After Dark
In a fit of anger, she stormed out of the apartment. She trudged down the street, recoiling, initially as the frigid cold hit her exposed neck and face. She was tired of modifying her grocery lists and covering her hair with a woollen cap, not because it was cold but because she couldn’t afford to go to a salon. She was sick and tired of managing, of trying to be understanding.
She kissed her teeth.
Managing a household of four on a single income was becoming stressful. Herself and partner had both decided she stay home with the children. Daycare for the two little ones would have cost more than an arm and a leg. They were too young to be enrolled in a full-time program school at two and four years, respectively. When they moved to the north-west from the south, she had lofty dreams that his income would suffice. Though the increment in his salary was substantial, the spike in rent and general living expenses had swallowed whatever gain was made. She knew he was doing the best he could, but she was still frustrated.
Being the primary caregiver of two very active toddlers was exhausting, to say the least. By the time she was done with breakfast and doing the chores, it was time for their nap. By the time they awoke from their naps, she would be putting together their lunch. Her days were full of cleaning, laundry, cooking. It was a grind. She was at her wit’s end. Her husband started to worry about her state of mind.
‘Go for a walk. I can watch the children.’
Leaving the apartment alone, while exhilarating due to the unfamiliar terrain, was a little scary. The years of violence-sex ridden American movies intake had begun to take their toll on her senses. Her vulnerable mind seemed to unravel at the seams, playing back the movies to torment her. Her mind made vulnerable by the change in weather… from one extreme to the other. Texas climate was definitely the oven, in comparison to the cold of Montana.
Her chest constricted with sudden fear as she passed a man in a black slick. She started to bind imagined demons as she quickened her pace and started to chastise herself.
“What possessed her to listen to that man? If someone attacks and kills me, I am sure he won’t mourn me longer than a month before he finds a younger woman.’
She glanced furtively over her shoulder and notice the man in the raincoat had doubled up his pace into a jog and was fast approaching.
Images of torn body parts assail her thoughts. Her poor husband and children.
‘Breaking News: African Immigrant found stabbed, gagged, God forbid…defiled, thrown from a car…..!
She tripped over a nuisance stone and fell into a crumpled heap on the sidewalk. She lay there, momentarily stunned, and for a few seconds, forgot why she was running in the first place.
“Ma’am…are you okay?” She grit her teeth, expecting to be hit, and then cautiously opened her eyes. A surprisingly soft-faced young man bent over her.
Ma’am? He repeated as he helped her to her feet. It was the young man in the black slick she had been running away from.
Feeling slightly peevish, she mumbled, ‘I’m fine’
He flashed her a warm smile as he trudged off. She wondered how he would have felt if he knew he was her imagined sense of danger. Not everyone is a serial killer or mugger…or both, she reasoned with herself.
She hunched her shoulders against the cold winter wind as she approached the building.