A Memorable New Year

A Memorable New Year
Writers Cramp
Word Count:845

The past year had taken its toll by now. The distance between them was as wide as a chasm and deeper than either of them cared to speculate. It was a battle of egos. Eleena was ready to leave, but something tugged at her, and every time it did, she winced. She was furious at this gravitational pull she felt for Han. She was at her wits end, but failed to find out what it was. Han was equally ready to call it off too. The fourteen year marriage they had shared had dragged itself too long. The children knew. Their three children could see them rotting away from each other.
Lately, even the children were not a reason convincing enough to prolong this agony. They saw them bicker for a day, before they succumbed to deafening silence for weeks. The children knew the reason Mommy did not sleep with Daddy was not their little sister Annie, it was them both. They were smart enough to figure out that their family was the next in line to be blown away into oblivion. Forever cracked, with a furrow that would neither fade out or diminish in intensity.
It was time. One waited for another to make the first move. The other waited for the same. No one could summon up enough courage to get on with formalities. Han was irritated with himself now. What was it that was stopping him? An invisible string like a kite’s, sharp and strong. Forbidding him to jump from the brink. As far as he knew, he had no feelings left for his wife any more.
Eleena would get flashbacks all the time. She would think of them young and consumed with love and desire. They had needed no friends or family, for so many years. They were enough for each other. They had transformed themselves to suffice so many relationship needs for each other. They were truly and hopelessly lost in each other. The arrival of each child in their love nest was celebrated but not the way they celebrated their lives together. The children were a bonus. They had been ahead of life. Savoring each sunset, each sunrise, each soft snowflake and each wind chime with zest and greed of a dying person.
What had happened?
Han could feel resentment widening the distance between them. The very things that made him proud of Eleena, were making life an onus for him. And the friends and the family were becoming over whelming too.
Too many advices from too many people.
It was as if there were all these people they had ever known together in their life times, standing in a single line, between them.
He craved for her in the nights and detested her face in the days.
She longed for his arms around her. But she could hear his hurtful words loud and clear, like a daily insult.
What was it? Eleena and Han contemplated while suffering each other in silence. The children smoldering in their relentless flames. They both could not bring themselves to divorce .
The thought of Han marrying some other woman seared Eleena. Han would ignore thoughts of Eleena with some other man, with all his might. They had a thirst of a traveller in a desert, who comes across a well, but denies himself a drink.
It was a battle of egos. A whole year ruined in its wake. Forgiving and then finding something else unforgivable. It was a dastardly game, their marriage.
Eleena gave up. She decided to go for it. She wanted to end it, for all of them.
Han was ready to pull the plug too. He had made up his mind. Someone had to do it.
On New Year’s Eve, they stayed in, as usual. They all sat in the family room, watching TV or reading. Han got up and went to the garage. He had been silent all day. Eleena knew tonight would be the last night of their fight. He was gone to get the papers from his car.
She heard the car door shut. Han came into the room, all blank in the face. He came closer to the couch where she sat. He put an envelop in her lap. Hands in tremor and hardly daring to breathe, Eleena opened the yellow envelop. It was a bunch of airline tickets. He is sending us away, she thought. The tickets were to Dubai. She ignored the tickets, fishing out a note. It was blank white card. She opened it and read: “HAPPY NEW YEAR. Would you start it all over with me?”

Eyes shining with love and shoulders heaving in relief, she hugged Han, as if for the first time. A stolen hug, in front of their shocked children. She looked into his eyes, with a twinkle of the same mystery. She went to the kitchen asking the children to switch off the lights. She came out with a cake she’d baked herself, with five candles, one for each of them, glowing on a message:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!