Second Chance

"Second Chance"
By
W. P. Gerace

Today was the happiest day of Myrtle's life. After nearly fifteen years, her estranged daughter Sue Ellen, and her grandson, now seventeen, whom she had not seen since he was two Bryson, were finally returning home to Phoenix. Every day for the past fifteen years, Myrtle prayed, cried, and did everything she could to regain that mother-daughter connection. All attempts had failed under the ruthless control of Sue Ellen’s husband, Cory. Myrtle feared that the next time she saw her, she would lie on some cold metal slab in the town morgue.

A few nights ago, on a late Monday night, her daughter called crying, practically choking on her tears when she told her she was finally leaving him. Myrtle was heartbroken to hear that she and her only grandchild were being physically abused by this brute of a man who by no means was significant at all. The last time she saw Cory, he was nothing more than a pint-size man with no self-confidence. That was just a front Myrtle learned as Cory, a techno-geek making good money at a local software company in town, used all kinds of gadgets to spy on them, from hidden cameras to microphones to even having stuff secretly hidden in the walls. Though small, he worked out often, according to Sue Ellen, and was quite strong. The night she had called Myrtle, Sue Ellen had just gotten out of the emergency room after having several broken fingers. The creep had suspected her sweet innocent daughter of seeing another man and wanted to ensure she wouldn't use her fingers to dial another man’s phone number for a while. A Christian woman all her life, Myrtle was beginning to have the most un-Christian-like thoughts running through her. It took all her strength not just to hang up the phone and tell her daughter she was having a bad headache and secretly drive up to where the coward worked, use her pistol, shoot him three times, and leave him there for dead. Then she would get her daughter and grandson safely out of that terror.

She thought Sue Ellen's plan was much better than Myrtle's and cleverer. Cory was going to a conference for his job out in California. As bright and on top of things as it seemed, he somehow lost his phone at the airport in Mesa. Hollering at her like some drill sergeant, Cory demanded she cut the phone off. Sue Ellen realized now why he was so diligent and insisted that he must have had the security stuff on the phone. Since the cell phone bill was under her name, she could quickly close his phone and report it lost. Once this connection was cut, she could easily escape the torture chambers he created for her and Bryson.

The much-awaited day had finally arrived, and Myrtle was beyond ecstatic. Bryson and Sue Ellen would not be here for another four to five hours, but she wanted to prepare everything for her new company. Gathering all the bedroom sheets, she quickly went to the patio where the laundry was as the early morning sun rose over the tips of the Northern Mountains, their russet brown peaks a breath of fresh air on this early June day.

Just as she was beginning to open the washer to put the load in was when it all began. A sharp, tingling pain went from her fingertips to her arm. Every muscle in this area suddenly went numb, like a significant injection of Novocain was inserted into her veins. Gasping for breath clutching her chest, she felt the oxygen in her lungs being closed off as if her body had forgotten how to breathe. What was going on? What was happening, Myrtle wondered? It was so early, maybe 6:30-7:00 AM at the latest. No one was even out on her street that could help. Nothing but the swaying of the oak trees and a beautiful clear blue sky.

Dizziness took her with a prevailing wave of unsteadiness. Twirling about her, the sky, the trees, everything around her swirled into one big whirl of blurriness. She could hear voices calling to her. Her mother, her father, Charles, and her late husband, Paul, Sue Ellen's father, were beckoning her to join them. Turning around, all three stood in a glowing bask of white lights at the edge of the porch steps. Their faces looked so healthy and robust as if the illnesses that took them from this world were no longer present. It was as if they were rejuvenated.

Till now, she did not realize what was going on. Her time on this physical planet has come to an end. But it cannot be that she has much to do and finish. She has a daughter who needs her mother, a grandson she barely knows, and a son-in-law who needs a reckoning. Putting their hands out to her guiding her to them, telling her it was time for them to be together, Myrtle had to speak up. For the first time, her voice found itself and spoke up.

"I cannot leave now. Sue Ellen and Bryson are on their way here. You all know what is going on. I know you do. I cannot join you now. "Myrtle pleaded that she needed more time.

Behind the trio, a bright white light opened, and a thunderous voice called out, saying it was your time. Crying, telling the voice that more time was needed, please, Myrtle needs to help her daughter, she begged. Challenging the light, Myrtle was relieved when she found herself back on her patio, standing up, putting her load of bedclothes in the laundry room back to her usual self.