The Illusion of Elusion

~Illusion of Elusion means that we have the illusion that we can escape our dishonest pasts without them coming back to haunt us somehow~ Written for an assignment

The Text Message

 

On a calm summer’s day, the sky is clear and the sun is shining brightly. Ricky is enjoying his day off and has just left his favorite pizzeria with a freshly baked pizza to take home for dinner. He situates the pizza securely in the passenger seat, ensuring it will not fall in the event of a sudden stop and its toppings be ruined as a result. His four-year-old son Alex is in the backseat, chatting away happily with his imaginary friend Ted. He struggled with making friends at preschool, so Ted was a steady presence for Alex lean on.

Just before sitting behind the steering wheel, Ricky heard his phone chime. Taking it out of his pocket, he saw a text message from Clara that read, “I miss you. I hope I can see you soon ;-).” Ricky’s marriage had felt unfulfilling for a while, so one night at a bar when he ran into Clara, they hit it off very well and had started seeing each other on the side. Six months later he was now feeling guilty about the affair and was considering ending his relationship with Clara and telling his wife Jean about what he had done.

Ricky recalled a story his mother had once told him about a picture frame, and how it changed her life forever.

 

  

The Picture Frame

 

It was a cloudy afternoon in November. Lydia was wrapped up in a blanket with the fireplace ablaze watching an approaching storm blow the trees to and fro. She glances to the kitchen cabinet. The doors have panes of glass allowing for a view of the old photographs of her family. She gets up from her chair to look at them more closely and picks up a frame containing the young image of her parents embracing that her mother had given her. While holding it, the corner of the frame begins to split and Lydia takes it to the counter for repair. Removing the back so as to take out the photograph lest the glue damage it, another picture slips out and falls to the floor. Bending down to pick it up, Lydia noticed something peculiar. Bringing the photo to the window for better light, she sees the image of her father as a young man, with his arm a woman.

Upon close inspection, this woman is not Lydia’s mother. She had not known her father to have previous wives, and this woman did not look like Lydia’s aunt. Wanting to know whom this mysterious woman was, Lydia calls her parents. Her mother Francine picked up the phone and answered with a pleasant greeting, happy to hear from her daughter. Lydia explained what had happened with the picture frame and finding this photograph, and asked her mother who the other woman was. Suddenly, Francine took on a dark tone and replied curtly, “She’s no one, an old family friend”. Lydia didn’t understand why her mother was being so elusive and asked again, “Okay, but who exactly is she?” Francine answered, “Lydia, why do you have to bring up things from the past that have absolutely no importance? I never hear from you as it is, so can we move on and talk about new things instead?”

Lydia agreed to drop the subject and stayed on the phone while her mother updated her on all of the latest neighborhood gossip and the unreasonable man at the market who took the last apples, preventing her from making her famous homemade pie and forcing her instead to make brownies for the church benefit coming up. Dolores was also making brownies for the benefit, and although they were a different recipe, Francine was humiliated nonetheless. Nothing was as good as her apple pie! But now no one could be reminded of that. Lydia’s mother had always been concerned about appearances, quick to anger when something interfered with her ability to appear the height of perfection, and often chastised those in her family who did not match up to this image.

When Francine’s rant had run its course, they said their goodbyes and Lydia hung up the phone. For the next week she continued about her business as usual, but in the back of her mind wondered who that woman was. Lydia thought about it before she went to sleep, as she drank her morning coffee, and drove to work. Eventually she became obsessed with knowing and decided to drive to her parents’ house to get the full story.

Her mother was out grocery shopping and had left her father Mark alone to watch television, so Lydia took this opportunity to question her father about it. If she could get her father’s perspective without her mother’s temper interfering, why not give it a try? So Lydia greeted her father, and he pleasantly remarked that he was glad to see her again, and how her mother had been in a mood all week.

“Well,” Lydia began. “I found this picture of you with another woman, and I was wondering who she is”

She showed her father the picture, and his face developed a solemn look lined with deep regret.

“That is Elizabeth, someone from a very long time ago.” Mark told her. “We started out as friends, and we spent a great deal of time together. Her parents took that picture and she gave me a copy of it. However, my parents did not take a liking to her. They believed she spent too much time with her head in the clouds partaking in impractical activities. As you know, they were very strict, and she was my escape from their scrutiny during the times we spent together.”

