Tick Tock

Tick Tock

"This used to be a funhouse, but now it's full of evil clowns. It’s time to start the countdown..." P!nk - funhouse

Tick Tock

Ten years

Ten bloody whole years

Priscilla took a swig from the almost empty gin bottle. She knew drinking was a bad idea. Especially today. She should not be drinking today. He would be furious if he found her this way. The thought made her smile; he never got angry these days.

Tick Tock

She glanced at the wall clock above the mantelpiece at the far end of the room. The kids would soon be back from school and she only had a few precious minutes of silence before their return. Kids conceived in love but brought up in... No she was not going down that route today. "Think happy thoughts." She told herself. "I do not care where you dredge the thoughts from. I don't care if you pretend you are Mrs Smith who lives down the road. Mrs Smith with the loving doting husband and happy kids who drew sunflowers during their art classes." Her own daughter, Jumoke had drawn something so dark and disturbing that the teacher had asked to see her parents. Think happy thoughts Priscilla!

Tick Tock

She loved and hated that clock. It was a wedding present. "May your marriage outlive this clock" was scrawled cheekily at the back of the antique timepiece. Ten years and it had never failed. Well, except during that horrible winter three years earlier. All it had needed was a slap on the back and it continued tick-tocking. How she wished she could slap her marriage back to life. Well, she had wished that a few years earlier when there was still 'hope'. Now she was just tired.

Tick Tock

She knew she had to get up sometime to make dinner but she really couldn't be bothered. Not today. She rearranged the cushions around her and continued looking out of the window. Autumn was her favourite season. The falling leaves seemed to portray the perfect link between life and death. Morbid yet strikingly beautiful, those golden brown leaves enchanted her. She loved the season so much that she had chosen to get married in autumn.

Ten years ago today, she had married George. It had been an outdoor, very windy affair. Thankfully it had not rained. It was the best day of her life. Or so she had thought. When they finally got back to their hotel after the ceremony, they were both shivering. She had immediately turned on the kettle.

"How do you like your tea Mr Gee?" She had asked

"Plain, darling. You are all the sugar I need." He had drawled

She chuckled as she remembered how he spluttered after taking the first sip and how he had bravely finished the tasteless cup of tea just so he could prove that she was indeed the only sugar he needed. It had been so funny. Of course, he resumed taking his tea with obscene quantities of sugar the following day after apologetically telling her that he had been born with a sweet tooth.

Tick Tock

She would give almost anything to have those days back. Those days when they were so obviously in love that couples, even older couples, had sought advice from them. They had made so many memories over the years - right from the honeymoon when they had borrowed his father’s old Ford and spent fourteen days driving round the country and sleeping in cheap hotels and motels, the pregnancies, child births, unemployment, financial crisis, new jobs, first car, finally buying a house - they had been through so much together...

The infidelity

"Think happy thoughts Priscilla!" She told herself

Fuck it! I am going to get drunk tonight.

She doubted if the few drops left in the bottle would be enough to get her drunk. The bottle was all she had because George had put a ban on alcohol consumption in the house. She decided to call her sister to help pick the kids up from school and keep them for the night. She needed to be alone. Today, she needed a good cry.

"Hello Bimpe."

"Happy anniversary darling..." Bimpe started.

"Abeg there is nothing to be happy about. Is this one marriage?" She asked.

"Priscilla don't say that. There is plenty to be thankful to God for. God has been good to you prissy, you are alive and healthy, your husband and kids are healthy, you both have good jobs, great families and play important roles in the community; you should be happy."

"Please spare me the sermon abeg. Everything we have, we got through our own hard work and sheer luck. And how can I be happy when my marriage is in shambles?"

"There is nothing God cannot do prissy. You know sister chidinma na, in fact she had already served divorce papers to her husband but when they got on their knees and called upon the name that is greater than every other name, the name of the only living God, there was a turnaround in the marriage. Prissy, you should pray..."

Priscilla was getting annoyed; was Bimpe insinuating that she had not tried ENOUGH to save her marriage? She had done everything! Marriage that even the celebrated marriage counsellor, Dr Grey had given up on? The day Dr Grey told them that divorce was not such a dirty word was the day they had stopped seeking help from her.

Don't get angry today Priscilla. Not today. Not when you need her help.

"Bimpe please that's not why I called you. Please can you help with the kids today? I know it's really short notice but please I need to be alone today."

"Oh, didn't George tell you? He called earlier and asked me to help with the kids. Julius has already gone to pick them from school and they should be here any minute now."

"Ok, that's great. Thank you so much Bimpe, I really appreciate it."

"It's my pleasure dear."

Priscilla was not sure how to feel after the phone call. She was grateful that George had made plans for the kids but then he should have told her! Not that we talked much these days. Actually they hardly spoke to one another except when it was absolutely necessary.  She hated the silence. She actually missed the days when they fought and said so many hurtful things to each other. At least they had cared enough to fight then. There had been some passion. Now? There was nothing. Anything was better than this cold emotionless co-existence that they had now.

"How did we get here?" She wondered aloud.

To be continued.

"Families never crumble in a day; it's a slow fade" Casting crowns - slow fade