Kaye
It never made me happy to fight with my husband, but he’d gone too far. When he openly accused me of trying to get other men’s attention, I knew I had to deal with him on a new level, one where he’d understand that I would not be accepting his jealous nonsense any longer.
His face told me everything after I said that this would end us if he didn’t stop. He recoiled from me as if I’d actually punched him in the stomach.
His hands covering his gut, his expression stunned, he whispered, “End us?”
I couldn’t back down now. I already had him on the ropes with my opening statement. “Yes, David. You’re seeing things that are just not happening. And to hear you say that you think I’m subconsciously seeking other male attention is just too much to take.”
“But I don’t think you see it, Kaye,” he whimpered as he took another step backward.
I’d hurt him with my threat of ending us. But it had to be said. I couldn’t go on living with him embarrassing me the way he does. “I don’t see it because it’s not happening.” I pointed to the chair near him. “Please, sit down, David. You’re looking pale.”
Looking over his shoulder at the chair, he shook his head. “I would rather stand. You already think you’ve got the upper hand here, so I would rather not give you any more ammo than you already have.”
With a long sigh, I went on, “David, I’m not trying to build up an arsenal against you. I wish you wouldn’t see it that way.”
“How would you have me see it, Kaye?” His hands moved to his sides, and they balled into fists as he began to grow angry instead of hurt. “I’ve only done what I have because of what I’ve witnessed. And why is it that you haven’t seen any of these men’s actions as flirtatious? That’s what’s plaguing me.”
“There have been no flirtations, David. That’s why.” I was growing exasperated with the man. It had me going to sit in the chair myself.
“Let me start with the peeping postman, Kaye,” he said as he turned to look at me with a smirk on his lips.
“He wasn’t peeping,” I corrected him.
“Ah, but he was.” Walking to one of the windows in our bedroom, he mimicked what he’d said the postman was doing. Parting the curtains, he moved to one side, barely peeking through the window. “This is how I caught him, Kaye. Now you tell me if that’s not peeping.”
David was outside when he walked up behind our postman. He’d scared the crap out of the poor guy when he snuck up on him, shouting near his ear that he’d better get the hell out of there before he called the cops. He went on screaming at the poor guy as the man hightailed it away from our house, tossing our mail down as he fled.
I stood inside, dying from the humiliation that overcame me. Later that afternoon, I went to the post office to rent a box there. I didn’t want anyone from the United States Postal Service to have to deal with my deranged husband ever again.
“I don’t know why you thought you saw him doing that, but I was just inside the living room, and I saw no such thing, David.” I gripped the sides of the chair as my frustration grew. The urge to just get up and walk out on him was getting stronger. But I didn’t want to just walk away without trying to get him to see reason.
His expression changed to one of skepticism. “Okay, let’s go on to the doctor you were seeing. I heard him talking to you alone in the examination room that day. You were giggling at some joke he’d made. I heard you two from the other side of the door. Then he told you that you had the health of a twenty-year-old, and you giggled even more.”
Now I was pissed, and I stood up, shaking my finger at him. “First of all, David Black, I never giggle. I was laughing just a little when he joked that perhaps my husband was the cause of my many headaches. It was only a joke. And when he said that about my health, I thought that was humorous, too. That’s it, David.”
His face went beet red. I swear I could see smoke coming out of his ears. “He said that I was the cause of your headaches?” One meaty fist went into the air. “I will have that man’s job!”
“And there you go,” I shouted at him. “Over the top again. Those are jokes, David. Nothing more than that.”
“You think so, Kaye?” I had earned a glare from him then as his fist pounded against his palm. “That’s how they start, making you think your husband is the problem. When you follow their advice and get rid of the old husband, then they swoop in and take you over. You’re so blind, Kaye!”
“You’re insane!” I shouted, and then turned away to the bathroom to find my pills to dull the ache that had once again crept into my head. “And now you’ve given me a headache. Maybe the doctor was right. Maybe it is you who’s giving me these awful headaches.”
His words rang in my ears as he screamed, “Then maybe you should get rid of me, Kaye Black. Or better yet, maybe you should leave me.”
I stopped dead in my tracks as I thought about what he’d said. I had only wanted to discuss how he’d been acting and how to fix it. But now he was shouting at me, telling me that maybe I should leave.
“Maybe I should,” I whispered as I went to get my pills.
The sound of the bedroom door slamming made my head throb with pain. He’d left. Gone to where, I had no clue. And the worst part was that I just didn’t care.
As long as he was gone, there would be no fighting.
With the pills taken, I went to lie on the bed to wait for my head to stop aching. All I wanted was for the pain to end.