Thee Harbinger

Scott Manx, a lowly bartender working at a rundown bar shack in the rural ghetto community, Ailt in Kanca, a relatively new nation that came up after the fall of the robots, decades ago, was returning home for the night to enjoy his four-hour rest period before he goes back to work.

As he got to his front door, he sought his door card from his workpants front pocket and slid it over the card reader to open the door. As the door flung open, it wasn’t the usual sight that represented the only semblance of order he saw in his day that he was greeted with, rather everything was in disarray. His oldest son was clutching to his wife’s luggage. Why were her things packed?

His daughter who was barely two years old sat on the only decent sofa in the living room, crying her eyes out, clothes and plates were everywhere, the house was very untidy. It had never been this scattered in his house before. The only person who seemed normal was his second son who slept peacefully, though for some reason he was sleeping on the floor.

“What is going on, Sweetheart?” Scott asked his wife, who was drawing her luggage away from the clutches of their eight-year-old son.

“Don’t call me that. My name is Erin” she corrected

Not having strength for a fight and really eager to know what is going on, Scott didn’t comment on that, instead he said, “What is going on, Erin?”

“I am done, Scott.” She said, looking him dead in the eye, “I am done with all this, with this sham of a marriage” she pushed their son to the side, dragging her bags to the door.

“What do you mean you are done?” Scott asked perplexed, hoping she didn’t mean what he was thinking. Yes, they had been having more recurrent fights, that have gotten more intense and regular over the past weeks, but still Scott wouldn’t call their marriage a sham. Every couple had fights once in a while, even if theirs was more than once in a while these days.

“I am leaving Scott, leaving you and all this!”

“Okay, when are you coming back?” he sounded hopeful, refusing to understand because being in denial seemed far better.

“Don’t be daft, Scott, even you aren’t that stupid” she sounded venomous, he had never seen her in this light before. She looked at him with pure hate and disgust. “I am leaving and I am never coming back. Done, you hear? I am done with you and this marriage that you have used to trap me, pausing my life for nearly ten years!”

“Why, my love? Please don’t go” he was kneeling at her feet, groveling, begging; he and his oldest son begging her not to leave them

“Don’t call me that! To you, I’m Erin” she stated trying to pry him away from her legs. “Why?!” she laughed bitterly, “You ask me why? Why not, Scott? No tell me, why the hell not?!”, she was practically yelling at this point, the neighbors might come rushing in soon; that is if they would care enough to come see the cause of the commotion.

“I have suffered with you, toiled with you, cared for you and for what? To put my dreams behind me, throwaway my life, became a birth machine for you, a cook, a maid, no more! And upon all that, I am still left to suffer because you are impoverished. I am worth more than this and I may have been blind all this while, but now I see very clearly that there is no future with you! I know my worth now and I am leaving to be with someone who values me, someone who knows my worth. I am going, Scott and there is nothing you can do to change that”

Scott couldn’t talk, he was this close to tears as he watched his whole world crumble before his eyes. The woman he had loved for years, had cared for, worked endless shifts for, had disobeyed his father for, the mother of his kids; was leaving him just like that. All that they had, all the future they planned, gone just like that.

“Stay, mama, please!” their son cried, while his younger sister was still bawling on the sofa. If Scott wasn’t currently engaged in begging his wife to stay, he would wonder how the little girl had such strength to cry for hours.

Erin took a look at her son, she pitied him he was too much like his father. She didn’t hate her children, but she couldn’t take them to where she was going; she had a man now and he wouldn’t want her kids, they would have to stay with their pauper father.

“No, Jeremy, I cannot stay” she knelt to his level as she spoke to him, “Mama has to go, she has to go live her life; a better life, away from Daddy. But you and your sister and your brother would stay with Daddy and he will take care of you and you be good children, okay?”

“Mama, I will be good, but I want you to stay with me and Davy and Amy and Daddy” the boy cried, hugging his mother’s neck

Erin nearly rolled her eyes, the boy was being a tad overdramatic, but she wouldn’t blame him; he is a child with no understanding of how it can get between a man and a woman.

“I can’t stay, but I will come to see you from time to time, you will see” she said and the boy cried harder, begging her more, “I know this may seem hard, but one day when you are older you will understand”

“Please don’t leave us, Erin” Scott said, “Your kids need you, I need you, we can’t do without you. Please stay”

“Oh please, Scott, groveling doesn’t suit you” she said rising back to her full height, looking at him with disgust. Her mind was made up, as a matter of fact she had no time for this, she had a flight to catch. A flight she wouldn’t have to catch if she had more money, she would have used modern luxury travelling; through portal, like how other women who are better married travel.

“You will manage, all of you, just fine without me” she said, she and her bags now at the door.

“Erin, please” Scott cried along with his son

“Oh stop it, I have had enough! Enjoy your impoverished life” she said stepping out, pulling the small hands of her son away from her bags, “See you again never, Scott!” she lastly said, slamming the door behind her as she walked away from them; leaving her family and all the dreams they had behind her.

Scott and Jeremy hug each other, crying as Scott knelt by his son at the front door, both hoping, praying that she would turn back; change her mind and come back to them. All the while baby Amy still screamed at the top of her lungs, now even louder than before; while Davy had miraculously managed to sleep soundly through it all.

Though she had said they could manage, Scott knew their lives would never be the same again now that she had gone; the only woman he had ever loved.