The Last Word
written by: Angela Huskisson
She had promised to Love, Honour and Obey. But she’d taken hard against that final word, the one which had sealed her fate. She should have had it removed from her vows, like Lady Di, but it wasn’t until later that she realised just how much damage this one word had done.
At first, he’d encircled her with daisy chains where she should have guessed at a future yet to come. The daisies were soft and pure with stems carefully broken. It should have been a warning, but instead she’d laughed as he twirled her golden locks around his fingers whilst drawing her still closer. And it wasn’t until later, when those gentle flowers had transformed themselves into portents of pure steel and stopped her breath, like armour (not amour) that she knew his words of endearment meant nothing.
He had bought a second-hand wedding band which wound tight around the fourth finger of her left hand, connecting directly with her heart.
And it was all too late when the children came quickly, dragging their own chains with them, like ghosts arriving from different worlds. And she, deprived of sleep, enclosed by constant need and longing, where she felt like a canary captured for the coalmine and simply unable to croak.
Slowly, Obey turned itself into Duty, which quickly became Anger before changing to Regret and where all she wanted was Out; Freedom from the maelstrom of this mine. She was sick of the Drudgery and pussyfooting around, ever careful of his changing moods. She was living a half-life tucked well within the body of a full lie.
But, of course, he couldn’t see, being blind to everything except himself. He didn’t see the carnage and the debris which lay behind his immaculate house. And it took him some time to find the Note, because he wasn’t looking, and he never really saw. But it was this note which told that she was Leaving.
A single word, writ large with nothing else to say, but loaded, because she’d said so much before and he couldn’t make sense of any words which she spoke.
So, it was Goodbye to everything that she had known, where, all of her words now hung in midair like windchimes gasping for breeze. But all were unseen, unspoken and almost always Ignored. So, when he came home one mid-week summer eve, his beautiful crazy canary had flown her gilded cage of Plenty. And all that remained were his three hungry children, in this place where he’d offered her his Everything and she’d only seen the bars.
Did she live happily ever after? Perhaps, but then, only Time itself will tell.
NOTE:
Based on the Prompt – Breaking The Chain
- The Last Word - August 7, 2026
- That Summer - July 6, 2026
- The Loadstone - June 7, 2026
