China Bride

A Story by David

hate / love and all other

There used to be clouds overhead. The skies wanted to split open in anger and spite.

For ten years I heard that door slam but really I did not. What I did notice was the day

The door slammed no more. It was as though it had been well oiled or replaced and I started to heal . Just a bit , some now and some then. The silent treatment was now only silence.

For years we shared a life and all the things that go with it. Never an argument or hurtful words. I can almost place to the day it declined. You had been with mom in Europe far away. Your return signaled the breaking down, the callous conflicts to come.

Where there used to communal music and wine at the end of the day now was reduced to headphones in separate rooms and for you lots of wine. Wine from the end of work until sleep.

I am not immune nor innocent in this, no, no. I don’t know , was it Newton that found that an action gets a reaction? Well we had plenty of that. You would speak with a hint of quarrel and I would react. There was no stopping us.

You said you were leaving and I said nothing to stop you. You took off your ring and left it on the dresser for weeks. I never said a thing to the challenge. More Newton and on . We stopped eating together . We were mostly civil. I hated arguments . I grew up with nightly fights and I wanted no part of that. I would cut off my ears so I could not hear before I would go through that nightly fight ever again. You were spending time being secretive on the computer and I locked myself away knowing the end to this. I learned long ago that a woman has made a decision six months before a man is even aware of what is about to happen. I steeled myself and prepared for the onslaught.

For years I supported you, cars , jewelry, vacations, mortgages and on. Only after you left I realized you never contributed. It had never been important to me . That was until the day I was almost killed in a crash and after two weeks in the hospital I came home. You came from your new digs owned by the new guy you were dating and gloated over my broken body. Fortunately for me it was a brief visit and God bless morphine. I neither heard you nor cared about your presence . It took a year before I could walk again and all this while you were spewing venom all around. You even talked to people that were not your friends but childhood friends of mine and from out of state for Christ’s sakes. You talked to people you did not even know. You told of assaults by me . I was never so offended. I barely ever raised my voice to you. I found you had stolen from me , money, vehicles, and who is to know what else all while I was on my death bed.

I never spoke of you again. Never good nor bad. I erased you from my mind. I spent the next years after recovery playing golf and minding my own business. Never seeking a new mate not dating or wishing to. I had been soured long before you and thankfully so. Because of it I knew what was coming and the pain was fairly brief. Certainly not as brief as yours but brief enough. Twelve years has come and gone.

Today I come here to speak of the brightest light to ever enter my life. So bright I may go blind. If I do I will forever have her smile imbedded in my brain. The curve of her body so exotic and enticing so deep in my memory. She has stolen from me and it the greatest heist of all time. All my barriers have disappeared and melted away to oblivion. Banished. She has broken my will as did Scheherazde with the king.

The only thought in my day is to make her safe , happy and loved . She is of grace ,poise , honesty and unconditional. Every day I get a note. A special hello to my day . Thankd God for giving me this gift before I die.