I Fell in Love with a Woman Who Had One Flaw and When I Found Out What It Was, My World Turned Upside Down — Story of the Day
My best buddy arranged for me to go on a date that I didn’t want to go on, three years after my wife
died in an automobile accident.
However, there was something eerily familiar about her from the moment I met her.
Emma’s absence for three years felt like a long, dreary, and unending winter road in Missouri. The kind where the heating only blows on one foot and your radio crackles.
In order to hide behind the scent of oil and the broken stories of others, I would get up, wash the same coffee mug, double-check that the stove was off, and then drive to the garage.
I could still hear tires shrieking. The way the sky turned dark and then white. That word alone kept me awake at night, and I made it through. I made it through. She didn’t. And each “if only” made my throat hurt.
I wish I had drove more slowly.
I wish I had applied the brakes earlier.
I wish I hadn’t glanced at the fucking radio.
“You’re staring at that coffee like it’s going to talk back, Jack,” said Barb from the neighborhood diner, snapping her fingers in front of me. Ten minutes have passed since it went dead.
It’s alright. Cold is truthful.
“Are you now becoming a poet? She smirked and handed me a piece of cherry pie. “Eat something, my love. You appear to be a ghost who has forgotten to haunt.
Next came Mike, who was gregarious, untidy, and smiling. He stretched his long legs and sank onto the stool next to me.
Do you hear me, man? “I know this is a sensitive topic, but three years is three damn years,” he added, nudging me. You need to get back to living.
“Mike, don’t begin. I’m all right.
He waved to Barb and said, “Come on, buddy,” for another cup of coffee.
“You enter, gaze at your image, make a payment, and then disappear.
The jukebox stopped working because you used to laugh so loudly. How did the guy end up? “
“Emma was beside him.”
The silence fell. Barb even turned off the music while feigning to scrub the counter. Mike took another drink of his beer, this one gentler.
He lowered his voice and murmured, “Listen.” I’m not suggesting that you forget her. She wouldn’t want you to rot away like this, I’m just saying. Additionally, I want you to meet someone I have.
“No.”
“Calm down. She isn’t a party animal. She owns the little animal clinic on Maple and works as a veterinarian. Very bashful but lovely and kind-hearted. You’d like her.
“Mike—”
She also lost someone. The heart hole is the same, but the story is different. Jack, just coffee. Isn’t anyone discussing marriage?
I gave my neck a quick rub. Something about the stillness in his voice and the way he said it resonated with me, even if the idea of sitting across from another lady made my stomach turn.
“What is her name? Finally, I asked.
“Claire.”
A weird feeling that I hadn’t had in years was evoked by the word.
Mike smiled. “All right? Six o’clock tomorrow. I promised her you would call already.
“I’m not sure, Mike.”
He held up his mug. “To second chances, my friend.” They don’t always look as you expected them to.
I sighed, partly smiling, half afraid of what might happen. I had no idea at the time, but that one coffee date—that one “yes”—was going to completely upend my world.
One thing Mike had been correct about was that Claire was unlike anyone I had ever met.
She was sitting near the window with a cup of tea rather than coffee when I entered the diner, tapping her spoon as if she were mentally keeping time to a song.
She was perfectly struck by the soft light, which was almost too serene for this cacophonous town.
“Jack? She stood up and asked. She had a nice, modest smile that didn’t strive too hard.
I scratched my neck and said, “That’s me.” “You must be the courageous person Mike spoke into this catastrophe with.”
She chuckled. I heard a deep, melodic sound that reminded me of something I couldn’t identify.
“You would say that,” he said.
I pulled out a chair and mumbled, “Well, he knows me too damn well.” “I hope you enjoy awkward silences because I have a lot of them.”
“All day long, I work with dogs. Being silent is a luxury.
I couldn’t resist laughing. I hadn’t done it in a long time. We got her an apple pie with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, which was her pick. I saw how cautiously she chopped it, as if she were afraid of breaking it.
One knuckle had a small scar, and her hands were fragile. She grinned when she saw that I was staring.
“A cat bite.” danger at work.
“So you genuinely enjoy your work? “
I adore it. Animals are simple. They don’t conceal their suffering.
I glanced at my dish below. “People do.”
She sipped her drink and nodded. “Someone has passed away.”
She spoke it as though she simply knew, rather than as a question.
“Yeah,” I responded at last. “That was three years ago. My spouse.
Claire took her time filling the void. She simply gave me an understanding gaze.
“I apologize. Loss never truly goes away. It simply changes form.
Her serene eyes, which somehow made breathing easier, captured my attention. “You seem to have experienced it as well.”
“Yes, I have. However, I was given another chance. a very literal one.
Her napkin dropped before I could ask, and as she reached for it, her blouse moved slightly enough for me to see a tiny scar of pink that ran down the center of her chest.
I blinked. “Is that—? “
A slight flush rose as she straightened. “Oh. That. heart surgery. Three years prior.
I let the fork drop from my grasp. “Third years? “
She tried to grin as she continued, “Almost to the day.” “I was given a transplant.” An unidentified donor. I suppose I owe them my existence.
“Are you aware of—? “
“No. They claimed that it was private. Sometimes, though, I wish I could give the family credit. Tell them that I devoted all for their loss.
The words hovered like fog between us. It was three years ago. the same month.
“Jack? She frowned as she asked. Are you alright? You appear pallid.
