Darkness

Chapter 5

“Though ingrained within you, the whispers concerning it fluttering around your heart like butterfly kisses, put them away for a time until more prosperous days…”

Eleanor didn’t care much for Neil’s sentiments on the matter but deep within she knew he was right about it.  She didn’t consider the two of them to be as destitute as Neil always made it seem.  They had food, shelter, and adequate personal transportation.  As far as Eleanor was concerned they had the basics and each other and that was good enough.  As far as society was concerned, the couple was one of many among “the working poor”.

Neil abhorred that his wife Eleanor had to keep working.  “The working poor” was a  phrase he loathed even more.  It tore at the core of his being, to have to tell Eleanor “no” when she desired something gratuitous; telling  any woman especially his own wife  “no” about the whispers that had begun to echo throughout her heart was just damn cruel Neil felt and it didn’t matter that it wasn’t a permanent “no”.   It was more of a waiting game he was telling her they needed to play--

Wait…until one becomes anchored like the roots of a tree having burrowed deep within that which is earthen.  Only then might your branches extend beyond the constraints of your roots and foliage shall bud forth from its tips to reveal ripened fruit, which will rain down and shower one with abundance that you may then dance within…that you may then bask within…finally able to enjoy the fullness of what has sprung forth from your labors, while reaping with joy instead of stress that which has been gifted to woman.

But,

“Time…has never been kind to me especially as far as Eleanor is concerned.  It seems to be mocking my pursuit of it by using Eleanor against me…tempting her to ask things of me that I feel I can’t provide right now.  Yet this…this one thing would be a gift worth more to her than all of the world’s wealth combined and served on a jewel studded golden platter presented to her by our Lord Himself.  It should mean the same to me as well but I can’t stop thinking about history repeating itself, in particular my history if it were to be a  s…”

Mother Nature‘s word is the unseen voice of finality…

Despite Neil’s worries over the matter echoing throughout the cosmos, Mother Nature sent her stork to pay the couple a visit; a total override of Neil’s insistent precautions.  Eleanor was thrilled while Neil managed to play the part of a shocked doting soon to be dad perfectly, his true feelings totally unsuspecting to Eleanor.  He didn’t want to douse her now beaming glow of euphoria with his fretting…

“Our wedding rings--

Tarnished hope.

My wedding vows--

Sour notes bitterly rolling off my tongue,

Thus…

I am an empty promise to my wife.

Who dares to do this to a woman…take her as a bride and have her remain shackled to underpaid labor?  Deprive her of motherhood to spare barely full pocketbooks and wallets?

I wish not to pain my eyes with such a sight…reruns of my ugly depressing past!  For my wife to bear me a son would be like gazing into a mirror--

A broken mirror!

He will be cursed with the same fate as I have been…”

ECole789.