To know

Peonies, William Merritt Chase, 1897

She smelled those flowers, some of them already withering. It was her husband who sent them without missing her birthday every year. Well, it was a standing order at the flower shop. The fragrance filled the room and it brought with it some distant memories, a forgotten song, a memory of an enchanting evening, when they were newly married. Life was perfect and beautiful.

She smelled those flowers again, this time, nonchalantly. Maybe, it was not meant to be. After ten years, they drifted apart because she was never happy with him. And soon he began to realise that he could never make her feel happy, nor could he be. They separated.

She smelled those flowers again, and stared at the distant sky. She had her child's custody and as a single mom she never had time to find a man of her life again. Days rolled into months, months rolled into years, as she lost her youth and beauty.

He never made contacts with her after they separated; not even had he remembered to cancel the order at the flower shop. Maybe, she was just a dot in his universe today. Ah, those flowers again. They always awakened the long lost memories. But, tonight it brought a realization to her.

She was not happy today too. It was not the marriage that made her unhappy. It was she who was unhappy with, her own self.

Alas! It took a marriage and twenty years of long gone life to know. Life is brutal.Yes it is.

Written for Magpie Tales: mag 283