Split

By Hope Walker

A short story for mature readers only.
When Josh decides to work on keeping his wife happy and his family together, he makes sacrifices like quitting his beloved trucking job and moving to his family owned cabin in the mountains. His wife, Chrissy, wants nothing more than for him to be home instead of on the road three weeks out of the month. She is willing to sacrifice her love of living in the city, for life in the mountains if it means keeping an eye on Josh, and keeping her family together as well as he own sanity.
Her trust in him is low and she has threatened to leave him several times. Quitting his job, moving to save money and his marriage, seems to be his best option. Until one night after helping out a strange neighbor, he comes home to find his family has vanished, has split.
Josh scrambles to find out where they have gone, but uncovers much more than he bargained for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hope Walker
• Release date: May 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301929252

Hope Walker

About the Author Hope Walker, a stay at home mother, resides in Washington State with her husband and daughter. When she’s not writing, she’s taking care of animals on their small farm located in Snohomish County. She enjoys watching chickens and ducks on their farm run and play. There’s something funny about watching flightless birds run. Busily involved with her daughter’s activities with school, sports and Girl Scouts, she is learning to pencil time in for herself by taking up running, and now putting her love of suspense, with just a taste of erotica, out there for others to enjoy. She hopes her first stories will just be the beginning of her childhood dream of becoming your favorite author.

Book preview

SPLIT

by

Hope Walker

Copyright 2013 Hope Walker

Cover Design by James Mason

http://sebastianhaze.deviantart.com/

Split is a work of fiction.

Smashwords edition

This is a work of fiction.

Cover Design Copyright 2012 by Hope E Walker

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this free ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

CHAPTER 1

After loading the last brown box into my truck, I make sure the tie-downs are snug by giving each of them a final tug. The last thing I want is for something to fly out of the back and lose it. Or worse, have it hit someone. That would be devastating.

A woman was hurt from a piece of furniture that flew out of a truck on the highway. It smashed through her windshield leaving her disfigured. Not wanting to be the reason for such a tragic accident, I always make sure my load is secure before getting out on the road.

This time it’s a bit different. It’s not my long haul work rig. It’s my own truck with my family’s personal belongings.

We’re moving again. It seems we’re changing our address more often lately. The economy has been making it difficult for us to stay in one place for very long.

With all other options not working out in our favor, we made the decision to move to the woods and live in a cabin, that has been in my family for generations.

My wife is not excited about this move in particular, but we both agree it’s for the best. Since being foreclosed on, we’ve been forced into the rental market.

At the end of every lease, the landlords would increase our rent to an amount we could no longer afford.

Being a long haul truck driver doesn’t pay well. I’m responsible for fueling up my own rig. The gas alone takes most of my pay.

Time away from family is another negative about my job. Three weeks out of the month, I’m usually absent from them.

We often joke with friends when they praise us on having a happy marriage after all these years. We tell them it’s because I’m never home to make my wife unhappy.

Although we kid about it, there’s truth behind those words. We’re used to being away from one another for long periods. It's the way our relationship has always been from the day we met.

Lately our marriage hasn’t been so blissful. She’s growing tired of caring for the kids on her own, dealing with the finances and after-math of losing her own job, which is the cause of us losing our home.

We couldn’t afford our house payment on one income. She struggled trying to find another job. Then her unemployment benefits ran out.

My wife was beginning to sink into a deep depression from the overwhelming guilt she felt. It devastated me to see her like that. I wanted to be there for her, but I was left with no other choice than to take as many hauling jobs as possible, which kept me away even more.

I racked my brains trying to figure a way out of this mess, and a way to help my slowly declining wife.

She begged me to quit my job to be home with her. That was just not possible. My wife and kids were everything to me, but I was a truck driver. It was all I knew. It was also the only thing bringing in a paycheck.

Inside the truck, I check the mirrors and look for my insurance papers in the glove box. I want to make sure everything is where it should be for the long drive.

I catch my reflection in the rear view mirror and notice a few grey strands sprouting from my dark, coarse hair that hadn’t been there a few weeks ago.

My brown eyes are supported by bags, and the whites of them are threaded with lines of red.

Sometimes when I look at myself, I don’t recognize the person looking back at me. How had things gotten so bad? We had a decent life up until a few years ago. Everything worked seamlessly.

Pulling myself away from my reflection, I grab my baseball cap from the bench seat and place it on my head. I didn’t wear it often, but somehow it pops up just when I seem to need it the most.

