Beyond repair

Chapter 2

"Melissa, wake up!"

The softness of her sleep broke as she heard her name repeated loudly. "Melissa, you need to get up."

A last breath of sleep left her as she drifted back into consciousness. Piece by piece her mind crawled out from the safety of slumber, and piece by piece she became aware of where she was. The warmth of the teddy that she held in her tight embrace spread throughout her. She pressed her face into the teddy and inhaled as much of its scent as she could. It still smelled like Isabel and that sweet perfume her Aunt had bought her last year. It was her favourite perfume which she wore without fail every day. Normally her whole room would smell of it, but over the last 2 months, the smell had faded. However, holding the bear against her face like this filled her with the fragrance once more.

"Melissa!" She heard again. The voice slowly came into focus and this time she paired the voice with that of David's.

She hadn't wanted to open her eyes, she wished she could stay in that state; halfway between sleep and reality. A state where she could believe that Isabel might still be here, that she might come bouncing into the bedroom at any moment. But the sound of David's voice had stolen her from that state.

She slowly opened her eyes and saw David standing at the bedroom door, his eyebrows furrowed into a scowl.

"You said we should leave this room alone for now. Until we're both ready to sort through her things." His voice boomed at her in an accusation, although she was unsure what exactly she had done.

"I must have fallen asleep that's all." She said trying not to sound too defensive, "I was just sitting in her for a while ..."

"Why did you go through her things?" David interrupted impatiently.

Melissa looked around the room. She hadn't touched much, just the jewellery box was open, a few of the jewels scattered on the table and the teddy that she held which she had taken off the shelf.

"I wasn't going through her things." She responded this time unable to mask any defensiveness she had felt. " I couldn't sleep. I just wanted something of hers to help me relax."

He stared at her from the doorway for a few seconds longer and then turned and walked away. She opened her mouth to call him back, but whatever voice she intended to use never left her throat. So she closed her eyes and squeezed her face against the teddy hoping the smell would help to dampen the anger that was building up inside her. David had taken the loss of Isabel very badly as he had also lost his parents in a car crash when he was a child and Melissa and Isabel had been his only family. Because of this Melissa was trying so hard to be patient with him and to overlook his behaviour, but she had also lost her daughter and it was getting too hard to carry that weight and trying to walk on eggshells around her husband too. She was as hurt and broken as he was and she needed his comfort but instead, she felt like she was constantly apologising and making excuses for him.

Slowly she sat up on the bed and looked around. From the window hung Isabel's favourite curtains. They had been bought less than a year ago, at her request, they were pink with horses running along the border. They hadn't been opened since the day before the accident. They had left in such a rush that morning that they had been left closed. Melissa considered opening them, this bedroom always caught the sun so nicely at this time in the morning. She rose from the bed and straightened out the sheets. Then after returning the teddy to its place on the shelf, she walked over to the window. Smiling to herself she ran her fingers across the embroidered horses.

Horses were Isabel's favourite animal, which she promised herself to own one day. Around her 7th birthday, when a horse riding trip that she had looked forward to fell through, she had made a prayer before bed that night that she would own at least one horse by the time she was an adult.