Coming home

“You’re driving like a maniac! Slow down and stop changing lanes every other second” – Paula said to her husband.

“Do you want to take over?” – Mark asked his wife.

“We just switched. I drove for the past five hours” – Paula replied.

“Longest five hours of my life. If it were up to me, you would not be driving at all” – Mark said, changing yet to a different lane.

“Do you have to be an ass?” – Paula asked.

“I don’t, but you insist on making me out to be one way too often” – Mark said and honked at the car that suddenly slowed down.

“Plus, it was your idea to drive in the first place” – he added.

“The plane tickets were too expensive” – Paula replied.

“One cannot simply put a price on one’s life. Think about how much this stress shaves off my lifespan” – Mark said.

“Oh, so now I am killing you by making you drive?” – Paula asked.

“Something like that” – he replied.

“I am so sick and tired of your bullshit!” – Paula exclaimed.

“MY bullshit? What about YOUR bullshit?” – Mark asked.

“You always shift the blame onto someone else. I call that “pulling a Mark.””

“Did it take you long to come up with that?” – Mar asked and snickered.

Paula did not answer. Instead, she shifted in her passenger seat and turned around. Their two kids were fast asleep. At least they were quiet and not causing problems.

“And now it’s a blizzard!” – Mark exclaimed.

“Shhhh! The kids are sleeping” – Paula scolded him.

“Oh, now you care that they are asleep?! You didn’t seem to give a crap when you were tearing me a new one just minutes ago” – Mark returned the favor.

“It’s always been tit for tat with you. What about being the best you can be without comparing yourself to others and bringing yourself down to their level?” – Paula asked.

“What about being the best?... Wait a minute. Did you just admit that you are on a lower level?” – Mark asked as he flipped a driver in a car that he was overtaking.

“Wow. It’s snowing like crazy” – Paula announced.

“Yes. It’s called a blizzard. I think I warned you about it a few minutes ago. I apologize for not repeating it. I thought the windows that surround you would give you enough of an insight into the weather around us” – Mark said.

“Looks like I won’t be able to weave through traffic much more. It’s bumper to bumper in every single lane. It’s like people forget how to drive the moment it starts snowing” – he added.

“You can barely see five feet in front of you. How do you expect people to keep driving in such conditions” – Paula asked.

“Normally” – he answered while shaking his fists at the traffic around him.

“I want a divorce” – Paula said quietly.

“Stop being so dramatic, Paula” – Mark answered.

“I am not being dramatic. Things have not been like they used to be for a while now, Mark.”

“How long is a while?” – he asked, looking at her without blinking.

Paula sat in silence for what seemed like forever.

A car behind them honked. It was now Mark who was holding up the traffic.

“Go fuck yourself” – Mark exclaimed, looking at the rearview mirror.

The kids stirred in the back.

“Calm down, Mark. The kids…” – Paula said in a soft voice.

“HOW LONG?” – he asked again.

“Mommy, why is Daddy shouting?” – the boy of seven years old asked from the back seat.

“It’s alright, honey. Go back to sleep” – Paula said to her son, squeezing his knee.

“Remember Puerto Rico?” – Paula began after a moment of silence.

“Yea?” – Mark answered.

“I hoped that just the two of us away from the daily grind would spark the flames anew, but all you did was sit by the bar and talk to strangers” – Paula continued.

“I was giving you time to rest. I knew you needed time away. And not just away from your work and the kids, but from me. I gave you space” – Mark replied.

“Well, that’s not what I wanted” – she concluded.

“I’m sorry” – he said and hung his head just a tiny bit lower.

“By December, I knew it was over, but I wanted us to have one more Christmas together” – Paula announced.

“And then, you decided that we were going to see your family three states away” – she added.

“Yes, but it was your penny-pinching self who refused to travel by plane. The visibility is getting worse by the minute” – Mark replied.

“Remember when we rented this cabin in Colorado when we were dating?” – Mark asked without looking at Paula.

“Yea” – she replied and smiled.

“We got snowed in, and all we could do was make out in front of the fire for two days straight” – he continued.

Paula chuckled and sighed.

“Good Ol’ times” – she concluded.

“I read this article the other day that January 6^th is “Divorce Monday.” Are you trying to be trendy?” – he asked her after a moment of silence.

“What? No. It’s coincidental. You just got me all riled up with the driving, and I slipped. You’re not getting served until Wednesday, probably” – Paula explained.

“Oh, that’s good to know that you’re not just trying to go viral or something” – he joked.

Paula rolled her eyes, trying not to chuckle. Neither one of them understood the crave for overnight fame with the use of social media.

The snowflakes blew in every direction possible, making it look as if the car was in the middle of a tornado. Windshield wipers could not run fast enough to brush the snow off the window, and each lane moved slowly as a snail.

“It sounds like you really thought things through. You’ve been sitting on this for a while. Wow. I had no idea it’s so easy for you to hide things from me like that.”

“That’s what I mean, Mark. Back in the day, you would have known something was up without me having to tell you.”

Mark knew what his wife was saying was true. Throughout the years, he settled into a routine and got complacent. Somewhere along the way, he stopped trying to do and be better. Paula already married him, so there was no point in proving himself to her. Even when he would get a sense of clarity and thought about working hard on his marriage, he would promptly put that thought on the back burner due to more pressing issues. He now realized that their marriage was THE most pressing issue, and he blew his shot at it.

“So, divorce, huh?” – Mark asked, slightly turning towards Paula.

The woman sitting next to her was not the one he had married. This one was the mother of his kids. Fine lines around her eyes added to her innocent beauty.

“What’s divorce?” – the 5-year-old girl from the back seat asked.

“Where’d you hear that, sweetie?” – Paula asked her daughter.

Agnes was too sleepy to have an adult conversation, so she gave up on her inquiry and drifted off again.

Paula looked at her husband. There was remarkable sadness painted on his face. She could feel that he understood her pain and could finally see her dissatisfaction with him and their lives together. Even though she tried asking him to talk with her about their marital issues many times, he never took her seriously. This time things were different. Maybe it was because he couldn’t walk away from her, or because he couldn’t put on a TV, or yell at her. It could also be because she didn’t do any one of those things, either.

“Remember our road trip in college?” – Paula finally asked.

“It was unlike today’s drive. Blue skies, sun shining, wind in our hair. We ran out of gas way too many times” – Mark recalled.

“We were having too much fun to notice silly things like fuel levels” – Paula chuckled.

“I may or may not have overlooked them sometimes just so we would be forced to take a walk during sunset” – Mark added.

“You never told me that!” – Paula said and nudged her husband’s elbow playfully.

“Do you want to talk?” – she asked him.

“I’d love to” – Mark replied and lifted his head slightly.