Destined for Grapeness
Kerry wasn’t the dating type. Fifty-six dates and counting. Maybe she was fooling herself. Maybe she enjoyed the tedious conversation, the average men with nothing to offer and the awkward silences that threw her hope for love into a never-ending abyss of twenty-first century spinsterism. Sometimes she would drift off from the date. Drift off into the future or at least the future in which she hoped to exist. One man, one child, one dog. One man as she believed wholeheartedly in monogamy (though she often detested it!). One child as she herself had been an only child and had by all intensive purposes turned out perfectly. And finally, to complete it all, a dog – preferably short-haired and female. There would be no cats.
The buzz of her vibrating phone startled her out the fantasy. She read it and then took another sip of the already half empty glass of red wine. The message read that her date for the evening would be late. Steven was his name. Someone she had never met, already late – a bad sign. She held onto those flavours for a second longer than usual and then took a gulp. She inspected the label of the now also half empty bottle in front of her. It was a 2006 Hougard Brother’s Pinotage. Full bodied yet subtle, it had been a good year for the brothers. Not so much for her.
Three or so years ago she had found herself sitting wounded on the floor of the flat that they had once shared. Two bedrooms, one bath, big enough to entertain. It was now empty. Echoing only her sobbing. It was over and she had no idea where to go or what to do. The transitional period would be spent with her sister. She was great – three kids, a big house and a wonderfully caring husband. Yet she ached at the thought of staying there. She had no choice, he had left her with nothing. Five months spent in ICU had completely drained their combined savings. Medical Aid just wouldn’t pay. Not for someone who was already legally dead – brain-dead. For three months she had fought to keep him alive. And in the final month had even resigned from her job. And now, for what? An echoed sob? Her only partner.
She had no option. No exit and no retreat. Back in the present she decided to wait for the stranger that she most probably wouldn’t like. A man who in her present state she most definitely didn’t want to like. It was easier. So still she sat. Hopelessly waiting for destiny to kick in.
