The Girl in the Rain

I shrugged. "Most of the time, yes. Sometimes at night I lie in a position that my body doesn't like and I wake up with pain around my shoulder blades. Other than that I have to be careful what I pick up and how I do it but it gets better every day."

She looked at the ring on her finger with a wistful look. "We nearly didn't get to this."

I sighed long and hard. What to say without stating the obvious or saying something that may rather be left unsaid? I caught her eyes on me.

"What?"

Her eyes screwed down in a question. "Did you see when Donald stabbed me?"

"Yes."

"What did you feel?"

I could only sigh. "I had a second to feel anything before I was knocked down but I never want to feel that again." I shrugged. "I cannot even really try to put it in words but hopeless fear and black despair comes close I guess."

She nodded. "I still remember seeing someone rushing up to you with something raised above his head. As you ducked and he hit the door I screamed and tried to get to you. All I achieved was to let Donald in."

I shook my head in disbelief. "Did he say anything?"

She raised her eyebrows. "I think he was drunk and high on something. His speech was slurred and he had difficulty in keeping his balance so at first I could avoid him but that may have been the reason why he went for the knife. When I saw him raise it I could scream but I was paralysed with fear and I guess I just stood there and took it."

"Fortunately he only stabbed once."

She looked thoughtful. "He was a jealous person Derek. It is true that we all need to be a little jealous, even you. But he was on the bad side and I am sure he suffered from a number of unwanted things, mostly a total sense of insecurity. That night I chased him from my house with a knife may have been the trigger he needed to go over the top. If I hadn't done that, who knows? Maybe none of this may have happened."

I sat there thinking. We all do things on a daily basis with no idea whatsoever on what the possible outcome of it may be. I stopped for a girl in the rain and two people died as a result of it. Cynically seen, a good deed got well and truly punished.

I shook my head to clear it of such morbid thoughts and got up to lean over Steffi.

"Seeing as we are all by ourselves for a while, may I ask you something?"

Her eyes glittered as she smiled up at me. "You may ask."

I took her hand into mine and squeezed gently. "Will you marry me?"

She actually giggled. "I cannot refuse."

"Why not?"

She became serious. "Because my heart is yours Derek. There is a scar in it that got to be there because I love you. I cannot love deeper than that and I am not about to allow something I nearly bought with my life to go to waste." She bit her lip and then smiled at me. "There is one proviso though."

"And that is?"

"I want a little girl."