The Right Thing

An unfortunate series of events

It was our anniversary tomorrow. Our seventeenth anniversary. Seventeen years passed by and her smile was still the most beautiful thing to me. We were on the couch watching a movie, we were bored. Our daughter was still in high school, and doing whatever high school girls did. I had her mother to myself. I just kept watching her eat the popcorn, indulge herself into the movie, she looked lovely.

'What is it, why are you staring at me?' she asked.

'Nothing you look really lovely.' I replied.

'Oh really what do you want to do with your lovely wife?' she asked with a sly grin.

'There's a lot for you tomorrow. I'm going to blow you away with my love.' I replied.

'Only on the anniversary' she sighed.

'What do you mean by that? ' I asked slightly surprised.

'You only show your love like this on occasions. I miss the young you, the impulsive one.' she said.

'I knew you would say that so how about we go on a long drive today. Just the two of us. Like the old times. It will be fun!' I exclaimed.

I could see it in her glowing eyes that she wanted this. We told our daughter we would be back in a few hours or so and soon started off. I had all her favorite tracks lined up. I also had a picnic basket packed. I had a beautiful evening planned. And we drove off in the evening sky, occasional giggles, our previous romances and our embarrassing moments all were coming out. We were talking about our daughter and arguing about who loved her more, and argued about who loved the other more and I could see that she was enjoying this get away.

As we kept talking I saw this guy, with a bottle in his hand, ran straight up onto the road in the path of the car followed by a woman screaming in the background. I swerved the car instinctively. We went off the road and I had little control over my actions anymore. We were at a pace and stopping the car had become a problem for me now, I could feel myself mid-air, tossed and tumbled in the car as we crashed through someone's backyard. By the time the car came to a halt, I was almost knocked out of my senses. There was immense pain all through my body as I tried to move but the most painful thing was when I looked at my wife. Her still body lay sprawled on the dashboard as the glass shards were stuck all through her body and the airbag hadn't deployed. And I tried to reach her when, suddenly with a pop, an air bag smashed into her.

 

'NOOO!!!', I screamed at the top of my lungs. Tears were streaming down my face as my physical pain didn't matter anymore. I hated myself at that moment. I hated the world. I couldn't stop the tears, I couldn't hold the pain. I couldn't hold the sadness that rushed through my veins. And I heard a woman screaming. I didn't know what happened. I couldn't care less. All I know was whispering one last sentence to my deceased wife. 'I will always love you'. Saying that, I blacked out.

I woke in a hospital bed, my daughter and my brother, her uncle were standing by my side, I could see the heart-broken face of my daughter, her face smeared with tears. She hugged me as I was on the bed, her warm tears on my chest. I asked her with a tiny smear of hope, one last time if her mother made it. And the silence that followed gave me my answer. I didn't have any more words left, my tears did the talking now. She was gone, she left us. I can't see that precious smile anymore and that probably was my fault. It was my fault.

Her funeral followed soon, it was a closed casket as her body was too damaged for anyone to see. I was in a wheelchair, one of my legs fractured badly and a hand broken. My face was a minefield of tiny cuts and bruises. My daughter's face was bloated by the tears, she looked pale and weak. I told her we would be back. I never meant like this. People kept coming, it was getting harder for me. I saw a couple, someone I had never seen before but I could see a devastated mother and a disturbed father.

'You killed my children.You KILLED them!!' she spat on me.

I was too stunned to react. I didn't know what happened to them. I just sat there as she left crying, her husband consoling her. My daughter walked over to me, and sat by me. She told us that our car had crashed into her kids who were playing in the backyard. She told me how I killed two kids. And I could do nothing, I could do absolutely nothing.

Another woman came over, she was in tears. I didn't know her either and I couldn’t recall seeing her before. She came closer and explained herself. She told me that she was the wife of the man I had saved, the man who I swerved the car away from. She tried to tell me it wasn't my fault. She tried to explain how it was her husband's fault. She didn't want me to punish myself. She took off saying how sorry she was and walked away. Little did she know that I was being tortured anyways.

Next day in the news, I saw the parents of those poor children. They started a foundation for kids, orphans and abandoned or lost children, they donated their life savings and started an orphanage and a foundation for those kids. I didn't know why but there were tears streaming down my face already. I didn't understand this feeling of joy and sorrow at once but I knew they moved on, they did what was right. Now I had to move on.

Few days passed by, life went on, a few of my cuts and bruises started to disappear and I knew both my daughter and I were recovering. I sat down making cereal for myself and my daughter, when I was reading the newspaper and I stumbled upon something. I saw the photo of the woman who came to meet me at the funeral. She was dead. Abused and murdered by her own husband. Apparently she was arguing about how he needed to be more responsible but he didn't listen. His alcohol fueled rage made him do something entirely different. He ended up killing her. She was dead. Killed by the man I saved. The man I saved.

And in that moment, I felt nothing. I didn't know anything anymore. My daughter read the article and she saw my face, she knew I was destroyed. But I felt nothing. Nothing. And with a slightly trembling voice I asked her.

'What did I do? WHAT DID I DO?'