The Players: A short story
The Players
Obedient Housewife – The wife
Cheating Husband – Him
The other Woman – Her
The narrator
Me, I, Myself
I can’t believe I was able to endure this for so long. I’m getting out of the zoo now, packing everything away in neat little plastic containers with neat little lids that snap on just in case it rains.
- Thud - Textbooks and notebooks dropping into the hard plastic bottom.
I met her before the other two. As long as I have known her she’s been “the other woman”. Not quite ugly enough to gag in disgust at, but certainly no head turner. She’ll be graduating this year. A four-year degree in geography (what can you use this for?). Introductions are so tedious; suffice it to say she’s been helping guys cheat for a good long time now.
- Whisp - Comics set atop classic novels and new age novellas.
We first connected because he liked comics, transformers, and Dungeons and Dragons, and Star Wars. Mostly what I know about him is that pretty much everything he has ever told me is some type of a lie. He cheats on the wife with her, and pretends to be much more than he is. Those are the only things I know for certain about him.
- Clink - Dishes set one on top of another
The wife hated me right from the start. It’s probably because the first time we met I showed everyone there the fliers I had gotten from a friend back home which said, “You Need Jesus God Damnit”. Well the rest of the people there thought it was funny. But the wife decided to take exception to it and be thoroughly offended. At the time there was a steadfast determination to be devoted to god. The wife would have probably said there was a steadfast determination to be devoted to God.
I’m an atheist so to me it’s god.
They’re having their conversations about what it was that finally made me move out.
I hear him telling her about it. “He said that it wasn’t just that. I guess there’s a lot of things that contributed to this decision.”
“But he knows about us. How did he find out?”
“I don’t think he ever found out hon. He just kind of put things together and arrived to such a decision.” He always used questionable grammar to try to sound more sophisticated. “He told me that above and beyond that, it was that he felt like he had to hide in his room because whenever he walked into a room with anybody from here he could fell you guys hoping that he would just go back upstairs.”
I sure did.
- Thump Thump Thump - Four feet headed down the stairs.
“So why is he moving?” That’s the wife. Always left out of the loop until the last moment.
“Because he feels like he has to hide in his room. Because you guys make him feel unwanted.” He never did blame himself for anything.
I hear him sigh and I can just picture the worry on his face as he sits down on the couch and runs his hands over his hair in dramatic fashion. “He says the last straw was when he felt like, as though, he had to sneak downstairs and make a sandwich and run back upstairs with it.”
It sure was.
“You’re going to have to ask your mom to send you more money.” Now they’ll both rely on her parents to pay the bills. The wife will move out next.
Of course, I didn’t tell him everything. I didn’t tell him that the one day I had the place to myself I snuck into her room and found a love letter from him to her. I didn’t tell him that I was moving in with the people that he moved out on.
Then there’s the baby, but I don’t even want to get into that.
- Click - The door closing behind me.
posted by David Fuchs (Greg Goble) @ 4:08 PM
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