next time the door moves!”

Dad, hearing nothing, nearly frozen, turned to wrap himself in a nearby tarp to fend off the chill just as a BOOM splattered the upper center of the door!

Throwing the tarp aside, Dad burst through the door before Laura could pull the trigger a second time, wrestled the gun away from her and laid it aside.

“Hell, woman, what did you shot at me for?” Rejected, torn, surprised, Lee yelled.

Laura, knowing she’d nearly killed her husband, collapsed in his arms. “I.I.I.I’m pregnant and this place is scaring me to death!” Sobbing uncontrollably in Lee’s arms, Laura murmured, “You promised to take care of me. I HATE this place! I HATE being sick all the time! I HATE you!”

Lee only heard the part about being pregnant, the part he wanted to hear. “Ah, Honey, that’s the hormones talking. You’ll be fine. I’m fine! We’ll move! I’m going to do better by you!” He gestured around the place looking disgusted. “This ain’t no place for a baby.”

“Oh, Lee!”

They kissed and made up then and there due to a hole in the door that should’ve been through his chest. He thought no more of it and they moved immediately ... for Laura’s peace of mind.

Dad died when I was five years old of cancer (natural causes), but mom told this story over and over to us kids.

To me it raised too many ‘why’s:’ ... why did they need a weapon, why did mom shoot when dad was out ‘there’ AND hearing impaired, why did dad overlook it so easily, why did her pregnancy make a difference?   (When the baby came, it was stillborn.)

copyright 2008 Sandra S. Corona