When Life Turned Purple by Eva Adar Page A

eyes wide.
    “What’s wrong, Russ?”
    “I—I mean—well—I didn’t, either.” His shoulders sagged. “I didn’t think of it, either.”
    Lia nodded. “It’s hard. The way the culture is set up—the expectations, the attitudes, the legality and ease of access, the way it’s considered a ‘right’—and the fact that there are women who don’t regret their abortions, women who even seem happy to have had them, and women who’ve had several, it makes it seem like the experience is different than it actually is.” She put her other hand on top of Russ’s. “Look, Emma was focusing more on the fact that you left, that you rejected her and hurt her instead of looking at how she—unintentionally—rejected her own child and hurt herself. You were looking at it as Emma’s problem, not yours. And you also saw it as a mental health issue. You know, thinking she’s ‘crazy’ rather than seeing her as a human being with a very natural need to heal from an abortion. Okay, you guys eventually saw abortion for what it was, but then you started looking at the side issues surrounding it rather than focusing on the root issue.”
    Russ pondered her words, then nodded. “Yeah. I guess I didn’t really want to look into the root issue. I wanted to....” He searched for the right words. “I wanted to just slather some salve all over my own guilt. But I didn’t really look too deeply to solve the problem.” His eyes met Lia’s. “I guess I wanted to feel good more than I actually wanted to be good.”
    Lia gave a sad laugh. “That’s pretty much everyone’s problem in a nutshell.”
    Russ felt his heart expanding as he looked at Lia. He just kept falling in love with her again and again. A part of his heart remained small and hurt for Emma. And maybe it always would.
    “C’mon,” he said. “Let’s go.”
    Lia looked startled. “Just like that? Are you sure you’re okay for driving?”
    “I need a break from all this,” he said. “It’s pretty damn heavy.”
    Lia chewed her lower lip and her brow wrinkled as she looked at him, but she nodded and swung her feet off the bed.
    “You’re still going to have to deal with all this, you know,” she said. “There’s still more to do.”
    “I guess,” said Russ, even though he wasn’t sure what she meant about there being “more to do.” “But right now, I just can’t deal with it anymore. I just want to forget about the whole thing right now. We’ll come back to it later.”
    Together, they went out to the car and slid in.
    Russ thought that if they could just distract themselves from the whole issue with Emma, then they could still have their honeymoon and get their marriage off to a good start. He couldn’t do anything about the past, about Emma, or the baby they could have had.
    Emma couldn’t move on and now she was lying cold in a grave. But he had a new life now with Lia and he wanted to make it the best it could be.
    But neither of them realized what that night would bring.

Chapter 9
     
    They were standing on the deck of the ferry, watching the sunset. It was too cold to be out on the deck, but they huddled together, Lia holding hot chocolate from the vending machine and watched the frisky waves and the darkening sky.
    “Hey, what’s that?” said Lia, pointing to where the sky was already dark.
    Russ squinted up at where Lia was pointing. He saw a vague outline of purple, something like a cloud-shaped soap bubble.
    “Cool,” he said. “Is that like a supernova?”
    “No,” said Lia, her brow wrinkling as she stared at it.
    “Okay,” he said. “Hey, could those be Northern Lights? Like what they get in Alaska? Cool. I can’t believe we’re getting those all the way down here for once.”
    But Lia continued to scrutinize the object without replying.
    As the sky grew darker, the purple thing grew brighter. But overall, it remained hazy and translucent.
    The ferry docked and people came out for one final look at the