Wife and Mother

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            Her husband rushes around the kitchen finding what he needs for his day.  “My keys, my keys,” he mumbles, as he pats down his pockets. He had already put their son on the bus, and was in the process of walking out. He doesn’t sense the presence of his wife, or see her standing at the end of the counter. Seeing the keys laying next to the toaster, she lightly pushed them forward. He stops abruptly in his search, when he sees them. Grabbing his keys and his coat he rushes out without saying a word.Please No Javascript="msoCommentShow('_anchor_1','_com_1')" Please No Javascript="msoCommentHide('_com_1')" href="http://www.writerscafe.org/fckeditor/editor/fckeditor.html?InstanceName=FCKeditor1&Toolbar=Default#_msocom_1" name="_msoanchor_1">[MAM1] 

 

            The house is cluttered and disarrayed, and normally this would annoy her. Now it just doesn’t seem that important. Gazing into her son’s room, she sees the unmade bed, the crumpled pajamas at the foot, and the scratches on the hard wood from his cars. Mr. Snuffles, his first bear, rests gently against his pillow. She fingers it lightly, reminiscing how it was as if yesterday Greg had rushed home, and shook the small bear in the baby’s face. He was such a good father and he still was.

 

            The wife walked into the bedroom noticing the unmade side of the bed. She sits down on the bare sheet, and puts her face against the pillow where her husband’s head had once laid. She can remember his smellPlease No Javascript="msoCommentShow('_anchor_2','_com_2')" Please No Javascript="msoCommentHide('_com_2')" href="http://www.writerscafe.org/fckeditor/editor/fckeditor.html?InstanceName=FCKeditor1&Toolbar=Default#_msocom_2" name="_msoanchor_2">[MAM2] . His pajamas are also bunched up at the end of the bed. Like father, like son. She walks into the bathroom, and she can see her husband’s shaving mess in the sink. She used to get on Greg for this very thing, and now it just didn’t seem so important. She decides to go back downstairs, and wait for her family to come home.

 

            At 3:30, Jonathon walks through the door, unlocking it with the key he keeps on a string around his neck. This had been his mother’s idea so he wouldn’t loose it. He walks by the living room, not noticing his mother sitting in her favorite baby blue wing back. He goes into the kitchen, and grabs some cookies out of the jar. He reaches into the fridge, and grabs a soda while heading into the family room to plop down in front of the T.V. The mother follows him in, and takes a seat beside him on the couch. She sits there quietly, watching her son’s face trying to memorize every one of his features.

 

            Two hours later, her husband walks through the door. He asks their son how his day was, and gets a noncommittal response. Her husband is used to this from their son, and makes no further attempts at conversation. He looks into the fridge, and pulls out one of the casseroles one of the neighbors have brought by. He puts it into the oven setting the time for 30 minutes. Upstairs he changes his clothes. As he goes through the closet, he hesitates as he looks at the side that belongs to his wife. He runs his hand over one of her favorite blouses. He stands there for a few moments, and then grabs what he was after from his side.

 

            At the table, the two say nothing, while the wife and mother sits at the empty place setting where she always resides. They don’t look up from their plates to offer her any food. The little boy grabs his plate, and takes it to the sink. The father, not looking up, tells the boy he needs to start his homework. The little boy trudges upstairs, and sits at his desk. He opens his backpack, and pulls out his folder containing his work sheets. He finds his pencil, and tries to remember how much 5+9 is.

 

            The wife sits mute with her husband at the table. It had always been their way to sit together after the meal, and talk about one another’s day. Her husband finishes his food, and goes to the sink to rinse off the dishes. There is no discussion that night.

 

            As the two get ready for bed, the mother stands in the little boy’s doorway watching him putting his toys away, and putting his old crumpled-up pajamas back on. She knew he would wear them again, another night and she wished she had encouraged him more to fold them up, and place them at the end of the bed. He kneels down and says his prayers. When he pulls back the covers, he looks at the photo of him and his mother. A small tear falls down his face, and he grabs his bear and turns out the light. Her husband brushes past her and kisses the boy goodnight.

 

            That night the wife lays beside her husband above the covers watching him sleep. She has always thought he was the most handsome man she had ever seen. His face looks peaceful, and every once in a while his lips move softly while he dreams. She wants to touch his face Please No Javascript="msoCommentShow('_anchor_3','_com_3')" Please No Javascript="msoCommentHide('_com_3')" href="http://www.writerscafe.org/fckeditor/editor/fckeditor.html?InstanceName=FCKeditor1&Toolbar=Default#_msocom_3" name="_msoanchor_3">[MAM3] and feel his arms around her. She decides to sit in the chair next to the bed, waiting for them to wake.

