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Her Plan

Leigh-Anne Burley

    Marta considers the unexpected, while her husband, Jim, knows it isn’t always possible. As she irons out the kinks in his shirts, he states steamrollers only work on construction sites. It was the same way raising their three children; he felt she was too strict, and she thought he was too lax.
    Marta wearies of their merry-go-round marriage, but divorce is never in her plan. Jim tires of their relationship being stuck on a spin cycle, so he pushes the stop button and hops out, taking his happily ever after elsewhere.
    Retired from her secretarial work, Marta spends her days rearranging the same items in her small apartment. She goes over her funeral arrangements with the director and sends copies to her children.
    Marta sits by the window staring at the wool heap on her lap, wondering how to untangle the thread that will unravel all the others. When she does find the hide-and-seek thread, her stiff fingers fumble over its twists and turns. Marta used to be good at picking up the pieces, but no longer can she tidy up frayed ends to present the front side of her life’s tapestry.
    Marta’s mind wanders through misty forests until she sees herself slipping over a black precipice without a knotted rope to grasp. On a snowy night, Marta dies in her sleep; her well-planned funeral is attended by her children and a few nursing staff. Gathering their mother’s life’s contents in clearly labeled boxes, the children place them in dusty attics. Grass grows over Marta’s plain grave marker as leaves rustle in dusty corners.

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