A Life Discarded

by Sarah Leigh

Her key clicked in the door, she called to him excitedly after their long separation; he responded from somewhere deep in the house that he would be right there. As she walked down the hall, she glimpsed something strange on the floor of his office through the open door; she turned into the room to see all the evidence of a life together: her perfume, her clothing, a pathetic bottle of contact solution, all shoved into cheap grocery bags by a man who had at times proven himself to be as careless with her feelings as he was now with her possessions. She sank to her knees and was overcome with sorrow at his cruelty, allowing her to find out that he was leaving her in this way, whether it was intentional or not, it didn't matter, the message was clear. He rounded the corner to find her sitting there, sobbing, and his face flashed with anger at her invasion of his office. The years that they had laughed, loved and shared toothpaste still did not allow this casual intrusion into his space, and the parallel to their now broken relationship was deafening. When it was all over, she threw everything in his trashcan on her way to the car; there was nothing left in those bags to want.

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Sarah Leigh is the author of The Slightly Disorganized Mind. She is not a writer by trade, merely by hobby. She enjoys the smell of freshly cut grass, strong coffee, and strangely, the smell of gasoline. She occasionally makes inappropriate romantic choices, but relies on her unrelenting sense of optimism to persevere.