'Love Lost' by Anna Peter

 

David Magnus slumped into a kitchen chair, a large blue ceramic jar clasped to his chest. Only the sounds of breathing could be heard. Someone switched on the heater in the corner, sliding it closer to the work table in the centre. No one rushed to take off their coats. Vapour streamed out of Elaine’s nose, her eyes focused on her husband who seemed reluctant to empty the jar. A throat cleared at the back of the room. Probably her nephew Danny, but today he was the cop. David pulled out crumpled papers from the jar. Other hands flattened them on the table. People bent over him to read. He seemed to be moving too slowly, his breathing laboured. Danny’s throat cleared again. “Need help, Uncle Dave?”

Years ago Elaine had watched Lucy leave a note in Dave’s work boots after Lucy dropped by to have coffee. She’d read the note soon after Lucy disappeared around the house. She had felt sick. Helpless and enraged, the torment of her shaken trust corroding her for years. That day Elaine had watched David like a hawk and saw him slip the note in the jar – he had pulled out the bills on top and stuffed the letter right at the bottom and left the kitchen in a hurry. Reaching for the bottom of the jar, Elaine found a few more, realising that David thought the letters would never be found. But he’d be at the jar around tax filing time, trying to remove the evidence of his mistress, but unwilling to destroy them. Elaine had toyed with the idea of divorce, or showing the notes to Lucy’s husband Willard, but stopped – they had children.

Lucy leaned against the doorjamb, sunk from the strain. She had kept David’s notes, even though they had moved on. She had locked them in her little metal box, the key hidden away. She read the letters sometimes, they had made her feel desired, but in later years hopeless and frightened. Their stupidity was now on show to their grown children, friends, neighbours and police. She couldn’t look anyone in the eye. Willard, poor dear Willard, had gone through the letters, drunk almost all the liquor in the house, stuffed David’s professions of carnal love into his pockets, jumped into his truck and rode it around the Magnus property while firing his shotgun at their house. When he tried to drive through their living room, he rammed into a small tree. He was now in jail. A lawyer had served her a divorce notice. Lucy glanced at Elaine, and was startled. Elaine was smiling.