The Daily Prompt: The day I realise

Steam iron

Image: Pixabay

It’s my birthday when I realise. Standing at the sink, wrist deep in washing up water, hands pink from the heat.

He doesn’t love me anymore.

It’s not just a thought, it’s the knowledge of it, a feeling in my chest as if I’ve my lungs are sinking to my stomach, my heart deflating, turning wrinkled and soggy like a week old balloon.

‘You putting the kettle on?’ he calls from the front room, TV blasting the theme tune to one of the American murder mysteries he likes, the sort of show where the worst of life’s trauma’s is solved in an hour.

I click the switch on the kettle, rinse out two mugs, dry my hands on the tea towel.

‘Just making it now,’ I say.

I crouch by the washing machine, tugging shirts free from the knot of linen. I put the iron on and wait for the kettle to boil.

 

Written for The Daily Prompt. Today the would is REALISE. See here to join in and to read the other posts.

 

22 thoughts on “The Daily Prompt: The day I realise”

    1. Thanks so much for your kind comment. Don’t worry, though – this is fiction only. My husband still loves me very much – the mad fool that he is 🙂 Thanks for reading

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  4. Isn’t that just the way of it, though? You realize something horrible and terrifying, and in that moment realize it’s been creeping up on you for so long while you couldn’t force yourself to acknowledge it. And now there it is. But the everyday world filled with routines and habits just keeps going, as it’s been going this whole time, when it was already true but you hadn’t realized it yet. Such powerful realism in this one, Lynn; I was really touched.

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    1. Thanks so much Joy. I’m glad my intentions came across so strongly. The end of love comes slowly, over years and may never end in separation or divorce. I’ve known couples who have stayed together and though time, a shared life and shared experience bond them, there is little affection left. Sad but realistic I think.
      Thans so much for reading 🙂

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      2. Yes, it can be very hard to juggle blogging with home, family, work and everything else that we’d like to do with our lives. But we continue to try. And again thank you – the support from fellow bloggers such as yourself is the best thing going. 🙂

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  9. Hi Lynn,
    Great drama here. Shows how insight can hit at the most unexpected moments. And how quickly our defences pop up again to protect us. Well done.
    Maureen

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    1. Thanks Maureen. Yes, there are odd moments, when someone does something seemingly small and you put two and two together. And many people stay together when the love has gone, or so it seems from the outside. Though I have to reassure folk this is fiction only 🙂

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