My Ex-Wife… It Happened Two Years Ago: As My Work Assignment Ended and I Prepared to Return Home t…

My Ex-Wife…

This all happened two years ago. I was nearing the end of a work assignment, and it was almost time for me to head back home to Doncaster. After buying my ticket, I decided to wander around the city since I still had three hours to spare. As I strolled along the High Street, a woman approached, and I recognised her instantly.

It was my first wife, Caroline, whom Id divorced twelve years earlier. She hardly looked any different, apart from her face, which seemed rather pale. I suppose this encounter took her by surprise as much as it did me.

Id loved her intensely, almost painfully, and thats partly why we split. I was absurdly jealous; Id get worked up if she so much as spent too long talking to her mum. Whenever she was late coming home, my heart would pound, and Id imagine all sorts of dreadful things.

In the end, Caroline had to leave. She couldnt stand my constant questioningwhere had she been, with whom, and why? I remember once coming home from work with a little terrier pup hidden under my jacket, hoping to cheer her up, but when I came in, the flat was empty. There was just a note on the coffee table.

In her letter, Caroline told me she was leaving, though she said she still loved me. My suspicious mind had worn her out, and shed decided it was better for both of us if she moved on. She asked for my forgiveness and begged me not to try to find her.

Now, all these years later and quite by chance, I bumped into her in a city where work had brought me. We talked for a long time, losing track of the hour until I realised I risked missing my coach back home. At last, I said to her, Im really sorry, but I have to dashIm running late for my coach.

Caroline replied, James, do me a favour, will you? I know youre in a hurry, but for old times sake, please dont say no. I need you to come with me to an office nearby; its important for me, and I cant go alone.

Naturally, I agreed, but added, Well have to be quick! We entered a large, old building and wandered through its endless corridors. Up and down stairs we went, and though it felt like just a quarter of an hour, I suspect it was longer. People of all ages passed us by, from young children to elderly folk, though the thought never crossed my mind what kids and pensioners would be doing in a civic building. My attention was fixed entirely on Caroline.

Eventually she slipped through a doorway, pausing to look back at me with a strange, farewell sort of look. Odd how it goes, she said, I could never be with you, but I could never quite be without you either.

I stood by the door, waiting for her. I wanted to ask what shed meant by that, but she didnt return. Suddenly, it was as though I snapped out of a tranceI had a coach to catch, and I was still standing in this deserted old building. Glancing round, I was alarmed to see the place was derelict: gaping holes where the windows should be.

There werent even any stairs, just planks of wood, which I used with great difficulty to get down to the ground floor. Of course, by the time I reached the station, my coach had long since departed, and I was forced to fork out for another ticket.

While speaking to the ticket agent, I learned that the coach Id missed had gone off the road into the riverthere were no survivors.

A fortnight later, I knocked on the door of my former mother-in-law, having tracked her down through the council. Margaret told me that Caroline had passed away eleven years agoa year after our divorce. I couldnt accept it, convinced Margaret just didnt want me interfering in her daughters life again.

But when I pleaded to see Carolines grave, Margaret surprised me by agreeing. A couple of hours later, I found myself standing before the gravestone, looking at the smiling face of the woman Id loved all my life, realising with a shiver that she had, in some mysterious way, saved me.

That day I learnt a lesson Ill never forget: sometimes, holding on too tightly makes you lose the very thing you love, but even in absence, love finds a way to protect you.