My wife is locking up the door to the final house we will ever rent if our plan goes the way we hope. I watch as she gives it one last look-over. She turns her head in my direction and gives me a lopsided grin. Her eyes have also seen better days as well. She’s holding up better on the outside than she is on the inside though.

The agreement between us, is that I’ll go work for her father - helping him build log homes. She will help him with the books. We can save money by living in the cabin rent free.

I’ll be home every night with our family, which will make my wife happy. She doesn’t want to move to the cabin, but the trade-off of my being home was all the convincing she needed. The decision wasn’t an easy one for either of us, but we knew sacrifices had to be made.

I’m not sure how much longer she would’ve been able to hang in there. I’d suggested to her that she see a therapist, but she refused. I was really starting to think she would do something stupid like leaving me, or even worse, hurting herself.

The thought of losing her is unbearable. She’s threatened me on several occasions that if I didn’t find a job that kept me home, she would leave with the kids.

Her trust in me was diminishing every time I left. I didn’t blame her. She found a woman’s bra in my truck one time. She didn’t believe me when I told her I didn’t sleep with the woman, that I only gave her a ride. It was the truth. I never cheated on my wife.

I hope our move to the cabin will ease her worries. I fear if I don’t regain her trust, and show her that we can make it through this hard time, she will turn those threats into a reality.

I smile at my wife as she climbs into the seat beside me. I can see the sadness in her eyes. She gave up months ago trying to hide it. I’m still pretending everything is rainbows and sunshine, but I’m just as miserable as she is. My newly sprouting grey hair is my only clue.

Giving up my truck driving career is like ripping a piece from my heart. It’s part of who I am. I feel guilty that it took some soul searching to figure out if giving it all up was worth saving my family.

Don’t get me wrong. I love them with everything that wasn’t invested into being out on the open road. There’s a freedom I have out there that they will never understand. Sometimes being at home felt like a prison.

Shaking away the hateful truth, I look over at my wife and remind myself that this is just temporary. Giving up my job will not be permanent. Once we can get back on our feet, pay off our debts, and save money for our own place, I’ll be happily sitting in my truck again.

I can’t see myself doing construction with her dad for very long, but in her mental state right now, she doesn’t need to know that. The thought puts a knot in my stomach.

The night we received the call from her father that he needed help with his company, I saw a light in my wife’s eyes, and I heard the excitement in her voice when she told me. I wanted to say yes just to keep her happy, but I told her we would have to move yet again.

We couldn’t afford the house we were in on the salary her father would be paying me, plus the commute alone would kill us. I had hoped that would kill the subject of me working for her dad.

Yes, I knew she wanted me home more than anything. I also knew that there would come a day I would have to give her what she wanted. She supported me and my joy of hauling truck for all these years, up until finding the woman’s undergarment. One day I would have to re-pay the favor.

We could move to the cabin. You would be home every night, Josh. Most of the work Daddy does is up in those mountains. The shop is only twenty miles from the cabin.

So you’re willing to move to the cabin if I work for your father? Living in the cabin where I spent my childhood had always been a dream of mine.

I tried to get her to move there on several occasions, but she refused. She couldn’t stand the thought of being left there alone with the kids.

I’d rather not move to the cabin, but I know it’s the only way we can save money to pay off our debts. We could buy our own house again. Maybe just two years there, right? There was some hesitation in her voice, but I could hear hopefulness as well.

The brightness glowing on her pretty face was something that had died long ago. Seeing it alive again gave me confidence that her threats of leaving me were just that, threats.

If she was willing to move to the mountains, away from her love of city living, then that showed me she was willing to do whatever it took to save our marriage. I wanted to save it too. I wanted to save her.

After a few days of soul searching, I decided to take her father up on his offer. We arranged to move into the cabin shortly after.

While living there, I plan to prove my love and devotion to her. Gain her trust all over again. It will be a chance to start over. I know it’s going to be a challenge for both of us.

We spend a majority of the drive in silence as we climb up the steep mountain. Both of us know this drive is a means to an end, but it also felt like the end.

The unknown is more than a few bends ahead. The silence is fear we’re trying to shut out. Neither of us want to speak the truth about the reservation we’re both having about this future endeavor.

We won’t admit that we’re afraid of the fact we will be forced to be with each other every night. Will we have enough to talk about every day? Could we grow tired of each other? These are unspoken questions that I find myself mentally roleplaying my answers.

What if after a few months, she grows tired of the person