Soul Surrender
 
Bette walks out of the restaurant, realizing the betrayal that she has caused all of her friends, Alice, Shane and Tina sat there with a group of others talking having fun and the looks that they gave her almost killed her.  
 
“How am I going to go on like this?” Bette asks as she heads over towards her car, thinking if there was even a reason to go on.
 
******
Forty five minutes later inside the restaurant Alice and Shane are trying hard to bring Tina out of her funk, they understood that she was hurting but she need to let some of that stress go.
 
“Tina come on,” Alice pleaded, “lets just have some fun… please.”
 
Tina gives Alice a striking look, “Al… we are having fun… at least I’m having fun.”
 
One of the other girls came back to the table with a round of shots and they all partook, Alice noticed Tina hesitantly took her shot.  “You feel ok TK?”
 
“Fine Alice,” responded.
 
As they took their shots a group sat down just across from them, Alice noticed the one lady looked a little out of it and kept looking over, curious to see what that was about.
 
“I can’t believe that just happened,” a younger gentleman says, “that was crazy.”
 
“Sue… are you okay…” a young blonde woman asks softly rubbing the woman that Alice had noticed arm. 
 
She just shook her head and looked down, “She was like an angel…” the woman started, “she looked right at me and it was like I could see into her soul… all of her pain… all of her anguish… god.”
 
Tears started to stream down her face.  As the young blonde woman gets up and embraces her from behind, “its going to be okay honey… you will be ok.”
 
“I don’t think I am going to be okay,” she responds, “it was like she was waiting to let go and then she looked at me and it was like she saw someone else in me… someone she loved and someone she hurt… but mostly someone she didn’t want to live without.”
 
As this conversation continued Alice kept an ear turned towards the table, she was still enjoying herself with her friends but she was intrigued but what was going on.
 
“It was just so different,” the girl continues, “it was like as we turned the corner she new I was there, it felt like at the very moment that she saw me… she had a revelation.”
 
She started to take a deep breath as the waiter came to take their order, she grabbed for her glass of water and downed it in no time, filling her glass again and taking a long sip. 
 
“Why did she do it?” the young woman continued, “Why would she just die like that? No fighting back, no struggle, just letting go.”
 
The blonde woman took her hand into hers, “Sue, you can’t let this eat you up.  There was nothing you could do.”
 
Sue looks up at her friend, “I realize that but,” she paused, “when she collapsed… I couldn’t stop myself from running to her… she looked so shattered… so broken.”
 
Over at the other table Alice is getting more and more enthralled in their conversation that she doesn’t’ even realize that Shane is talking to her, “Hey Al,” Shane yells as she kicks her under the table, Alice flinches, “Fortune cookie time.”
 
“What the fuck Shane?” Alice yelled as she reached down for her shin.
 
“Read your fucking fortune cookie Alice,” Shane said.
 
“Okay, okay,” she said, “Life is too short to walk down the same path,” she pauses, “what the fuck does that mean?”
 
“It means that you need to be walking on the other side of the street,” Shane jests.
 
“Okay Tina your turn,” Alice challenges, “better be good.”
 
Tina crumbles her cookie and looks down at it, “your souls will forever be bound.”
 
“Wow that’s deep shit,” Shane says, by this Time Alice is already back to listening in on the conversation across the aisles.
 
“When I reached her, she just looked up at me, her eyes were so deep, so soulful,” Sue began, “It looked like she had at that moment found forgiveness.”
 
“What was it that she said to you?” the young man asked.
 
Tears began to stream down Sue’s face, “she said “T… I can see him… I can see our son… he is so beautiful”,” she stopped reaching for a napkin to wipe the tears, “she finished with something so beautiful she said, “we will be waiting for you and your little angel” I wonder who this T was to her.”
 
Alice over heard this last part and felt her breathing grow rapid, she slowly got out of her seat, she was so afraid to see the truth, she new it but she was so afraid, she slowly approaches the table, Shane and Tina look up at her and then at each other wondering what Al was up to.
 
“Excuse me,” Alice asked in a broken whisper.
 
The young man looks up and greets her with a smile, “Hello.”
 
“I’m sorry to bother you,” Alice said with uncertainty, “but I couldn’t help but over hear your conversation, and I was wondering who the woman was? What was her name?”
 
Sue looks up into Alice’s eyes and could see the pain, the realization that something beyond her control was going to break this woman, “What did the police officer say her name was again?” the blonde woman inquires.
 
Sue stands up and looks Alice right in the eyes, “Her name was Bette Porter,” at this Alice just broke down and fell, Sue was there to hold
her as Shane and Tina came running up.
 
“Al what happened?” Shane asked as she reached her noticing the tears streaming down her face.
 
“She’s gone… Bette’s gone,” Alice got out before she collapsed under the emotional strain.