MY NEIGHBOR'S DIVORCE, Part 2

I Thought You Were For Real
Originally uploaded by MaD Gi®L•™.

His Story: They met when they were only fifteen, and have been together ever since. Thirty years! He thought they were happy, planned a cruise for their twenty-first anniversary, but she had other ideas. It seemed there was this man she'd met at work...twelve years younger; he reminded her of the way she used to feel, the way she never knew she could feel. But no, I'm speculating on that last part, writing fiction. There was a man she met at work, 12 years younger. That's all I know. She's living with him now. Left her husband and children until things can be worked out, the house sold, custody assigned, assets divided.

He doesn't know where he will go, who he will be, if not her husband, if not the man with the most perfect yard in the neighborhood, if not a daily father to his children.

He does not know who to talk to, where to go.

Her story: Unknown.

My story: I walk past the house and peer fleetingly in the windows. I listen sympathetically. I go home and say my life with its messy gardens, its stable marriage, its raucous music, is not like his. But of course it is. Which is why I look, I listen--but not too closely.