雨水 [31] / [35]
John drained another glass. He looked at Alexander suspiciously.
"I thought you and she slept together since you two are in the same place, just the two of you."
"Oh, come on. That kind of thing has never happened. She is my boss, and just wants to make sure I'm okay, that's all."
John still seemed not to believe this, but nodded and said.
"I heard that. She insisted bringing you into her place. Maybe she is the one who needs help more than you. She,"
John stopped speaking, and looked as if he were agonized by something. Alexander could see that he was quite tipsy.
"Right after our marriage, when she worked in the highway patrol, she witnessed her coworker get killed right in front of her eyes. Splat!”
He made a dramatic slapping motion with his hands.
"Just like that,"
he continued.
"Run down by a drunk driver. That became her trauma. But you know, she is not a person who wants to show her heart to anybody. She didn't even show her true feelings to me. Not even to me.”
He emphasized, adding,
“But I started to figure it out when she began abusing alcohol at home alone since it happened. When she was off, she drank almost constantly. And fell asleep in that condition. I should have taken care of her from then on.
But I didn't. I had my excuses, what with being so damn busy at work. She was pregnant, yet she still lived like that. Of course, she didn't know at that time. It was almost 3 months later that she found out she was with child. During those 3 months she didn't stop drinking.
She miscarried the baby. It wasn't just the alcohol, you know. She worked so hard, about as hard as she drank. The more she worked, the more she drank. I thought she would get better after some time passed, but it didn't get any better.
On the contrary, it got more serious. Her health deteriorated, so she had to take a year off from work. Because of health problems. I realized something was deeply wrong with her. Yeah, it turned out she was quite a serious alcoholic. She looked ready to let go of everything around her. But what did I do to try to fix that? Almost nothing. The image of the woman I loved was no longer there in body. I started to cheat on her. I was sick of it. And I couldn’t take it anymore."
"Hey, Johnny, what are you talking about?"
Alexander couldn't endure listening any longer, and had to ask.