Who knows if Frank ever truly loved her for his forever, as he vowed. The answer to that question was buried along with him.
It was cancer, as he had foreseen. It hit him as second cancer, according to the experts. It wasn’t longer than 6 months after, his one year “cancer free” anniversary. Six months after he had told her he was going to die soon anyway, so he wanted his freedom. Therefore, she could start grieving him now. “Just pretend I have already passed on”, were his words.
Kate thought he was hilarious. “Since when in the last 3 years, have you not already done exactly what you wanted?”, she chuckled along with her reply. He smiled that odd secretive smile he often used when he was already living inside his own thoughts. Hugged her and walked away.
Kate knew all too well the difference between “pretend” death and the real thing. She knew when a person was gone,eventually, those
left behind, could find solace. There was an acceptance of knowing their loved one, was no longer in pain and felt at peace.
When she was fifteen, her mom, lost a 3 ½ year battle against leukemia and cancer. Her father had gone to the other side after a sudden heart attack in 1998. Then bone cancer that moved upward, took her older brother in 2007, when Kate was in her early forties.
Often, on a bad day, she would still talk to them. Instinctively, Kate felt them as they watched over her. Angels.
She thought of them as protective angels,
keeping herself, her children and later her grandchildren from harm.
Hell, her theory was
proven when she was barely 16. One late,sunny summer afternoon, as they were cruising up the road on his dirt bike. Suddenly, she hollered into her high school boyfriend’s ear,
“YOU HAVE GOT TO PULL OVER, I HAVE TO GET OFF!”
From nowhere, she had this desperate anxiety flood
every nerve in her body. Panic succumbed her thoughts. The message?
GET OFF THAT BIKE, KATE! GET OFF THAT BIKE RIGHT NOW!
Dave, being the loving, caring boyfriend that he was, pulled over to the side of the country road. She hopped off. He looked at her, shrugged his shoulders, gave her the, are you sure look? She nodded. They were approximately 1500 feet from the base of his parent’s driveway. Slowly, he pulled away.
Just as he turned onto the hill of the driveway, the bike’s throttle stuck, discovering the brakes were gone, he had no choice but to jump off. Somehow, the bike, remained
perfectly upright. It gained speed up the hill, across the driveway and crashed
full throttle into the garage doors at the other end. He could hear the high pitch wine of the engine that within seconds, sputtered and died.
Kate came running. Still laying on the side of the driveway, Dave looked up at her and asked, “How THE HELL, did you know?”, “I didn’t.”, she replied, still slightly out of breath. “All I knew, was for some dang reason, I just HAD to get off that friggin’ bike!”
Sitting up in the grass, he reached for her and pulled her close. She snuggled in and the two of them just sat there for an hour or more, holding each other. They quietly chatted, as young lovers do. Occasionally, one of them glanced towards the mutilated dirt bike.
That, was the day it started…
❤️
Thought I would try my hand at a short story.
In all honesty, I picked up a new journal the other day.
As I was putting away the groceries, I picked up a pen and that story wrote itself.
Some is fiction, some is not.
Kind Regards and #winning- K
❤️
Photography, copyrighted and compliments of K of TheBlackWallBlog. 12.18
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