My High School Sweetheart, Reimagined

ng in the big wooden barn we' d rented for the w

I' d been married to for twenty-five years in another life. She looked

l of a Ford Explorer and the flashing re

other life. I was at home, waiting with a di

n an accident. Your wife

disbelief. Then the officer's next wor

sir. A man was wi

hool. The one she was always making excuses t

worse. It was a poison that seeped into every memory,

, our wedding day. A second chance. Not

N

t it cut through the preach

d, confus

s, the same ones that had looked so distan

ing everyone in that packed ba

no. I

iet misery I refused to live again. I walked to the edge of

econd thoug

a sharp, searing pain shooting up my ankle. It was nothing. Not

Ford F-150. I ripped the "Just Married" sign off the back, threw it on the ground