Read Online A Life Transparent by Todd Keisling - Free Book Online

something interesting doesn’t happen to me soon, I may disappear for good.” An uncomfortable silence followed his words. The static on the line rose and fell, accenting a low chuckle from the strange man beyond it.
    “Do you really think so?”
    “Yeah,” Donovan said. “I do. Just a feeling, really.”
    “Actions birth definition, Mr. Candle. Good luck finding your way.”
    Click.
    •  •  •
     
    “So how are things?”
    Donna Candle juggled the phone and a mixing bowl. She set the bowl on the counter. Her sister, Amanda, waited on the other end of the line for a response.
    “That’s a loaded question and you know it.”
    “Oh, please. It is
not
. You’ve bitched about Don all week.”
    She reached into the cupboard and retrieved a bag of flour. “I haven’t
bitched
. I’m just concerned, is all. He’s never behaved like this.”
    “I don’t know, Donna. From what you’ve told me, it seems pretty damn suspicious.”
    Donna sighed. She regretted ever saying anything to her sister about Donovan’s odd behavior.
    “I trust my husband, Amanda, so don’t go putting any ideas in my head. There’s something going on, but I doubt it’s what you think it is.”
    “If you say so. You know the man better than anyone.”
    “I do,” Donna said, and trailed off.
I thought I did
. She’d run the gamut of emotion and suspicion in response to Donovan’s silence. At first she wondered if there was someone else, but he wouldn’t do something like that. Not the man she knew, anyway. In recent days, however, it was difficult for her to keep those agonizing doubts at bay.
    “Donnie’s no cheat,” Donna said. She smiled. “He knows what I’d do to him if he ever did.”
    Amanda laughed. “Out come the scissors. Oh, hey—I should get going. Quinn just got home.”
    “Give my love to my favorite nephew,” Donna said.
    “I will. And hang in there, okay? Call if you need me.”
    They said their goodbyes. Donna hung up the phone and looked at the mixing bowl. After spending most of the day in a restless fervor, she decided she would bake a chocolate cake—from scratch, with peanut butter icing. It was Donovan’s favorite, and would serve as her olive branch. She couldn’t stand for him to be mad at her. She’d gone over every possible reason as to why he would act in such a manner toward her, and their argument was the only logical solution.
    It didn’t help that she had been plagued by sporadic migraines all week. That was another odd thing. The headaches came out of nowhere, in strange, buzzing surges that filled her head with a dull, blinding pain. They made it hard to concentrate on anything, and always erupted at the most inopportune moments.
    She’d tried explaining it to Donovan, but he was distant and quiet. Some nights she thought he was with her in the living room, but when she would look over, his chair would be empty. Sometimes, when he was there, he said strange things that didn’t make sense, but she couldn’t remember what they were. She went to bed alone, and her concerns grew as the days went by.
    Had she gone too far? The more she strained to remember the details of their argument, the more they seemed to slip away. She remembered her tone, and regretted it. She remembered the gist of what she’d said, and that it was honest. She was tired of always saving, always scrimping for a goal that he kept pushing farther back. It disappointed her, seeing her husband slowly transform into the man he was, when she remembered how vibrant and lively he was in college.
    Donna smiled. Those were better days. She loved Donovan with all her heart—always would—but she admitted to herself that this week tested her resolve. It simply wasn’t like him to ignore her. That morning he hadn’t even said goodbye. She’d called her sister to vent, and now suspected Amanda was already on the phone with their mother, spilling the latest gossip.
    One of the headaches crept into her forehead. She