A Chance Encounter - Part 1

Months had passed since his funeral. The furthest I had attempted to venture out of my house was work. I sheltered myself from the outside world, hoping that the pain would slowly disappear and I could just move on with my life. Every offer to go out scared me; I turned into a hermit and was becoming more and more comfortable with never seeing another human being again. I guess it was just a defense mechanism. I never used to be like-well, no, I was, but not to the same extent. My anxiety always kept me a little on edge about the world around me, but this, this was on a whole different level.

Nothing had been the same since he passed. Everyone comforted me as best they could, suggesting things like grief counseling and taking up new hobbies to distract my overwhelmingly broken heart. But I ignored all the advice. I would simply smile and thank them for their help, but inside I fought against the urge to scream at the top of my lungs:

“THAT WON’T BRING HIM BACK!”

Distractions were the opposite of what I was looking for. I wanted solitude, I wanted peace, I wanted my husband back. Obviously, my solution led me to sit on the couch and wallow in self-pity…for six months straight. I wanted nothing to do with movie theaters, concerts, conventions, etc. I barely mustered up the courage to go work, why would I waste my time trying (and ultimately failing) to enjoy myself at an event?

Over the past few weeks my best friend, Kaitlyn, tried to convince me to join her at this year’s ComiCon. Every time she brought it up, I immediately shot her down. I would claim some illness or work issue, but she persisted. Day after day she would text me, telling me it would be amazing, and she just could not stomach going without me. I groaned at the thought of having to socialize with other people. She’d mention YouTuber after YouTuber who was scheduled to make an appearance. Nothing motivated me. I finally told her I would think about it. She screamed in excitement and started babbling on about matching outfits and if she could pull off cosplay. I felt exhausted just listening to her.

When we got off the phone, I sat and thought about the effort this would take. Was it really worth it? So what if Jack and Ethan would be there, I didn’t have the energy to get out of bed, let alone talk to them. Kaitlyn texted me every day doing her best to hype me up. She kept reminding me to wear my Markiplier shirt.

“Saturday is going to be amazing! When we get there, we HAVE to visit the merch tables. Oh! And we need to try to make it to Jack’s meet & greet. I think…”

I tuned her out; her enthusiasm wore me out. “Abbie said she would meet us at your house. Can we take your car? Or should we take mine? Hmm…” She trailed off, finally giving me a chance to chime in. “Kait, slow down. Just take your car. I have to go. Long day tomorrow.” I hung up the phone and sank into the couch. “I think this will be more trouble than it’s worth.”

Saturday showed up with a vengeance. By some miracle I managed to throw myself together in time before Kaitlyn and Abbie came knocking on my door. I felt a slight twinge of enthusiasm as I got dressed, donning my favorite Markiplier t-shirt and black tights. As I stared in the mirror while delicately finishing my eyeliner, I saw a smile come over my lips. “Who knows? Maybe this will be fun…” My thoughts of excitement were immediately cut off by feelings of being overwhelmed by a crowd of people, social anxiety at its best. Before I could shake it off, the doorbell rang. Sighing heavily, I dashed for the door.

“Jenny! You look amazing! Are you excited?!?!?!” Kaitlyn practically screamed at me.

“Hi, Kait. And err, thanks. Hey, Abbie. Long time, no see,” I quickly responded.

Abbie half smiled, cocking her head to the side, “Hey, I’m really glad you agreed to go today. I know this can’t be easy.” I just nodded, fighting back tears. “You have no idea how much energy it took to get out of bed this morning,” I said.

“Well, do we have a game plan yet? I know Kaitlyn said she had like the entire convention mapped out already,” I said turning toward Kaitlyn who was focused on a piece of paper in her hand.

Kaitlyn looked up at me, her face beaming with excitement. “Jenny, Abbie, let me just warn you, I have more than just a map of the convention.” Abbie and I exchanged glances, both clearly concerned about Kaitlyn’s statement.

“Uh, Kaitlyn, what exactly do you have? Security codes for a nuclear bomb? There isn’t much else you could have other than a map and a schedule,” Abbie retorted. I nodded in agreement and stared at Kaitlyn while she dug in her bag for the mystery item.

“VIP passes! We can go anywhere we want, all over the convention! Every panel, meet & greet, you name it!” Kaitlyn jumped up and down, shaking the passes in front of us.

“How did you swing those???” Abbie asked curiously.

“Remember how I told you I got our tickets in the first place?” Kaitlyn answered.

“Yeah, you said something about some guy you knew that worked in the ticket office. I mean I get him being able to help get us in the event, but I don’t think he would be able to score VIP passes for us. Would he?” Abbie glanced back and forth between Kaitlyn and me.

I shrugged my shoulders and said, “I mean obviously there’s a catch here, right, Kait? How on earth did you really get those passes?”

Kaitlyn grinned from ear to ear and said, “Like I said before, I know a guy.” She winked as she finished her statement.

Abbie and I just rolled our eyes before dropping the subject and heading over to the couch.

“Where do we start? Has the convention even opened yet?” Abbie narrowed her eyes as she tried to read Kaitlyn’s map. There was so much going on that none of us could picture what we would do first.

“The convention will have barely started by the time we get there. OOH! We should go to Jack’s meet & greet first! Look! It says here that he’s only available for like two hours. We HAVE to get in line as soon as we get there!” Kaitlyn exclaimed. Abbie smiled in agreement; they both turned to me as if waiting for me show the same level of excitement as them. I just half smiled and said, “I mean that’s fine. Probably best to get that out of the way before the panels start.”

They stared at me, worry rising in their eyes. “Guys, I know what you’re thinking. I’m fine. I promise. This isn’t going to be easy, but I know that Chris would want me to go.” They smiled and reached for my hands. “Maybe you should bring Chris with us,” Kaitlyn suggested.

My eyes narrowed in curiosity and concern. “I can’t exactly take him with me. What do you expect me to do? Dig up his grave and drag his corpse around the convention floor?”

Abbie let out a little giggle and then said, “I think Kaitlyn meant to wear something of Chris’s, like…”

Kaitlyn cut her off, practically shouting at me, “HIS CHAMPIONSHIP RING! Where is it? You should wear that! It’ll keep him close by.” I sighed before finally agreeing that it would be nice if I had something of him on me to make the day a bit easier.

I walked down the hall to my bedroom and over to his night stand. Kneeling in front of it, I pulled the top drawer open. It creaked and groaned at the sudden movement. I slowly placed my hand inside, feeling around for the ring and anything else I could grab of Chris’s. After a few minutes I managed to pull the ring out of the drawer along with his cologne. I pushed the drawer back in and stood up, placing the ring on the chain around my neck. I took his cologne and sprayed my wrists, breathing in the oh-too familiar scent of my late husband. Tears began to well up in the corners of my eyes. I wiped them away and headed out of the room. How on earth was I ever going to make it through the day?

-End of Part 1-