Giseisha
Part 2 of 3: Bonk.
He had been feeling better the last few days and now things were nearly perfect. They were at their park, not far from their tree, and it was a day just like this one that he had asked her to marry him eleven years ago.
She had called him here today, after all those months of unhappiness.
He could see that she had been crying, a lot. In fact she looked awful, like something terrible had happened. But, she also looked so happy to see him: extremely, desperately, happy.
She waited for him beside the car and when they met, Jen hugged him furiously, crushing his air out. She buried her face in him.
A small sun burst into life in his chest. All the dark weariness that had hung over their family since that stupid mistake last summer burned away all at once. He was whole again, life would be good again: she loved him.
He wanted to know why she had been crying so much and why she was so happy to see him, but he also wondered, as he often did, if he should finally tell her what he’d done?
He had almost told her so many times. He came within a single breath of confession on the very night it had happened. She needed to know. He needed to tell. After that first opportunity, though, he just couldn’t bring himself so close to it again.
He regretted his mistake and he valued it extremely. In that one stupid moment all the years he had spent confused and depressed had lifted away. He knew exactly what he wanted. But, as usual for Bonk, he had gotten there in almost the worst way possible.
He didn’t want to tell her now, either. The sun was out, the breeze was cool, it was, really, exactly, like the day he had proposed. He couldn’t watch the open, loving, look slide off her face.
But, there was also a strong burning plastic smell from somewhere. It caught him. He knew what he had to do.
Bonk breathed in deep.
“I saw Kayla last summer. I set up a dinner with her but I left right away. I didn’t stay. I knew as soon as I saw her that I need you and Bridget, and I came home. I am so sorry. Jen, I’m...”
She put both hands on his cheeks. She was staring him in the eye and tears were rolling down her face. Her chin wrinkled.
“I know, you stupid bastard. You told me.”
She sobbed.
“And that was it: the difference that started it all.”
She squeezed his face so hard that his teeth hurt.
“This time let’s skip the huge fight. I forgive you, you dumb ass.”
She laughed through her tears.
“But you’re not getting laid this time.”
Bonk couldn’t have been more confused under any circumstances, or so he thought at the time. Gradually, though, other details started standing out to him. Something was different about Jen.
He was starting to form questions for her: if she had been to the salon, why had she changed her clothes since this morning, and maybe where their daughter was, when he saw a crazy woman storming toward them.
The woman had a bunch of papers in one hand and a little black boxy thing in the other. She looked like she wanted to murder both of them. But the rest of it, the most important parts of it, over-loaded Bonk and all he could do was stare as she rushed them.
To be continued…
