Sally

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Sally

I stood there frozen in time as the sharp green array of shapes on the cardiograph slowly morphed into a perfect straight line. The doctors had told me that Clive was suffering from a series of heart-attacks, which could prove to be fatal. This didn't make sense to me...how could a man with no heart suffer from a heart attack?

"I'm so sorry Mrs Jagg. He's gone. We'll give you a little privacy."

The nurse put her hand on the sleeve of my cardigan as she softly spoke the words. The long sleeves were my only disguise today - I was lucky. Of all places a hospital was no setting to be showing off the burns, scratches and bruises on my skinny, pale arms. I was lucky - sometimes I had to wear sunglasses to disguise violet bruises, other times high polo-necks to hide crimson handprints. I hadn’t always been pale and skinny, that had been only one of the physical results of fifteen years of abuse. But then again, it had been all my fault.

As tears started to flow from eyes so tragically aged and weathered before their time, the nurse glanced back and sensitively gave me the look she gave to the rest of the grieving widows. However, this time, she was wrong. The crystal beads running down my face were not tears of grief…they were tears of relief. I was no longer someone’s possession; my thoughts and actions were no longer perpetuated by the fear of another beating. I was free.

As I placed the gold ring on the cabinet beside the bed I softly spoke the words ‘Til Death Do Us Part’. For the last fifteen years I had been ‘walking into’ doors….now, at last, I was finally getting to walk out one. For good.

Word Count:300