For Your Sins

Tom felt the car begin to move, but there were no other perceptible changes. The ride went on and on, and he realized that like all other experiences in Hell, this ride would take an eternity. He sat down to wait it out.

*

He opened his eyes to flashing lights in a dark, shaking space, and a crushing weight on his chest. Someone was holding his hand.

"Oh Tom, thank heavens! Can you hear me?" It was Ginny, sitting beside him and crying. "Your heart had stopped, and they told me they thought you had an aneurism and that you were gone. Then they realized they were wrong, it was a normal heart attack, and they restarted your heart. You're in the ambulance on the way to the hospital now. I thought I had lost you!"

Tom couldn't speak, and realized he had a breathing tube down his throat. He tried to tell her how much he loved her with his eyes. She seemed to get the message.

"I know, I love you too! If anything happens to you, I want you to know that. Janey just confessed to me what she did, and I want you to know that I forgive you. I know how she is when she wants something, and I know it must have been eating you up inside. When I thought I had lost you, I thought I would never forgive her if you died with a guilty conscience. Thank Heaven I was able to tell you."

Tom closed his eyes, feeling his heart settling down into its familiar rhythm. He was going to make it. No, Ginny, he thought, thank Hell.