The Changeling

                                   The Changeling

7/6/2020

2057 words

Sandra Wheatley

Chapter One

A dark red spot appeared on her nostril, he watched it with interest, fascinated as it began to spread across the top of her lips then trickle down towards her mouth.

She didn’t move, even to wipe the blood away, which by now was forming a small pool in the centre of her lips. She was completely motionless and for one heartbeat of a second, he hoped that she wasn’t dead.

He bent down just a bit to see if she was breathing and just as he began to move back up he saw her chest expand.

He didn’t feel relief he felt satisfied that he did not have to explain anything to the police, after all, it was entirely her fault, it always was. She knew exactly what to say to provoke him, to make him see red. He absolutely knew down to his bone marrow that she did this on purpose, she was either evil or stupid he could never decide which one it was.

His beloved Rolex watch glinted in the sunlight that was streaming through the window. This was his most treasured possession and something he loved to display, like a male peacock in full show, feathers splayed while he strutted around attempting to attract a mate. The Rolex was his display and even on the coldest days, he wore short sleeves to make sure that it was always on display. It made him feel more of a man, someone in control, after all a man who could afford such a wonderful item was surely a man of substance.

If truth be known it was the one and only thing of any value he owned, his house belonged to the local council and his car was held together by rust and goodwill.

Two years ago he had won five thousand pounds on the horses. It never occurred to him to spend the money on his family or on buying a new car or God forbid get his wife some new clothes, which she desperately needed. He had gone straight to Watchfinder and purchased his beloved Rolex watch that had never been off of his wrist from that day. Even in the occasional bath and even though he believed it was waterproof, he didn’t want to take the risk so his wrist was kept well and truly out of the water.

He heard her moan and went to put the kettle on so that he could make her a nice cup of tea when she came to her senses.

He could never understand why she insisted on winding him up, she knew he couldn’t hold his temper it was just who he was, surely after all these years she would at least try to understand him, it made her pretty thick if she didn’t get it by now.

The kettle boiled and he whistled while he made two cups of tea and put them on the kitchen side.

He walked slowly into the lounge, she was sitting on the settee with her head in her hands, her hands were covered in blood and he could see the familiar black bruises starting to appear on her arms, face and neck.

‘’Tea’s here, sorry love you know that I love you, you just wind me up so much, if you didn’t wind me up so much I wouldn’t lash out at you’’

‘’lash out? Is that what this is?’’

‘’Don’t start, come and get your tea, if you like I will get us a takeaway tonight and we can have a relaxing night in front of the tele, that way you won’t have to cook’’

Her stomach ached inside and out, inside with the total utter stupidity of her situation, it ached with the fear of leaving him as she had been told many times by him that to leave him meant a sure and sudden demise not only for her but for her daughter. This fear had turned an intelligent well-educated woman into a mindless wreck who lived with fear, hate, broken bones and bloody noses every day of her sad, futile, lonely life. It ached on the outside with the continual punches and kicks that she endured most days of her desperate life.

Emily was at her Grandmothers, she spent a lot of time with her Grandmother, who suspected that something terrible was happening but she only saw her daughter when the bruises and marks of violence had gone and Emily would never divulge her Mothers secret life. Emily and her Mother were both ashamed to be living like they were but they had an unwritten code to stay silent so silence was the order of the day.

‘’I'm going down the club’’

She heard the door close and two emotions swept through her simultaneously, fear and relief. Relief that he had left her for a few hours so that she could do her best to get herself together and fear that he would spend the last money they had in the bank, which she was keeping for food and petrol and that when the money was gone she would be punished for a word, a look, for not talking, for talking, for sighing or for just being.

Chapter Two

The club was busy for a Tuesday evening. He noticed a group of young men standing at the end of the bar, he had never seen them before and he wondered idly who they were and who they were with. Everyone had to be signed in if they were not a member and he looked around to see if a member was with them, he couldn’t see anyone he knew and he knew all of the members.

He had been coming to the club for years so he said to John, one of the founder members standing beside him.

‘’Who are the lads?’’

‘’The one in the black shirt is Billy’s lad the others are his mates, they came in to have a look around they are thinking of becoming members. Drink?’’

‘’Scotch, make it a double’’

John raised his eyebrows, wishing he had never asked him, but he ordered the Scotch anyway.

