A Message for Julia. Angel Smits

lay back there, shattered and lost.

      A sob broke loose from her throat, and Julia let it settle in the night air. Where was she going? What was she supposed to do now? There wasn’t a single person in this godforsaken town she could turn to.

      She drove to the edge of town, out near the interstate where a few hotels sat scattered along the worn highway. The Holiday Inn was the first one she reached, and she checked in.

      Nothing was ever going to be the same again.

      Sunday Afternoon, 5:30 p.m.

      LINC DOUBTED THERE had ever been a game of chess played anywhere near the Chess Club. But the picture of a Black Queen chess piece looked cool on the old tavern sign. He stepped inside, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness.

      Miners came here after every shift. Since moving here, he’d gotten into the habit of stopping in once or twice a week to meet up with some of the guys. He’d started doing it to try to build relationships. Now, he just needed company.

      Art and Luther, old men who’d put in their time at the mines and now enjoyed retirement, sat in their usual seats at the end of the bar. Grant, the owner, stood behind the bar, perpetually polishing glasses. It all felt so normal.

      Linc was the one out of kilter. He claimed a barstool and ordered a beer. He’d downed half of it before a hand clapped him on the shoulder.

      “Hey, buddy. Where the hell you been?” Mark Thompson, a miner he’d become friends with since he’d started coming here, smiled at him. He and Mark had developed a friendship of sorts, based mainly on their love of football and failure at darts. Mark climbed up on the barstool beside him and ordered a repeat of Linc’s drink.

      “Been busy.” Linc had thought he wanted someone to talk to, anything but the silence of the house without Julia, but now he realized that talking was one thing he didn’t want to do.

      “Yeah, I heard about what happened at the meeting. Bet your wife is ticked.”

      That was putting it mildly. “Yeah.” He took another deep swallow of his beer.

      “She’ll get over it. You up for a game?” Mark tilted his head toward the dartboard. Linc just shook his head.

      “Too bad. I was in the mood to kick your butt.” Mark drank his own beer with a smile.

      They sat in silence for a long while. Linc had just finished his beer when the door opened. His gaze met Mark’s in the mirror. Darlene sauntered in. Mark’s eyes lit up while Linc groaned. He wasn’t up for her and her shenanigans. She knew Mark had a thing for her, and every time Linc came in she played this stupid game of coming on to him. All to make Mark jealous.

      “Hey, guys.” She took the stool on the opposite side of Linc. He didn’t even look at her, but watched Mark eyeballing her in the mirror. He should just get up and leave, but going back to the empty house didn’t appeal to him at all.

      “Hey, Grant, give me another one.”

      “I heard some news.” Darlene leaned over to Linc, staring straight into his eyes. “I hear your wife tore out of your driveway the other night and hasn’t been back since.” She gently rested her hand on his forearm as though to comfort him, but Linc felt she wanted more.

      He swallowed hard, but didn’t look at her. He did not need this. Grant set the beer in front of him and he resisted the urge to drain the glass. “Who’ve you been talking to?”

      “Oh, people around.” She grinned, as if she knew she held a morsel of truth.

      “That true?” Mark sounded upset by the news. Linc didn’t know if it was because he hadn’t told him, or because now he saw Linc as a real threat to his chances with Darlene.

      “We just had a fight,” Linc said through clenched teeth. “We’ll be fine.” He wondered if they knew he was lying.

      “That’s not what people are saying.” Darlene smiled too brightly. She leaned against him now, her breast brushing against his arm so slightly it could almost have been an accident. He swallowed hard and mentally cursed. This wasn’t happening. He took another swig of his beer and nonchalantly scooted away from her.

      Mark leaned forward, trying to get Darlene’s attention. “What’s wrong with you, girl? Can’t you see the man’s in no mood for your company?”

      “This isn’t any of your business.” She leaned forward, pressing against Linc more deliberately this time.

      Darlene wasn’t a bad person, and in another life he might actually have been attracted to her.

      Anger pulsed through him. In all the years he’d been with Julia, he’d been faithful to her. He’d never cheated, never even thought about it. And where had that gotten him? Seven years of marriage down the tubes and an empty house waiting for him.

      He looked at Darlene. What if…

      “I’m going home.” He stood and Darlene climbed down from the stool. “Alone.” He headed to the door and didn’t bother looking back. He knew there wasn’t anyone he wanted except Julia. And he might spend the rest of his life wanting something he couldn’t have.

      For five days, Linc waited for Julia to come back. He went to work every morning, expecting her to be there when he returned each night. Her spot in the garage remained tauntingly empty.

      He called everyone they knew—and that was damned few people here in town. No one had heard from her. She hadn’t contacted anyone, except to call in sick to work.

      On Wednesday night he found the light on the answering machine blinking when he walked in the door. He pushed Play and Julia’s voice filled the house, banishing the shadows that threatened to take over. He held his breath as he listened.

      “Linc, I’ll be by tomorrow afternoon to pick up the rest of my things.” That was it. Nothing more.

      He played the message five times before grabbing the machine and throwing it across the room. It shattered against the dining-room wall. He felt only marginally better.

      He called her cell phone—again. It went straight to voice mail, which told him she’d turned it off. There was nothing else he could do.

      Except wait.

      He cursed and grabbed a beer from the fridge. Damn it all. He needed oblivion. And he certainly didn’t need half the town watching him find it.

      By Thursday, when he pulled into the dirt parking lot of the Winding Trail Mine ten minutes early to shadow the afternoon shift, he was exhausted.

      He wanted to finish this job and get home in time to catch Julia. He needed to do something—talk to her—anything to figure out how to make things better. There was too much anger between them and he didn’t like it. To be honest, he was downright sick of it. They were facing some tough decisions and he just wanted it done.

      Linc had always been the type who yanked off a bandage. It hurt like hell but then it was over. None of this slow, methodical agony. If his marriage was going to end, he wanted that flash of pain, not this ongoing hurt.

      Shaking his head, he tried to clear his mind of all those thoughts. He had a job to do and it required focus. He got out of the truck and reached into the bed to grab his gear before mounting the rough wooden steps to the mine office.

      The faded, worn building, the size of a double-wide trailer, had two shabby offices in front and a larger room beyond. In the back room, which served as a locker room, he met up with the crew he’d been assigned to shadow.

      Six men looked up when he walked in. They were nearly finished dressing in their long johns, flannel shirts and coveralls. Now that he was here, they would go underground.

      Linc hustled to dress as they introduced themselves. He recognized Gabe Wise, the crew chief, from his previous visit. Linc immediately realized why the older man was in charge. They were a young crew and Gabe had nearly twenty years experience.

      Robert