A Kiss Goodbye
USA
November 2002
This happened to my brother, and I will never forget the look on his face when he told me. First, some background information.
My brother (we'll call him Fred) and his girlfriend (we'll call her Jenny) were both in college, close to home, and had been going out for a year. They had seriously been considering marriage. Now for the story.
Late one night Jenny was going to go out with her friends, and invited Fred to go with her, since all of her friends knew and liked him. He declined, saying that he needed to bring up his grade with some extra credit, and that Jenny should just have a night out with the girls. She tried one last time to convince him, but yet again he declined. She left her tiny apartment, telling him that they were just going to see a movie, and just cruise around town in Jenny's new car. Fred got to his studying (he really did have some extra credit to do) and thought nothing more about Jenny and her friends.
Later that night, Fred awoke with a start, realizing that he had fallen asleep working. He noticed that his room was very cold, and realized that this was what had woken him up. He got on to turn up the heater, when he noticed that Jenny was home. He got up to hug her, but she just looked at him, very sadly. Fred noticed that something about her was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Jenny turned toward a picture of her and Fred, both laughing while looking at each other, and sadly kissed her fingers, then pressed them to Fred's cheek. He was startled at how cold they were. That was the last thing that he remembered.
The next morning I was at Fred's apartment, when he came into the kitchen and asked me where Jenny was. I told him that I hadn't seen her, and thought that she had been in the bed with him. He then paled, and told me about the night before. Then, if possible, his face got even paler, and he said that he realized what had been wrong with Jenny. He had been able to see the window right through her!
Five minutes after he made that discovery, the phone rang. It was the police, saying that Jenny had died in a crash the night before, while driving home to him. It had just been her in the car. He was devastated, but also glad. Glad that he had been able to have one last goodbye.