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Ted and Lisa

A Love Story

By Jackson SherryPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
1
Ted and Lisa
Photo by Will Porada on Unsplash

Ted and Lisa wake up, as they have for the last fifteen years of their twenty-year marriage, facing apart on the full-size bed in their lifeless bedroom. Ted yawns, stretches, and lets out a long, distinct sounding fart. This is Lisa’s cue to roll out of bed and brush her teeth. Ted is of the opinion that one brushes their teeth after eating breakfast, not before. Their marriage is not free of love, just free of excitement. Ted starts the coffee maker, Lisa fries the eggs. Their relationship is more symbiotic than romantic, but it’s enough to keep them together.

“What do you have going on today?” Lisa cheerfully asks.

Ted, having just put an entire fried egg in his mouth exerts a noise that vaguely sounds like, “work.”

Ted sells insurance, working from their second bedroom that he’s converted into an office. He gets up from the table, places his hand affectionately on Lisa’s shoulder, then walks down the hallway to his office, not intending to change out of the t-shirt he wore to bed.

Lisa struggles to keep her eyes open while she drives to work. Fifteen years on the same spring mattress, sleeping too close to her sweaty husband has taken a toll on her quality of sleep. Lisa cleans a few houses a day to pull in some extra income for the house. It’s far from a career, and far from fulfilling, but she always tells herself things could be worse. Most days, Lisa is okay with the life she’s settled into. It’s boring, and a lot of people would kill for boring. Suddenly, Lisa takes the next exit, cutting across two lanes of traffic in order to do so. In her exhaustion, she forgot to bring the key to her first client’s house.

“No matter,” she mutters to herself, “I’ll just take the scenic route.” Lisa weaves through the grand houses in the wealthy part of town on her way back to her humble suburban home, but something familiar catches her attention out of the corner of her eye.

Ted doesn’t get excited about much, he never has, and he’s certainly never been a golfer, but there’s nothing that excites Ted more than the feeling of a nine-iron breaking through the soft spot of a person’s skull. Ted’s life is mundane by design. He doesn’t want to draw attention to his extracurricular activities, so he has carefully structured himself to come across as the most uninteresting man anyone has ever met. Like most mornings, Ted waited until Lisa left for work, then drove his pre-owned Toyota Camry to the home of one of the many golfers he keeps tabs on. He casually parks out front, walks confidently around to the garage window and breaks in, this is usually where the clubs are stored. Ted locates his favorite driver, then strolls into the house where the unsuspecting Norman Bartwell is taking a business call.

Lisa slowly pulls up behind Ted’s car, nervous and curious all at the same time. She exits her car and approaches the house. As she reaches the front door, she hears a loud crash, a thud, a groan, and several noises that can only be described as squishy. Growing more nervous than curious, she rings the doorbell, waits three seconds, then tries the door handle. The oversized front door swings in and Lisa, not acting at all like herself, walks in the front door toward the commotion. Halfway down the hallway, she sees her husband, wearing his Walkman, wailing away on what was once a man.

“Ted!” She screams, not realizing he can’t hear her.

He continues cocking back the golf club and swinging it down with a force she didn’t know he was capable of. Disgusted, horrified, and not thinking clearly, Lisa swiftly makes her way out to her car and drives away in the direction of the house key she had carelessly forgotten that morning. Her skin is clammy, she’s on the brink of hyperventilating, and she has no clue what she is supposed to do.

Short Story
1

About the Creator

Jackson Sherry

Like many others, I'm on a journey in search of mental clarity. I've been a lot of things; a US Navy submariner, a rock climber, a filmmaker, and a life coach, to name a few. But, life's a little too complex to settle for just one label.

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