Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Entry #51

The Last Hour
by Kaye George


“What’s the matter?”

He’d asked me that before. And I could never answer him. I only knew what I felt: despair, blackness, hopelessness; depression. Sometimes it came on suddenly. Rolled over me like a flood tide. Other times it built gradually until it rose and threatened to drown me.

But this time was different. This time I knew. Here I was, trying to wash dishes that would be crawled on by cockroaches in the dead of night, trying to wash them with the last remains of watered-down detergent in a sink that hadn’t been scoured in a month for lack of cleanser, in lukewarm water because the bill hadn’t been paid and the hot water had just run out.

I was trying, that was the thing. And he wasn’t. I knew where he’d been last night. With Her.

It all made sense now. Those extra jobs he’d been picking up in the evenings hadn’t seemed to bring in any extra money. When the bus took a detour on my way home from cleaning the last house yesterday, I’d seen our car in Her driveway, which wasn’t cracked like ours. The curtains at Her windows were snow-white lace. I spied a pool in the back. I doubted She had cockroaches. And I knew then that He wasn’t working extra jobs. That’s why we had no extra money.

The depression kicked me in the gut. I clutched my tattered curtains as it drove me to my knees.

6 comments:

chong y l said...

Good and revealing take.
Would you have preferred not having taken that "detour", then everything would have remained like Ignorance is Bliss?
Sometimes I had wished that on myself...--Desi

Joni said...

Lying jerk!
Effective and powerful.

Kaye George said...

Thanks for the kind words! I tried to post this earlier, but I don't think it took. If it's a repeat, sorry.
-Kaye

Esther Avila said...

ouch! this one opened up old wound. been there. very sad. it almost killed me. i was lucky - i survived. hope she does too.

Anonymous said...

The description of how bad things had gotten before revealing that he's having an affair... makes his betrayal even more painful.

Anonymous said...

That was pretty compelling emotion. The house is losing its vibrance and potency just like she is. I also like that she couldn't answer what was wrong. That seemed very real.

High marks overall!