The Confession

The Confession

The land line rang. John glanced at the clock telling him it was 5:00. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and then picked up the phone. It must be Chris calling, he’s the only one to call on the landline. It had started to rain. “Hello?” John spoke into the phone. As soon as Chris started to speak John knew something was very wrong. “Hey John. John, I have to talk to you. Something really really bad has happened and I need help,” he said in a much too loud voice. He was insistent and wanted 100% of John’s attention.“Sure man, what’s going on? You sound scared.” “Oh my God,” exclaimed Chris, “I don’t believe it. I can’t believe what I’ve done! John you’ve got to listen to me, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know where to go. I’ve got to leave, I’ve got to get out of here!” John have visions of Chris on the other end of the line, with spittle collecting on his lower lip. This sometimes happened to Chris when he couldn’t get the words out fast enough. Then John noticed he sounded like he was smoking a cigarette. This would have been fine if Chris was a smoker - but he wasn’t. “Whoa, slow down dude. What the hell happened?” Chris went on to tell his story to John, the guy who everybody goes to for advice and to confess their sins. He replied, “What have I done? You’re not going to believe it. Remember Lisa’s friend Amy who’s been hanging around our house a lot lately? She works at the bank? Well..... we had an affair. Two months ago I slept with her.”

“Jesus Chris, what the hell did you do that for?”

“I know, it was the stupidest thing. And I didn’t just sleep with her once, I did it a bunch of times. I couldn’t help myself! I’m 45, losing my hair, growing a paunch, and Amy made me me feel so hot and sexy. She wanted me and I couldn’t help it!”

“Yo John, it’s ok, join the club. You’re one of millions of married men who cheat on their wives. It’s not as big a deal as you’re making it out to be.”

“No John, that’s not the worst of it. She got pregnant. Can you imagine people finding out that I had an affair and that she’s pregnant? Lisa would kill me. Amy kept saying how she was going to tell the world, that we wouldn’t keep it a secret. She painted a rosy picture of us sailing off into the sunset with our new baby. My life as I knew it would be over. Over, John! And all because I couldn’t keep my fly zipped. Shit! No freakin’ way! Amy and I were done and I needed to put the whole thing way behind me.”

He paused to take a deep breath, “But John? That’s not the worst of it.”

Looking at the clock John saw it was 5:30, but outside it looked more like midnight. The storm clouds had rolled in right along with Chris’s story. The rain and wind picked up, pelting the raindrops against the windows. Lightening flashed as thunder clapped a half second later.

Chris kept talking. “ John, just between you and me, I had to do something to shut her up. One of the guys at the gym told me he knew a guy who could take care of things. I gave him Amy’s name and address and left it at that. Now she’s gone missing and I hate to think what that means. I am so scared John, I don’t know what to do. What the hell have I done? What do you think I should do? I know I should go to the police but I can’t quite make myself do that. Should I run? Should I tell Lisa and have her run with me? What do I do?” Pause. “John? Hey John are you still there?’ The line was dead. Their conversation had gotten cut off.

Hmmm, how much did John hear before we got disconnected? Chris had confessed, yet was it really a confession if nobody heard it? How much had John heard? He started to panic, not knowing how much John had heard. Had he heard all of it? Then he realized the significance

of that question - of just how much had he heard? Maybe Chris was still in the clear if the line went dead before his own confession, in which case, it was still a secret. If nobody heard his confession, was he now absolved of the guilt without having to bear the consequences? He definitely felt better having gotten this load off his chest, but now he wasn’t sure what John would do. Definitely he would call the police with this kind of information. So Chris sat at his kitchen table, thinking, rubbing his stubbly 5 o’clock shadow, waiting for the police to come for him and haul him away in cuffs, or for Lisa to come home - whichever came first.

Two hours went by, no police. The rain had grown to torrential buckets splashing on the patio outside. Now he was sure that John had not called the police, whether because he chose not to or because he hadn’t heard his confession. Either way Chris was still a free man. Only his conscience kept him from total freedom.

