by Rupert Flagg

Created on: July 14, 2009

Dana sat on the bench in front of the 7/11. She knew that he'd pass here on his way to work. This was the first time she'd made the decision to see them with her own eyes. It was easy to hear about manifested blessing, but Dana had made up her mind to see it with her own eyes.
The stories were everywhere about how Tina had stood on the word of the lord for her husband to return from parts unknown. He'd taken their four year old son and just disappeared one day while she was out hanging the wash on the line. It was said that the note told her and anyone who read it, that he was tired of her and he wanted his son to know that all women didn't act like she did. He was tired of her going to church and all her woman stuff. He wanted a stay at home wife, not a stay at church wife. He wanted hot cooked meals every night. He hated going out to eat, especially on Sunday. He wanted a wife that didn't expect him to clean up after himself. The long and the short of the note was that he'd found that woman and he wanted her to raise his son in the knowledge that men are men and women are to obey them.

Dana grimaced. This was what had been printed in the Winfield Saturday Evening Post. The little footnote stated that it was printed so that no one would suspect foul play on Tina's part. Dana opened her purse and peered in at the yellowed slip of newspaper. She wanted it close to her just in case Tina had forgotten that portion of her story. Dana had carried that little slip of newspaper with her from the moment she'd read it. It seemed to keep her anchored in her own struggle to remain angry.
Now here it was thirteen years later and he was back, with two extra children! The whole town was abuzz with the news of how he just showed up one night, crying and begging her to take him back. Dana shook her head. "I'd a never done it" she said out loud. "It woulda had ta been the lord gawd hisself make me take that sooner back!" Dana said this with such angry in her voice that she startled the man coming out of the 7/11.

"Ahh, mam' you alright? Can I hep you wit' somethin'?" the man asked softly. Dana shook her head and motioned with her hand for him to go away and leave her be. She pushed the paper back into her purse and quietly closed it. She wasn't in the mood to explain what it was or why she'd taken the time to cut it out and keep it. She turned her body away from this man and looked down the road, trying to make it perfectly clear that she was going to ignore him. She kept

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