Emotional Purchase

By Dale Angel

She was so pretty. I was so in love. She helped me understand the value of visiting the jewelry store with my pitiful paycheck.  Her choice was pricey, but I have two years to pay for it. I didn’t know about…high maintenance. I signed.

The next week her mother asked her why she would be interested in a skinny geek. Her love went cold about that time. When I next saw her she was wearing my two-year-contract as a short, heavy fellow was romancing her.

This emotional purchase would be a thorn in my side for a long time. I became unemployed and I have this dead weight around my neck that has to be fed every time the moon changes. It sucked away my youth.

It became a family burden when my car broke down and my mom had to get up and out in the freezing blinding rain in pitch black nights for transportation to fulfill this obligation.

She reminds me that after the birth of her fourth son, strangers said “Honey, you can’t keep having boys. You’re too meek and mild. They will have you tied up and fire at your feet.” I think this kind of fire is what they meant.

To this day deep rumbling growls comes from my mother’s throat when this episode is even mentioned. Emotional purchases can have long term consequences.

Is it any comfort that a member of my (former) love’s family got on drugs and looted their house?

Including my gift.

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