WA-6

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000168 EndHTML:0000006118 StartFragment:0000000570 EndFragment:0000006101

"Get out!" she said, her tone angry and anxious. "I never want to see you again. You messed up. It's time for you to pay the price." I remember it clearly. She left me. It was not my fault for liking another woman but I was responsible for the affair but it was over, and no matter how many times I apologized, she never forgave me. I didn't blame her for not wanting to see me again, so I did as she pleased and left. This was a year ago, a year from the dirty streets and creaky cart. 

I didn't ask for money or a place to live. She had earned all the support for our family and I didn't deserve any of the life we made together. I was laid off at work when my company shut down and I didn't bother to get a job afterwards. I regret that too. Now I have nothing but a cart I roll along with me in the streets of the Bronx. I could not afford an apartment and it was hard to get a job so I traveled from shelter to shelter looking for nothing but warm soup, some rest and maybe a few friends here and there.

I had lots of time on my hands, to think, to read, to wander aimlessly through life, or what was left of it anyways. I went to the library almost every day and each time read a book from a different shelf. Today I was in the romance section. I found a book entitled Love Story, it was the same as the movie, my wife and my favorite movie of all time. It was about two young college students. They love each other a great deal but went through many highs and lows during their relationship. The girl was sick and died but he still loved her and they make it through till the end, together. One line, however stood out. “Love means never having to say you're sorry.” How can this be, I asked. Would anyone believe such a lie to be true? I love my wife. I never go a day with out thinking of her. I had some regrets but I decided to find out if she still loved me. No one could make a movie with false script.

I stepped back to take a cold hard look at the new life I had created. It was filled with cheap food and old clothes on my back. My wife, she was my everything. She completed me, made me who I was and now that I didn't have her, my life was a wreck. Half of me was gone, all because of a stupid mistake. As soon as I gathered enough money, after weeks of begging on the street, I bought a bus ticket up to northern New York where my life was living.

When I got back to my hometown, I walked to the house we had lived in together a year ago. I knocked and immediately took position 5 steps from the door. I was nervous about seeing her again. What would she think, do, say? She opened the door and took a look at me. She checked me up and down for signs, information as to why I was there. I smiled hesitantly and shrugged. All of a sudden, a tear fell to the ground from the tip of her nose. She had her eyes planted on the ground at her feet. I stood for a minute and started to turn towards the street. I knew she didn't want me here. I looked back as I was leaving and she was lifting her face. Her mouth dropped a little as if she was going to say something, but nothing came out. I stopped just to watch. She was beautiful, prettier than I remember and her eyes twinkled in the sunlight more than her now-damp cheeks. She closed her mouth and again opened it but this time the words came out. “Love means never having to say you're sorry.” At that moment, my mouth dropped lower than hers. I hesitated for a second but then we both started moving forward. I grabbed her shoulders and pressed her body into my chest. Now more than ever, I realized what exactly love meant and I couldn't possibly think why I could ever deny such a beauty between my wife and me.