Yes, I do. I grabbed my coat and muttered, “Just… dizzy.” “I think I need a breath.”
“Have I said something incorrectly? “
“No. No, you didn’t.
However, my heart was beating so rapidly that I could hear it echoing in my ears, as if it were trying to communicate with me. I apologized in a whisper, dropped some money on the table, and staggered out into the chilly night.
Overhead, the streetlights hummed. Gasping, I leaned against my truck.
No manner was possible. It was impossible. Could it?
I didn’t get any sleep that evening. Every time I closed my eyes, I could hear her words again and see the faint pink line across her chest: “Three years ago.” Nearing the end of the day.
I made an effort to convince myself it was merely a coincidence. The same month, the same year, and possibly the same hospital. However, my intuition told me otherwise.
You must pay attention when your instincts override your reasoning. Missouri in particular.
By morning, my eyes were red and my hair was sticking up like poor hay, giving me the appearance of having been struck by a truck.
Mike arrived at my door with two coffees and a critical expression on his face.
He said, “Jesus, Jack,” and entered without a question. “You appear to be a raccoon that was defeated by a lawnmower.”
I took the cup and whispered, “Morning to you, too.”
How was the date, then? Halfway through dessert, Claire texted me to say, “You ran out.” What on earth took place? “
“It’s… complex.”
“With you, everything is difficult. Jack, I put you in touch with a nice woman. Kind and sweet. Man, she liked you. When she called me, she was in tears.
That gave me a shiver. “Weeping? “
Indeed. said that you simply ran away because she believed she had said something incorrectly. What did you do? “
“She informed me that she received a heart transplant.”
“All right, so that’s your main justification for ignoring her? “
“Mike, it was three years ago. Three. Emma passed away in the same month.
“You believe—”
“I doubt it. I slammed the cup down, saying, “I know.” Emma donated her organs. They informed me that she had sympathy for an in-state person. In the same week, Claire had surgery at the same hospital. Is that a coincidence, you say? “
Mike walked the room as he tried to take it all in.
“So what? Will you approach her and tell her, “Hey, you have my deceased wife’s heart?” You can hear how crazy that sounds? “
“I simply must be certain. Somewhere there is a hospital record. The donor file will be with them.
“You can’t just in and make demands. Man, there are privacy laws.
I grabbed my jacket and responded, “I don’t care.” “I can’t live in ignorance.”
Mike shut the door. “Stop, Jack. Last night, you finally cracked a smile. For heaven’s sake, you laughed. Don’t let your mind chase ghosts destroy this.
“I’m not looking for ghosts. I’m after her.
“You know what? Do what is necessary. But I promise that I will force you to change your ways if you damage that girl, the one who saved your life.
I left after he stepped aside.
After twenty minutes, I was standing at the front desk, perspiring.
The nurse answered, “We are unable to reveal donor information, sir.”
I moved Emma’s picture across the counter. “Please. She was my spouse. The donor was her.
After a moment of hesitation, the nurse remarked, “Wait here a moment.”
She vanished through a door. Hours passed in the span of minutes. Then she returned, but she wasn’t by herself.
She was followed out by a middle-aged woman whose eyes were knowing and compassionate. In her palm was a little white envelope.
I served as the transplant coordinator three years ago. This letter was left by your wife. It was gone.
Do you think she was referring to me? “
“She was certain.”
I picked up the envelope. Despite feeling light, it was heavier than anything I had been carrying for the past three years.
I took the packet home and sat on the couch. I struggled to open it for a long time. The paper had a subtle lavender scent when I eventually did.
Familiar, looping lines of handwriting flowed across the paper.
If you’re reading this, Jack, it means you made it through, and for that I’m incredibly thankful. Don’t let your heart stop, even though mine might go to someone else.
Allow it to rediscover love if it does. Don’t be scared. Love simply changes its address; it never ends, Jack.
Emma, I’ve signed.
Silently, I sat there as my tears caused the ink to distort.
The letter has nothing to do with her. It has to do with me.
Even though it had been a month since I had read Emma’s letter, the words continued to pulse quietly inside of me. “Let it if it discovers love again.”
I called Claire because of this.
The country road that curled past the field where everything ended and, somehow, everything started again is where we met. Standing by her truck, she appeared anxious.
“I didn’t think you would show up.”
“I wasn’t sure I ought to. However, I have to do something.
I took out a little sapling with burlap-wrapped roots from the back of my pickup.
“A tree? “
Emma had always expressed her desire to plant one. Something that might develop from the broken
We got on our knees in the damp dirt. We didn’t speak much. Just dug till the ground buckled. Claire’s cheeks were flushed from the breeze as she brushed the dirt from her hands once we were done.
“It’s lovely,” she muttered.
We watched it for a while, tiny and frail, shivering in the wind as if it wasn’t sure where it belonged. Claire then turned to face me.
I’m not sure what transpired between us, but I’ve felt a connection ever since that evening. As if I knew you before I did, somehow.
Claire. I have something to share with you.
You are not required to. I am already aware.
“You do? “
She touched her chest and gave a small smile. “I do, but I’m not sure how. And if this heart has ever loved you before, I believe it is beginning to love you once more, independently this time.
I extended my arm to grasp her hand. “Then let’s give it something to beat for.”
We watched a new life take root as two people united by something greater than loss stood there beneath the bleak Missouri sky.
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