I See You Now

by Wynnie Nogueira

My name is Charles Perkins. I am married to Scarlet Perkins, the most beautiful

and kindest woman I’ve seen. I’ve known her for many years now and we tied
the knot, exactly 2 months ago in Saint Dustan's Church. Seeing her walking
down the aisle was easily the closest I’ve been to Heaven.
I woke up this morning with something strangely tricking me. Suddenly she
seemed so upset and teary and worst of all, she would not talk to me! She had her
breakfast on her own, silent as the grave. In this same manner, she headed
towards the living room, where she opened a white memory box and I could
sense her troubled soul. She got up and looked in the mirror, wiping her tears:
“How could you do this to me?”
Downcast, I left. I wasn’t sure why she would pretend I wasn’t there. She could
just talk to me and that’s all I wanted. It was probably too early to go to work;
nevertheless I drove the usual way to work. There, amongst the appliances at PC
World, no one took heed of me coming in. Was it the madness of Boxing Day?
When I went to changing room, I saw a tag that read ‘Lewis Loy.’ Who the hell
was this Lewis and why would anyone move my belongings without asking for
my permission? Immediately, I went upstairs to talk to Mr Moseley, my manager,
but he also seemed not to care for my presence. Everything around me made me
feel like a helpless bird in a cage.
In a fist of anger, I needed to see someone, a friendly shoulder to tell me I’ve
done nothing wrong and probably I was just a bit obsessed.
Rushed my way down to Pete’s, but no one answered the door, then I took the
key from inside the abandoned ornament in a filthy corner on the left and
opened the back door. “He must be travelling.” I concluded. On the coffee table I
saw a smudgy page of newspaper: ‘Ex boyfriend killed in cold blood.’
All my thoughts exploded into one: “I just need to let her know I’m alright.”
I went back home as fast as I could, just to find Scarlet who probably had cried
herself to sleep. If I closed my eyes really hard, maybe I could reach and touch
her mind, I realised this was the only thing I could do to give her a little comfort.
Some of us will choose to use this time to seek revenge, I used it to say goodbye
to the one I can’t be sure I’ll ever see again.