Writing Prompt

This is a short story that i wrote in honor of "Creative Writing" by Etgar Keret. In the story, there is a couple, Maya and Aviad, who are having inner turmoil. To symbolize this, Maya writes three stories creatively. One is about a world where you can only see the people you love and a wife begins to fall out of love with her husband. This was what I imagined that was going through his head.

Love you can see

I walked up the steps of our beautiful home, one at a time trying to prevent the feeling of despair as it descended upon my heart. How long could I prolong the inevitable? For reasons that I’m unaware of, I still had hope. What a fool I am. I am a man of twenty-seven, just beginning my career as a doctor. I’ve been interning with a well-known doctor and have finally begun my practice. In my opinion, I was an average looking man, with blue eyes, dark hair, and six feet of height. At the age of twenty-two, I married my high school sweetheart. Her name was Cassandra Little, now Cassandra Jones. She and I live in a world where the only ones you can see are the ones you love and we’ve been desperately in love since the age of sixteen, or so I thought. She’s beautiful with her long brown mahogany hair that reached her waist and big, bright green eyes. She’s so petite that she fits underneath my shoulder. She began a career in fashion and had just herself finished being an interne. She now partners with a top designer that I have no interest in. This seems like the perfect life to an outsider, what could be better? If you we’re to look in from the outside, there would seem to be no flaws.

I sighed heavily. Where did it all go wrong? I thought. It started off innocently enough. I had been carrying a glass of water and Cassandra bumped right into me, sending the glass shattering to the floor. She frantically began to pick up the pieces, saying she was sorry and that she had zoned out and didn’t see where she was going. I let that roll off my shoulders thinking nothing of it. Then, as I was dozing in a chair by the television, my wife sat right on my lap. I began to sigh with contentment until she jumped up and said that she was sorry and she hadn’t seen me sitting there. She apologized again for being such a space case. That was when my suspicions began to arise that she no longer loves me the way I did her.

Now, standing here stalling to protect my fragile heart, I hold my wife’s favourite flowers, which are lilies, and I have half my moustache shaven right off. With my heart pounding in my chest, I finally insert the key into the lock. The first thing I see is my wife on her favourite lounger reading the book Pride and Prejudice. She looks up and waits, as if she needed confirmation that it was me. This was going to break my heart.

“Hey hunny,” I said finally with as much cheer as I could manage. My voice still cracked.

She stood and walked over to me, but hesitated five feet away from me. She must have seen the lilies because her face broke into her signature beautiful smile. The one that shows both of her dimples.

“Hi darling! You brought me lilies!” she exclaimed with delight.

She began to walk closer hesitantly. This was it and I knew it. The moment that would tell me the truth. She stopped a foot away and began to grope the air around my face. She was off by a couple inches. That was the moment I knew things would never be the same, that it was truly over.

Our love had died.

Please leave comments and let me know what you think! Thanks xoxo Jacq