Part III

Part III of the original V

(This blog was only intended to live for a duration of five posts, four of which were written within days of each other. Post III and Post IV were lost.  Twice.  So, here goes, third try at III.)

We, the family, my family, were headed into the big city.

We, the family, were all packed into a vehicle.

Two kids, two in-laws, Wife, and ‘Will’ (me).

Crammed into a vehicle and getting tired. 

Worn a little thin.

Wifey was the designated navigator. She had the map, access to the iPhone, and is native to this land. She can read the signs. At least I thought she fucking could.

We, the family, were packed into a vehicle. Kind of tight. And the vehicle was sandwiched in the middle-lane of the five that were on our side of the concrete divide.

Only half an hour before, it had gone like this:

Wifey: Turn here.

Will: Right or left?

Wifey: Here!

Will: Right or left?!

Wifey: Here!! Right here!!

But it was too late. The family had had to turn around.

Fortunately they found their way onto the big road with many lanes called a ‘freeway’ where they were free and on their way.

Then she began stonewalling.  Not saying anything. Five other people in the car and she’s clamming up. She gives us….

Nothing.

Then it happens.

A moment of silence. That kind of silence that comes in the eternity that exists before a force of nature breaks… under the breath of a hushed thunder-count... 1... 2....

Yeah, forever in that tiny moment of silence in which everything comes together... right before crashing down. 

Except it was never anywhere near this kind of beautiful...more like a black hole.

Before it hits, time slips back. 

Period: Year 1 B.K. (Before Kids)
Time of day: Dark... almost midnight on New Year’s Eve

Location: Dead clam. Silent. Virtually empty train station in a ‘more rural’ area of Thailand, on our way back from bliss.

Wifey was pissed. As in angry.  She’ll say she was angry because the train was late.  An omniscient narrator might imploringly claim that’s just the way she is, the way she has always has been. Her folks say so too... could be like that for days at a time. Maybe that's why they were so happy when she finally got married (to anybody).

Nearly midnight. New Year’s. Thailand. She’s fuming. Fuming inside a face that has taken on a new shape, almost autistic or maybe with a touch of Apergers.

Outside

Inside

Her head tilts down and she glares into nothingness. 

The darker side taking over...

Nobody walks away; he leaves her there. With all that baggage piled up, stuff nobody needs. As she's not about to let any of it out of her sight. She can keep it all to herself, 'protect' it.

So, I head over to the convenience store where the clerk sighs 'Happy New Year' in a way that says she wants to be doing something with everybody else, but has to work.

Her English is better than fine. She’s not attracting any attention, yet she's not hard to look at either.

Her gestures are toward the offering on the table, “Would you like some?” 

“What is it?” I ask.

“It’s for New Year’s,” she answers.

“Are you having any?”

“No,” she says. The bottle is still almost full.

“No thanks…where is everyone?”

“Celebrating the New Year,” she shrugs.

As I paid for whatever I came in to buy besides investing in time away, I began to relax. That's what I'm here for.  I smile and think to myself, “Hey, it’s New Year’s and I'm in Thailand…"

Fast-forward… a few rotations past that New Year and nowhere near sanuk. 

But stuck. Jammed a few more years further into the four letter word: L-I-F-E.

The tightly packed vehicle is wedged in the traffic, moving in the only direction it can,  at everyone else’s speed.

Pushed into going with the flow.

And the silence breaks with a thunderous smash,  turning everyone to stone on the outside, too afraid to move on the inside. Even Wifey is rattled from the shouting.

I’d fucking lost it.

“YOUR 

BEHAVIOR 

IS 

COMPLETELY 

UNACCEPTABLE...”

So it started... including fare more than a mere five words. 

You could have heard a pin drop after the hatch had been blasted off the airlock. Nobody was breathing. 

Frozen.

Silence.

Then light broke through the shadows in the capsule and signs were coming up.

A little, earnest voice attempted to patch the breach that had just been blown through the hull.

Offspring: Dad, is this it...here? (trying to help)

Will: I don’t know. Thank you. (completely neutral)

Offspring: How about here? (still giving it his best)

Will: It’s okay… thank you.  (already down into the calm)

A few minutes later, Wifey still wasn’t talking - even though she had lost. And Grandma and  Grandpa weren’t about to say anything to anyone until we touched down. But we were still kind of sandwiched in that middle lane.

“Honey,” I ask, “do we veer right or left? I need to know. If we take the wrong lane, we could get stuck in traffic for a while.”

Wifey tries to mumble something toward me in anger, promising more of where that came from if I can't figure it out. I stop her cold, but not with the shouting. I tell her that I’m not having any of it. No more righteous anger at me Dear. We will go wherever we are taken because I can’t take my hands off the wheel to activate our iPhone for navigation…she tries to protest, but is overridden. I’m not having it anymore.

And somehow, without making a single wrong turn, despite a stubborn refusal to give directions, we manage to get there. 

But it ain't over... 

(unedited)