Gypsy

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Gypsy



for touch the light




A gypsy of a strange and distant time
Travelling in panic all direction blind
Aching for the warmth of a burning sun
Freezing in the emptiness of where he'd come from
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Left without a hope of coming home

“I don’t care, Jon. You lied to me. You fucking lied to me!” Shannon yelled from the bedroom. A moment later she stood in the hallway. A hastily packed suitcase sat on the floor beside her. She pushed past Jon and walked into the kitchen.

“But I didn’t lie.” He said. Not telling the truth isn’t always lying, isn’t it? Shannon grabbed a beer out of the fridge and popped the tab. She downed it quickly and turned to face him. While the glare on her face was entirely angry, the tears were hard to read. Jon threw up his hands in frustration.

“You knew, Jon, and you didn’t tell me,” she said, answering Jon’s un-asked question. She pointed to the suitcase.

“I married a man, Jon, not a goddamned girl. You fucking lied to me!” She shook her head, staring at her husband of six years, wondering how it all came to him facing her wearing leggings and her hip-length pullover. The black flats weren’t familiar at all, since she didn’t own any. She eyed him up and down; sizing him up with angry scrutiny. He almost looked pretty, which made her feel both threatened and petty at the same time.

“Leave me alone…I can’t deal with this right now,” she practically screamed as she pointed to the suitcase in the hall.

“Where will I go,” he said in a panic; his eyes darting between her stare and the door.

“Go to a motel. Go to your brother’s, but I don’t think he’ll be happy with you either! I don’t care. Just get out of here.”

“How long?” His eyes had teared up and he was looking down at the floor. Shannon was sorely tempted to say ‘for good,’ but she was confused and scared; almost as much as Jon. She sat down on the captain’s chair in the hallway and shook her head.

“I don’t know, Jon. I’m so hurt, and I just don’t know…” She put her head down and began to cry. He took a step closer to console her. As he leaned in to hug her, she pulled away, nearly tipping the chair on the floor.

“NO! Leave me alone!” She put her hand up and covered her eyes as she sobbed.

“Just go!” She managed to gasp before her words melted into murmurs as she turned her face away from him. He stepped past her and grabbed the suitcase. Walking to the doorway, he paused and choked back a sob.

“Shannon?” He said it softly as a plea he knew would receive no good answer, but he continued.

“I…I love you.”

A harsh dismissal would almost have been easier to take in a way. The quiet didn’t say no, but neither did her silence offer any hope. It felt like things would never be good again, much less the way they used to be. He stood at the door for nearly four minutes; a brief time when waiting for a train or preparing a meal, but an eternity when asking for forgiveness. She looked up; her eyes were red and her cheeks were hot pink and stained with tears. She shook her head before lowering her face once again, speaking no words.

The click of the lock was followed by the creak of the door. A moment later the door closed leaving Shannon alone. She gasped and looked at the doorway; almost expecting Jon to return with one more plea. His betrayal was too much for her to bear, and she dissolved into more crying even as she sobbed,

“I love you, Jon.”

Speeding through a shadow of a million years
Darkness is the only sound to reach his ears
Frightening him with the visions of eternity
Screaming for a future that can never be
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Left without a hope of coming home


Gypsy
words and music by
Justin Hayward
as performed by
The Moody Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK1KVwefIqA

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Comments

Nice short story

Bitter and harsh, but it works within itself. When you set up a situation without possibility of resolution, it's not too much surprise it doesn't get resolved. Anyway, nice job.

titania.jpg

Titania

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

Um Wow

I , really do not know what to say. It was stark yet passionate.

Goddess Bless you

Love Desiree

Too Harsh

Without knowing what transpired before this scene, this is just too hard and harsh a reaction from Shannon. There are many guys who enjoy wearing leggings with a tunic length top; so for the jump in opinion that he wants to be a woman or is gay is a leap too far. Talk about jumping to a delusion. However, I have read of it happening in real life because there is nothing logical or rational at times about people.

Powerful and very realstic...

Ole Ulfson's picture

I told my wife before we married and despite her assurance that she was OK with it, it turned out about the same. I hope Jon will have more sense than I had, and will never come back, never speak another word to her.

Alas, we can't really control who we love!!!

Fantastic story! I can't imagine anyone reading it without being effected viscerally,

Ole

We are each exactly as God made us. God does not make mistakes!

Gender rights are the new civil rights!

A Special Talent

I saw the title on the front page and I thought 'no, she couldn't have...'
Then I find not only that she did, but that the story's dedicated to me.

