Elsa said nothing.
“We…I think it’s important to know, you know, I think people out there should know that when something like that happens to someone…I’m talking about when Rix lost his legs, it isn’t just the someone it happens to that it happens to.”
Elsa eagerly leaned closer to her and noted, “This is interesting. Please explain.”
“I mean, Rix lost his legs, but I lost the man I was going to marry.”
The camera closed in on Elsa as she appeared confused. “And now you’ve lost me. Unless I have the identity wrong of our John Hendrix, it’s my understanding he’s very much alive.”
“I don’t mean that,” Peri said quickly.
“I see, you mean, he was, and I would contend it’s justifiable, even if it might not be easy to deal with as a partner, but due to his loss and having to deal with it, his personality changed. For instance, perhaps he lashed out at you?”
Rix tensed, hoping like fuck to make herself look better, Peri wasn’t going to lie.
Peri adjusted herself in her chair. “No, what I mean is—”
Elsa cut her off. “He didn’t lash out at you?”
“No, what I’m trying to say is—”
“He was cruel to you? Cold to you? Distant? Lost? Recalcitrant?”
Peri shook her head, her shining blonde hair gliding over her shoulders. “No. None of that. What I’m saying is, as his partner—”
Elsa again interrupted.
“He fought treatment? Rehabilitation? He gave up and it was difficult to try to re-engage him in activities that would help him to lead a full life?” Elsa paused, but not long enough for Peri to answer. “Which,” she glanced at the camera, “and I’ll make it clear, my wonderful watchers, I truly know nothing about this,” she turned back to Peri, “however, I would think those would be natural responses. Depression. Grief. And the behavior that comes with both.”
“No, he wasn’t like that. Rix was never like that. I mean he had his times, but he’s always been the kind of man who faces things and then gets on with it. It happened. He faced it and he got on with it.”
“So even after he lost his legs, he was the man you were going to marry,” Elsa remarked.
Peri grew still in her chair.
The air in Rix’s lungs grew still in his chest.
So when he whispered, “Shit,” it sounded winded.
“Peri, if you would, I’d like you to watch this,” Elsa invited.
Before Peri gave her approval, the visual of Elsa and Peri was lost as film of his bud from the crew, Jarrod, standing among a bunch of pines, wearing his blue firefighter tee, a microphone in his face, started rolling.
“Yeah, Rix was home from the rehab hospital exactly two days before she dumped him. And that was after she didn’t go to the hospital very much when he was in to be with him. Give him support. Be a part of the process when he was learning what his life was gonna be like and how to negotiate it. He got home, he was still in his chair, they were building his prosthetics and the swelling had to go down and his legs still had to heal from the surgery so he could get into that, and she was outta there. Coupla years later, he’s up and got a kickass job, doing cool shit for kids, and she wants him back. Like he’s been waiting for her. When he wasn’t. He found somebody else. Traded way the hell up. And I gotta tell you what all the guys are thinking, that woman reaching out to you to tell her story is all kinds of fucked up.”
Elsa and Peri came back on screen, and Peri looked struck.
“Is this true?” Elsa asked. “Did you wait until John had navigated the difficult journey back to a fully functional life and try to get him back?”
“No one calls him John,” Peri whispered.
“But is it true?” Elsa pushed.
Peri straightened her shoulders. “He wasn’t the man I agreed to marry. You don’t get it. No one thought about me. Everyone thought I was so terrible to take a break from our relationship when I did. But it was like that tree fell on me too.”
“No, I don’t get it. Because I have been told directly that you didn’t”—Elsa lifted her hands and did air quotation marks—“take a break from your relationship. You ended your engagement, returned his ring, moved out of the home the two of you shared, and went on with your life, leaving him to recover from a double amputation and then learn to walk again without the woman he loved there to support him.” Elsa’s voice turned frosty on her last, “And, let’s be very frank here, it is not in the slightest like that tree fell on you.”
Peri tried again. “The spouses of people—”
“Yes, the spouses and partners of people who experience traumatic events most assuredly experience their own traumas at watching someone they love have to deal with their circumstances. Have to adjust lives and even let go of dreams to make room to build new ones. And they are intimately involved with all that, doing the same themselves in their own ways.” Elsa turned to the camera, which tightened on her. “I think it’s important, my watchers, to understand that tragedy has tentacles. Some that may even surprise you. It is rarely only one who suffers.”
The visual of Elsa disappeared and onscreen was Nicole, his bud Rob’s wife. She was sitting on a bench outside by a beach, the wind blowing her brown hair. A microphone was in her face.
“He pushed Rob out from under that tree,” Nic shared. “He knew that tree was going to go, he ran to Rob, and he pushed him out from under. And it fell on him. I wake up at night. Rob wakes up at night. The guilt eats at him. At me. It could have been Rob. It should have been him. It wasn’t him because of Rix. I’m not telling you this so Rix will see it and feel bad. We love him, and not just because of this. He’s still tight with Rob, even though we don’t live close anymore. They text each other. They talk. They still give each other a ton of shit.” Nic busted out a smile. “That’s Rix and Rob. Always the same. That never changed.” Her smile died. “I’m just telling you this because that woman wants to make this about her. And it’s about a lot of things. It’ll always be about a lot of things. For me, it’s about how deep my gratitude goes that Rix gave what he gave so my husband didn’t have to give anything. So yeah, it’s about a lot of things. The only thing I know for sure it’s not about. It’s not about her.”
The onscreen visual went back to Elsa and Peri.
“Do you have anything to say to that?” Elsa asked.
“You told me I could tell my story,” Peri accused. “I flew all the way out here to tell my story. Rix won’t listen to me, his buddies are messing with me, and you told me I could share my side.”
“I think what you don’t understand, Peri, is that your side doesn’t have very many dimensions. You’ve already shared it.”
Peri started to look pissed.
Elsa turned to the camera, and it closed in on her.
“Now, with that, my wonderful watchers, I think we’ve all learned so, so much that is very important. So I think for now we’ll call it a wrap. Until our next exchange, keep it positive. Elsa is signing off.”
She then winked, blew a kiss, and the video ended.