August 11, 1995

Daniel stood in the large lecture hall, his notes on the podium before him and a large chalkboard behind him. All of these archaeologists were sitting in front of him, listening to him defend his thesis. And they weren't impressed. In fact, many of the members of the audience were starting to get up and leave. He tried not to let the lack of enthusiasm defeat him, but unfortunately, now, only thirteen minutes and twelve seconds after he started, only a handful of the seats were occupied. "Is there a lunch…or something?" He asked, the professor who had initiated his lecture. The man handed him an envelope with his meager pay and quickly left the room.

Daniel closed his eyes in humiliation. "I'm so sorry I'm late, Daniel." Sam said, hurrying into the empty room, crossing paths with the professor.

She looked around and watched the few people left leave. "Is there a lunch or something?" She asked, confused.

"No, Sam…I just…the world is not ready to learn that the pyramids were built by a people that we haven't even heard of yet."

"Aliens?" She asked, trying to make fun of the conclusions that old archaeologists were coming to out of reading Daniel's papers.

"I don't care who built them, Sam…just as long as we acknowledge that the people who built those were not from the Fourth Dynasty." He said, wearily.

She studied him. He was not going to be happy when she finally got a chance to tell him that she was engaged to Jonas Hansen. He and Daniel had met a few times, and Daniel had insisted that he had a screw loose. But Sam had been blind and in love, and didn't hear a word that he said…that was until she started having doubts about the relationship herself. So, here she was six weeks away from the wedding…finally telling her brother about her engagement…and having freezing cold feet.

"Come on, Daniel, I'll buy you lunch."

He shook his head. "No…I've got to go."

"Daniel…"

"Sam, I'll…I'll call you tonight, okay?"

"Daniel, I know that things have been hard. And…if you need a place to stay, give me a call. Okay?"

He chuckled. "It's nothing I can't handle. And trust me…I've handled a lot."

"Okay…" She said, not as confident as he seemed to be.

"Trust me. I'll just clean up my stuff and head home."

"Are you sure?"

He kissed her cheek. "I'm fine. Just a little rough spot. I'm sure everything'll come together again soon."

"All right." She said, as she turned to walk away. "So, you're calling tonight?"

"Yeah. If I don't forget…"

She smiled. "Okay."

--

It was nine-thirty and Sam hadn't heard from Daniel yet. Despite his claims of being okay, she had a feeling that everything was worse than he had first let on. "Hey, Babe." Jonas said, walking into the living room, two glasses of wine in his hands.

She looked up, suddenly realizing that he was speaking to her. "Oh…hi."

"Something on your mind?"

She opened her mouth to say something, but decided not to do so. "Nothing."

"Right…nothing."

"Sorry…" She said, an apologetic smile on her face. "It's just that…Daniel said that he was okay, and…after his bomb of a lecture today, I'm…I'm kind of afraid that he might do something desperate."

"Sam…" He said, sitting next to her on the couch and playing with her hair. "You worry too much. I'm sure your brother is just fine."

"He's never missed a phone call before." She said, worriedly. "Except that one time when he was…"

Jonas started nibbling on her ear. "Don't worry about it."

"Stop." She said, pushing on his chest to get away from her.

"What? Babe, this is our night! I mean, I've got the wine, the music…all that stuff you care about."

"And my brother might have committed suicide! I don't care about 'our night' right now." She fumed.

"Sam, your brother would have been all depressed before he committed suicide…" Jonas said, irritably.

"HE WAS!" She shouted back.

"Sam, I didn't come over here to have you yell at me."

"I don't give a damn about why you came here…because right now is not the time!" She yelled. "And if you can't tell when is the wrong or right time to try to finagle your way out of me, then I gave you the wrong answer!"

Jonas stood stunned. "Sam…are you…? You're really…?"

"Yes." She said, her lungs heaving for breath as she tore the engagement ring from her finger.

She closed her eyes and collected herself as she handed it to him. "I can't…We…we've both changed, and…I don't think that either one of us are…I don't think I can be the wife you want me to be."

"Sam, I can come back in the morning…" He said, carefully.

"Don't."

"Sam…"

"I should never have said yes to you." She said, hanging her head in shame.

"I see. Well, I'll grab my jacket and be on my way then."

She sat on the couch and didn't even watch him go. She was filled with such a conflicting myriad of emotions that she wasn't sure of what she wanted to do: cry or pick up the phone and call her brother.

She decided to call her brother. While she was on the phone with him, she would be able to cry.

She picked up the cordless telephone and dialed the familiar numbers only to hear the operator's recorded message: "This line has been disconnected. Please check the number and dial again."

She closed her eyes. She didn't need this right now.