Grass is Greener - Short Story

He sat down and looked at his life. She had asked him to and now he found himself sitting with nothing else to do. He was surrounded by extreme silence, her letter and his thoughts were his only company.

A monk came out of the room and looked at him kindly. ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ He shook his head and stared at his hands. He heard the monk walk away.

What was he doing here? He was thousands of miles away from his life. Yet through the window he could see his wife sitting cross-legged and she was forcing him to rethink. Her note beseeched him to. It had taken him years to find her and he couldn’t understand why she found more fulfillment looking like a freak with her hair shorn, wearing nun’s robes, sitting with her eyes closed. He couldn’t make sense of it. This woman couldn’t be the same laughing happy bride on the day of their wedding, especially not the woman who lured him on their wedding night…  

Sweat trickled down his back and his clothes clung to his body. He could smell the hormones evaporating off his skin and he traced the silvery salt trails on his arms. His toenails had started to brown at the tip, collecting the dust and mud that danced in the air. He could see veins popping up around his knuckles and skin starting to wrinkle on his hand.

He looked at her again. She didn’t move one centimeter. Her spine was straight yet she looked relaxed, her face free from stress. The spikes on her head accentuated her cheekbones and nose, she looked Eastern European. She sat as if there was nothing else to do in the world. Yet since the day she left, all he had wanted to do is find her, his wife. Now he knew he had already lost her. In his mourning, he wondered if he had lost himself too. Her letter was clear, her actions profound and her stillness deep. She was seeking the ultimate release from suffering. He realised he was flotsam on her ocean. He tried to dive in to her world but he was in need of air. He was just human, who was he in comparison to this divine world she sought?

She opened her eyes, saw him and smiled.

And he found himself smiling back.

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