A woman awakes during the night to find that her
husband was not in bed. She puts on her robe and goes
downstairs to look for him. She finds him sitting at
the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in front of him. He
appears to be in deep thought, just staring at
the wall. She watches as he wiped a tear from his eye
and takes a sip of his coffee.
“What’s the matter, dear?”, she whispers as she steps
into the room, “Why are you down here at this time of night?”.
The husband looks up from his coffee, “Do you remember 20 years ago when we
were dating, and you were only 16?” he asks solemnly.
“Yes, I do” she replies.
The husband paused. The words were not coming easily.
“Do you remember when your father caught us in the back seat of my car ?”
“Yes, I remember” said the wife, lowering herself into a chair beside him.
The husband continued. “Do you remember when he shoved the shotgun in my
face and said, 'Either you marry my daughter, or I’ll send you to jail
for 20 years?”
“I remember that too” she replied softly.
He wiped another tear from his cheek and said, “I would have got free today”.