Thanks to 3WW compliments of Bone and today's host Pia for the Awesome choice of 3WW this week.. If you haven't checked out the prompt challenge, give it a try..
Hub: TBA
Me:
If Only to Feel
The martinis were nothing more than parallel communication, a forced effort to keep a dying relationship alive. Hers with olive, his without. Marilyn looked into her glass and wondered for the millionth time what was left of her marriage with Gordon. After forty years, there was nothing left to say. When they met, they would sit in smoky coffee houses and bounce ideas to each other, back and forth, It was electric. There wasn’t enough time to say it all. Life was so mysterious.
But year after year, the mysteries became answered, the problems solved and then there was nothing new to say. Somehow the lattes had turned to wine, the talks into long stretches of silence, until they became so numb to each other they even lost themselves.
I don’t even know who I am anymore, Marilyn thought and instantly felt the crush of her realization. A tear welled up in her eye, breaking the stand-off. It had been years since she had cried, or even felt something, anything. It felt good. She lifted her head just slightly and looked into Gordon’s face. His eyes were glassy with gin and his gaze diverted. His once soft skin and shaggy blond hair was now weathered and gray.
“Look at me. Look at you,” she spoke, voice clear, cutting into the fog between them. Gordon jerked slightly in surprise and then horror as she crushed her martini in hand. Marilyn felt the warm blood mixed with lukewarm gin ooze down her arm before she felt the sting of the cuts. The blood was electric. Maybe she was alive after all.
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10 comments:
this is great, and can happen in an instant.
Wonderful final comment of the blood being electric!
A great write!
Gemma
ouch, glass cuts with alcohol. At least it's antiseptic from the start. :-)
It seems the last four or five weeks your 3WW posts are about relationships where the magic has disappeared and the people have drifted apart. It's interesting because I'm seeing that in a lot of reality around me, and it doesn't have to be that way. It's an avertable tragedy, but like winter you never really notice its approach until you wake up one morning and wonder, how did it get to be so cold so suddenly?
I like Marilyn's anger. Well written.
The end can often be cutting.
Excellently done.
Well written. Same comments as PJD. Where's all this darkness coming from?
This piece is full of emotion and easily absorbs readers.
Maybe it's that I've never been in a long enough relationship that I get bored of someone. I've had people in my life for dozens of years though, and think that in some ways that qualifies. All I know is that I'm always a bit confused by the idea that someone has to be mysterious. I like the comfort of knowing someone well.
Excellent work!
Thanks everyone. Geez - now that you mention it, you're right - I guess I need a relationship check in or something... all work and no play. ;-)
tc - not being bored is a good thing. I think the best thing for a relationship is "beginner's mind", a buddhist saying for always staying the present moment, not taking the other person for granted or anticipating what they are going to do and say. For me, that's easier said than done. You are fortunate that it works well for you.
This post asks questions. I do like that!
parallel plot
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