It happened suddenly. A simple walk to the mail box caused his chest to tighten. He gasped for breath as if he had run a marathon. It went away as soon as he rested, so he told himself it was nothing to worry about, nothing to worry Linda about. Later that same day he tried working out at the gym, but nearly collapsed after a few minutes on the treadmill. Again, a short break and he felt fine. But he curtailed his swim, imagining himself dead in the pool, belly up, like a bloated insect.
He tried convincing himself he suffered some kind of autumn allergy. Linda would worry, so he kept it to himself.
But Linda happened to be looking out the living room window the next day as he raked leaves. He’d stop after a couple of sweeps to lean on the rake. At first, she thought he was lost in thought. She knew him since he was twenty, nearly fifty years. A good man, but easily distracted when it came to working hard.
Something seemed different. Although he had kept himself in good shape, no more than ten pounds heavier than the boy she had known in college, he looked old today. It wasn’t just his hair that had turned white decades earlier. No, something was different.
She watched him bend to rake a pile of leaves into the wheelbarrow when he collapsed to one knee. She ran to him. He waved her away, saying he had just slipped. He rose slowly, trying to catch his breath.
“Bullshit, you slipped. What’s wrong?”
“Give me a minute. I’ll be fine.”
And he was. But she called his doctor who said to take him to the hospital immediately.
He didn’t put up a fight. He let her drive.
After tests, and more tests, they scheduled surgery to replace a heart valve.
“It’s fixable,” she said calmly, the evening before surgery. She pulled a smile over her face so the worry wouldn’t show.
He knew that look and made a joke.
“Just a valve job is all. I’ll be good for another 100,000 miles once they get through with me.”
They hugged, unsure which one supported the other.
Wayne Scheer has been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes and a Best of the Net. He’s published hundred of stories, poems and essays in print and online, including Revealing Moments, a collection of flash stories, available at http://issuu.com/pearnoir/docs/revealing_moments. Wayne lives in Atlanta with his wife and can be contacted at wvscheer@aol.com.
The post In Sickness and in Health by Wayne Scheer appeared first on Microliterature.