This wasn't how I thought my life would end. I pictured a car crash, cancer, heart attack, and when I got creative I could even see myself getting shot. But being chased down by alien invaders never once crossed my mind. It was slightly comical; I had to smile a little.
"Charlie!" I heard my name being called from downstairs. As usual my husband of eight years was impatiently waiting for dinner. A nightly routine, it almost seemed like everyday he wanted his food a minute earlier than the day before. I hurried downstairs, not wanting to put him in a foul mood. I grabbed dinner from the oven and quickly served it to him with a glass of cold beer. Gary, my husband, shot me a look that said I was going to pay for a late dinner. One thing about Gary, he never hit, he just tortured you with words that sounded like they were straight out of the devils mouth until you were practically crippled. People always called Gary the meanest son of a bitch this side of Phoenix. He could make an employee cry with one look, kids wouldn't go near the house for fear Gary would run out in his boxers with his beer belly hanging out waving around his Louisiana slugger. I married him when I was seventeen and too young to know any better. Gary was my only family and my only friend. He chased away everyone I knew and loved, because I would always pick him over them. My parents died when I was seven and I had been in a foster home since. Gary promised love, home, and security. What he gave me was an ulcer and a bitter attitude. I never had any kids because Gary hated kids and even if he didn't, I would never give him anything else to be miserable with.
This particular night we sat in silence as we ate. As usual I stared out the window wondering what the hell happened to my life, and Gary grunted as he ate. I didn't hate Gary, but I sure as heck didn't like him or even love him. Now he was simply a companion that made me want throw myself off the roof of a very tall building. It wasn't that I couldn't leave him I knew I could. Men were always telling me I was gorgeous, truthfully I knew I was pretty, not a model, but good looking enough to make men stare. I had dark brown hair and deep blue eyes. My body was small but sturdy. I worked hard and it showed. I had a gold tan that I had achieved through hours of gardening. I was only around 5'3 but what I lacked in height I made up for in strength. I was pretty street smart, but I never had a great education. My schooling ended once my marriage began.
Gary used to be the best looking guy around, but he lost hair and gained weight. He was eleven years my senior and it was showing. Gary never really cared much about his appearance. I suppose when the world cowers beneath you, looks become fairly unimportant.
"I'm going over to Lloyds to watch the game." He told me as if I had a say.
"Okay, sweetie, have fun." I smiled sweetly hoping it didn't come off as fake.
Lloyd was a co-worker at the office where Gary worked. Lloyd was the only person I knew that could stand to be around Gary for very long, possibly because Lloyd was as much of a douche as Gary, if not more.
"He got a new big screen." He said this more to himself than to me.
"Oh that's nice." Fake.
"Yep…" He murmured.
He sat there looking out the window for a little longer; something about the way he looked sort of touched me. It was almost…wistful.
"Ok well I guess I'll see you later tonight, and do me a favor don't put on that face crap you smell like shit." He spoke as if he asked me to leave the light on for him.
"Sure, Baby, I didn't realize it bothered you."
"Well, Moron, if you paid more attention to me and less trying to make yourself look like a damn clown maybe you would have noticed." He added a pleasant smile at the end.
"I'm sorry" I lowered my head, hoping he would just leave. He must have been in an especially good mood today because he just patted my head and told me "That's okay sugar I know how hard it is for you to use your head, see ya later."
With that he turned promptly around and marched out the door. I stared after him, grateful to Lloyd for buying something useful to me. With Gary gone I could get all my work done without him looking over my shoulder. I went upstairs and cleared the sheets and blankets off the bed, Gary would often eat in bed getting food and sauces of different kinds all over the place, but he expected a clean bed so once a day the sheets and comforters got washed. The room got vacuumed and dusted, the bathroom got bleached top to bottom, and the kitchen was scrubbed until your face was shining right back at you. I was meticulous when it came to clean, because I often wondered if the reason Gary didn't hit was because I was so good at playing the housewife. I never talked back unless I knew I could get away with it. Gary was my warden and I was the best-behaved inmate on the block.
I finished with my work and turned on the television, my feet throbbed from being up all day long. I flipped through the channels noticing how boring the shows had gotten lately. I turned it to the news just in time to see a man telling the news reporter how he and his partner were helping out in the middle-east when things just started working themselves out. The show panned to a shot of what vaguely resembled Iraq except it was clean, people were walking around in clothes that looked like they could be American and the women and men were walking in stride with each other. It didn't look like at all like the country I was familiar with. Everybody just looked so… calm. It wasn't normal. Eventually, I got too weirded out and shut the television off. I walked up stairs and changed into my pajamas, nothing too fancy just and old marlins shirt and striped boxer shorts.
Right before I went to sleep I went to lock up the house. After checking the doors and windows I walked down to the basement, laying on the floor was an old antique rug I had found when we first moved into the old house, underneath the rug was just regular hardwood floor, but those floor boards came up and underneath that there was a tiny room. A room Gary never knew about. For most of my life I had been a little bit paranoid, and this room could attest to that. I had my second life in that room. A life that I didn't need now, but that I always felt I might have to have someday. I had supplies, not a lot, but enough. I would come down and add something every once in awhile. Today I added paper and pens. I always loved to write and I guess I figured that if I ever needed that room, it would be nice to have something to keep me entertained. I closed up the tiny room locking the hatch that kept it shut and replacing the hardwood floor boards on top of it. I walked back up the stairs and up to the room Gary and I shared and I fell asleep thinking about a different life…
