Emotions Run High--The Monster

“God dammit, Chloe!” Gus Mayercheck screamed at his cowering wife. “Why can’t you show some GUTS!? Why did I have to get stuck married to such a fucking pussy, who can’t do a damn thing for herself!?”

His round face was beat red, a vein popped out on the right side of his forehead, enunciating his fury at her latest mistake. Chloe pushed with her feet, trying in vain to somehow blend into the ugly floral wall paper that had been there since she picked it out, seven years ago. She had her hands over her ears, pushing with all the weak muscle she possessed, as if trying to split her very skull open. Her greasy blond hair swayed back and forth over her scrunched up face as she shook her head.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” she moaned helplessly. “Not again.”

Gus stomped violently over to her and forcefully grabbed her shoulders in his massive, meaty hands. He picked her up like a rag doll, bracing her against the wall, her feet reaching only his knees. She clawed frantically at his hairy arms, not truly holding out hope that he might let her go. But her eyes were open now, searching past the blurriness of her frightened tears for a way out, anything to distract his rage. There was nothing. As this knowledge crept over her, the cold and hopeless feeling of despair washed over her.

Gus just held her there, once she stopped fighting him. His red hot fury seemed to subside, and he saw her differently. The energy seeped out of him, and suddenly he felt weak, too weak to hold himself up. He dropped her roughly to the ground, where she collapsed into a heap, not daring to move. She feared the monster would return if she so much as breathed.

He sat down in his favorite brown leather recliner, and they sat that way for a time. Her hardly daring to move, him resting his tired body.

Gus was the one to break the silence. “I’m sorry, baby,” he said quietly. “I-I didn’t mean it… Any of it…”

The monster was gone. She was safe again.

She let out a huge sigh of relief and picked herself up only to throw herself into his arms.

“I know, honey, I know, it’s okay,” she mumbled encouragingly as he started to weep in her arms. “It’s not your fault, it’s okay, I forgive you. Look, see, I’m not even hurt. You did more damage to the dining room than to me.”

He shook his head and buried his face in her chest, crying like a school girl. “I-I don’t know what happened,” he sobbed in an agonized tone. “I just got so MAD, I couldn’t stop myself… Oh, I’m so sorry, Chloe. So, so sorry.”

He wept that way for only a few minutes, before Chloe tilted his face to her. “Hey,” she said in a firm voice, “stop that. Everyone gets mad sometimes. I’m okay, and you’re okay, so count the blessings, not the sins.” She touched her forehead and nose to his, looking into his eyes as she spoke. “I love you with all the might in the world, Gus Mayercheck. Nothing in this universe will ever change that.”

She kissed him, then, with all the fiery passion her eyes had held just moments before. The salty taste of his tears reminded them both, but for just a minute, they were able to forget his sins, and love each other like they used to be able to all the time.