Post by angela on Oct 9, 2012 22:23:13 GMT -5
It had been six years since her husband had been killed in a tragic car accident. And while the pain had dulled over time, it never truly vanished. She had done an excellent job of maintaining her composure, but there was always that one person who had lost a loved on in a car accident and insisted on telling her the very intimate details of the accident. Listening to the girl talk about her dead mother and how close they were, Claudia could not help but let her mind wander to the day she had received the phone call telling her that her husband had been in a car accident. The details were so similar. A teenager had been texting and driving, ran a red light. The more details the girl gave, the harder it was for her to keep from crying. She kept staring at the pictures that lined her desk, letting them fall on the smiling faces of her husband and four children. The girl could not leave fast enough. Once she was finally gone, Claudia felt herself beginning to fall apart. Her breaths began to grow shorter and quicker, and the tightness in her chest became more prevalent. She needed to get out of her office and into a more open space, away from people who might judge her or ask her questions.
The first place that came to mind was the stairwell. It was close enough to her office that she could make it there unnoticed, but far enough away that people would not think to look there for her. She threw the door open and walked at a quickened pace down the flights of stairs. She had stopped somewhere between the second and third floors, lowing herself onto one of the steps, crying uncontrollably. She was trying to be as quiet as possible in case someone had decided to take the stairs, but her muffled cries still echoed from the first floor all the way to the sixth. There was no hiding her emotions now, she thought.
Claudia honestly had no idea why she was crying. Her husband had been dead for six years. It was okay to be upset about it, but there was no reason to cry like this. She shook her head at the thought and started to laugh at herself. Now the sounds were a mix of sobs and laughs. She did not know how to feel. Anyone who heard them might think she was losing her mind. And maybe she was.