Prompt: Conversation with my spouse | Word count: 1200 words | Genre: Drama
I can see you through the window. I have to make sure you are alone before I knock at the door. I don’t know if you will even speak to me but I have to try, I have to know. Last time I tried, he was around and that ended badly. You seem to be alone but I have to be sure. I made a fool of myself last time and the police were involved. I feel the flutter of butterflies, I know watching you is wrong but I can’t help myself. You are picking up our children’s toys, they are sleeping at this hour. Grey clouds like blankets have hidden the stars and I smell rain. It’s now or never, I step out of the shadows. I realise the instant I move that I have made a mistake. My mind on the questions I need to ask. The headlights pin me down like spotlights. A prisoner on the run, I bolt. I can hear his frantic shouts and I am sure you have joined him outside to see what’s going on. How can I be such a fool? Why can’t I just move on? I am bound by love, by honour, or maybe just madness.
The chair is brown, the armrests are worn through but I don’t care, this chair is a friend. Maybe the only one I have right now. A cricket chirps in the still night there is still no rain, although the smell lingers. Darkness fills every corner of my small home, like it does my heart. I guess I can’t really call this home it’s just a place where I exist when I am not at work. Homes are happy, there is no happiness here, just gloom. A clear bottle stands on the small table next to my chair, the glass is frosted. I keep the vodka in the freezer so I can drink it neat, I have nothing to mix it with.