By Willie
Published: September 4, 2008
Updated: October 4, 2008
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The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Faith is not a virtue. Faith is the final refuge against the jagged shards of mutually exclusive truths. When Verity (oh, the irony) vowed to love me until parted by death, she did so with the ease of a throwaway gesture; she then proceeded to throw it away. Only my blind trust and dogged belief carried us as far as this bitter end.

We sat together, emotionally separate, opposite the jolly solicitor, who wore his best sombre face for the occasion. Over his shoulder, framed in the floor to ceiling window, vast shining towers loomed; monuments to the irrefutable success and unstoppable march of capitalism. He spun the paper in front of him through 180 degrees and slid it across the table. Sign here and here, he said pointing. Verity, her own pen already in hand, added her elegant script above her printed name. It’s not too late to start over and honour our commitment, I pleaded, reaching my hand toward hers. She placed the pen firmly into my upturned palm.

A rumbling crescendo sent ripples through a jug of water and rattled at the window. My eyes rose to a scene that beggared belief. Fragile Wedgwood blue sky filled the space where a tower of concrete and steel had previously stood. A boiling cloud of dust and debris rushed along the street towards us like water from a breached dam. The solicitor slid from his executive chair to his knees and prayed for mercy and forgiveness (moments before, ultimately the same divinity was called upon for strength and guidance to start the catastrophic chain of events). I pulled Verity from her chair, simultaneously ducking behind her. Verity’s ‘fulsome’ figure adequately absorbed the Armageddon as it forced its way, uninvited, into the room.

Shaking the grit from my eyes and the ringing from my ears, I stood, unscathed, to behold the broken, shattered remains of the office, of the solicitor and of my wife. Strictly speaking, in the context of a binding life insurance contract, she was still my wife.

I can hardly believe the miracle that occurred that day.

 

 

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