#151: Goal

Peter waved goodbye to the last of his colleagues. It was Friday night, and he was remaining to finish his beer. He’d been nursing it, wanting to make it last as long as possible. Once it was done, he’d either have to get another one, or go home.

The dregs were now flat, and the bar was in that lull between the office workers and whatever happened late on a Friday night. It had been so long since he’d seen the outside world after bath time.

A thought flashes across his mind. Could he ask Grace to meet him out? Now. Just the two of them? Surely she can find a sitter? One of her colleagues? They didn’t really know the neighbours. Was that something neighbours asked each other? Hey, I want a date night. Can you feed and clean my kids? Yeah, sorry for the late notice.

Peter grabs his keys and wallet with the resolve to discuss it with Grace. Let me plan it and it’ll give them something to look forward to.

The moment he walked in the door, he could hear the nightly struggles of getting Rory to not drown himself in the tepid bathwater. His screams reverberated down the small hallway; the volume being amplified by the smattering of toys designed to trip up the unwary.

Little chance of someone robbing them and surviving to tell the tale.

Matilda joins the chorus by yelling something unintelligible. Peter thinks for a moment of turning around and catching a train back in the city. The dull noise of the bar was settling in a way that is opposite to the idea of raising a family.

He suddenly realised that this life, wife and children, was an own goal.