Greetings, everyone
This is my entry to #WeekendFreewrite organized by @mariannewest. Details here. Prompts in bold italics.
Last Wish
To my loving wife, whom one day I'll teach how to drive
To driving! Myrtle took a swig from her wine glass.
To driving! Earl said, forcing a wide smile accentuated by a shadow of sadness reflected in her brand new sunglasses. She placed the glass on the dashboard and looked at him with the excitement of a girl who learns that she, too, can climb trees, or hit a ball with a bat, or hit a nose with her knuckles.
He went back twenty years, watching in bed that episode of This is Us that made her so self-conscious of so many pending things she had not learned. She could relate to William’s inadequacy then; he could understand her sense of urgency now.
I did it, my love. Thank you! She erupted while wrapping her arms around his neck and in the process spilling some of his wine.
Earl laughed a nervous laugh. Never mind the wine. Who cares about wine stains? I don’t. And as he uttered those words he poured his glass on his head making Myrtle laugh as he had not seen her laugh in ages.
No one looked at her, no one seemed aware of her presence; she was probing the very depths of insignificance. Her younger siblings were learning to drive while she played the spectator. She tried to justify her father’s inability to make her be part of his new family. She knew his new wife had never liked her. She seemed to have never even accepted her existence, except as a reminder of her husband’s trespassing.
Her siblings were spoiled children who never showed much affinity or affection, except for those prescribed by social norms. It was not difficult for them to ignore her anxiety and expectations for a chance to have fun, to learn a skill that was a rite of passage in any society.
She saw them learn in silence. She never complained, never reproached her father for not offering her the same opportunities. She found solace in having a younger brother with a car who could pick her up and take her to college when very few people, including faculty and staff had cars at all. There might be some caché in that, but little accomplishment or independence.
A windfall? A stroke of luck? Divine justice? They were not sure how to read the events that unfolded after the fall of the revolution. The nightmare was finally over, although not quite. They knew the mess that would follow resulting from internal struggles and call of revenge would make the recovery tortuous and prolonged.
Myrtle could not care less about people returning and the promises of a better tomorrow. She wanted a better today and that was not going to happen there. She wanted her daughter Tina to have a shot a life, real life, without the limitations she endured. Thus, when millions started to return home, she convinced Earl that this was their best chance to leave, and that’s what they did. It felt good to finally have access to a passport and to money, from the Reconstruction Fund, to use as they pleased.
Leaving the country was easy. Succeeding in their new home at their age was the hardest part. But all the sacrifices were worth the while as long as their daughter enjoyed the peace and quiet they were denied for decades.
They left their remaining health in all the jobs they got and when Tina spread her wings they paused to see if there was time to revisit their to-do list. Myrtle had time to finally learn to drive, barely.
Thanks for your visit
