Day 330 - Escape

 ESCAPE

Prompt - Escape : Write about where you like to go to escape from it all

He looked at the clock.  12,10.  More than three hours unaccounted for.  How had that happened?  He checked the device on his wrist.  Over twelve thousand steps for the day.  What the...?

The day had started well enough.  Awake about seven thirty, up just after eight, down to feeding the cat, prepare breakfast, have a catch up on the news and trivia on his social media feeds.  He had come back up by nine, ready to do his daily stretching routine, have a shower, dress, eat and be out before ten thirty.  Things to do in town.

But.  Why was there so often a 'but'?  Plans gang agley.  Not for the first time, probably not for the last.  What had sparked it off?  He sat down on the bed, trying to remember the sequence of events, simultaneously worrying that if he allowed himself to dive into a new river of thought the pattern would be repeated.  

He'd come back up, his phone had pinged for a new email, and he'd gone in to read it.  First mistake, for one so easily distracted.  It was from his ex, demanding payment for their son's school trip to Austria.  What she didn't know was he'd talked to Jake last night, and he'd said he wouldn't be going.  Could he come and stay with his dad for a week instead?

And it went from there, into his head.  Replaying the conversation with Jake to be sure he was right.  Composing his reply to the email, rewording it, trying to extract the maximum awkwardness and hurt from the situation.  Then wondering how it had all come to this and doing what he'd done so often, and doing it over and over - going through the sequence of small moments and fights and big disagreements which had stirred up the vortex that sucked his marriage down the plug hole.  Going over old arguments, now reworked to include the smart replies he should have given, and the crumpled look of defeat and loss she'd have had if only those were the words he'd used.  He replayed those moments, again and again, each time emerging more triumphant, more in the right, more sure, than the time before. 

Enthused by his imaginary victories he moved on to how he'd outwit the woman, have Jake back living with him, and be free from her demands.  Which led to all the things he and his son would do together and the good times they'd have.  Proper bonding sessions.

It had all seemed so easy, so pleasant to loop over in his mind.  In there he was articulate, clever, on top of situations, a good dad, a wronged husband.  In there...

But now he was out here again, in the real world, and the smile at the memory of his imagined dialogues and adventures was already fading into the hassle of having to get stuff done.  He'd better get that shower.