Our marriage lasted five weeks.
The parting was touching. She came into my arms, one last time. We didn't say anything. She has a kind of quiet purr and I just listened to that. She denies having it, and most people don't hear it. But I do.
The day before she had told me that she had married me as a 'gesture'. I wasn't sure what that meant, but it was a gesture I certainly appreciated. She, I'm sorry to say, was kind of embarrassed by the whole thing. "The way we met..." she always starts to say, and never finishes.
Our meeting was sort of crazy. It was a good kind of crazy, something I simply call Fate. I thought I could keep her with that thought, but one day she found a way to answer. "Fate's change." she said. I had hoped not.
The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that fates do indeed change. If they don't, we are all in trouble. Once she had decided that fate had changed I tried my best to keep things easy. I didn't want any bad feeling. Emotions can be horrible, especially after they have been so good. They had been good. Life together was grand, actually. She snored, and then when awake, denied it. I threatened to tape record her one night, but I never did.
Maybe I should have. It would be a nice remembrance of her. I could play it, and it might make me sleep better now. My first warning of the split happened over breakfast. Out of nowhere, with fresh coffee in my hand, and that great bacon and eggs smell in the air, I saw her wipe away a tear. I jumped up, thinking the toast must be burning, or something. The food was okay. It was just her. She turned away and busied herself with something. "What's wrong?" I asked. "Nothing." she replied, and turned to give me one of thos fake 'everything is alright' smiles. But it wasn't.
She looked different. It took me a minute or two, but I figured out the change. She wasn't wearing the necklace. The symbol of out meeting was gone. As a gift, the day of our wedding, I had given her a sterling silver copy of the very thing that had started our 'Fate' together. She had been working at a restaurant. As part of the tip I had left her a little heart necklace, with a portion cut out in a key shape. It was a cheap thing, but it had been somehow really meaningful to her. So I had it copied in real silver. As well as the key part, which is still on my key chain. "What happened? I asked, as I pointed at her neck. "It broke." was all she said.
Life is like that, I guess. Things break. People break. Relationships and marriages break. Everything breaks. I gave her some dangly silver earrings as a going away present. "Try not to break them." I said. She laughed at that! I know her soul. That's the part that counts. The part, I hope, that never breaks.
She left.
Like a dying person, I saw everything and understood nothing.
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