THE FINAL FAREWELL
Emily was so excited about starting life as Mrs. Mendonca in a new city that she had all but completely forgotten that she would be leaving behind her old life. With all her bags packed, she found that it was physically difficult to get out of the taxi at the airport.
“What is it, Emily?”
“I…I can’t breathe E. Another city? Keeping house? Just you and me? Let’s…let’s stay here a little longer. Your mum could teach me how to stack old newspapers properly.” Emily said panicked.
Ethan got irritated at Emily’s apparent dig at his mother. “Come on Emily. You’ve got to be kidding right?” he said, exasperated.
When Emily didn’t react to his retort or get out of the car, Ethan got back in as the driver banged the roof impatiently and cars honked behind them.
“Emily? You were excited even when we left the house. What? It’s going to be alright. We’ll screw up a little and fight a little. Make up with each other?” And he grinned. His irritation forgot, he stroked Emily’s knuckles and in as soft and soothing a voice as he could manage said, “We’ll survive. I’m not so hard to live with, most of the time you won’t even know I’m there.”
Emily looked at him and then looked out of the car window to where she saw her family waiting. Dada was with Ma who was trying unsuccessfully not to cry and little Luke was snug in Clive’s arms. Abbey stood holding Ma’s hand. “What about them?” she whispered
Ethan looked long and hard at his in-laws and then back at Emily. “For you, that will probably be the hardest part. This is the first time you’ll be living away from home. But, you’ve got me. Your new family. Besides, doesn’t your telecom provider give you free minutes every day? And what about those two hundred free SMS that you used to reserve for me? You can use them all on your parents and Abbey now. You’ll be in touch so much it will almost feel like you never left.”
When Emily said nothing, Ethan asked gently, “Don’t you want to be with me?”
Emily looked at him and realized she was being very selfish. “Of course I do E. I’m so sorry….”
Ethan smiled. “Then let’s go Emmy, or we’ll miss our flight.”
Emily nodded and got out of the car. She walked over to her family as Ethan pushed the trolley and gritted her teeth as she went to say her farewells. She made sure she didn’t catch anybody’s eye and tried to sound upbeat. She did quite well and only faltered when she heard her father’s voice break as he bid them good luck. She squeezed his arm and ran towards the check-in counters leaving Ethan to follow her trail. She only cried once the two of them had boarded the plane and her family could definitely see her no longer.
******
More Emily tomorrow! Click here to read the story so far.
Post 15 of 31! UBC…I belive my discipline is improving thanks to you!
Filed under: Fiction, novella, UBC October, Ultimate Blog Challenge Tagged: Emily, fiction, final farewell, goodbye, leaving home, novella, story, UBC, UBC October 
