Story #44 - A Funny Little Thing Called Life

Hi everyone! This week's story was inspired by a picture I saw as I was surfing the Internet the other day. I've included it at the end of the story. Happy reading, and as always, thank you for the comments! :)

Title: A Funny Little Thing Called Life (suggestions welcome)
Warnings: slightly angsty
Summary: Nancy and her husband Wynn go to a high school reunion, and things don't turn out well.
Length: ~ 1,400 words
Notes: Third person point of view, present tense. I'm not really sure what the genre is, so I'll go with drama.

A Funny Little Thing Called Life

            “Do we really have to go to this reunion?” Nancy asks Wynn as she laces up her boots. “I won’t remember anyone, and it’ll be boring and awkward.”

“Nonsense!” Wynn says. He’s all ready, standing by the door and waiting for Nancy. “There’s some people I’d really like to see. It won’t be so bad.”

“Easy for you to say,” Nancy mutters, but she heads to the door anyway. “I only went to Paschal High for a year.”

“And I’m glad you did,” Wynn says, pulling her in for a cursory kiss. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have had anything in common when we first met, and we never would’ve talked.”

“Right,” Nancy responds. “Well, let’s get going.”

She is glad she went to Paschal High and it all led to meeting and marrying Wynn. But that doesn’t mean she wants to go to the reunion. But she puts on a brave face and convicts herself to three hours of awkwardness and boredom.

“Isn’t this great?” Wynn proclaims as he joins Nancy at her table. She’d found a few people she recognized (apparently they’d been in the same Spanish class in 12^th grade) and had sat down with them. She hasn’t done much else, but Wynn has been up and about.

“I talked with Peter Grashon. You remember Peter, don’t you? We all had biology with him.”

“Oh, yes, he was the nicest boy,” one of the women at Nancy’s table says. “I think I saw you talking with Sandra Hellock, too. She was a sweetheart as well.”

The woman turns to talk to someone else, but Nancy’s no longer paying attention. She looks at Wynn, who has sat down beside her and is fiddling with the edge of his sleeve. “You talked to Sandra Hellock?”

“Yeah.” Wynn shrugs. “It isn’t a big deal. It wasn’t awkward.”

“Hmm.” Nancy isn’t sure whether she should believe him. Sandra was Wynn’s girlfriend all throughout high school. Wynn had never told her much about Sandra, but Nancy had managed to piece together a story.

They had only broken up because they were going to college and wanted to be free to meet other people. After the first year of college, Wynn found out Sandra had met someone and was planning to marry him. Soon after, Wynn met Nancy, and Wynn and Sandra had gone their separate ways.

Nancy would like to think that she doesn’t have to worry about Wynn and Sandra. She’d like to think that she’s being paranoid to worry at all. But she can’t help remember the wistfulness in Wynn’s voice whenever he mentions Sandra, as well as his declining attention towards Nancy. Yesterday he hadn’t even kissed her goodbye before he went off to work. They always kissed each other goodbye.

Wynn’s going for casual, so Nancy tries to act nonchalant as well. “How’s Sandra’s husband doing?” she asks.

“Oh, I don’t know, I didn’t ask. I didn’t talk to her for that long.”

“She told me they had a divorce a few years back,” yet another woman at the table interjects. “She’s single now. It must be tough – approaching fifty and having no kids or husband.”

“We don’t have any kids,” Nancy says.

“Oh,” the woman (her nametag reads Mary Morrison) says. She looks uncomfortable. Nancy wishes she could remember if Mary often put her foot in her mouth in Spanish class, but that was thirty years ago.

Nancy glances at Wynn to see how he’s taking all of this, but he isn’t by her side. She looks around and spots him chatting to someone who could very well be Sandra. Nancy remembers what Mary just said about the divorce and gets up from her seat. She can scare this Sandra away and remind Wynn why they married each other.

She goes up to Wynn, and sure enough, the woman he is talking to wears a nametag that reads Sandra Hellock.

“Hello, you must be Sandra,” Nancy says, reaching out to shake Sandra’s hand. “I’m Nancy, Wynn’s wife. I’m sure he’s told you about me.”

