Another one from the Tiny Tales and Micro Memoir classes. This assignment was to write 275 words or less in a summary-based story where something is unwritten but understood.

I got this one in at exactly 275 words. Very challenging.

Do you understand what has not been written? It isn’t an easy topic to talk about whether it was you or you are someone who witnessed it.

Feel free to start a conversation.

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How could I miss such obvious things? Stupid? Naive?  Or was it simply that I thought I had to ignore these things because they paled in comparison to your things?  After all, I was not neglected, abused and eventually estranged from my birth family. I am not the one who sought solace in a bottle. The one who learned to lie to remain safe. The one that felt haunted daily with the thoughts of being unworthy of existing.

Trusting you when I knew you were lying. Loving you when you sought comfort in another. Supporting you as you manipulated me to assuage your guilt. Championing you on when your demons threatened your thoughts and actions. Was I wrong to choose to keep loving you? Ignorant? Gullible?

The advice was “Don’t engage, leave and never look back!” But what might have happened had I heeded that warning?

On that day, finding you sitting in that car… in the garage… the door closed… the engine on…

I know how you were feeling, but can you even imagine what that was like for me? Ashamed to say anything for fear of what else might happen. What right do I have to speak how I feel? To dare shed a tear when it was clear the pain you suffered. I was just a bystander to it all, right?

Today as I sit here holding your hand, our fingers laced as they always have, I feel so very alone. Our relationship has survived, and you have begun to thrive, and I remain silent. Terrified of what might happen if I dare speak aloud how I feel.

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