AND LIFE GOES ON

Sandra looked up at the wall clock and felt a shiver run down her spine; he was late again, not knowing what time he was likely to come in just made things worse. She knew it was going to be a long and tenuous evening, especially after the difference they had the previous night. She still found it hard to believe that she had gradually become so terrified of Joseph. She went to the kitchen and started preparing dinner, he always wanted to eat his food straight from the stove, and she knew things will get a lot worse if the meal wasn’t properly prepared.

‘You are still here man? Don’t you have a wife to go home to?’ Joseph’s work mate asked, he just looked up at him and grinned, ‘Well that wife needs to be fed and dressed,’ he answered as he went back to the PC, ‘Well I really feel sorry for her, you are always leaving this place very late, at least I can afford to work late because I have no wife or family to go home to. Anyway see you tomorrow,’ he said as he left the office.  Joseph wasn’t one to let anything get in the way of his ambition and that included his wife, he had made sure she knew that he had to work hard to take care of her.  But the ultimate price he had to pay was going back to hostile home to a nagging and tearful wife.

Sandra heard her husband’s car pulled up and felt her heart skip, she remained motionless as she heard his foot steps approach the house, ‘Hi,’ he mumbled as he by passed her and went straight to their bedroom, she reluctantly followed him and found him changing, ‘How was your day?’ she asked in a small voice, ’Fine,’ he answered without even bothering to look up at her. She stood uncomfortably in the doorway, ’Supper will be ready in a few minutes,’ she said as he slumped on the bed and switch on the TV.  She felt relieved as she went back to the solace of her kitchen and winded up the cooking. When she went to call him for supper she found that he had dozed off in front of the TV, ‘The food is served,’ she said as he slowly opened his eyes.

They sat silently on the dining table eating the meal. The food felt like ash in her mouth as she kept expecting him to say something negative about her cooking, she ate slowly ,stealing glances at his face to make sure all was well, ‘I was hoping we can go  and visit my cousin this weekend,’ she said cautiously but before she could even finish he shook his head, ‘You know my weekends are usually filled up and I can’t cancel my appointments,’ he said, ‘But you rarely spend time with me over the weekend,’ she said in  an emotional tone then almost jumped from her chair when he slapped the table, ‘Grow up! You’re a married woman, you don’t expect me to spend my weekend baby-sitting you. You are the one who needs to eat and be clothed in this house,’ he said in a cold voice. Sandra felt the urge to cry coming on, ‘I am sorry, it is just that since she got sick we haven’t been to see her but if you give me some money I can go on my own,’ she said in a shaky tone, ‘Alright but just remember that I don’t have a tree that grows money,’ he sneered as he left the table.

Left alone, she cleared the table and went to the kitchen to clean up, what did she ever do to deserve this, she thought as tears came to her eyes, she went on doing the dishes as she heard him surfing through the TV channels in the next room. When she finally joined him she found that he had already got in bed and was waiting for her. She slowly undressed and got under the covers; he pulled her close to him. She tried as much to enjoy his embrace but it was hard because of the fear she had for her husband.

  Afterwards he pulled away from her and moved to the far end of the bed. She gave a sigh of relief as she realized that he had already dozed off. Alone in the dark, she let the tears come to her eyes and flow on the pillow. She found it hard to believe he was the same man she got married to. He had become so hard and uncompromising, no matter how much she tried to please him he always managed to find something wrong in whatever  she said or did and no matter how hard she tried to apologize he just didn’t listen to her. She prayed day and night that things between them would get better but they only seemed to get worse. She had reached the end of her tattered rope but what can she do? Life goes on......