My husband appeared to me for the first time as I was walking to his car.1 This wouldn’t have been so strange ordinarily,2 but we’d had him cremated three weeks previously,3 so the shock was enough to make me drop the crowbar I had been carrying.4 It bounced off my big toe5 and landed on the driveway with a metallic clang.6 Ben’s spirit looked exactly as he had the morning before he left to go to work on the day he died;7 pristine grey suit, crisp white shirt, finished off with a bright cerise tie to show he was confident enough to be in touch with his feminine side.8 His face reminded me of the last time I’d witnessed him opening his credit card statement (the one I had a card for):9 face a mask of horror and mouth curved into a silent “No”.10 His hands were held up begging me to stop walking any further.11 He disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared, leaving me standing on the driveway outside our house, jaw hanging and big toe throbbing.12 When I came to my senses,13 I muttered an expletive through clenched teeth,14 whilst rubbing my toe which I suspected might be broken.15
I looked up and down our street; a few cars idled past16 but there didn’t appear to be anyone around who might have witnessed the little scene,17 which I still wasn’t convinced had actually happened.18 Grief does strange things to people, particularly when you lose someone as suddenly as I had lost Ben. He just went to work one day and never came home.19 I guess that’s what happens when you attempt to treat a heart attack with ibuprofen and Antacids.20 I did ask the registrar if we could record the cause of death on the death certificate as stupidity.21 She wasn’t amused.22 Sarcasm is how I chose to deal with difficult stuff …23
Leggete l'articolo completo e molti altri in questo numero di
Writing Magazine
Opzioni di acquisto di seguito
Se il problema è vostro,
Accesso per leggere subito l'articolo completo.
Singolo numero digitale
August 2019
 
Questo numero e altri numeri arretrati non sono inclusi in un nuovo
abbonamento. Gli abbonamenti comprendono l'ultimo numero regolare e i nuovi numeri pubblicati durante l'abbonamento. Writing Magazine
Abbonamento digitale annuale
€58,99
fatturati annualmente
Abbonamento digitale mensile
€5,99
fatturati mensilmente