"what a day". Anna said as she took the stairs up her house. Her day had squeezed her dry the way a person would squeeze their clothes while doing the laundry. She was sure that every calorie of energy she had had been sapped out.
The local clinic was always busy on Mondays when pregnant women had their ante natal checkups and lectures. Different mothers, different belly sizes, with different complaints, and different levels of paranoia mixed with pregnancy hormones.
She just couldn't wait to be on her bed. "I hope hubby made something nice for dinner", she whispered as she rummaged through her bag for keys.
Her husband Eric was a heavy Gamer. A game pad and an headset summarized his priorities.
Nights of sitting on the stairs locked outside her home while her husband could not be bothered and gaming away finally taught Anne to take her keys always.
"Sweetie I'm home". She called out lovingly. A waste of breath if you ask me.
The house was unusually quiet but Anne was too tired to be concerned. The pots were empty, and so was the microwave.
"No dinner tonight I guess", she said to herself quietly.
She was to tired to face her husband. She knew he'd been in his game room for hours staring at the screen and doing nothing else.
Even tonight was not any different from the past days, anger boiled in her. Perhaps the stress had increased her attitude tonight. She felt like a tigress who could devour ten men at a go, but only one man was her mind to devour.
"No, I will not let the devil win tonight". Her final words as she turned away from the gaming room to the bedroom.
The morning came and Anne was still asleep. It took the break of sunlight shining through the window to wake her up. She had needed the rest.
Hubby was not beside her and nowhere in sight. Nothing new. She was used to that as well.
It was a work free day. Relief surged through her as she got up to use the restroom.
Then it started...
She noticed the emptiness. The missing pieces. The table by his bedside was completely empty. His track shoes that usually lay beside her dressing table was gone as well.
His almighty award that hung in the wall was missing too.
"Something's not right", she finally said out loud.
As she glanced around the room, she noticed that there were more pieces missing in the puzzle she was trying to solve.
"Eric, baby, My love", she called out. Silence simply answered. "Did he have a thing today"? She asked herself.
She walked into the bathroom and more of his stuffs were gone. His purple toothbrush, his mint aftershave, his special hand towels, all missing.
She finally decided to check his favourite place in the world — the game room.
No amount of preparation could have gotten her ready for the shock that followed.
Nothing was there. She blinked hard and fast and still saw nothing. All the posters and screens and pads and gears that made the room look like a mission control center were all gone.
Just one scrawny table remained. She walked closer to it and on it laid a paper. It looked like a letter or thrash.
She picked it up and upon careful observation saw a note addressed to her.
My Anne
I am sorry for leaving this way. Couldn't hang on anymore. Met this awesome gamer Suzie. She gets me and we connect deeply. Maybe now you can find a someone who gets you too.
Eric
Her hands shivered. That hot sensation was back. The tigress roared and this time she definitely wanted to be released, amd released she was.
The letter soon turned to the minutest form hands could achieve.
Anne was furious. She had given her all to this marriage. 3 years of her life invested in a venture she never got true happiness from.
"God riddance. I pity your Suzie, she's in for hell cover in XY chromosomes and a fine face", She said in anger.
The wedding picture came crashing, the pillows on the sofa were all flying, Anne was shouting and cursing.
The tigress sure had taken over. She wished she had attacked him for his short comings all along. She wished many things — all negative.
"He took everything. He broke his vows to me. He even took the laptop I got him. He even took his toothbrush. How petty can he be?" This time she was on the phone with her mother.
"I hate him" she kept repeating. She would not be pacified.
Something her mom said must have broke her or sparked an emotional reaction. She was in tears.
Real, emotional, breath vanishing sobs. It felt like she was going to crumble. So fragile and alone.
It was noon and her hands sprang into action. It was time to clean up her past and move forward. She would not let this hold her down.
She picked broken items off the floor and reposition the entire space.
"I'll finally have his game room as a guest room, or a library, or a museum, or anything I want it to be", she concluded.
The trash were bagged and she headed downstairs to dispose them.
"Well, well. What do we have here?" Anne said happily as she saw her husband's, scratch that, ex- husband's old truck sitting pretty in the garage.
"Finally, something of his to vent my anger on. I haven't practiced my swings in awhile", she said laughing, as she walked back upstairs.
Let's hope that she was joking. Otherwise, poor truck would have to suffer for Eric's crimes.
#fiction #inkwell #inkwellprompt #blog #neoxians #life #proofofbrain
