Page 9 of You Deserve Good Things

Nothing. I looked at her, eyes filling.

“You really gon’ leave me like this, baby? Without sayin’ nothin’?”

Still silence. Still heartbreak.

I touched her fingers. She didn’t pull away, but she didn’t squeeze back either.

“You ain’t even gon’ say goodbye?”

Her jaw flexed. That was the first time I’d seen any emotion from her in days.

“I love you,” I said, tears spilling. “And I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do without you.”

She finally looked at me. And what I saw in her eyes?

Wasn’t anger.

Wasn’t sadness.

It was emptiness.

I begged. Pleaded. “Say something, Yaya. Please. Anything.”

She shook her head. Tears slid down her cheeks, and her lips trembled, but no sound came.

And that was when I knew.

It wasn’t that she didn’twantto speak.

She couldn’t.

I pulled her close, holding on like she was all I had left.

“I got you, baby. You hear me? Always. I don’t care where you go, I’m yours. You’re mine. My Yaya.”

She nodded, barely. But I needed more.

“Say it,” I whispered. “Say you mine.”

She opened her mouth. Tried. But no sound came.

She just looked at me, gripped my hand, and let a single tear fall.

And that was it.

The next day, they were gone.

And I stood on that porch alone, watching the car drive away, knowing I’d just lost the only girl I ever truly loved.

But I also knew something else.

This wasn’t the end.

Not even close.

The Decision to Leave

Shari& Samuel – New Orleans, Lower 9th Ward

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