Tears of Sorrow

Part 11

When Jim woke up the next morning Em's side of the bed was empty. She was never up early, something must be wrong. He jumped straight out of bed and ran downstairs shouting "Em?! Emily?!"

"I'm in the kitchen." he heard her reply in a perfectly normal voice, without that trace of hopelessness that had layered his wife's voice ever since they had met. It was almost... happy?

It stopped him dead in his tracks. Then he remembered the events of the previous afternoon. She walked out of the kitchen to where he was standing. She was beautiful, like an angel, her face radiated pure happiness and joy. He just stared at her looking like a man who has been almost staved to death being presented with a banquet. He wanted her to stay like that forever, to never be sad again. He would do anything just to make her smile.

Realisation about what had caused her such joy suddenly turned his face sour, that cruel, heartless woman and all her little friends who had ripped Em's heart to shreds.

But seeing his beautiful wife so happy made him realise that for her to be healed she needed her long lost friend. A new determination rose up inside of him, he would never let such a thing happen again. After all it wasn't Bek's fault that she had to move, he felt ashamed about the way he had acted towards her the night before when she had tried to be friendly.

As Jim was thinking all these things Em had walked up to him and locked him into a tight embrace. They had stayed like that until Liam had wandered down the stairs, yelled out "so it wasn't another dream!" and run over to be pulled into a family hug.

After breakfast Em started to get worried, Bek should have been back by now. She would pace back and forth and repeatedly look at the clock hanging on the wall. After half an hour of this Jim couldn't stand it anymore and told Em he was going for a walk.