I remember hearing the company mantra in a commercial on TV when I was young. "Rain, sleet or snow - mail will always be delivered, no matter how difficult the weather wants to be." Christopher (Chris) and Cassandra (Cass) had a similar mantra when it came to their daily walk. "Rain, sleet or snow......" Chris and Cass promised each other they would go for a walk together every day, holding hands as they made their way down the same tree-lined street that their house was on. They would walk to the high school at the end of the street and then back to home, they made it a point to be holding hands the whole time, never letting go of each other.
Chris and Cass had been married for ten years. For reasons that they only shared with each other, they had promised to always hold hands when they were walking together. It was "an important component of their relationship" were the words their friend, who happened to be a marriage counselor, had used. They learned on their own how to communicate with each other. The harder they worked together, the more in love they became and then when Chris would take Cass's hand, her heart would skip a beat and she would smile and then he would. They were so in love. They were best friends.
To adhere to the mantra today, and still have their walk, it was time to bundle up. On their street was large amounts of snow. The sidewalk had been shoveled so people could walk but there were patches of ice. So Chris not only held Cass's hand as he always did, he was also trying to hold her up so she wouldn't fall. They walked slow, but they still walked and held hands while they chatted and laughed at each others lack of balance.
They were walking slower because of the conditions, so it was beginning to get dark. But their street was well lit with beautiful old-style street lights, so they felt safe even though it was getting darker than usual when they were out. They had about 10 minutes before they got home. Chris said to Cass, "You should walk on the other side of me away from the traff...and before he could finish the words, a speeding car engine caught his attention. He stopped and held on to Cass's hand, she started to move to the other side not realizing what was happening. In a matter of seconds, a car came around the curve and he was going very fast. Chris was frozen as he watched the car hit a patch of ice and the back end of the car clipped Chris's hand enough to break his fingers, and his hand let go of of Cass's hand and she went flying back as the car skidded out of control and hit her.
After the sound of the engine, the sound of the car hitting his hand and knocking Cass to the ground and a sound that may have been the start of a scream from Cass; there was silence, dead silence. Cass didn't move, she just layed on the ground, not moving. Everything after that was a blur, Chris knew that he crawled over to Cass and held her hand and didn't want to let go. Someone else must have called for 911 and Cass never woke up. Chris vaguely remembers someone telling him Cass had died.
Years later all he ever thought about was that he wanted to hold her hand again.