Writing for Fun
Something's Wrong - Sue Barker
July 2014
Sally sat staring at herself in the mirror. Tomorrow was their 30th Wedding Anniversary. Where had all the time gone she wondered? She had been in love with John for more than half her life. Time had passed so very quickly. She didn't often get the time to look back and reflect, her life was very busy with all the charity work she did and popping into her elderly mother, once a day, but today her mind wandered back through her many happy years of marriage.
They had met at work but when they married John wanted her to give up work and become a full time housewife. Very occasionally and only to herself she wondered if she might have preferred to have carried on working. They had quite an old fashioned marriage compared to most of their friends. In their marriage there was a clear division of labour. Household things were her responsibility and John worked very hard to provide for them both.
John had always had quite strong opinions and Sally was always happy to go along with things, anything for a quiet life. She sometimes wondered what life would have been like if John had wanted children, but he hadn't and Sally had wanted John more than anything else in the world. It seemed such a small sacrifice then, but now 30 years on she couldn't help thinking she would have liked being a mother and possibly would have had grandchildren by now like her friends. They were always showing her photos and had funny tales to tell.
As she gazed into the mirror and saw a middle aged woman looking back at her, she realised that she could do with a tint, a couple of wiry grey hairs were mingling with the ash blonde colour she favoured, and where had those wrinkles come from? Sally realised she hadn't really bothered with her appearance for quite some time. Her waistline had thickened and she realised she was quite round and pudgy. Oh dear, she thought, I must make an effort to get into shape again. The menopause wasn't being very kind to her and the hot flushes were such a nuisance, and no-one warns you that your concentration goes on holiday and you get flustered and confused. Recently John had been quite sharp with her at times, it's probably my fault, I get so muddled lately she thought. She had forgotten to pick up his dry cleaning and to book his haircut for him; he wasn't pleased.
Sally hoped that they would go out to celebrate tomorrow night, John hadn't said anything about it but he was normally so good at remembering their anniversary and her birthday, for a fleeting moment she realised then that John had actually forgotten her birthday this year, he said he was overloaded at work and would make it up to her sometime soon. Sally didn't make a fuss although she really was very hurt, but she kept this buried deep, she didn't want to cause an upset and John was putting in lots of overtime. Maybe he was going to give her a big surprise for the anniversary; it is the pearl one so he might be treating her to a necklace or some earrings, or a cruise on the Pearl of the Seas. Sally sat daydreaming and was totally oblivious to the fact that something was wrong.
John was conflicted, he hadn't forgotten their anniversary, but everything was about to change. He realised he hadn't been in love with Sally for a long time. He loved her like a sister but she no longer floated his boat. She had let herself go, and she was so very dull. Sometimes he wished she would voice an opinion of her own, but oh no, that was never going to happen. At times he felt like screaming at the sheer boredom of it all. Initially he liked the way she agreed with everything he said and did, but it became so tedious. He no longer liked her malleability; he needed someone to challenge him. He couldn't tell when things started to go wrong; it had been a slow process.
His 22 year old pregnant mistress was pressing him to leave Sally. Last night, when Sally was asleep he started to pack his bags; he had stored them in the spare bedroom, beside the bed. Being a coward he decided he would leave tonight before the anniversary. It would be too cruel to leave on the day. He told Melody that he would go tonight, well if he didn't go, his very feisty lover was more than prepared to come round and front it out with Sally. He thought he would like someone who could hold their own in an argument and boy did they argue. He thought at 56 he could do with a change of lifestyle. Melody told him she didn't do housework or cooking or ironing come to that, so John worked hard and then came home and started on the chores. Melody had very strong ideas and John found himself agreeing with her just for a quite life. Life was going to be so different for John from now on.
Later that afternoon Sally popped into the spare bedroom to get something from the wardrobe. She noticed a suitcase packed beside the bed. She was ecstatic, John was going to surprise her, this was so very exciting, she sat on the sofa with the biggest smile on her face. She heard John's key turn in the lock, and waited for her surprise.