{"id":885,"date":"2021-07-15T08:57:13","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T08:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=885"},"modified":"2021-07-15T08:57:18","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T08:57:18","slug":"exit-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/exit-strategy\/885\/","title":{"rendered":"Exit Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thursday:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She really should tell her sister: Carys was her best friend. But how embarrassing to announce, \u2018I\u2019m having second thoughts about marrying.\u2019 Carys would probably reply drily, \u2018Leaving the exit strategy a bit late, aren\u2019t we?\u2019 And Carys would be right. What the hell are you going to do, Derwena? No solution came to mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Those two cross-terrier puppies Dave\u2019s mum had bought had clarified Derwena\u2019s sense of the imbalance. The male, Shep, fawned and begged for attention \u2013 from Dave and his mum, and from the other puppy. He pleaded for his little masculine ego to be acknowledged. Whereas Trixie, the bitch, might allow herself to be stroked but she was bored by Shep\u2019s greedy neediness. Just let me be, she seemed to be saying to both dog and owner. She was an independent soul. That\u2019s me and Dave, Derwena thought. Irreconcilably different; fire and water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

            Friday:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Much brain-racking, much hair-tearing out, much psyching-up and urging oneself to be brave, to be decisive, to inform Carys and then Dave, and much stating over and over that a big mess now will be better than an almighty one later. No good. Courage has failed you, Derwena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Saturday:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Wedding day, walking down the aisle, false smile of \u2018happiness\u2019 glued to mouth, whilst within she was screaming, \u2018Don\u2019t let me go through with it!\u2019 There was Aunt Lisa, a blur of royal blue, even extending to the dustbin lid-sized hat that buried her forehead. Her face was like one word teletext. First, \u2018Ah!\u2019, then, \u2018Beautiful!\u2019 And there was Uncle Matt, winking smuttily like some Soho strip-club owner. The aisle-walk became akin to a slow plod to the grave. Her father, holding her arm woodenly, put her in mind of an undertaker shouldering a coffin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Love? Derwena didn\u2019t feel love, was sure she\u2019d never <\/em>felt love for Dave. She\u2019d put off chance after chance to halt this \u2018happy day\u2019. At the proposal of marriage, why hadn\u2019t she told Dave the truth? As his oily words spilt out, she\u2019d wanted to say, \u2018I don\u2019t love you.\u2019 Was it simply cowardice? Was she<\/em> that needy puppy Shep, in reality?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She heard the minister say, \u2018Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?\u2019 Silence. She couldn\u2019t speak. The silence grew, filling the church, spreading out into the street, out across the city centre. Hundreds, thousands were waiting for her reply, listening intently. Speak! Please!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            But wait! A crack had appeared in the floor. An earthquake perhaps? The church was sinking, a large hole had opened up at the altar, swallowing priest and trappings. The organ was swimming in mud and rain, the pews were afloat, the walls were cracking. Saved!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            But\u2026 what was happening? Dave had her arm, they were walking back along the aisle. His grin said, \u2018Look! A wife<\/em>. I\u2019ve got one. A trophy.\u2019 Had she said, \u2018yes\u2019? She was regretting it already. She\u2019d regret it for ever. Regret, regret, clanged in her head as the church bells rang. Regret, regret.            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday: She really should tell her sister: Carys was her best friend. But how embarrassing to announce, \u2018I\u2019m having second thoughts about marrying.\u2019 Carys would probably reply drily, \u2018Leaving the exit strategy a bit late, aren\u2019t we?\u2019 And Carys would be right. What the hell are you going to do, Derwena? No solution came to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A fantastic new #flashfiction from #swanseawriters. This is \"Exit Strategy\"\n\nFree to read now!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[379,502],"tags":[503,504],"class_list":["post-885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-379","category-july-2021-the-secret","tag-exit","tag-strategy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-eh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":888,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions\/888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}