Second Chances
He breaks the silence with a heavy sigh. The chair responds with a creak and a groan. There’s an ache in his jaw, but he ignores it, fixes his eyes on hers, instead. It’s Laurel, he begins and is deluged with the anguish of seeing his once fearless wife made feeble in the green upholstered recliner. He asks if she remembers her first appointment — when the nurse asked him to step outside because he wouldn’t stop asking questions and interfering with her work. There’s a soft chuckle in his exhale. Betrayal floods his wife’s face, her fingertips and the corner of her lips give a series of twitches. She suppresses a shiver of her spine and sets her jaw. He stands up and forces his admission past his lips.
