When Tina was in college she’d been something of a track star, and with good reason. In high school she had been the best on her track team, good enough to win tournament after tournament. The athletic scholarship she’d gotten was how she’d been able to afford USC.

Then in her junior year, a freakishly stupid accident – she’d slipped getting out of the tub to turn the radio down – had blown out her knee. No running that year, no scholarship, no university. She’d met Eric by then of course, and so the loss of leaving school wasn’t as devastating as it could have been. But it still hurt.

Tina didn’t know what would have become of her if not for Eric, but often she wondered. Her life might have taken so many different paths if they’d not met one day on campus, quite randomly. She, confident and sure of herself, had been approached by him on the common. He sat down next to her on the bench in that unobtrusive way he had and murmured some question or other about the book she was reading. Tina didn’t remember the question, but she did remember the book – it was Absalom, Absalom by Faulkner, and she was reading it for her American Literature class. The book wasn’t a favorite, but the sentimental part of her made her keep that same copy for all these years. It was in a box in a closet or somewhere. She still had it.

That was how they were. Maybe not the most passionate of lovers, but there was a certain mutual fondness and the bond of a shared past that made the foundation of their lives together. And it was to that history that Tina reached to in order to get over their various disagreements over the years, including this latest. She knew he meant well. Besides, she found it impossible to stay mad at Eric for long.

This morning her knee was aching, as it still did on occasion. She wandered listlessly through the house in the late morning, wishing for something to do. She abruptly decided to go outside, just for a bit. She needed to escape this crawly feeling of the walls closing in on her. She would just duck out for some air…