‘’Sorry mate your cards been declined’’ He looked at the bartender with a look that he hoped would strike him dead, then slowly he left the bar and walked out of the club, plotting on how he could make the decline of his card her fault. After all, it had humiliated him and that was something he could not forgive, not this time anyway.

As he turned the corner out of the car park he felt a thump in the middle of his back, it left him with no wind in his lungs and he fell to the floor. As he fell to his knees he noticed feet all around him and before he could look up a fist slammed into his face. He felt the blood run out of his nose and down towards his lips, something he had witnessed twice that day.

A large boot kicked him in the stomach and another in his groin, the pain shot up his spine to his brain. Another fist pounded into his face, closing his eyes with a swelling that was very large and very immediate.

He lamely held up his arm in an attempt to hold off the blows, but there were too many and as he felt his beloved watch being taken off of his raised arm, he slipped into unconsciousness to the sound of laughter.

When he awoke She was standing next to his bed with Emily. They were smiling and Emily was holding a card.

‘’it’s a get well card Dad’’

‘’What happened love, your eye is black, oh, I’m so sorry for what I have done to you, I was beaten up love, beaten up, I, I had no idea, I’m so sorry, please forgive me. They took my watch, did they beat me up for my watch?’’

‘’She smiled a warm, loving smile that reached her eyes and was kind and genuine’’

He sighed a deep soul-wrenching sigh, it was a sigh of sheer relief.

After all, he reckoned he would need someone to look after him until he recovered so it might as well be her.

‘’The thing is………….well the thing is, your spine was damaged in the fight’’

‘’Fight, there wasn’t a fight, I was mugged can’t you see that I was mugged by a gang of thugs, it wasn’t even a fair fight, just a bunch of cowards, where are the police, I can tell them who they were?’’

‘’The Police are not pressing charges, two witnesses say you started it and that they couldn’t recognise the boys’’

‘’I can recognise them, I saw them in the club they are friends of Billy’s lad, he was there too’’

‘’Not according to the witnesses, the lads you are talking about were inside the club when this happened so it was definitely not them. Anyway, we just came to tell you that me and Emily are moving’’

Icy fear rushed through his veins and the iciness of his stare confirmed that the ice was well and truly circulating, numbing his senses and causing his usual feelings of red flag anger to rise, he needed the heat of anger to quell the icy numbness of sheer disbelief.

‘’You are my wife, you're not going anywhere and if you do, you know what will happen and I will get custody of Emily, I will tell them what a terrible mother you are, you have no chance of keeping her you don’t’ even have a job, how can you keep a child?’’

He laughed a deep laugh of satisfaction and to his amazement, she still smiled sweetly.

‘’The thing is, the fight, or mugging whatever it was snapped your spine, the Doctor said you will never walk again, in fact, one of your legs is so badly broken they don’t’ even think they can save it, it may have to come off’’

Her smile broadened as did Emily’s.

‘’We just came to say goodbye, Mum is selling up and we are moving with her, maybe to another country, who knows, we are free now and we have a lot of living to do, don’t’ we Em’s.?’’

‘’We do Mum, we had better get going we have a lot to do’’

They turned and walked out of the hospital he watched until he could not see them anymore.

The tears came silently and in floods that could not for the moment be stopped and that would be a feature of his life for many many months ahead.

He couldn’t catch his breath, he lifted the bed covers and saw the pins sticking out of his legs and the cage that was trying to protect them. His life really did flash before his eyes, every smack, every blow, every kick he had inflicted and every nasty name he had called her, hit him firmly between his eyes and he screamed out in panic and desperation.

‘’Come back, I really have changed this time, I need you, please come back. I love you’’

He saw a figure at the window, it was her, she was still smiling, she turned and waved to him just before she slid into the car and life as he had known it disappeared forever.

The ward Doctor, who had witnessed the scene and who had known by looking at her cuts, bruises and the haunted look in her eyes that she had endured torture and torment regularly, over the years, at the hands of this man.

‘’I’m going to give you an injection to calm you down. I’m sorry to have to tell you that the leg has to come off, we can’t save it. Your operation is at 9am tomorrow morning’’

The Doctor had sworn the Hippocratic Oath, but even he could not help smiling just a little as he walked away, thinking that God was indeed a Good God who knew exactly how to reward and punish.

He said he would change and change he certainly would, just not the kind of change he had in mind, this change would give him a lifetime of reflection, remorse, sorrow and some would say, just deserts.

The End.