The Family Man

Chapter 2

Jack raced down the stairs, skipped the last two steps and whirled around the foyer. Everything around him epitomized a life he didn't have. The stack of bills on the coffee table of the living room, the pair of child's rain boots at the foot of the stairs, the millions of family portraits on the wall. He saw his own face stare back at him, replicated again and again and again. Smiling, laughing, and perfectly at ease in this cookie cutter lifestyle.

"I'm dreaming," he raked a hand through his hair. The glint of gold caught his eye and he thrust his palm away from his face. A wedding band on his finger. I'm married. We're married. Why the hell are we married? Jack winced. Aspirin would have been ideal.

Jack calmed enough to snatch a pair of keys from the kitchen key rack and bolt out the front door. He sprinted through a weed encrusted path that led to the driveway and narrowly avoided tripping over an abandoned tricycle and a lawn gnome.

"Hey, Jack?"

"What?!" He turned and glared. Startled to see his brother Bobby watering the lawn next door.

"You alright?"

"Yup."

"Jackie and the kids too?"

"Yup. I'm married."

Bobby frowned. "Yeah. That's kind of how it works in the 'burbs."

"I live in the fucking suburbs."

"Sure do." Bobby chuckled as he turned back to water his lawn.

"I need to talk to Lyndon. Or Marilyn."

"I'll pretend I know who those people are."

Before he could respond to his brother, Jackie appeared in the doorway to the house and called his name. He looked up and she smiled.

"could you pick up breakfast?" She batted her eyelashes. "I'm a horrible mother and our children have nothing here for breakfast."

"Oh. Sure."

"Thank you." She smiled and went back into the house."

God this is weird.