The car

Slamming the door for affect I stormed down the road. Why would he never listen? I have dreams too, just mine don’t involve losing all our money.

It’s usually houses or extravagant holidays, today it was a car.  We don’t even have a drive, where does he think he’s going to park it? Sky hook?

If you are holding a raffle, Geoff is always at the front of the queue.  He never wins, for all the competitions he has entered I’m sure he has spent well over £1000, but never won, not anything of any value anyway.  I hate that phrase, you have to be in it to win it, yes and it might cost you a fortune.

Sitting on a wall I watch the world go by.  Everyone has their struggles, some more then others.  Ignoring the buzzing in my pocket, I contemplated where to go next. The children are at school.  Geoff should be working but for some reason has booked leave today, and yes me, I’ve just walked out.

Sometimes it is not easy to make a point, and I think it will be a long time before Geoff realises that he has a problem. He rarely considers the consequences. Wanting to be left alone I continued to ignore him.

Have you ever noticed elderly couples walking arm in arm? I always imagined my old age to look like that, I’m not so sure now, will I kill Geoff first?  To be with someone all those years and still love them, that is special.

Competitions

I think of all the houses we could have won, we live in a three-bed terraced house.  Its small but we get by.  The landlord has increased the rent twice, if only we had savings. Any time we do save, Geoff spends it. Sighing I think of what could be.

I hear a car horn.  Why can’t people just be quiet?  Then my name.  I want to be alone.  Looking round I see it is Geoff, but we don’t have a car.  Especially not one as grand as this, it was bright red and brand new.

Walking over to him, I’m astonished,

“What’s going on?”

“I was trying to tell you, this is ours.  Only cost £500, someone had to win it.”

“Where we going to park it?”

“Stop the negatives and get in.”

How is he going to learn now? And why couldn’t we have won the house not the car?

Life

Life is one long set of challenges.  I look at Geoff beaming, completely oblivious to how angry I am with him. Do I have the problem here? He believes that if he keeps entering competitions all will come good.  Me, I’m a realist, I know that to get things you need to put real time and effort into it, it isn’t usually just given to you.  I look at the car, maybe we could sell it.  Hearing those thoughts in my head, I look at happy Geoff.   Maybe for now I should just enjoy the moment and see where this leads. Maybe one day we will win the house, but how broke will we be at that point? How much more do we need to lose?

Sitting in silence I look at the countryside whizzing by, where are we going?  He certainly wasn’t driving us straight home.  I wonder if he has thought about needing a residents permit to park this thing.  It’s a bit grand for our road and it too nice to be left in a public car park.

As he makes a right turn I am now stunned.

“Okay I walked out earlier in my scruffy joggers and an old T shirt.  You are now driving us to a hotel.  What is happening?”

The hotel

“I knew you might not listen to me, so I planned ahead.   My mum is collecting the children later and your decent clothes are in a case in the boot”.

“And the hotel, how?”

“It came with the car.  It was dropped off this morning after you left, we are now going to a proper award meal.  See it was worth the gamble.”

“Only cos you won.”

“And Sue, the car can stay with my mum till we are able to park it outside our house, if ever, or till I win us a better home.”

“Oh, Geoff will you ever stop?”

Luck

Some people are just born lucky. I’m not sure if we are.  Will he ever win us a house? Maybe for now I should just relax and enjoy the afternoon and the car.  We’ve never had a car and the children are going to love it.

To the dear elderly couples still walking arm in arm after many years, is it just a lot of acceptance? Or a lot of time and patience? How do you do it ? I was so angry at Geoff this morning, now I’m not sure what to think other then be shocked.  Things like this happen to other families, not us.

As Geoff took my arm to walk into the hotel, still in my scruffy joggers I told myself to stop the stress.  To take things a day at a time and today was a good day so enjoy it.

Written for Write the story prompt on Writers Unite

For more see Just one of those days