Life has been moving nonstop for the woman and her husband. Weeks have turned into months filled with children’s needs, endless work, and responsibilities, leaving them with little time for each other. It felt almost strange when they finally stepped out without the kids one evening. It had been months since they’d been together without constant interruptions.
They went for supper. The meal was nothing to brag about, but felt like a luxury for them. She had no idea this night would trigger a memory she hadn’t thought about in years.
On the way back, the dashboard light shone gently through the car. A song came on the radio. Her husband glanced at her and asked, “Have you heard this one?”
She told him, he continued, “This song reminds me of when I first met you.”
She looked at the title—Wait In The Truck—and started to listen as the lyrics began. As she listened, she felt herself pulled back in time.
He reminded her of the time she had taken his truck in the middle of the night before they truly knew each other, when he unknowingly helped her escape. She told him, “Wait here, I’ll be right back with your truck.” They’d been at her house during a party.
Back then, she was a single mother doing her best to survive. Before meeting her now husband, she had been trapped in a violent, controlling relationship. She was familiar with what it was like to take a hit to the face or kick the stomach. She was used to chairs being thrown, to being dragged across the floor by her hair, to isolating herself from friends and family.
Eventually, she stopped just taking it. She fought back, determined not to become another domestic violence statistic.
Before dating her now husband, she was in a toxic relationship. She knew if she didn’t make it alive that night, it could have ended with her never coming back. Her being nothing more than a gravesite, with flowers placed by people who loved her. But instead, she came back bruised, cut, clothes torn, her hand swollen, and her nose bleeding. And in the middle of the damage, she cracked a half-smile and told him, “You should see the other guy. I’m fine.”
She wasn’t fine. But she was alive. And in that moment, she decided it would be the last time she let anyone touch her.
For her, it was just another night in a life where chaos had become normal. For him, it was the moment he saw the truth of what she’d been living through. She only seemed upset about her purple sweater, shredded beyond repair. The bruises would fade, the cuts would heal, and the shirt would be one for good.
Sometimes she forgets that night. She forgets how much her husband had to prove before she could trust him. She forgets how broken she was when he first walked into her life. But that song brought it all back, how, instead of running from the mess, he chose to stay and be there for her and love her in the way she deserved.
Wait In The Truck became more than a song for the.s. It reminded them how far they have come and how some memories, even the hard ones, deserve to be kept because they show how far they’ve come together.