 

            Four years later, Jonathon starts junior high. He is nervous and his mother watches him on the day before, nervously trying to pick out the best thing to wear on his first day. This was her new habit, watching her son. Her husband has started to date someone with her still there and she is no longer interested in him.

 

The wife’s anger at his audacity made her want to punish him. Punish him so much that he Please No Javascript="msoCommentShow('_anchor_4','_com_4')" Please No Javascript="msoCommentHide('_com_4')" href="http://www.writerscafe.org/fckeditor/editor/fckeditor.html?InstanceName=FCKeditor1&Toolbar=Default#_msocom_4" name="_msoanchor_4">[MAM4] would forget she had ever existed. Her plan is working famously. He has taken down a lot of the pictures of her. The only ones left out were the ones beside their bed and the one beside their son’s bed. He just recently packed up all her clothes and gave them to charity. He even rearranged some of the rooms in the house. One morning when the wife and mother goes down stairs her favorite chair was no longer by the window the way she likes. The husband has stuck it in a corner by the bookshelf.

 

The wife is shocked when her husband brought home a pretty, petite blonde to meet their son. The new woman admired their home and commented on how well it was kept. Her husband had stepped up on his house cleaning duties in the last couple of years. The wife had been so pleased when she saw him taking more responsibility.

 

A year later, the woman starts to move her things into the house. She is sleeping in the wife’s bed and keeping her clothes in the wife’s space in the closet. She starts to cook the meals and to help Jonathon with his homework. He seems to like this new person and his mother doesn’t like it one bit. When the mother isn’t watching her son sleep, she waits for him on his way from school and listens to his phone conversations hoping just once he will mention her. Please No Javascript="msoCommentShow('_anchor_5','_com_5')" Please No Javascript="msoCommentHide('_com_5')" href="http://www.writerscafe.org/fckeditor/editor/fckeditor.html?InstanceName=FCKeditor1&Toolbar=Default#_msocom_5" name="_msoanchor_5">[MAM5] 

 

            When the mother’s son turns sixteen, he gets his driver’s license and her husband buys him a car. She is so pleased and proud at the responsible young man he has become. Soon after, he begins to date a girl from school. She can tell he is falling in love with her, because he would doodles her name on all of his notebooks, and will call her on the phone every night. One day he brings her home when no one else was around and his mother finally gets to see her. The girl is very pretty with shiny brown hair, and sparkling green eyes. They go up to Jonathon’s room and the girl sits down on the bed waiting for him to sit beside her. His mother watches from the doorway. The girl asks him about the woman in the picture by his bed. It was then, he mentions his mother. The girl tells him, she thought the petite blonde was his mother. He says no, his mother died when he was 8. The boy then reaches over to the photograph, and opens the back of the frame. Inside is a newspaper clipping. The heading reads “Wife and Mother of One Found Murdered at Bus Station.”

 

            The wife and mother stands in the doorway, refusing to leave. The little fuzzy lights are buzzing around her head even more these days, and now they are buzzing furiously. They want her to go to the light, and she refuses. She is still needed here. She has to hear what her son has to say to this girl. They are going to have to wait.

 

            Her son tells the girl, that his mother abandoned them right before she died. His dad said she had been sick. She was sitting at the bus station, waiting for her ride, to who knew where, and a man murdered her. They never did find out who had done it. Her body had been found stuffed into her suitcase on a bus headed to Wisconsin. The smell had alerted the driver, and when he found his mother, the driver ceremoniously threw up.

 

            Her son begins to cry, and the girl holds him in her arms. The mother knows this will be the girl her son will marry. They will grow old together while they have two beautiful children, and seven grandchildren. Her husband will live a long, healthy life with his new wife, but he will never forget his Claire. One day when he passed away, they will be together again. The wife and mother would welcome his new wife, when she joins him and they will all be friends. The wife and mother does not know how she knows this.

 

            The lights are buzzing even more, and the wife and mother knows she has to go with them. Her time has run out, and there are no choices left. She has to leave. There was only one more place left to go, and they are going to allow her this last visit.

 

            The wife and mother walks down the hospital corridor quietly. She comes to the room she wants, and looks inside at the figure laying in the bed. The board above the bed reads Roger Lawson. She never knew his name, and even if he had given her his name, he wouldn’t have given her the real one. She creeps over to his bedside, and looks down into his face. His eyes are closed, and the machines are humming. Two nurses walk into the room and she backs away from them as they approach.

