Page 8 of Echoes of Eternity

Relaxing into his seat, he stared up at the ceiling of the car as he shook his head.

“You still have me, Ryan.” Emily’s words were well-meaning but did little to ease the burden Ryan felt on his shoulders.

“I know, and I love you.” Taking a deep breath, he looked again out the windshield. “Now I just have to go back to our normal life somehow.”

Emily shook her head and grabbed his hand. Looking into his eyes and with tears in her own, she said, “No. We are going back to our life. Together, Ryan.”

Within a couple of weeks of returning to their home in La Jolla, California, life’s routines had mostly returned to normal. The kids were back in school and Emily in her role as a teacher at the preschool adjacent to the church they attended. Everything was back to the appearance of normal in their life except for Ryan. Something in Emily’s husband had indeed changed. His interactions with the children and her were short, he always seemed on edge, and he just seemed miserable. Given the circumstances, she tried to be the understanding wife she knew he needed, but then his work schedule started to change as well. He had started working extremely long hours, working late into the night and early morning. At first, Emily suspected it was all to help keep his father’s family business up and running. For the first week, Emily had excused the excessive work schedule because of Ryan and Jason trying to get everything digitalized. Yet, that had concluded almost a week ago. Emily’s grace and understanding were wearing thinner by the day, and she was losing hope of Ryan ever coming back to her.

One evening, while lesson planning beyond the eleven o’clock hour for school, Emily heard noises come from the back yard. Closing her laptop, she set it aside and walked over to the window. She watched as her daughter, Elizabeth, darted through the yard and jumped the fence. Then she saw her climb into Jennifer Answorth’s convertible Mustang.

As it zoomed off, Emily sighed deeply.

Just then, Ryan walked into the bedroom.

Unlatching his watch, he dropped it on his nightstand and went into the ensuite bathroom and began brushing his teeth.

“Do you know where your daughter is?” Emily inquired as she walked over to the doorway of the bathroom.

He spat and kept brushing his teeth. “Asleep in her bed two doors down. Why?”

“No. She just jumped into Jennifer’s car and took off.”

“What?” Throwing his toothbrush into the sink, he was about to dart past her when she stopped him with a hand on his chest.

“Ryan.”

“What?”

“We need to talk.”

Raising his eyebrows, he shook his head. “Can it wait? I need to call our daughter and tell her to hightail it home.”

“Sure.”

She waited as he called their daughter. Biting her cheek, she listened as Ryan yelled into the phone and demanded that she return home immediately. His face was red, full of anger. A characteristic that was foreign to him. Emily cringed as he furiously ended the call and threw the phone across the room.

He raked a hand through his hair as he turned toward her.

“Why aren’t you more upset about this, Emily?”

“I am upset, Ryan. But I’m not going to allow this event to unravel me.”

“Don’t start with me, Emily! Our daughter is sneaking out!”

Taking a step closer to him, she touched his arm gently. “Why are you yelling, Ryan?”

“Are you obtuse to the reality that is unfolding?”

“No, but you’ve changed.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t you see it? You never used to scream and yell, no matter what was going on. You’re not as patient with the children, Ryan. You constantly have a short fuse. I . . . I don’t know what to do anymore.”

As the words left her lips, she saw yet another change in her husband. His chest puffed out and he crossed his arms. “I’m just trying to get through the days right now! And I feel like I just need a little bit of help. You could’ve called Elizabeth when you saw her!”

Sitting on the bed, she dipped her chin and started to cry into her hands.

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