A Life Worth Living

Jennie jumps in the shower at the same time Doug starts his car. She is instantly pissed. Even more pissed than she was a few minutes ago. Lately, Jennie is the polar opposite of Doug. She wakes up mad and/or irritated and she gets worse as the day goes on. Doug thinks it is because of her lack of sleep. She thinks it is deeper than that. She thinks she doesn't sleep well because she is always pissed. She would like to stop. She feels guilty about always being upset when her life is so good now but she doesn't know how to stop. Now she has stepped into a lukewarm shower that she knows will soon be cold. Doug has run out the hot water and Jennie hates cold showers. She should hurry but, she doesn't. For some reason, she refuses to change the length of what an enjoyable hot shower should be just because the water is cold. She actually jokes to herself, I refuse to give in to the cold. 20 minutes into her cold shower, the phone rings. Even if Jennie heard she would not have answered it. She should have. It is the call that will bring her worst nightmare to life, a call that for most would have been disturbing but for her was horrifying.

"Hello, is anyone home? This is Sgt. Dewer with the Tampa Police Department. Hello? Please call me back at 555-3443 immediately. It is an emergency involving Doug Faust. Please call immediately."

Jennie turns off the shower a second after the Sergeant hangs up. She goes about her normal morning routine which includes cussing her husband's name about a hundred times for making her take a cold shower. As she dresses for work the phone rings again. This time she hears it but is determined to not let it interfere with what she is doing. I'm late. Like always. No time to talk to whoever - especially Doug,she thinks. Despite this she does wander over to the bed phone to peek at the Caller ID. Just to see who it is,she tells herself. Edwin Dewer, 555-3443 the display reads. Jennie shrugs, I don't him. She starts to walk off as the answering machine clicks on again.

"Hello? This is Sgt. Dewer again. I need someone to call me now."

Just as he is getting the last word out Jennie is picking up the phone. She has it engrained somewhere inside her to jump when hearing the word Sergeant.

"Hello, Sgt.?"

"Hello. Who am I speaking to?"

"This is Jennie Faust. Can I help you?"

"Are you the wife of Doug Faust?"

Oh, God!"Yes."

"Mrs., have you seen or talked to your husband within the last 10 minutes"

"Not since he left for work 45 minutes ago."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure. Why are you calling?"

"Well, your husband was apparently in a wreck. There's alot of blood."

"What do you mean apparently"

"That's the thing. We originally thought given the blood he was somewhere around the crash site but we haven't been able to locate him."

"What!?"

"Your husband is not here. We don't know where he is and we think he may be seriously injured"

Read part 3 here

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