Microstory 256: Perspective Thirty-One

This is an experimental Perspectives microstory. The introduction can be found in Microstory 225. More to follow.

My husband loves his family. He just has trouble showing it sometimes. He has had a really hard life, and his job is just the absolute worst. He wouldn’t be able to get through it if he wasn’t allowed to relieve stress. And when you live the way we do, alcohol is really the only way to do that. People like us can’t just go get a massage, or buy a fancy car, or whatever it is that rich people do. We have to rely on the simple things. You can’t blame a guy for trying to forget about his troubles. My sister tells me she doesn’t care if I want to let myself get hurt, but that he is not allowed to hit our son. But she doesn’t understand that it’s not like that. Our son isn’t a bad kid, but he needs a strong hand. Just the other day he got in a fight with another kid on the bus. He’s obviously not being disciplined enough, and his father is the only one who can do that. If only his job wasn’t so demanding, he could be around to help out more. But he is a good man. He works himself to the bone to provide for us. His jerk boss is the real problem. He works my man and the other “slaves” at the plant sometimes fourteen hour shifts. Well, they’re actually seven hour shifts, but he doubles them up all the time. It’s criminal. Literally. It might be illegal to work people so much. I’m not sure. It’s not like I was given the opportunity to get myself a decent education. By the time I reached high school, both my parents were working two jobs to support seven children, and my only option was to drop out and start earning my own wages. Technically, I wasn’t allowed to drop out when I was that young, so all I did was skip class regularly until they expelled me and forced me to another school. I just kept doing that until truancy laws stopped applying to me. And so I of all people know what it’s like to have to find that balance between work and home life. I’m not leaving my husband. No matter what you say about him, he doesn’t deserve that. When he’s sober and happy, he’s really good to us, and I know that if I just work harder to be a good wife, that side of him will come out more often.

Reviews

[ThePaperPrincess]

This was an interesting read to say the least. Intriguing how you put yourself in a totally different perspective. Considering how I may have though this way once it is, odd, for me to see it put into words by someone else. Interested to read more from you.

[Nick Fisherman]

Well, thank you. The point of the exercise is to get people to think about other people's perspectives, but it's ALSO to help me understand other perspectives, and thusly become a better writer. There is plenty more of my work to read. As you can see, this is the 256th microstory. I write one every weekday. The stories on the weekends are each part of longer series, and they themselves are longer. My website, www.nickfisherman.com, has them all organized how I like them.