Carol's Secret

Lillian said, “I’m scared to go in the car with Bill.”

Carol agreed and went to Jason and said, “J. I have a favor, Lillian is afraid to go home with Bill because he’s drunk.”

Jason looked over to where Bill was sitting on a couch sipping a beer and said, “He looks fine to me. What’s her problem?”

“Jason, please. Lillian is really afraid.”

“No way, Bill’s my best friend, I will not embarrass him by taking his girl home.”

Carol told Lillian that Jason said not to worry. Bill is a great driver.

As Jason and Carol were leaving the party, they saw Lillian climbing into Bill’s car. Bill peeled out, tires squealing. A moment later, a loud crash. The car had hit a tree. They saw Bill climb out, but Lillian did not. Her head had gone through the windshield. She was dead.

For years, Carol was haunted by the thought that she had failed Lillian. She never told anyone her secret, that Lillian had asked her for a ride home and she had to refuse her.

One evening, Harry, her husband, asked, “Carol, sometimes you look like you are lost and miles away. Like right now. Do you have a secret you are hiding from me?”

Carol turned to him, her face flushed red, she sobbed, “I haven’t told anyone for twenty years about how I failed a girl and she was killed.

Harry looked at her with a confused expression. “What do you mean, you got a girl killed?”

“Oh, Harry, my failure to help her haunts me. She asked me and my boyfriend for a ride home and he refused, and she died in a crash. The accident scene plays over and over in my head like an old movie.”

Harry moved close to her and took her in his arms and said, “Now you have told me. It’s no secret anymore. You are free and if there is anyone to blame, it is your old stupid boyfriend.”

Carol felt the burden of guilt and shame falling away. Harry’s understanding made her see the truth of the matter and the truth set her free.