The Dog Ate My Homework

Serial Cereal

"Who wouldn't be angry? You ate all my cereal and faked your death for three years!"

"Calm down, Robyn. You do not even like cereal," I quietly told my wife as I finished my breakfast.

I looked up and gazed at her. She was still wearing the stylish black dress she wore when we had gone out last night. She had been fast asleep when we got home and I'd carried her from our car to our bed. I had tried undressing her and getting her in comfortable pajamas, but she nearly clawed my eyes out in her sleep.

My beautiful wife—so peacefully violent whenever she crossed to the other side.

Her dress was now wrinkled. Her feet were bare. Her mascara was smudged, but her blue eyes still stood out even though they were regrettably hazy. Her golden hair was dishevelled, but in my eyes, she remained beautiful. She would always be beautiful despite the agony I suffered in her hands on days like this.

It was going to be another rough day. Yesterday was perfect. But I had lost her when she fell asleep.

"I like cornflakes!" Robyn screeched at me as she snatched the empty cereal box. Then she pointed a finger at me and tremulously said, "But you... you're supposed to be dead. You left me without a word and I had gone out of my mind looking for clues. All you left me were the cereal boxes and I had to open every pack to search for clues! But there were no clues! You died and left no clues!!"

I deliberated standing slowly to approach and soothe my beautiful but unstable wife, but there was a wooden knife block right behind her. I didn't want her to arm herself and get hurt in the process.

"I never left, my love," I told her.

"What are you saying?" she snapped at me. "The last time I saw you was three years ago. We were at the park, planning our future, discussing having our first child and then you let me go home ahead. You never followed! I waited for you till I fell asleep and you were not there when I woke up. A week after, your brother showed up and told me you had died. He gave no other details. He simply told me that I should move on."

I gritted my teeth. The deceiver was not my brother.

"I was right beside you when we walked home from the park. I was holding your hand," I said.

My wife pulled at her hair and stomped her feet. "Stop it! You're not making sense. This sounds like a nightmare."

"It is," I answered. "Not this very moment, but all the lies you see in your mind."

Slowly, I stood up. I kept my eyes on hers. She took a step back.

"Robyn, please," I pleaded. "Let me help you."

"Help me?" she echoed. "What is wrong with me? Have I gone insane?!"

"No," I replied. I hated the misery in her eyes.

"Then why does none of this make sense? Why are you here claiming that you've never left when my heart says that you've been dead for years?"

"No, my dear wife. Please trust me. Close your eyes and listen to what your heart truly tells you," I begged her.

She kept her eyes wide open. Like a deer facing a wolf.

"Please," I implored her. "Close your eyes and find me. Come back to me."

With her eyes locked on mine, her hand rummaged the table behind her as she found what she was looking for. She grabbed the handle of a butcher's knife. She pulled it from the wooden block, her eyes fixed on mine, her breathing heavy.

Sadly, it had come to this. I would have to disarm her. Then I'd have to give her that dreadful tonic the doctor recommended. But I did not want to hurt her. I would rather let her have me dead. Last night had been incredible and it was a memory I would cherish to the afterlife.

Now, I was done fighting. For her. I surrender.

I closed the distance between us, hoping I could kiss her one last time before she plunged the blade into my mortal heart.

But just before I could reach her, she yielded and closed her eyes.

A beat.

She dropped the knife.

The clock ticked.

And her eyes opened, blue, bright and clear. My dear Robyn had returned home.

**

TheIlluminators