Free Before He Wakes by Jerry Bledsoe

gotten sick at work and fainted; a friend from work had brought her home. The Fords were fairly certain who the friend was.
    “I’m going to have a new daddy,” Bryan had told them a few minutes earlier.
    At work, Barbara seemed giddy about her new romance, although her coworkers had no idea that she was thinking about marrying Gary. To her only female friend in the department, Barbara seemed to be pushing the relationship, while Gary was holding back, uncertain and reluctant. Nonetheless, he went with Barbara and the boys to Durham to meet her parents in December.
    After Christmas, Barbara’s mood changed. It became clear in the office that her romance with Gary had cooled. Later, he would not admit that there had been a romance at all. He acknowledged going out with Barbara, visiting her apartment, having sex with her and going to meet her parents, but he called it “a casual relationship” that had lasted only a couple of months. Barbara, he said, was more involved than he.
    Gary’s rejection was traumatic for Barbara, and on January 20, she wrote a letter to her boss at the bank. “Due to the personal problems concerning my separation, I feel it would be better for myself and my children to move and be near my parents for their help and support. My termination date will be Jan. 31, 1975. My work experience has been very enjoyable and rewarding. Thanks.”
    In his report on Barbara’s resignation, her supervisor recorded that she had been a very good employee, capable, congenial, efficient, cooperative. “She is blessed with better than the average looks, personality and quick mind,” he wrote, noting that he would not hesitate to rehire her. She would not be leaving if not for her separation, which had not affected her work, he wrote, adding that she had simply decided that moving back to Durham would be the best thing for her and her children, especially in view of the fact that she recently had discovered that she was pregnant again.
    Barbara’s supervisor had no way of knowing that she no longer could become pregnant. Why she told him that would be cause for wonder years later. Had she hoped that word would filter down to Gary, frightening him or causing him to come back to her? Was she losing her grip on reality, as she had when Larry had rejected her years earlier?
    Before she left, Barbara tried to find a position with an NCNB branch in Durham, but none was available. However, she had no trouble getting rehired as a secretary at the Duke University Medical Center, where she had worked all through high school, and where her mother was still employed.
    After she left, Larry’s mood dipped even lower. He threw himself ever harder into tae kwon do, each kick and blow striking out at his unhappiness. He didn’t talk about himself with his fellow students, and few of them were aware of his marriage problems. He trusted Lou Wagner, though, and had told him about the breakup. Wagner could tell that he was deeply troubled. Larry mentioned to him how much he missed Bryan, whom he had brought to class a few times, and Wagner knew that he wanted to get his family back together if only for his son’s sake.
    Larry’s parents could offer little comfort for his distress and were reluctant to offer advice. But one cold Sunday, standing on his front porch as Larry was preparing to leave, Henry suggested that maybe it was better this way. Perhaps Larry should just let her go, start anew.
    “With what she’s done,” Henry said, “you can get the boys and raise them yourself.”
    Larry was silent for long moments, as if deep in thought.
    “I can’t do it, Daddy,” he finally said. “The kids need their mother.”
    His father never pressed him after that.
    Soon afterward, Larry told his parents and Jane that he had gone to Durham to try to get Barbara to come back home. She had declined. She was getting settled in her new job. She had started going with her parents to their new church, Ebenezer Baptist, and was