 

“You’re new right?” The red headed nurse said to the brunette.

 

“Yeah first night.”

 

“Well I can tell you a little bit about everybody. This guy here has been here for a while. He’s been a vegetable since he got here. The machines are keeping him alive. The state pays his bills, and there’s some law against pulling the plug on people who have no DNR order before they die.”

 

“DNR?” The brunette asks.

 

“Yeah, “Do Not Resuscitate.” Apparently, ole Roger here was out drinking one night, and smashed his skull on the old rail tracks out by Bryant’s Dairy. Some worker at the dairy found him there, practically bleeding to death, and by the time they got him to the hospital, he had lost so much blood, and there hadn’t been enough oxygen to his brain, he was considered brain dead. The only thing they found on him was a wallet with an old Labor Union card, with the name Roger Lawson. Who knows if this is his real name? He looked like he had been out on the streets for a while. Anyway, the law states you cannot take anyone off the machines, unless they have a DNR. Well, let me go show you the rest of them you’ll be looking after tonight.”

 

            They leave the room and the woman approaches the bed once more. She looks down again into the face of the man who murdered her. She is no longer mad at him, although she doesn’t ever really remember being mad.

 

The woman had been clinically depressed for a long time, but didn’t have the courage to end her suffering. The last year of her life, she felt she was no good to her family, and her being there was only holding them back. One day she had forgotten to pick up her son, because she was too busy looking out the window in her favorite chair. The school had called her husband, and he brought him home. Jonathon had been frightened when his mother didn’t come for him, and her husband had been furious at her. He threatened to have her committed. The wife and mother knew then, the only way she was going to get better was to run away. She couldn’t bear the thought of being stuck in some institution.

 

That morning she got up trying to act as normal as possible. She fixed her husband his lunch, and took her little boy to the bus stop. Before he got on she hugged him tight telling him that no matter what she loved him, and to please forgive her. He had looked at her strangely, hugged her back, and got on the bus with a heavy heart. Her husband was still angry with her, and when he went to leave, she had to remind him to hug her and kiss her. She held him a little longer than usual, and kissed him more passionately then she had in a long time. She looked him in the eye and told him she was sorry, and that she loved him more than life itself. He stood there for a moment with her in his arms, and told her everything was going to be all right. She replied, “I know.”

 

            After they left she went upstairs and got her mother’s flowered suitcase out of the closet. She packed some clothes and her toiletries along with her favorite picture of the three of them. She then took a bus to the bank, and withdrew half of the savings. She went to the bus station from there, and was waiting for the next bus to Albuquerque.

 

            When the man sat down beside her, she was a little nervous. He was dirty and smelled bad, and hating to judge she moved a little away from him. He sat there for a moment not saying anything, and then asked her, “What’s a pretty lady like you taking a bus by yourself?” She didn’t answer, and kept looking straight in front of her. The man started to look around the platform to see if anyone was looking. He put his hand on her knee, and squeezed. She looked over at him, and he said to her, “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a woman like you.” She shoved his hand away, and got up to leave. It was then he pulled out the knife. She looked down at the long shiny blade in his grubby grasp, and started to look around for someone to help. He grabbed her by her arm putting the knife to her neck, and started to drag her towards a dirty Oldsmobile parked in the lot behind the station and puts her suitcase in the trunk.

 

            Once he’s shoved her into the car, he quickly got behind the wheel and drove. She knew he was going to kill her, and probably rape her. She felt it was her just desserts for leaving her family, and this was God’s way of punishing her. She didn’t cry, or beg for her life, or ask him where he’s taking her. She just sat patiently, waiting for it to all end. They drove for an hour or more, and then he pulled off onto a country road. They stopped at a ramshackle house, which looked abandoned. He jumped out of the driver’s side, and rushed to the passenger side. He’s puzzled at her lack of reaction, and doesn’t understand why she hasn’t tried to get away. He jerked her from the car, and put the knife to her neck again while she clutched her purse to her chest.

 

            Once inside, he shoved her to floor, and yanked her panties off from beneath her skirt. She said nothing, and continued to clutch her purse to her chest. He entered her, and raped her for 5 minutes then stood and buttoned his pants. He started to kick her leg, asking if she’s awake. She had closed her eyes, so she wouldn’t have to see him leering above her. He didn’t like her lack of reaction, and started to slice at her arms and thighs trying to get her to scream. She never does, and he eventually gives up slicing her throat. His only satisfaction was her choking, gurgling sounds as the blood swarmed her windpipe.