Finally Lisa came in, soaking wet - wet from the rain and sweaty from her after work work-out. He tried to act as normal as possible with Lisa. He picked at his ham and pineapple pizza dinner which was normally his favorite. He sat next to Lisa on the couch as they watched their regular Thursday night line up, pretending that he was interested in the show, but lost in his thoughts of what to do next. They both got ready for bed, Lisa kissed him goodnight, climbed into bed and promptly fell sound asleep. Chris went and sat in the living room. He stayed awake for hours, calculating his next moves. Confess to the police, run away, confess to Lisa and have her run too. Those seemed like the three most obvious options. He checked for his pistol that he kept just in case of home invaders - self-protection. The magazine had six bullets and the gun was ready to fire as soon as he took the safety off. But why would he need a gun? He hadn’t

killed anybody and didn’t plan on it. He was not going to use the gun, he was sure of that. Nonetheless, with the gun next to him in the chair, he dozed off for a couple of hours.

In the morning, the rain had stopped and the storm had moved on. Lisa got up, shook Chris awake in the chair he’d spent the night, and asked him why he hadn’t come to bed. Why wasn’t he getting ready for work? Why did he look so horrible? “What’s wrong with you Chris?”

He told Lisa they have to leave. He told her that they need to leave town this morning. They need to go to the bank together, take out all of their money and get to the airport with their passports. Lisa was stupefied. “What are you talking about?! Have you gone mad? No, I am going to work now, and I’ll see you tonight.”

He showed her the gun sitting on the chair next to him, and told her again, they have to leave town. Lisa paled, gasped, and looked at her husband who she wasn’t sure she recognized at the moment. “Chris, what have you done?”

“Lisa, I’ll tell you once we’re on the plane. You have to trust me. We have to leave now.” They walked in to the bank together. Chris had his hand firmly on her back, guiding her

to the teller line, leaving no doubt in Lisa’s mind that he was in charge. Lisa expected to catch Amy’s eye and somehow let her know that Chris had gone off the deep end. They got to the bank, no Amy. They walked up to the next available teller to withdraw their money. Lisa tried to sound casual when she asked, “Where’s Amy?”

“Amy’s out today. She wasn’t at work yesterday either. Kind of strange for Amy.”

Lisa began to put the pieces together. Amy and Chris had been acting weird around her. In fact she’d seen them together at Starbucks quite a bit, but just assumed that they were becoming friends just as she and Amy had. Then there were the days that Chris got home late from work -

that started about two months ago. Something seemed different about him, he seemed preoccupied a lot of the time. She couldn’t quite believe it, but yet it was all beginning to make sense.

The teller said, “If you both would please sign this form I’ll get the cash ready for you.” Chris scribbled his signature and handed the form to Lisa. He looked at her with one eyebrow cocked, silently communicating to her “What’s its gonna be?” Then immediately his face softened letting her know that he loved her and he hopes she will trust him.

She had to think quickly. Does she join Chris’ escape? Can she bring herself to do that? Does she refuse to go with him? Does she go to someone for help? Then, in a matter of seconds, images of their life together flashed through Lisa’s head. Their wedding, the adventures they’d had, too many to count over the past fifteen years; his love for her - always there for her, rushing home from work to be with her when the pregnancy test came back negative, time and time again; he was her rock - dependable, strong and the love of her life. Over the past 15 years they spent more time together than apart. Because they didn’t have kids, they had the time and money to travel and enjoy life together. They loved all the same adventures, food, music, and places to visit. They were planning their next trip - Northern Africa next spring. They weren’t only a perfect match, she needed him like she needed food for sustenance. Now this affair with Amy. Well nobody’s perfect, she’d certainly had her dalliances with a couple of guys at work, but none of it was serious, just as she knew in her heart Chris wasn’t serious about Amy. She had always told Chris that she loved him no matter what. Now was her chance to prove it to him.She looked at Chris’s rough, weathered hands that she knew intimately and had brought her so much pleasure. Standing next to him, she felt the touch of his broad shoulders and strong arms that had

held her and kept her safe and secure for all these years. After hesitating for a couple of seconds while these thoughts and feelings flooded over her, she smiled at the teller, picked up the pen and signed. Then she turned to Chris gave him her biggest smile and said “Morocco - here we come!”