a/n: revised this chapter because the previous one was shitty
out of sync - mist - 395 words - T - Angst
There is rain, going pitter-patter on their driveway and winding through the grooves in the sidewalk and the soil like little snakes. Where the raindrops hit, small bursts of water rise up, like miniature explosions, that crowd together into a not-mist cloud of dense droplets.
She is awake before he is, sitting on the rocking chair in front of their window and looking out through the confines of their house. Every moment feels like being in a prison, nowadays. They are simply going through the motions of marriage like robots; out-of-sync, fundamentally broken robots missing a circuit or two that once processed love and now only processes dismal defeat. In a way, that is even worse than the anger that preceded it, because when they were angry, there was still some passion left, twisted and corrupted as it was. When she was angry, at least she was able to feel alive instead of this degenerate machine that she now is.
Acceptance of the inevitable. That is what they both feel, that their trainwreck of a marriage has been granted the fortune of a small reprieve in an otherwise angry run towards destruction. This is the lull, the in-between where they can finally sort out what the hell is wrong with them before their situation goes into a full-out nuclear bomb, a toxic affair where they disguise venomous words and backhanded compliments in the guise of affectionate smiles and kisses. That will be the worst of all, she thinks, when the two of them are so depraved that they must cover up their broken-mirror relationship with tape.
But everytime someone looks in, the fucking cracks still show.
Absently, she lifts the crumpled paper card out of her pocket and examines it in the dim rainy-morning light. Peter J. Feynmann is printed in stark black and white lettering on the front, and underneath it is an e-mail address, a phone number, and a place of contact.
They both feel it in the air; the calm before the storm.
Mr. Feynmann, based on her resources, is a good lawyer. Trustworthy. Stalwart. Able to win.
And with the baby coming, delaying the conflict will only spread the infection even further.
So, at exactly 6:37 AM in the morning on Tuesday, May 3, Touko White decides to get a divorce.