MEGAN
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Morning
IT’S GOING TO RAIN soon, I can feel it coming. My teeth are chattering in my head,
the tips of my fingers are white with a tinge of blue. I’m not going inside. I like
it out here, it’s cathartic, cleansing, like an ice bath. Scott will come and haul me
inside soon anyway, he’ll wrap me in blankets, like a child.
I had a panic attack on the way home last night. There was a motorbike,
revving its engine over and over and over, and a red car driving slowly past, like
a kerb crawler, and two women with buggies blocking my path. I couldn’t get
past them on the pavement, so I went into the street and was almost hit by a car
coming in the opposite direction, which I hadn’t even seen. The driver leaned on
the horn and yelled something at me. I couldn’t catch my breath, my heart was
racing, I felt that lurch in my stomach, like when you’ve taken a pill and you’re
just about to come up, that punch of adrenaline that makes you feel sick and
excited and scared all at once.
I ran home and through the house and down to the tracks, then I sat down
there, waiting for the train to come, to rattle through me and take away the other
noises. I waited for Scott to come and calm me down, but he wasn’t at home. I
tried to climb over the fence, I wanted to sit on the other side for a while, where
no one else goes. I cut my hand, so I went inside, and then Scott came back and
asked me what had happened. I said I was doing the washing-up and dropped a
glass. He didn’t believe me, he got very upset.
I got up in the night, left Scott sleeping and sneaked down to the terrace. I
dialled his number and listened to his voice when he picked up, at first soft with
sleep, and then louder, wary, worried, exasperated. I hung up and waited to see if
he’d call back. I hadn’t disguised my number, so I thought he might. He didn’t,
so I called again, and again, and again. I got voicemail then, bland and
businesslike, promising to call me back at his earliest convenience. I thought
about calling the practice, bringing forward my next appointment, but I don’t
think even their automated system works in the middle of the night, so I went
back to bed. I didn’t sleep at all.
I might go to Corly Wood this morning to take some photographs; it’ll be
misty and dark and atmospheric in there, I should be able to get some good stuff.
I was thinking about maybe making little cards, seeing if I could sell them in the
gift shop on Kingly Road. Scott keeps saying that I don’t need to worry about
working, that I should just rest. Like an invalid! The last thing I need is rest. I
need to find something to fill my days. I know what’s going to happen if I don’t.
Evening
Dr Abdic – Kamal, as I have been invited to call him – suggested in this
afternoon’s session that I start keeping a diary. I almost said, I can’t do that, I
can’t trust my husband not to read it. I didn’t, because that would feel horribly
disloyal to Scott. But it’s true. I could never write down the things I actually feel
or think or do. Case in point: when I came home this evening, my laptop was
warm. He knows how to delete browser histories and whatever, he can cover his
tracks perfectly well, but I know that I turned the computer off before I left. He’s
been reading my emails again.
I don’t really mind, there’s nothing to read in there. (A lot of spam emails
from recruitment companies and Jenny from pilates asking me if I want to join
her Thursday-night supper club, where she and her friends take turns cooking
each other dinner. I’d rather die.) I don’t mind, because it reassures him that
there’s nothing going on, that I’m not up to anything. And that’s good for me –
it’s good for us – even if it isn’t true. And I can’t really be angry with him,
because he has good reason to be suspicious. I’ve given him cause in the past
and probably will again. I am not a model wife. I can’t be. No matter how much
I love him, it won’t be enough.
Saturday, 13 October 2012
Morning
I slept for five hours last night, which is longer than I have done in ages, and the
weird thing is, I was so wired when I got home yesterday evening I thought I’d
be bouncing off the walls for hours. I told myself that I wouldn’t do it again, not
after last time, but then I saw him and I wanted him and I thought, why not? I
don’t see why I should have to restrict myself, lots of people don’t. Men don’t. I
don’t want to hurt anybody, but you have to be true to yourself, don’t you?
That’s all I’m doing, being true to my real self, the self nobody knows – not
Scott, not Kamal, no one.
After my pilates class last night I asked Tara if she wanted to go to the cinema
with me one night next week, then if she’d cover for me.
‘If he calls, can you just say I’m with you, that I’m in the loo and I’ll ring him
straight back? Then you call me, and I call him, and it’s all cool.’
She smiled and shrugged and said, ‘All right,’ she didn’t even ask where I was
going or who with. She really wants to be my friend.
I met him at the Swan in Corly, he’d got us a room. We have to be careful, we
can’t get caught. It would be bad for him, life-wrecking. It would be a disaster
for me, too. I don’t even want to think about what Scott would do.
He wanted me to talk afterwards, about what happened when I was young,
living in Norwich. I’d hinted at it before, but last night he wanted the details. I
told him things, but not the truth. I lied, made stuff up, told him all the sordid
things he wanted to hear. It was fun. I don’t feel bad about lying, I doubt whether
he believed most of it anyway. I’m pretty sure he lies, too.
He lay on the bed, watching me as I got dressed. He said, ‘This can’t happen
again, Megan. You know it can’t. We can’t keep doing this.’ And he was right, I
know we can’t. We shouldn’t, we ought not to, but we will. It won’t be the last
time. He won’t say no to me. I was thinking about it on the way home, and that’s
the thing I like most about it, having power over someone. That’s the
intoxicating thing.
Evening
I’m in the kitchen, opening a bottle of wine, when Scott comes up behind me
and puts his hands on my shoulders and squeezes and says, ‘How did it go, with
the therapist?’ I tell him it was fine, that we’re making progress. He’s used now
to not getting any details out of me. Then: ‘Did you have fun with Tara last
night?’
I can’t tell, because my back’s to him, whether he’s really asking or whether
he suspects something. I can’t detect anything in his voice.
‘She’s really nice,’ I say. ‘You and she’d get on. We’re going to the cinema
next week, actually. Maybe I should bring her round for something to eat after?’
‘Am I not invited to the cinema?’ he asks.
‘You’re very welcome,’ I say, and I turn to him and kiss him on the mouth,
‘but she wants to see that thing with Sandra Bullock, so …’
‘Say no more! Bring her round for dinner afterwards, then,’ he says, his hands
pressing gently on my lower back.
I pour the wine and we go outside. We sit side by side on the edge of the patio,
our toes in the grass.
‘Is she married?’ he asks me.
‘Tara? No. Single.’
‘No boyfriend?’
‘Don’t think so.’
‘Girlfriend?’ he asks, eyebrow raised, and I laugh. ‘How old is she then?’
‘I don’t know,’ I say. ‘Around forty.’
‘Oh. And she’s all alone. That’s a bit sad.’
‘Mmm. I think she might be lonely.’
‘They always go for you, the lonely ones, don’t they? They make a beeline
straight for you.’
‘Do they?’
‘She doesn’t have kids, then?’ he asks, and I don’t know if I’m imagining it,
but the second the subject of children comes up, I can hear an edge in his voice
and I can feel the argument coming and I just don’t want it, can’t deal with it, so
I get to my feet and I tell him to bring the wine glasses, because we’re going to
the bedroom.
He follows me and I take off my clothes as I’m going up the stairs, and when
we get there, when he pushes me down on the bed, I’m not even thinking about
him, but it doesn’t matter because he doesn’t know that. I’m good enough to
make him believe that it’s all about him.
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