See that Man?

by Princess Lourince J. Luz

“See that man wearing yellow shirt? The one holding a shovel with a towel on his left shoulder?”

I asked Khon, one time when we stopped by at a gasoline station and a construction site just at the opposite of where we are. He then turned his eyes.

“Hmm, the skinny one?”

I sighed then fake a smile.

“Did you know that I used to go crazy about him when I was just 18? Even with that skinny body and with that work he is in up until now. I never looked and treat him as someone who’s at the bottom of where I stand, because I do love him. Even with only those gray like ashes Iris he owned. And he feels the same way too! I know, I can feel it, but he never say a word.”

“Then he is a coward.” Khon uttered with finality and certainty that he’s right.

“No, he isn’t! Remember the girl who used to always run after you wherever you go? The girl who confessed how much she is in love with you, even with the fact that she already have two kids with her?”

“Oh! that Athena girl? Don’t worry about her, she’s gone. She already stop bothering me. I choose you, remember?”

“Yeah, you choose me…”

I fake a cough and laughed then tear my gaze away from that site. Closed the car’s window then drove the roaring car away, while deeply thinking and cussing myself inside ‘I almost spill it!’

Khon is my husband, we were married for 3 years now. That man in a yellow shirt never say a word simply because he never got there. He never loved or liked me at all. And with the truth that, he is the father of those two kids Athena is with.

They all have their freedom to choose who they want to be with, while I don’t. I was chosen, yes! But the one that I want to spend my life with chooses someone else.

Genre: Short Fiction Story

Theme/s: Chained to old traditions, having little freedom to choose.