When it Rains, it Pours

It was a quiet Friday morning in the Halstead household. The home was dark, and rain pounded outside the window, no one bothered to turn on a light. Mari sat at the kitchen counter sipping her morning coffee, while she stared out the window with a melancholy expression on her face. Liam sat on the couch in the living room, typing furiously in attempts to reach his deadlines. He was behind after the events of this past week. Mari finished her coffee almost in an instant and sighed loudly in annoyance at the typing. She shuffled to the kitchen sink and began to wash her cup. Liam stopped typing,

“What.”

She dried her hands on her robe that she hadn’t changed out of for the last three days,

“Excuse me?”

“What was that sigh?”

“Oh you heard me over that thing that you call typing?”

Liam paused for a moment,

“Come on Mar, let’s not do this.”

Mari marched angrily to the living room and shut Liam’s laptop,

“How can you move on like nothing’s happened? Like everything is sunshine and lollipops?”

Mari was yelling now, eyes red, tears welling up behind them, hand still on the laptop. At this point, Liam would yell back, but he was tired and he knew that Mari was probably even more tired.

“Mar, I know how you -”

“Don’t you dare say that you know how I feel Liam. You don’t know a single thing.”

She walked away angrily toward the window, the rain only made her splitting headache worse, worse than the typing. Tears threatened to fall, but it seemed like she didn’t have enough to shed. She had been crying for the past week after all. Liam apologetically walked towards her, carefully and calculatingly. He brushed his hand on her shoulder and she shrugged it away angrily.

“It’s been hard on me too,” Liam said, his voice cracking, “Do you know how much she looked like you Mar?”

Mari blinked back tears, but her voice still shook,

“If only you hadn’t gone into work that day. If I hadn’t gone into work that day. She told us she didn’t want to go to school that day. Oh god,” she buried her face in her hands, “We killed her.”

Liam shook his head, tears streaming down his face. He wrapped his arms around his wife tenderly, trying to soothe her,

“There was nothing we could have done,” he whispered, “It happened at school, there was no way we would have known. We were just unlucky.”

Mari broke away from his gentle grip and screamed,

“Unlucky? She was 7, William, how unlucky can you get? We could have homeschooled her, we taught her better, we could have hugged her a little longer. There was so much we could have done.”

Liam looked down at his feet, he too thought there was more they could have done, but everyone so far had told them there was nothing they could have done. He wanted to believe that so badly. He just wanted to move on. 

There was nothing you could’ve done. It was a school shooter. Jasmine was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Mari walked back to the kitchen, past all the photographs in the living room that had been placed face down to hide Jasmine away from the two, and Liam worriedly followed. She tore open cabinets and drawers muttering to herself, tears finally starting to stream down her face as well. Then she found what she was looking for, a pen. On the kitchen counter was a manila envelope. Mari threw the pen she found on the envelope,

“Let’s get a divorce.”

“What?”

“You heard me,” she said a little quieter, confidence fading.

“Mar, let’s think about this,” Liam said desperately. He just lost his daughter, he couldn’t lose the love of his life too.

“Do you know how much she looked like you Liam,” Mari sniffled. She shook her head in defeat, “I don’t think I could handle being reminded of her everyday.”

He reached over to hold her, but Mari backed away,

“On the bright side, we won’t have these shouting matches any more,” she laughed, “You must be so tired of me. I’ve been screaming at you non stop these past few days.”

Liam and Mari stood in silence and the rain sounds grew louder and louder. It was as if the universe was crying for them. Or maybe Jasmine was crying with them, unhappy that mommy and daddy were fighting because of her. 

“When did you decide this,” Liam asked shakily.

“When we saw her body,” Mari responded almost immediately.

“Mari, I need you. I can’t do this without you.”

“Liam, I can’t do this with you.”

He wiped the tears from his eyes and walked over to the counter. He was racking his brain for ways to make her stay. When the options felt slimmer and slimmer, he felt himself gravitating towards the pen on the counter. Maybe he wasn’t a good husband or a good father. Maybe this divorce was meant to happen. Mari was right, he was working that day and the day before. He was always working and maybe that’s why Jasmine - he couldn’t bear to finish the thought. He wasn’t too sure about the maybes, but the one thing he was sure of, was that he loved Mari and he couldn’t lose her. He reached into his pocket for a coin,

“Mari, let’s play Jazzy’s favorite game.”

“William, I don’t want to play games. I just want you to sign those papers.”

“And I don’t want to sign the papers, so why don’t we let Jazzy decide.”

Mari stared at the coin in the palm of Liam’s hand and started to sob again. She nodded.

“Heads we stay together,” he started, “Tails we don’t.”

Liam threw the coin high. They both held their breath as the coin came down and Liam caught it with ease, being that he’s done it hundreds of times before with Jasmine. Whether it be just for fun or it be choosing a place to eat. His hand covered the pending results, scared to unveil them. He didn’t have the strength. He and Mari locked eyes and her gaze softened at his obvious anxiety, she held his hand and they revealed the results together. 

Heads.

Mari collapsed to the ground crying tears of relief while apologizing profusely, and Liam comforted her while crying as well. The rain slowly let up and the couple slowly but surely, learned how to be happy together again.