The silence engulfed him as he sat in the hard wooden chair, feeling the slats digging deep into his back and the stillness pressing in from all sides. Frozen in time and space, he dropped the phone to the floor, the harsh sound of metal against heavy plastic breaking the silence and waking him from his reverie.
Startled by the awkward sound, he jumped up. As his adrenaline pumped, he felt the need to do something, anything. Under his breath he muttered expletives, cursing himself, god, the world, all those people who were sitting at home enjoying dinner with their families without a care in the world. The thought of his own wife and daughter brought tears to his eyes, though he hadn’t seen either in many years.
Pacing around the small, sparsely furnished cabin, he regretted the choice to come here for a relaxing weekend, all the choices he had made that unwittingly led him closer to the impending confrontation. As he looked around, everything seemed different now. He wondered why he had spent so much time and money to furnish this cabin exactly how he wanted it, yet he had neglected his relationships. Four years after he had left her, he wondered why Kate had even bothered to call and warn him.
Sirens wailed, still far off, but coming ever closer. Frantically, the man felt around the cabin, not knowing what he was looking for. Inside a drawer filled with papers, his hand hit something else. His hand grasped the cold steel, pulling the gun into the light of day for the first time since it had been stowed there.
The cars stopped, six of them, surrounding the small cabin. The man collapsed into a chair as he heard listened to the crackle of dry leaves as officers stepped out of their vehicles. “Exit the building with your hands on your head!” an unseen voice commanded, repeating itself several times. However, he stayed where he was, lacking the physical strength to move, and realizing it was futile to try to cooperate – there would be no plea bargain for him, just a never ending jail sentence, stuck in a box for years on end.
The steps neared, more voices joining in the commotion now, yelling at him to come outside even as they realized they would have to come and get him from inside the cabin. He raised the gun as the steps approached the single entrance to his dwelling.
His hand shook and he had to try twice to cock the gun. A few seconds later he heard the men outside discussing his door, moments before it splintered towards him. For a half-second, he winced from the sting of being hit by the flying debris, then focused back to what he was doing. In that half second, the two officers, one tall with dark hair, and the other a shorter woman with blonde hair, had just started coming across the threshold where the door had been just moments before, and through the settling dust the gun had not yet been noticed. He raised it once again, and gave himself up to eternal silence.
*Look for more stories and poetry to come! I love feedback, but mostly just write for myself, and write often I do... This one is quite depressing, but something that came to me when I drove by an old cabin up near Lake Tahoe a while ago...sorry about the formatting at the top, I can't figure out what has gone awry with it...*
