Falling Like Rain

    Her words still rang through his head as the road disappeared into the dark void of night. The windshield wipers beat out an endless cadence, replaying the message repeatedly in his mind. 

“Pete, are you there? It happened again…I am really leaving this time…can you come to get me?” He had spent a long week in LA closing a merger deal and the last thing he wanted was to get involved in another one of Tina and Bill’s fights. He and Tina had been high school sweethearts, but that ended when he introduced her to his old college roommate. Bill had a panache about him that endured well with the ladies, but he also had the temper to match. 

 “Tina, Please you can’t seriously be considering this. He’s not a good guy.” Pete insisted when he heard the news of their engagement. He never realized at the time how right those words would prove to be later. He had flown to Connecticut last summer to visit her in the hospital. She had accidentally fallen down the stairs and had broken two ribs and her ankle. When Pete visited her in the hospital, he knew the truth behind her excuses and the reality of Bill’s temper. Pete really didn’t know why he still stayed in touch with her or even flew out there.  Deep down inside though, a part of him still loved her and even felt responsible for introducing them. As time passed she began to confide in him about the hitting, but she would always preface it by saying that “I caused it…” or  “It was my fault…” 

“You need to get away from him, Tina. Just leave, I’ll come to get you!” but his words were never more than mere echoes in her ears.  He just didn’t have the energy to deal with it anymore. He quickly grabbed his cell phone; it was time to put an end to all this nonsense, but there was no answer.

That’s when the second message played. Her voice was different this time. There was something more frantic, more pleading in it. 

“Pete please pick up!  Please! If you get this, I need you to get me; you’re the only one I can trust… Please, I don’t know what...” the voicemail ended abruptly. Pete immediately called her cellphone, but there was no answer. Why should there be, it was nearly three in the morning. The last thing he wanted to do was wake Bill and make things even worse for Tina. The next morning, he called her work, but she had apparently not shown up that morning. He started calling the Bristol police department before having second thoughts. What if he was overreacting? He finally decided he would rather overreact than find out she needed help and he had done nothing.

The young woman on the other end of the line promised they would send a patrol car over to ensure everything was ok. Somehow that didn't ease his anxiety. He finally got a call back from the police, the dispatcher he had spoken to earlier couldn't provide a lot of details, but her tone spoke volumes. It was then Pete decided to make the drive to Bristol.

Now, after nearly three days of driving, the rain was starting to mess with his mind. The ghostly shadows seemed to dance across the road as his eyes strained to see through the moonless night.

Up ahead, the neon lights of a 24-hour gas station flickered in the rain. He quickly pulled over to stretch his legs and grab a cup of coffee. 

“Can you tell me how much further to Bristol?” he asked as he got to the cashier.

He noticed a bucket of wrapped single roses on the counter. Tina loved roses, but not the red ones. No, she preferred white ones. “They remind me that some things in life are still pure.” She had said of some white roses one night at dinner, passing Pete a knowing grin. Bill noticed the grin and immediately thanked her for the compliment and changed the subject. The next morning she was too sick to meet him and Bill at the inn for breakfast. 

“Oh, it’s a couple hundred miles still, there’s a motel down the street if you’re lookin’ for a place to wait out the storm?” The gangly clerk brought him back to the present.

“Wha… Oh No, I am driving straight through, so just the coffee for now, Oh, and one of those roses too…one of the white ones.”

He could feel the storm worsening as he got back in the car.  It reminded him of another storm, one that hit just as suddenly while he was on the Ferris wheel with Tina at the state fair.  They had just reached the top when the clouds burst into a downpour. He took his coat off to cover her. “Oh No!” she gasped as a gust of wind blew it helplessly to the ground. They huddled close until they reached the bottom right as the rain stopped. Drenched, they ran laughing back to the car; it was there they had their first kiss. 

Pete shook his head as a passing semi brought him back to the present. The past sure was sweeter than the present reality.  A slight grin of both fondness and disbelief crossed his face. 

“Oh Tina, I always thought…” he sighed to himself. He quickly switched on the radio; he needed some music to distract him. 

“And in regional news, Funeral proceedings were held at St Joseph’s cemetery yesterday for the victim of Wednesday’s brutal...” He twisted the dial, searching for something a little more upbeat. 

“~Nights in White satin, never reaching the end, the letters I’ve written, never meaning to send…~” The lyrics mesmerized him for a second with the once sweet memories of the song.  He twisted the dial again but decided that silence was a better choice.

The rain was slowing to a drizzle now as he approached Bristol. The early morning haze crossed in front of him guiding him to his destination. Everything seemed so calm and peaceful as he pulled up to the curb alongside St. Joseph’s. “Things will be different now,” he thought to himself. “Only a few more steps.” He prodded himself. “Only a few more steps to goodbye…” As he got closer, he fell to the mound of freshly turned soil. As a tear escaped his eye, he laid the rose in front of the headstone. Shivering with emotion, he dropped to his knees crying, "I should have been there! I am so sorry I wasn't there to protect you." He struggled to speak through his own screams of pain and agony. "I am so sorry that I never told you before now that I love you."