“Oh, yes, I’ve heard about you,” Sandra says with a smile as false as her bright blonde hair. “It’s great to meet you.”

“I was just telling Sandra about the time we went on that cruise to Hawaii,” Wynn says. “It was amazing.”

“Oh yes, it was gorgeous,” Nancy agrees. She’s only half paying attention to the conversation. The other half of her is focused on observing Wynn and Sandra. Their body language seems a bit too friendly for two exes.

She’s being crazy. She needs to calm down and trust her husband. She’s claimed her territory and introduced herself to Sandra; now it’s time to leave and trust Wynn and common morals.

“I think I’ll head back to our table,” Nancy says. “It was nice meeting you, Sandra.”

“You too,” Sandra echoes with a random, tinkling laugh. Nancy glances at Wynn, who smiles at her (his smile seems false too… or is that just her being paranoid?).

“See you,” he says, and turns back to talk to Sandra.

After the reunion, things are tense. June turns into July, and Wynn hardly ever just talks to Nancy or remembers to kiss her goodbye. She tries to restart their passion for each other. She wears sexy clothes. She suggests that they go on vacation. She avoids talking about Sandra. She isn’t sure how long this awful non-communication will last. Eventually, she sits down with Wynn at dinner and asks, “Why can’t we make this work?”

Wynn looks up at her. “Excuse me?”

Nancy explains, “I – I feel like we’ve been drifting apart for a while now. I want to be close to you again, but… every time I try it doesn’t work out.”

Wynn sighs. “People change, Nancy,” he says.

Nancy gazes at Wynn. Her husband. He has changed since they first met. His hair has thinned, he’s taken to wearing reading glasses, and he hardly ever takes her up on his back and gives her piggyback rides anymore. But he has the same kind, expressive blue eyes and the same dimples when he smiles. He hasn’t smiled for a long time.

“Yes, people change,” Nancy admits. “But we can still make this work, can’t we?”

They both know what Nancy wants Wynn to say. But to her distress, he simply shakes his head and says, “No.”

“What do you mean?” Nancy asks, although she’s pretty sure she knows what Wynn means.

“We can’t make this work,” he says. “I’ve – I’ve been sleeping with someone else.”

“What?” Nancy gasps. “Who? When? Is it Sandra?”

“This past month,” Wynn replies. “And yes, it’s Sandra. I’m so sorry…”

His apologies mean nothing to Nancy. She hears a dull roaring in her eyes and worries that she’s going to faint. Her husband has been cheating on her for a whole month? She should have known!

She doesn’t know who she’s most angry at – herself, Wynn, or Sandra. “Are you – do you want to be with Sandra?” Nancy finally manages to ask, the words sticking in her throat.

Wynn looks at her with his kind, sympathetic, lying, cheating eyes. “Yes.”

And with that word, Nancy’s world shatters.

They get a divorce. Wynn and Sandra only wait a month to marry. Nancy spends a lot of time fuming. She even puts a notice in the newspaper in the lost-and-found section.

Lost my husband, Wynn, to Sandra who has no morals following 30^th year Paschal High class reunion in June, it reads.

She imagines how Wynn and Sandra will feel reading that and grins in relish. Serves them right! She’ll spread their bad name throughout the land.

Eventually, though, Nancy’s fire fades and she goes on with her life. Wynn and Sandra go on with theirs. When Paschal High’s 40^th reunion comes around, Nancy decides to go. She’s ready to show Wynn and Sandra that she can’t be defeated by a divorce or loneliness.

It might not be so bad. Maybe they’ll even laugh together about her newspaper notice. Life is life, Nancy knows, and the best thing you can do is keep going, even when it doesn’t go your way.

At the reunion, no one mentions the newspaper message. Wynn and Sandra are still together, and Nancy is still alone. She tells them about her cat and they tell her about their kid. Nancy cooes and awws at the appropriate moments.

Life is life, and the best thing you can do is keep going, even when it doesn’t go your way.

The End!

 

Inspiration for story. Check out the last entry. Saw this when looking at funny pictures. I don't know any of these people involved in real life, and my representations are merely fictional characters.