Nemesis (standard:romance, 1175 words)
Author: Cyrano	Added: Sep 06 2009	Views/Reads: 3028/1824	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Katherine is the woman next door, living the American nightmare. Two kids, a dog, and a husband out of work. It was hard writing this short story; hard because I've never personally suffered the indignity of being out of work.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

men become moody, jealous, and exacting when they are in love. Sitting 
on the porch of their dream home, children asleep and waiting for Jamie 
to come home from being with his newly acquired drinking pals, she 
remembered Jamie as a good-hearted man. They had been perfect 
bed-fellows and found humor in the affairs of the everyday world. Now, 
thankfully, she had found walking to be her quiet meditation. The once 
idea that marriage seemed to be the right royal road through life. How 
can circumstances find her true feelings out so that marriage appeared 
in her mind to be just a step toward the grave? She could actually 
remember lying wake during the night, not from sadness, but the sheer 
desire for living. But life, marriage, children, had conspired in her 
head to be the wile of the devil, a message to leave regret behind. 
Spring winds will only bring more disquietude, better to leave all this 
regret and sadness. 

She just had this sense that they both needed to be alone and regroup.
And, perhaps, if they were blessed with a second chance at love, they 
would be with people through all the contemplation, the sleepless 
nights and the angry moments. Katherine did still love him, and on some 
level she held a small thread of hope that it wasn't too late; change 
was still possible, that they weren't out of chances. 

She was not naïve; she was not searching for some romantic ideal.  She
just wanted someone to lighten the load - to share in the everyday 
mundane-ness of life - to once again have someone confidently place 
something in her hands with the knowing certainty that it would be 
handled.  She had so wanted the selfishness of Jamie's character to 
kindly vanish - it would have made their lives so much easier – but she 
felt like such thoughts betrayed their love.  Betrayed their years 
together...but it was only the unvarnished truth.   Sometimes, love 
just wasn't enough, the scales were always unbalanced; more often than 
not it was she who carried the heavier weight.  These words sounded 
clichéd and trite in her own ears, but she could not summon up a better 
analogy.  And that is how she arrived in this empty motel room, just a 
picture of her children in one hand and her husband's belt in the 
other. 


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