Pain.

“That’s the thing about pain. It demands to be felt.”

– Augustus Waters, The Fault in Our Stars.

Their only son walked out of their life.

She knew he was feeling suffocated in their house. He could not have pursued what her husband wanted, anymore. He had wanted out for long but not this way probably. If only her husband had been less orthodox and more understanding, she wouldn’t have to see her son walk out the house with a suitcase full of belongings and his camera hung by his shoulder.

Her husband didn’t stop her son. Her son didn’t pay heed to her. She slipped in a wad of cash into his camera bag when she was sure that neither of them would be backing out. That was all she felt she had done for her only son. She tried persuading her husband to allow their son some freedom as he walked down the stairs. She said he was being abandoned. Her husband said he was running away from his responsibilities.

That was it. That was the last they had spoken of bringing back their son.

Three months later.

Like everyday for the past three months, she woke up to her son’s picture on her bedside table. Like everyday, she felt a knife slicing through her heart when she made breakfast for only two. Like everyday, she and her husband spoke of general things before he left for office. Like everyday, she cried a little after her husband left.

Like everyday, her husband touched his son’s picture before leaving for office. And like everyday, she wondered if they really were tears glistening in her husband’s eyes.

“You of all people know it is possible to live with pain.”

– Mrs. Lancaster, The Fault in Our Stars.

 

Graciously Yours!