This is the moment.I stare at myself in the mirror, take a long breath, and as I slowly exhale, my eyes open with confidence “Let’s do this.” I say.
I sprint out of the bathroom and call for my wife, Alexandria.
“Honey, come here!” I shout, eagerly waiting for her to appear from the living room. Her head pops around the doorway like a whack-a-mole. “Yes, baby?”
I extend my hand with the biggest smile on my face. “Follow me.I want to show you something.” It’s like she instantly receives classified NSA intel about my intentions.
Before I can even ask what’s wrong, she detonates my eardrums with: “No. I don’t want to go in there.”
Defeat stains my face as if it’s written in perfect cursive. “Why not? That room helped me see—“
She cuts me off with surgical precision. “Your future… our future.” She sighs, exhausted. “I always thought it was cute how you believed you saw your future as a child. But come on… this is crazy. And even if it is real, I’d rather live in the now than in some prediction.”
After delivering two clean uppercuts of honesty, she drifts back into the living room. With zero self- awareness, I climb the stairs to the room I’ve cherished my entire life. A room that revealed the love of my life, my career path, and the investments that built my success… And now, greed begins crawling across my skin like ants. I need to know more.
I turn the door knob to open the room. The walls are dark voids, covered with soundproof padding.The shaggy red carpet rises like tall grass in an uncut backyard. A large brown leather recliner covering all the real estate in the jail cell sized room.The sound is sucked out of the air, and the only noise left is the one in your head your mind focusing on that window.
I sit. The window becomes a movie screen, showing whatever it chooses. Every vision it ever gave me was positive. But this time, the gravity is violent and endless. Muffled voices surround me, broken like static-soaked puzzle pieces. Until finally, I hear a complete sentence:
“Please be with me.”
But I’m too entranced to react. The window shifts to showing my wife being unfaithful. I snap out of the trance and bolt through the house searching for Alex, but she’s gone. I stumble into our bedroom and find a letter placed neatly on the pillow. My hands tremble as I tear it open.
Dear Joe,
I don’t know what to say. At the beginning of our relationship, it felt like a hallmark movie our romance perfect, our love effortless. We were always together, like a team fighting the world all by ourselves.
But THIS WINDOW, has been a thorn in our marriage.You said it showed us meeting for the first time, but it also showed me how greedy you are. We should be writing our own future, not relying on a window to tell us our story we call life. You need to live in the present, and not worrying about what the future brings you.
I met someone and he gives me attention and love. Hopefully this letter will turn you in the right direction and mindset. I still care about you.
Love, Alexandria
Tears run down my face. I grab a sledgehammer in the closet. I walk towards the room.