 

            The woman felt that if she was going to die in such an unsavory manner, she wasn’t about to give him any jollies on her last day. Her inability to speak, and give him pleasure in her pain had enraged him. Once she was dead, he stomped up and down on her body like a child throwing a tantrum. After he was calmed, he grabbed the bottle from his pants pocket, and took a long swig. He needed to decide what to do with the body. He remembered the suitcase in the trunk, and went after it.

 

            After her clothing and personal things were removed, he saw it would be a perfect place to put the body. He lined it with old trash bags he had in the trunk, and folded her up inside, her knees in her face and her arms all akimbo. He searched her purse and found the money. “Not a total loss,” he sighed, putting the bills into his pocket.

 

            He took her back where he found her. Several busses had lined up to pick up their passengers. He stuffed her into the first one he found with the lower baggage compartment open, and skulked back to his car.

 

            That night, he lived it up large at his favorite watering hole. The bartender almost threw him out claiming he owed him 50 big ones on his tab. The man feeling generous, threw him three twenties and told him that should cover it. He then proceeded to get nasty drunk, and before he knew it, he found himself with a very nice Lady of the Night out behind the old dairy on the west side of town. She stiffed him on the favor she promised, and stole the rest of his money. He tried to chase after her, and that was when he fell on the track.

 

            As the wife and mother looks down on him, remembering what he had done to her, she realizes that what he went through after her death, and what he was experiencing now was punishment enough for his misdeeds against her. She no longer feels God is punishing her. She now knew that God couldn’t be watching all the time. Just like parents who sometimes let their eyes off their children. Most got lucky, and nothing really happened, others not so much. She realizes that what happened to her wasn’t a result of her leaving her family. Deep down, she knows she wouldn’t have gotten but maybe twenty miles away, and she would have been calling her husband to come back and get her. She would have gone ahead with the plan he had, because deep down she knew it wouldn’t be forever, and maybe finally she would start to feel better. All that would have mattered, was she was with her family.

 

            She isn’t mad at God for taking His eyes off her when He did, because He never took them off her family. He had seen them through the crisis, and let her stay for as long as she needed. He knew when she was ready she would return to Him, and like any good parent, He let her figure things out for herself.

 

            The fuzzy lights were beginning to buzz again, and this time she embraced them. Embraced them, and let them lead her into the light, where she was needed.

 

 

 

             

 

 

 

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 [MAM1]Wow – So much better, Jennifer!  Now that tense works!

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 [MAM2]Nice

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 [MAM3]Commas – comma are usually used when you have a “list” of thing  with “and” – when you have two things with “and” you don’t use a comma – one of those stupid rules!

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 [MAM4]Comma – “that” – “which” – Usually, you put a comma before “which” but not before “that” – There’s some great references on line – google “comma usage” & “that vs. which”

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 [MAM5]You use the “he does this and she does that” a lot in the narrative.  If this is a style choice, not a problem.  It just gets a little too rhythmic for me – I might suggest breaking up the sentences a little more; i.e. “...She is sleeping in the wife’s bed, keeping her clothes in the wife’s space in the closet.  Starting to cook the meals, she also helps Jonathon with his homework.  Although the mother doesn’t like it one bit, he seems to like this new person.”  Just some examples – Again, grain of salt

Author's Note

Please ignore the links. They were suggestions given by a friend. Having difficulty removing them.

Reviews

[Marie]

Jennifer, this was really good.

[Sean Allen]

Slight confusion in the beginning.Husband had once laid~shaving mess in the sinkShe decides to sit in the chair next to the bed, waiting for them to wake. (Waiting for who to wake?)A year later, the woman starts to move her things into the house. (Ah, so the wife and mother is a ghost?) Hadn't realized that until now and that clears up the confusion. Perhaps a couple of more hints early on would help. I thought she slid the keys and they were just not on speaking terms, anf ghosts usualy can't move things.After that the story is riviting and nicely unpredictable, but the murder is a bit gory for me!Donn

[Vicki Phipps]

I like this story...sad and uplifting at the same time!

[Rain]

Hey Jennifer..
Pretty good for a first time. I got a little lost in the beginning,until you started to glue it together. The wife/mother lost me for a bit,but then it smoothed out. It's really a sad piece and a unique way you told it. I liked it when I grasped she was dead. The terrible way she died,and the way she relived it was vivid. I'm glad she returned to the light.
You wanted her character to find peace after the hell she's seen and felt. Good job, Jen!
Rain