Agoraphobia

Day 26 (Imtroxous)

Some situations are so uniquely horrible, no one has ever made a word for them. We found ourselves in such a situation. Almost every person Uncle Peter and I had saved demanded we save other people they cared about. But we couldn't. Not really. And Uncle Peter's refusals to rescue new people made him loathed.

For example, take Uncle Peter's good friend, Jessica. After Uncle Peter rescued her and her son, she requested he also save her mother, who lived nearby in Belleville. AND her brother's family, who lived five hours away in Handleville. But Uncle Peter refused to rescue these additional people. Why? Because almost all forty-five people we rescued had a similar list of loved ones they wanted us to save! And we were already maxed out.

Uncle Peter had to draw the line SOMEWHERE. When he did, he was loathed. So almost everyone we rescued had a reason to hate Uncle Peter. To Jessica, he was the hero who saved her and her son. But he was also the bastard who let her mother and brother die. It took a long time, but eventually, Jessica forgave Uncle Peter. Others haven't. Until the day he died, there were still people who hated his guts because he failed to save EVERYONE they loved!

So with no word available to describe this uniquely horrible situation, we created one below:

Imtroxous (im·trox·ous, /imˈträksəs/) - Being loathed for distributing a limited amount of available aid to a limited number of people in a crisis.

Sadly, Uncle Peter's own wife, Roxanne, was among those who imtroxousized my uncle. Roxanne was furious at Uncle Peter's harsh treatment of her mother and his refusal to transport her cats. And Roxanne deeply resented that Uncle Peter never rescued her cousin who lived two hundred miles away. This resentment became a wedge that separated them. They were still cordial. They were still civil to each other. They even continued to sleep in the same bed. But the intimacy was gone from their relationship. Before the peak they were one of those huggy-kissy, lovey-dovey, get-a-room-you-two couples who made normal people sick. One would think such a secure relationship could never be snuffed out. But one would be wrong. Uncle Peter's marriage never recovered.

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