Lost [ENG]

𝟐. 𝑨𝒏𝒚𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒇𝒂𝒓 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆

I went into our bedroom, opened the wardrobe and filled a backpack with some clothes. It didn't take long for Marisha to join me.

"Matt ...!" she exclaimed seeing what I was doing, but I didn't even bother turning around. "Matthew!" she exclaimed again.

"What ?!" I replied, trying to hold back the tears. We stood looking each other in the eyes and I saw, for a moment, the woman who had always told me she loved me; what grieved me, however, was the fact that suddenly, that woman no longer coincided with the one in front of me.

Marisha stayed silent, probably realizing that she could no longer say anything to make me change my mind.

Taken by the heat of the moment and with my backpack practically empty, I left the bedroom, grabbed my phone abandoned in the kitchen, the car keys and without looking back, I closed the door behind me.

I got behind the wheel, but my mood prevented me from concentrating on the road, and then I had no idea where to go. I started the car, left the alley of my house and after a few minutes of traveling without destination, I turned right into a narrow street, stopping in front of my trusted pub. A few drops were starting to run on the windshield of my car. I came out of it, I raised my eyes and actually, I noticed it was full of gray and black clouds. The light of a distant flash made its way like cracks in the dark clouds. Immediately after, a very strong thunder followed, and the drops that previously fell few and far away, turned into a thick and fast rain. I covered my head with my left arm and, closing the door, slipped into the pub.

I realized in that moment that it was late, it was 10.30 pm and that I was not the only one who felt the need to drown their problems in alcohol. I sat down at the counter and John, the tall, big, mustachioed owner of this pub, stepped in front of me.

"Mercer! What good wind brings you here and, above all, without your lady? " he asked as he prepared the drink he knew I would order.

I looked around: someone was munching on peanuts, others some french fries, sipping beers at least forty centimeters high; I didn't know John had such large glasses. The interest of all these men, however, was passively turned towards a screen to my left that projected the football game, the semifinal of the championship. I should have watched it too, but my marriage had started to go into pieces even before the kick-off whistle, which made me completely forget about it.

"Better alone than badly accompanied, right?" I replied before sipping my favorite drink, whose content I had never understood. I only recognized the taste of gin and orange, the rest seemed to be pure alcohol only.

"Ouch, I don't like that saying, especially when it comes to women. What happened, my friend? " John asked, genuinely worried.

I shook my head, I had absolutely no interest to talk about it, much less with him.

"I can't, John, sorry..." I replied sniffling.

"No problem, Mercer. It seems like something that just happened, but you are in the right place! Did you see that the Big Horns are winning? " .

In other circumstances, I would have been delighted with this news but in that moment, my passion for the Big Horns, a great American football team, had become only a distant awareness.

I finished my drink with unusual slowness, perhaps because I didn't really feel like it. My head was spinning only slightly when I got up, left the money on the counter and when I was about to withdraw my hand, it felt stopped by huge and calloused John's. He looked me straight in the eyes.

"Time heals everything ... even better if accompanied by alcohol!" he exclaimed following a fat contagious laugh.

"You are always welcome here, Mercer. Don't forget it " he concluded, winking at me, and lightly tapping his hand on the counter, as if physically wanting to break the slight embarrassment caused by that fairly confidential statement.

I was slightly relieved and taking a last look at the pub, I found myself again in the almost torrential rain that was falling on my town. I reached the car, left quietly in a double row for more than 10 minutes, aware of the fact that at that time, no patrol would pass by that very remote road. I locked myself in the cockpit of the car, with damp hair and a t-shirt dotted with shapes of drops, which for a second, I confused with my tears.