Yağmur Özdeğirmenci
After an exhausting day at work, Lisa’s only motivation was the trip her husband had planned for both of them that weekend. She had to wait excitedly till Friday to learn the location of their trip, and today was the day. She walked rapidly towards her home waiting for the moment that she would learn the location. She entered with her keys, hung up her coat and put on her pajamas. Later she made a cup of coffee and started to wait for her husband to come home.
Hours passed, and there was still no trace of her husband. He didn’t answer her calls or messages. Lisa was angry but also very sleepy because of the stressful day she had had. So she went to bed and thought about questioning her husband the next morning. Around one o’clock in the morning she heard the noise of someone opening the door. Then she heard a familiar jingle of keys. Her husband had finally come home.
She got up from her bed irritably because of being woken up and went to the living room. “Why did you come this late?” asked Lisa. “I had a conference to attend, that’s why,” answered her husband. “You could’ve told me before instead of making me wait anxiously. Also you were going to tell me the location of the trip tonight.” said Lisa. At that moment her husband realized that he forgotten about the trip because of the busy week he had been through. “Shoot, I forgot to make a reservation. I’m terribly sorry dear, I had a really busy week,” he said. Lisa looked at her husband as if she had seen a ghost. Because she was yearning for a trip away from the city with her husband and that trip was all she was thinking about when her boss was yelling her lungs out because of one little mistake. She didn’t say anything, she just looked at her husband like he was a rival. Then she grabbed her coat and keys and got out of the house.
Her not saying anything was even more hurtful than any words in the world. Her husband felt the cold in her eyes. She definitely hated him at that moment. Her husband sat on the floor and started to look at the designs of the carpet without saying a word. At that moment the house felt even colder than a winter night and the silence was as sharp as a knife. Her husband’s head was like chaos. All the thoughts running through his mind were tangled up like a knot. The only thing he could do was gain some energy by sleeping and thinking of a solution the next day to clean up his mess.
He went to bed and woke up two hours later. He tried to sleep again but nothing helped. So he thought of searching for activities taking place that weekend. After searching for a while, he found that there was a performance of Romeo and Juliet that Saturday at 4 pm. Lisa was a big fan of Shakespeare, and Romeo and Juliet was one of her favorite plays. So her husband bought two tickets and made a reservation at their favorite restaurant for Saturday night. After his research he felt more comfortable and was able to fall asleep. Maybe it was the guilt which didn’t let him sleep cozily. But wasn’t he a human too ? Wasn’t he able to forget things like any other human in the world? These are questions that can have many answers from different perspectives, so let’s continue our story. Lisa entered her home at 6 o’clock. Her eyes were still red after crying, but she wasn’t feeling frustration towards her husband. In fact she wasn’t feeling anything. She just wanted to sleep somewhere she was used to. İn the morning his husband was very surprised to see her sleeping next to him. It was as if yesterday had been a night like any other night.
Her husband got up from bed and made breakfast for both of them. They both ate their breakfast in silence, but this time the silence wasn’t as sharp as a knife. Actually it was a silence that brought peace to the soul. Also the house that had felt cold the previous night felt warm like a fireplace on a snowy day. Lisa was shocked to hear that her husband had planned a surprise for her. Maybe it wasn’t an escape from the city, but it was definitely an escape from the stress and frustration.
Lisa was really affected by the play. The actors, the decors, the costumes, everything was perfect. Even she and her husband held hands without realizing while they were watching the play. When they sat down for dinner at the restaurant, Lisa felt like she had to give an explanation about the previous night. “I wasn’t hating you last night,” said Lisa. “ I just didn’t want to pour all my anger at you, that’s why I left the house.” Her husband was deeply shocked. He had assumed that their relationship had finished after Lisa left the house. At that moment all the grey clouds disappeared. Instead of them, a feeling of warmth and coziness that only something as hot as sun could give filled up the atmosphere. Lisa’s husband was happy to learn that his wife didn’t hate him but actually cared for him that night.