She Cried

When I was younger, I lived in an apartment building overlooking a supermarket. It was small, and on my journalist's salary, I could barely afford the rent, so to make things even more cramped, I had a roommate who was taking classes at the nearby university.

After we had lived together for about six months he brought Shayla home for the first time. In two months she was a regular guest in our tiny home. Mick seemed very smitten with her, until he discovered that she was being unfaithful.

The city was in the midst of a powerful heat wave, and the sun's intensity seemed as though it would soon cause the entire city to erupt in flames. One day as I was crossing the supermarket parking lot, a bag of groceries in each hand, I saw them both standing in front of our building. The heat rising from the pavement made it difficult to see them clearly, but I could see the blurred image of Mick angrily speaking to her. I could not see the expression on Shayla's face.

It was then that something strange happened. As traffic passed between us, I saw Shayla cover her face with her hands. Mick stopped speaking and stood still for a moment. Through my blurred vision, an urban mirage I learned later was caused by the refraction of light by the heat of the ground, I saw Mick embrace her. I had difficulty sleeping that night.

A month later it was fall, and the trees were consumed by red and orange, and the falling leaves were like sparks. I returned home from work one night to find Shayla's coat on the chair and Mick's door closed. When I came in, he began to speak lower, but there were no secrets in an apartment so small, and I could tell that he was angry.

His speech was interrupted by the sound of sobbing from Shayla. Mick began to speak more softly, and her sobbing became muffled. I went to the television and turned the volume up.

Mick graduated in December, and shortly after New Years he left to live with Shayla. I did not hear of them again until I was assigned to the wedding section of my paper. I ran into Mick a few months after the wedding and he informed me over a cold beer that he was filing for divorce.

Today I came across the article I wrote on their wedding as I was looking through old clips for a job interview. Mick was a practicing doctor in his father's office, and the ceremony was well-furnished. Shayla's bridesmaids were hysterically crying for the better part of the event.

The paper I worked for then was small and understaffed, so I was also responsible for the photograph of the couple standing in front of an ice sculpture Mick paid for with his doctor's salary. One of the things Shayla said was blown up and prominently featured in the article: "I know we're going to have a healthy, happy, and secure life together." I had never seen her as happy as I did that day.