She sits tapping her perfectly manicured nails on the worksurface. The sound of her husbands keys can be heard rattling as he opens the front door of their North Yorkshire home, following yet another long day at the office.
“Something smells nice” he shouts as he makes his way into the kitchen to greet his wife.
“Nice day at work honey ” she asks in her sarky tone.
“Please love, I don’t need to come home to yet another argument” he pleads.
She stares long and hard at him as if she is trying to see through his soul. She reaches for the kitchen drawer, opens it to produce a handful of shiny business cards.
“Do you not work enough hours? Now you want to offer your services in whats meant to be our family time” she snaps.
He shakes his head while stating “We have Laura now, we need the money!”
Sarah, David’s wife had given birth to their first child Laura some 6 months ago. She had previously been a high flying career woman who struggled to settle into her new role as a mother. Deep down she had began to resent David and his “Work”.
Sarah raised her hand into the air, releasing the shiny cards into a heap on the kitchen floor!
David, now looks a shadow of his strong confident self as he kneels down and hurriedly scoops up the cards within his reach. Suddenly as if from nowhere the sharp point of a glossy red stiletto comes crashing down onto his trembling fingers. He yelps out in agony as she twists her heel as if stomping out a Smouldering cigarette.
“Useless” she sniggers in her usual callous tone, as she leaves the room to reluctantly attend to her daughters cries.
David, sat unable to move! His whole body overtaken by fear of what would come next. He knew from experience that there was more to come. Broken fingers were sadly not a first… These outbursts of rage, many leading to physical violence had become a nightly occurrence, so much so David started to dread coming home instead opting to stay later at the office! Only this only fuelled Sarah’s rage making things much worse when he later returned home.
Suddenly, he hears the sound of his wife’s heels the ones she made her weapon, clomping back down the stairs. David quickly try’s to pull himself to his feet only to feel the most excruciating pain shoot through his back! His kicked with such force he collapses back into a withering heap.
“Pathetic excuse for a man” she snaps
“Get up, clean yourself up, our guest are due soon”
He wants to leave, of course he does! But his scared! His scared of what she’ll do, how she’ll look after Laura and what he’ll do without her. Yes, despite the abuse, the physically pain this man endures, he just can’t help but love this woman! The same woman who becomes so angry she once drew blood with her teeth! But then she can also be sweet, loving and sorry… Yes, she’s always sorry!
An hour or more lapses, David leaves the bathroom now ready for a night of entertaining. Just then Sarah appears, first aid box in hand.
“David, you know I love you don’t you?” She whispers while kissing his bruises fingers
She then atentatively wraps her husbands wounds in a bandage, and continues… “I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me darling… I promise it will never, never happen again”
He nods, she takes him by the hand and leads him back downstairs! Together they both lay the dinner table.
A few hours later the scene now taking place at 64 Coombe lane, North Yorkshire, is a somewhat different one from that of a few hours before. A laughing smiling couple, enjoying the company of their friends over a glass of white wine and a plate of minted lamb chops. Laura soundly asleep in her cot unwoken by her fathers nightly cries. Its the scene of a somewhat happy family, though behind closed doors the story is a somewhat different one.
I wrote this short story to impress Solopress and possibly bag myself a pretty awesome prize.
Mummy Of Many Talents 