The Professor’s Wife (Flash Fiction Part 3)

This is the 3rd part of the story, the previous two parts are here: 1, 2.

We all think Alotus should be happy and Alotus thinks she should be happy. However she is not happy. Actually she is not just a little unhappy. She is in fact very unhappy. That really puzzles Alotus and it puzzles me too. If Alotus, with all her luck and her good life, is not happy, what does it say about the rest of us?

She is not prone to unhappiness. At least that is what she has told me. Mentally she is normal. She is not one of those people who are like sulky teenagers all their life and never grow up. She is not a narcissist and has never suffered under narcissistic parents or relatives. Actually she had a normal childhood. Her father really loved her and wanted her to get the best education etc. Now that her father is dead, she feels that the only one who really loved her is gone, which inevitably has triggered a little existential crisis.

Let me recount her story.

When they first got married, Daneu got a job as a research scientist and Alotus was trying to get her master degree in the same university. They tried to delay having a kid, but the kid came anyway. It was an accident. It was impossible for Alotus to take care of the husband and the kid and her school at the same time without some help, but they didn’t have the money to hire somebody in America. So they had to pack their baby daughter up and sent her to Daneu’s parents overseas. Five years later, after Alotus finished her degree and got a job and was stabilized and bought a house, they brought her back.

And as their life was back to normal, Danew would like to have another child, preferably a son, and Alotus wanted that too. And she wanted a son more than her husband. So they had another child and thankfully it was a son. Everything works for Alotus and fate never wants to disappoint Alotus. Actually fate is almost afraid of disappointing Alotus in everything she tries to do.

Then the company Alotus worked for closed down their New Jersey office. She had the choice to go to Pennsylvania, their headquarter, on the west side of Philadelphia, or to find a new job. She tried to find a new job, but none paid as good as her old job. The family badly needed money. So reluctantly she went to Pennsylvania, which required a 3-hour commute. The company gave her a raise and even subsidized her traveling and relocation. Everybody is so nice to Alotus. So Alotus rented an apartment close to her office and only came back home once a week. Alotus meanwhile managed to get her relatives, one after another, each staying for several months, to get tourist visas to come to America to help take care of their children.

Another five years have passed, Alotus was forced to find a new job close to home in New Jersey. Her kids have grown and they needed to be chauffeured to different activities and trainings and events. She could not be absent anymore. So she did find a job close to home. It is said, rumored but not officially confirmed, that women over 35 cannot find a good job since the job market discriminates against older women, but Alotus was not affected. She always has good lucks. The adversities that other women would face everywhere dare not show up in her life.

And alas. One day, after attending her father’s funeral, during a very sad moment while tears streaked down her face, she suddenly had an epiphany–she felt so alone.

At home, she can’t communicate with her husband much. He is a very good man, but he is no match in conversations. He looks at the world through a mathematical lens, meaning he is living in a very different world. She doesn’t really understand his views and he has no interest in hers. He finds her chattiness nagging and annoying, while she finds his logical cleverness imposing and arrogant. Not that they are having a dysfunctional relationship. Not at all. They both cherish their marriage and would never be rude to each other–they respect each other too much to do that. However respecting each other is just not enough for her. It feels so formal and so impersonal. She wants intimacy and communication, which is nowhere to be found.

(To Be Continued Here)

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