Mark continued to tell Lydia about how his parents introduced him to Francine, a bright young girl with the best manners and respectable dress. To make his parents happy, he agreed to get to know Francine and found himself courting her. But he could not ignore his desires for Elizabeth. The two of them began to have a passionate romance, agreeing to keep it secret. This had continued for a few years while Mark was also dating Francine. Eventually, Mark was expected to marry Francine.

The situation came to a turbulent head when Mark’s parents refused to allow Elizabeth to come to the wedding, deeming her unsuitable for such a respectable occasion. Elizabeth was devastated when Mark broke the news to her. After Mark and Francine had given their vows and spoken their “I Do’s”, Elizabeth came marching out of the bushes screaming at the top of her lungs, accusing Mark of never truly loving her and that he had only been using her ever since Francine was forced into his life. After that she ran off never to be seen again. The event ended with Mark standing at the alter with his wife and family interrogating him. The families were too good to let a divorce soil their reputations, so the marriage remained.

“And just to spite me and make me remember my ‘mistake’, your mother put that photograph of Elizabeth and I behind one of her and I, a statement that she trumped Elizabeth and was the one who married me. Eventually I just couldn’t stand to see that frame anymore, knowing what it represented, so I gave it to you when you moved out, hoping it would be a happy memory for you.”

Just as Mark spoke those last few words, Francine was unlocking the door feverishly and barged in after hearing the end of the discussion.

“I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE THAT BE!” Francine raged. “But nooo, you couldn’t leave well enough alone!”

“Mom, why did you have to do that to dad?” Lydia protested. “Yes, he cheated on you, I can understand you were upset about that. But to constantly remind him of it is going overboard.”

“Your father cheated on me the entire time! Do you know the humiliation I felt, knowing I wasn’t good enough for him?! His arrogance in thinking he would go messing around with some worthless girl who thought only of herself? I was best for him, I was what he needed, not some floozy who only ever talked about unrealistic dreams and would sabotage his life!”

“You were the one who only thought about herself!” Mark yelled. “Elizabeth actually loved me. She knew who I really was on the inside and how I actually felt. I was nothing more than a status symbol for you and your family! ‘Oh he’ll make a fine husband for you’, I bet that’s the fantasy they spoon-fed you. You only loved me because you were told to. Otherwise we would have never even acknowledged each other’s existences, let alone gotten married. It killed me to let Elizabeth go and be stuck with you, and I’ve had that regret ever since. Had Lydia not been born, I would have offed myself a long time to rid myself of you.

Everything was a blur after that. Mark and Francine were screaming at each other, Lydia crying in disbelief of what had unfolded in front of her very eyes. All she remembered was her mother suddenly had a knife in her hand and it found its way into Mark’s chest. Lydia didn’t recall dialing 911, but the police showed up and Lydia was taken away, beside herself with grief and in shock.

 

A Lesson

            Ricky had never heard any more detail of the story before his mother passed away. When she told it, her eyes welled up with tears and she couldn’t continue. Ricky was afraid to bring it up again after that, deciding it was better to not make his mother relive such a scarring occurrence.

How could he keep such a lie from his wife? Ricky was so disgusted with himself that he deleted the messaged and put his phone in his pocket before driving home. When Ricky and Alex got home to their apartment, his wife was still at work so he took Alex across the street to the park and set him on the picnic table while pulling the pizza slices apart and preparing them for his son. Meanwhile, Alex was staring up at the sky, observing an airplane soar through the endless blue up above.

Before getting himself a slice of pizza, he decided to call Clara to tell her it was over; they were done.

“Please don’t do this. I love you! I’m so much better for you than she is!” Clara pleaded with him.

“This is wrong Clara. Jean is my wife. I made a vow to marry her and be with her; for better or for worse. I’ve already broken that vow, and now I’m going to repair it. I won’t leave her. I need to make this work.” Ricky felt like he was going to be sick.

He hung up the phone and waited for Jean to arrive home. The look on her face when he told her was devastating. She mentioned divorce and Ricky told her that was precisely why he had ended the affair, because he wanted to make right what he had done wrong and do better by her. He didn’t expect her to trust him, but he still wanted to try. That night Ricky slept on the couch. There was so much to think about, and the road ahead would be rough. But he told himself, “It will be worth it. I’m going to do better. I won’t make my grandparents’ mistakes.”