The Email - A Micro-story

I was recently looking for a book in my old boxes of teaching supplies.  I haven't taught for almost 16 years but I still have a few boxes of my favorite resources and digging through them is always fun for me.  As usual, I not only found the particular item I was looking for, I also found a little unexpected something - this time a book of writing prompts I had occasionally used with my fourth graders.  It brought back good memories as I thumbed through it.  I read one prompt " You just received an email message from ___ and it said ___" and a lightening bolt zipped around my brain.  A little story unravelled faster than it took me to read the rest of the page.  I laughed a little, but then stopped.  I haven't written anything for quite a while, but I liked this idea.  I decided to write it down.  I call it a micro-story because it is very short.  I still like it.

The message was brief but she felt dread when she read it.  "I need to talk to you ASAP."

Given the state of their relationship, that could not be a good thing. Oh, there had been good times in the past, but now times were bad.  Very bad.  What communication there had been recently was brief and compulsory.  "We're almost out of toothpaste."  "Did you walk the dog?"  He had not forgiven her.

It wasn't her fault she had gained an admirer.  She had done nothing but go to work.  At first.  Michael had started it.  Charming, just-out-of-college-boy flirting was really fun.  She liked feeling young and fun again.  Being an adult could be SO boring.  But, young and fun led to lunch. Then lunchES.  Then long lunches.  Before she knew it Michael was being punched and shoved and thrown out of her apartment while she yelled.  He yelled back at her.  Lots of yelling.  The yelling did stop after a time.  She wanted to apologize.  She tried a few times but he wasn't having it.  He just glared at her.  She stopped trying.  She felt humiliated.  

He was calm.  He was cold.  There was no more yelling but there was nothing else, either.  For weeks.  Nothing.  Being together was torture.

When she saw the message she knew he had made up his mind.  He knew his next step.  She didn't like it.  She had been happily married. She wasn't with Michael because she was unhappy.  She hadn't wanted a divorce when she started flirting back.  She just got carried away.  It cost her.  The email staring back at her all but confirmed that.  

Suddenly, she sat up straight.  She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin.  If she couldn't change his mind, she owed it to him to let go peacefully.  She would be brave, for him.

She hit reply and typed "I'm free this afternoon."  She swallowed hard and hit send.