Running Away

Chapter 8

After we ate, we mutually decided to watch a movie. It was a movie about a man who dies in another country, and his wife never finds out because it was the hospital's fault. Great. About five minutes into the movie, I was cursing Netflix up and down. Then, near the end of the movie, when the wife is finally notified of her husband's death, I looked down into my lap where Catherine's head was resting, and realized she was crying.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" I ask, not even noticing the term I gave her.

"You could've died!" She wails, and jumps up off of the couch, and darts across the room, one hand covering her mouth and the other shaking at her side.

"Catherine....." I begin, trying to calm her down, "I'm ok, I'm still here.......I didn't die." As I say this, I move in closer, and lightly hug her. I think everything is ok now, and that she's calmed down, but she jumps away again.

"But you could've. You could've died, and I would've never known......... and I would be sitting there, in my house after a long shift, calling you every name in the book becuase you left me......and you're body would be here, waiting for IDENTIFICATION!" She wails again.

"Catherine...." I try to get closer to her, but she won't let me. She moves again. "CATHERINE!" I scream, and when she looks at me, terrified, I realize how loud I was.

She starts crying again, and I try to move to her, she whispers six words that cut my heart deeper than ever. "Don't touch me, Gil. Just don't."