The Embankment! (London)

The Embankment!  632 words

Sylvia found a parking space and noted that it was for one hour only with no return.   She thought that would be sufficient time.  She stepped out of the car and quickly locked it before making  her way up the street, giving the zealous looking Traffic Warden, pounding the pavement, no more than a cursory glance as she made her way towards her destination. 

The Embankment, a place which had always fascinated her because, as a child, her parents would take her there every week during the summer holidays.  She loved watching the pleasure boats making their way along the river with their cargo of happy, smiling people as she waved to them from The Embankment.  Though now as she walked by the river watching the boats, just like when she was a child,  it reminded Sylvia that she was only truly happy when her parents were alive and summer days out were on the agenda.  Two years ago her parents had been killed in a car crash  and she had never really come to terms with the loss of them.  But now it was winter and today was grey, overcast and chilly.  She drew her collar up and adjusted her scarf to keep the cold wind from her neck.  

She walked slowly, almost dragging her feet, as she thought about why she had come .  It had been a difficult decision but she hoped it would be for the best.  She couldn’t see how things might change otherwise.  Hadn’t she tried to do everything he asked in a desperate attempt to please him but nothing seemed to work.  He still didn’t love her in the way that she wanted. He always found a reason to criticise or humiliate her.

Somehow she had found the courage to leave him.  The result of this was that she had come many times to the surgery on the south side of the river in the hope that talking things through might help her situation, but it made no difference.  There seemed to be nothing that could help her. She had been diagnosed with clinical depression but even that had not made any difference because in her Husband’s eyes she was not a person but an object, nothing more, to be used and abused at his will.  

She still did not know what she hoped to achieve by coming here today.  Nevertheless, she made her way to the surgery hoping  that there might be something that would take her pain away.  But today she had been told it was her own fault because she hadn’t listened.

If ever she did manage to please her Husband, she was so overwhelmed and grateful, she was like a puppy greeting its owner after a long absence.  That only served to annoy him even more.  She never knew how he would react to her so always she had to walk on eggshells in a vain attempt not to upset his equilibrium.  

Today, however, she had been told the man she married would never love her in the way she wanted because he had no respect for her.  So, on the basis of that conversation, she settled on her second plan of action.  

The Traffic Warden looked delighted as he stood writing out his ticket when he pounced on Sylvia’s car.  He had it within his power to have the car taken to the pound where the owner would have to pay a hefty fine to get it back.  As the car was being towed away he laughed inwardly, that would teach him or her a lesson.  Why don’t these shmucks ever learn an hour means an hour and no return means no return?  What he did not know was that Sylvia would never return.   A woman’s body had been pulled from the river that very morning and a well-known doctor had confirmed the body was indeed that of his wife.