My ex-husband carried my suitcase to the departure gate

Dear Delyara, I am moving to another country today, and the person who drove me to the airport was my ex-husband. We divorced eighteen months ago without cruelty, which has made leaving him more confusing than leaving an enemy would have been. He carried the larger suitcase because one wheel was broken. At security, we stood facing each other with nothing dramatic left to say. He reminded me to take my medication with food. I reminded him that the bathroom window still leaks. Then the officer told him he could not come farther. He hugged me, and for one second my body relaxed in the old familiar way, before memory returned and turned the embrace into something with an ending. He whispered, “I hope the person you become there is happy.” I almost said I hoped the person I had been with him had not been a waste. Instead, I took the suitcase. As I walked away, the broken wheel made a loud uneven sound across the floor. I did not turn around because I knew he was watching and because some departures become impossible if you see the person who once called you home still standing where you left him.