Twenty-Four - Enigma(.045)

The band had long continued after Micah had decided to abandon it and go to his long lost wife.

"Come with me." Micah whispered.

Shirley's cheeks were still damp from the tears that filled here eyes so easily when they has finally reunited. Shirley rose from the nook of his neck and stared into the black sunglasses he wore everywhere. Shirley nodded in approval and followed the man as he whisked her off the dance floor. Only a few people seemed to notice their fleeing, but they didn't seem to care too much.

 He lead her up the stairs he had come down only a few minutes ago.

Suddenly they were in an area lit only by candles. The lights from the ballroom were still coming into the area, but it was dark enough to make the moment just perfect.

Awaiting them were a waiter with a tray of Champaign glasses. He stood adjacent from the love seat, positioned in the cut out of the wall with a window that overlooked the city. Shirley took in her surroundings and looked at Micah, who was watching her very closely. He nudged his head in the direction of the love seat and they both walked towards the waiter. They each took a glass of Champaign and sat on the couch.

"That will be all. Thank you." Micah said to the waiter. The man gave a slight nod and went about his way. Shirley turned the glass upward and didn't pull it down until is was nearly empty.

Micah chuckled and cocked his head to the side. Shirley whipped the residue from the champagne off her mouth and turned to look at Micah. Suddenly, it became a contest as to who would acknowledge the huge elephant in the room.  

"Say something. Anything." Micah whispered, his face never leaving her.

"After eleven years what do you expect me to say Micah?" It sent a chill down her spine when she said his name aloud.

 "More than what you're saying now. A slight mumble would let me know that you're alive inside."

"To be honest Micah, these past eleven years, I have been dead. At least I felt like it."

Shirley paused before she spoke again. She finished off the remains of her drink and looked back at her husband. "You know, I have so much to say to you. On the plane, last night, in the limo I went over the speech I would give when the moment finally came. And now....I'm sitting here...with you...just struggling to keep the pieces of myself from falling apart. My brain is screaming to hate you with ever bone in my body but my heart is still in love with your after all of these years. Its like you never left." She began to release the tears she was fighting.

She stood up and walked over to the balcony. She watched as a few couples continued to dance, while others mingled.

"I feel like I'm fighting who I was, who others expect me to be and who I am now. I'm so lost."

Micah approached her and turned her body around to face him. Shirley was expecting to be pleaded with or receive some clever remark, but she was shocked at the expression in his face. His glasses were no longer existent on his face. There was no shield to hide his glassy eyes and torn face. Shirley could see him fully now. He was just as broken and as she was.

"Mae...you don't even understand how sorry and remorseful I am. I know you must think in sort of monster for leaving you and the kids to fend for yourselves. I was young, naive, selfish, and now I'm paying for my poor decisions as a boy. I was no man back then. No man would leave his wife and children to chase a dream that was never possible without them in the first place."

"So why didn't you call, write or just somehow let us know you were still breathing? Why wait eleven years to finally see us again. Why Micah?"

He began to shake his head. "I was afraid. Afraid that if I came home, or called, I would be hated so badly that no one would bare to look at me."

Shirley sighed. "Micah, we will always love you. No matter what."

Micah turned and walked in the direction of the love seat. He held his head down and began to weep harder. "I don't deserve you Mae. None of you. I deserve everything bad I have gotten and will get in the future. Karma has been eating my ass alive."

Shirley could feel her heart shatter into millions of pieces. She walked up to the man she loved and lifted his face so that she could see into his soul. He looked back, tears still in his eyes.

"I'm here and I'm not going anywhere." She lifted her face to his and placed her trembling lips onto his.

Suddenly, Micah pulled back, but his face still was near hers.

Her eyes opened and stared at the man. "What?" she whispered.

Micah stood straight up. "I have to tell you something."

"What is it?" Shirley's heart rate tripled.

He opened his mouth but no words breathed out.

"You can tell me anything Micah. I love you." Still he said nothing even when she urged him too. She searched his eyes for some type of answer, but she found nothing.

"Mae..."

 "Yes?"

"I'm...dying. I've got cancer Mae."

Shirley dropped her hands and took multiple steps away from Micah. She struggles to catch her breath but under the current circumstances it was very difficult. She stood in front of him, not saying a word. Her hands remained in the air as she tried to figure out weather to hug him or slap him. The distraught woman froze in the middle of her backward steps, trying to grasp what she just heard. An entire five minutes manage to pass between them.

"I so sorry Mae. I didn't know how else to tell you--"

"When...when did you find out?"

Micah shrugged. "About a week and half before I wrote."

"So that's why..." Shirley said as more of a statement than a question. She didn't even allow him the weigh whether what she had just uttered was rhetorical or not. Her brain was blank, but her legs weren't.

Keeping a tight hold on the ends of her dress so that she did not fall, she darted down the stair that they hand recently come up. The thought of falling never ran across her mind because she and so many the things on it.

 "Mae, wait! Please!" She heard him call from behind, but that would not stop her. She had to get out of here. She needed some fresh air.

"What's going on?" Ellyn peered over Gabriel's shoulder, who had also turned to figure out the reason behind the loud yelling.

"Oh no." Faven whispered to herself as Shirley ran in front of her.

"That son of a bitch." Isaiah instantly grew enraged and stormed over to the man who had obviously hurt his mother for the second time.

"Dad?"

"Someone call 911!"

"Oh My God! Micah!

"What Happened?"

"Get Help Now!"

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Yaaay! Finally got that part done! Now...It might be while before the next update cause I need to figure out how I want to do the next few chapters! It shouldn't be long though since I'm offcially DONE WITH HIGH SCHOOL! YAAAY! So thanks again for reading and keeping up with GF for this long! You guys are wonderful!