Talking to Carla Jean

You're hurt, ain't you?

In the Movie ‘No Country for Old Men’, Llewelyn Moss talks to his wife, Carla Jean, from a payphone. He has just gotten out of a Mexican hospital, a place he sought refuge in after he suffered a gunshot wound across the border in the United States.

After a bit of conversation Carla Jean says, “You’re hurt, ain’t you?”

“What makes you say that?” Llewelyn asks.
 
“I can hear it in your voice,” she answers.
 
Back here in California with my wife, Shirley, things have been tough lately: the economy is crumbling, our savings and retirement funds are steadily disappearing, and there is a real concern that my continued employment might be in jeopardy. As somber as things have been, we have kept it together.
 
A new dynamic has come into our lives in the last few days, though. One of her sons is separating from his wife; Shirley has talked with both of them and divorce seems close by on the horizon. This has cut her to the core of her being, as her love for both of them runs deep. Two beautiful boys, one a teenager and one on the cusp, figure into the situation as well, two beautiful grandkids that occupy such a special place in her heart.
 
Now, our financial losses seem to hurt a little more and she is quick to be short with me. At times, I can hear her crying softly to herself, and the sadness is never far from her eyes.
 
I know that my sweet gentle darling is in despair, and her world is out of joint. I know that Shirley hurts, and I know it without thinking or analyzing, just as Carla Jean knew it in the movie.

I can hear it in her voice.

November 18, 2008
Los Angeles, CA