As Paul’s father opened his weary eyes, he realized that he had fallen asleep with his head lying against his son’s chest. He looked across the bed to see that his wife was missing from her seat. As he frantically sat up he noticed his wife was sleeping on the couch, holding their youngest son, John.
All of a sudden there was a knock on the glass door, causing Paul’s father to jump out of his skin; he stood up and walked to the door. Turning the handle to the door, he slowly opened to see a familiar face; it was Marilyn.
“I’m sorry that I’m here so late. My boss wouldn't let me get out of work until I cleaned the toilets,” she stated, the sound of pleading was running through her voice as if she had to ask him to let her in, though she was almost part of the family.
“Come on in,” Paul’s father said, taking her coat for her. As he removed it, he realized that it was drenched in water, as if she had swam through the ocean in it.
“It’s pouring outside,” she said, not even turning around to notice that he was confused about why it was dripping wet, “I had to run 13 blocks, from my work to here in the rain.”
“Oh,” he replied. “I was wondering…” he began to say, but suddenly stopped. The reason for his sudden end in the conversation was that he noticed that Marilyn had stayed almost in the door way. She was staring at Paul’s limp, cold body, her mind and body was stunned to the point that it was as if she was paralyzed. Her skin from head to toe began to crawl, as if she was covered in an army of ants. The color in her face became pasty as if she had seen a ghost jump out at her. Her heart began to thump in her chest, her hands began to shake like a rumbling train, and her mind began to race, causing a headache to pound through her skull. Her eyes slammed shut, squeezing them like her fists below her. She began to shake all over and the ants became bees, stinging every inch of her skin. She all of a sudden dropped to her knees and began to pound her fists on the ground; tears began to stream down her face, making a puddle on the floor. Paul’s father threw himself down at her to try to stop the noise that she was causing, trying to stop her from waking his wife and son.
“Stop, stop, stop,” he whispered to her, lifting her off the floor. ”Come on. Let’s get you to a seat.” He dragged her to the chair that had formally had held his wife, sitting her up in the chair. “Would you like anything?” he said, looking her in the eyes to get an answer. He looked deep into her eyes, searching for something that may give answers to all the things that were going on around him. She began to shake her head no, signaling that she was fine.
“Okay,” he stated. “I’m going to go get me some coffee.” He stood up and patted her on the shoulder uncomfortably. He began to walk out of the room, not looking back at his wife, his sons, or even Marilyn. As he opened the door a voice, close to a whisper, began to come from behind him. He turned around to see who was talking, still holding onto the door handle. Marilyn was leaning over and was talking into her love’s ear.
Paul’s father smiled, a tear rolled down his cheek. He walked out the door and closed it quietly, trying not to wake up his wife and child.
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