Chapter Nine

Again the officer spoke, "Ma'am? Is there anything we can do to help you? Is there someone we can call? Take you somewhere?" Kelleigh just shook her head. "I should have known this would have happened someday…"



The sound of screeching tires caught their attention and everyone turned toward the noise. Delly's car came careening up to the sidewalk in front of her house. She only lived two blocks away. Delly jumped out, nearly before the car had come to a complete stop. "Oh my God, Kelleigh, what happened?!"



Something clicked in Kelleigh's head. "Delly, it's okay. Calm down. You're going to get arrested driving like that." She saw the officer’s head nod in agreement and had to bite back a smile. Delly always drove like that, emergency or not. But now, she realized, was not the time for humor.

"Thank you officers. As you see, my friend is here. I'll be fine." She felt strangely numb.



"If you need anything, just call the department. The bod…he…will be released to the funeral home in the morning. You can contact them then. I'm truly sorry ma'am." Kelleigh nodded. To her surprise and though it embarrassed her a little, she was fine. Surely, she was saddened that Steve had died. However, in light of the conversation that she and Delly were having not fifteen minutes ago, it just seemed to tidy things up a bit. Kelleigh recognized that it was cold-hearted but that's how it was. She hadn't cared about Steve for quite a while now. In fact, she was beginning to hate him. The fact that she needn't deal with him at all in the future was frankly a relief.



The officers returned to their car and pulled away. Delly stood next to her, staring after them. "I'm so sorry, Kel. What are you going to do?"



"I don't know." Her mind was reeling with possibilities. She had just decided to divorce him and then this happened. It was such a huge change; she didn't know exactly what to do, where to start, what to say.



"Do you want me to stay?" Delly offered.



Kelleigh replied before thinking about it "Weren't you going to pack his underwear drawer?" She wished she could retract it as soon as she finished speaking.



Delly's eyes widened in shock. "Kelleigh!" was all she could say.



"I'm sorry, Del, this is a shock. I guess I have to call people. Oh God, his family. His brother…" Kelleigh groaned. Like Steve, his family wasn’t likable people. In fact, by choice Kelleigh rarely saw them. They never spent time as a family, which had been a relief to her.




"I'll stay until after you call them." Del offered, taking Kelleigh by the arm and turning her toward the house.



They went inside. Delly went straight to the fridge and took out one of Steve's beers. For one moment, she allowed herself a wicked little smile as she tipped the beer in the air "Here's to you Steve" and she drank. Kelleigh had to bite back a smile. Again, she felt cold-hearted. Her husband had just died. Nevertheless, the situation wasn't changed by his death; either way he was going to be leaving this house tonight. The accident had just, ironically, saved her the trauma of another of his outbursts.