{"id":930,"date":"2018-02-05T18:01:01","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T18:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/?p=930"},"modified":"2022-10-26T11:56:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T11:56:06","slug":"lake-of-tears-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/lake-of-tears-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake of Tears part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Joe Stanley<\/span><\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/p>\n

LET THIS BE MY CONFESSION. My life has, for so long now, been a bundle of secrets and lies, that it will cleanse my <\/span>soul to write the truth. At least, I hope it will.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was married at an early age, too young to know what I was doing. My wife, Marion, was sweet enough to me, but, more,<\/span>she was rich. I married her for that wealth, the sweet tenderness she showed me was merely a benefit.<\/span><\/p>\n

We were happy together, for the beginning, anyway. But the novelty wore thin with the passing of a few years. Who we <\/span>were in public was very different from who we were behind closed doors. We bickered constantly, and our intimacies <\/span>grew fewer and fainter, despite my efforts to the contrary. I dared to question whether we should have been wed in the <\/span>first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

At this, she laughed, a wicked and hateful sound which I have come to despise in the depths of my heart. It was mocking <\/span>and cruel, an inhuman noise, one which delights in the misery of others. To my surprise, she had been expecting this, as <\/span>though it was natural.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was a long tradition of loveless marriage in her family. Add to this a line of dominant matrons, shrewish nags who <\/span>henpecked the men around them into submission. They knew the law well and how it favors the female. With but an <\/span>accusation, I could be jailed and left penniless, and the implication was that worse could be easily arranged.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was made absolutely clear to me who was in charge, and that she had ‘married down’ to put me in this position.<\/span><\/p>\n

“All I expect from you,” she told me with a voice as cold as winter sleet, “is that you keep up appearances. You will never <\/span>mention divorce again, to me or anyone, or I will make the rest of your life far worse than it already is.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Like a fool, like a damned and helpless fool, I appealed to her heart. Why should she want it this way? Why not let me go <\/span>and find a man who made her happy? It did not occur to me that she knew nothing else, that she did not know how to be <\/span>happy.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Men have their uses.” she explained, condescending as though she spoke to a child, “But they are not capable of making <\/span>a woman truly happy. Equality is an illusion. Either they are in charge, muddling things up, or we are. Of the two, I <\/span>choose the latter. I prefer that men be a plaything to be used and discarded. In fact, I have several that serve such a <\/span>purpose.”<\/span><\/p>\n

It was not enough to have beaten me, she was not satisfied until I was humiliated as well. But now all was clear, and <\/span>though my heart was sickened, I knew the game at any rate. I suppose I had it coming, but I wished things could have <\/span>been different.<\/span><\/p>\n

click here to continue<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Joe Stanley 1 LET THIS BE MY CONFESSION. My life has, for so long now, been a bundle of secrets and lies, that it will cleanse my soul to write the truth. At least, I hope it will. I was married at an early age, too young to know what I was doing. My […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,113],"tags":[4,8],"class_list":["post-930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-flash-fiction","category-joe-stanley","tag-flash-fiction","tag-joe-stanley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2835,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions\/2835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}