Nothing I say in this sentence can possibly express how I feel at this moment.

As for the story itself, writing about the breakdown in human relationships is the most difficult task an author ever faces. That it can be expressed so powerfully in less than 1000 words is evidence of a special talent.

Ban nothing. Question everything.

I think that Shannon would have rejected all of Jon's apologies

But...I also got the sense that she didn't really want Jon to leave. I wonder if Shannon was acting more the way she thought that she was supposed to, meaning that she was supposed to be outraged at Jon's cross-dressing. After all, isn't that what the spouse should do? If you continue, will we see that Shannon might be more accepting of Jon's dressing than she originally seemed?

That's More Or Less It, Monica

This is an immensely complex subject, which is why I admire any author prepared to take it on.

When it comes to emotions, women invest far more into a relationship than men. Like it or not, at a very deep psychological level we're still roaming the African savannah, and that can subconsciously affect the way we feel towards our partners. How we behave is another matter, of course.

Shannon needs to know that Jon will protect* her, and any children the couple may have. If she's committed herself to him emotionally, that means she's decided he's capable of performing that duty. (I realise it isn't quite that simple, that there are other things to consider.) Jon's cross-dressing has sent her a very powerful visual signal that he isn't the man she thought he was. Suddenly she has to question not only him, but her own judgement. In one sense her reaction can be interpreted as gathering her unborn children together and sheltering them from a situation which has the potential to leave them without a provider.

Told you it was complicated.

*by protect I mean 'act in the best interests of'

Ban nothing. Question everything.

Acceptance

About a decade ago I was trying to figure out why people have such strong aversion to same-sex marriage.

Logically . . . why should anyone care?

I finally asked a friend who is a student of the who, what, why, where, and how of mankind.

"Acceptance," he said. "Gay's want acceptance and those that oppose same-sex marriage don't want to give it."

Compassion is at the soul of every great religion. Those who call themselves religious who refuse to accept other people for who they are . . . are simply living a lie.

Jill MI

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

I love you...

and...while I have your attention...let me rip your heart out. Or...hozabowt this??? 'Oh honey...I have some gewd news and some bad news. The bad news is that I was born into the wrong body; I shudda been a girl. The gewd news is that I'm a lesbian and I still love you!!! Isn't that wonderful???'

And here's one for the boss and co-workers. "Hey boss, I've some gewd news and some bad news. The bad news is that I was born into the body of a guy and I really should have been a grrl. The gewd news is that this shouldn't effect my job as a hard cup protector salesman for the Hurley leagues. Or...better yet!!! Hey boss, I was born into the wrong body at birth and now I'm becoming the man I always shudda been. But that shouldn't effect my job as a female hygiene product salesman."

Or...in my chosen field of endeavor working for my current employer... ME: Yes your Eminence, it's true. I was born a boi but have been functioning as a grrl for more than twelve years now. His Eminence: Okay...so...let's see if I have this right. You were born a boi and you still like bois. I think that we have that down as a no-no this year. As for the converting thing lassie...couldn't you have become a Protestant or a pagan instead? As a word of advice...since your hell bownd at an amazing rate of speed, you might want to consider suicide. It won't help but it can't hurt?'

We've had seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, and sometimes longer to consider what we are gowin to do about announcing why our mode of dress has suddenly changed and to explain away our new 'do and make-over. Those we chose to inflict with this information have had no time at all to even begin to attempt to understand what we are trying to impart let alone try a form some sort of cogent response not based on a lifetime of social conventions and such; or one that includes the words/phrases phase, drug experimentation (or heavy research), dropped on one's head whilst an infant, or sick and perverted faaaaaaahhhhhhk.

Only Drea can produce this sort of ranting rave out of someone who is 'normally' quite reserved but leave it to me to blame mom anyway!!! I suppose that all I'm saying is that my heart really goes out to both sides of the issue with a slight slant toward the newly informed. Truly there are no winner or losers in these dramatic little contests. We all wind up being hurt and damaged (a very broad sweeping generalization) and the best we can ever hope for is a working peace in which we can at least go through the motions of trying to understand and maybe even empathize.

Oh yeah...before I forget...Wonderful writing mom!!!

Yer Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhkn Brat

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Don't Quite Know

joannebarbarella's picture

How to react to this. The wife is totally savage about the situation. Been there, done that....from the defending end....and, yeah, 'Drea, you got it,

Joanne