Chapter 42

The rain was coming down in buckets now as my taxi sped along the back roads to the Raleigh/Durham airport. The cab was quiet and dark. Gabriel sat on the seat next to me, quiet also. He knew things weren't right. I sighed a rough sigh and tried my hardest to look out my window, but the rain was coming down too hard for me to see anything. My vision was also blurred by a rush of sudden tears. Why had I been crying? It was I who had chosen to leave. I just picked up my things...

"Excuse me...Miss...we're here." The taxi cab driver's voice came through my thoughts.

"Oh, yes, thank you." I handed him his money and tip, gathered my things and walked through the glass doors into the bustling airport. Gabriel was first to get boarded onto the plane. I said goodbye to him as he was whisked away inside his kennel on a conveyer belt. I then found my gate and took a comfortable seat until the plane was ready to board.

Finally the plane was lifting into the air. No turning back now, that was it, I thought. An hour later I had landed back in Pennsylvania, the place where I had lived my entire life. It actually looked great all lit up. I smiled to myself seeing familiar landmarks. From the airport I took a taxi back to my house. It had been closed up all summer. I had thought that I wouldn't be back for sometime. I had told the high school where I was employed that I was taking a year sabbatical to pursue something on the side. Things hadn't worked out the way I had planned so my next move was to notify them of my return. I went to sleep in my own bed that night, but for quite sometime, I laid awake, running through the days events in my mind. It still hadn't hit me, that I had left the man I knew I was in love with. I never even gave any notice to Vince that I was leaving, I just left. It was never like me to quit something and not tell anyone what my next move was. I didn't even feel like myself to me. I just needed to put things out of my mind and concentrate on starting back again in my comfortable niche.

Chapter 43
Chapter 41