The Reasons Why

The reasons why she’d left him were numerous and varied. Some were large, noticeable and inexcusable, like the punctuation of the sign for FISH'N CHIPS’ she had to pass on her way to the station each morning. One day she would have to go in and tell them to change it, for it was a daily reminder of the ignorance of the kind of people she was forced to live amongst. Such literary carelessness would never happen in Hampstead, but of course they'd had to leave there because of his job. Oh yes, his job - one of the more large, noticeable and inexcusable reasons why she’d left him. Along with his gambling habits, his life-long affair with the brandy bottle and his on-off affair with a certain large and noticeable blonde, who probably had difficulty spelling her own name.

The other half of the reasons why she’d left him were smaller, more discreet. Take his selfishness in bed for a start; he’d refused to try anything for his snoring, said it was a natural bodily function and he wasn’t willing to have it interfered with. Then there was his tea-making – not only did he put the milk in first, but he left the teaspoon in his cup so long that all their teaspoons were either bent, stained a hideous copper-brown or most often both. And why oh why did have to suddenly stop still every time he wanted to say something when they were walking down the street, even if it was raining? Surely even men could walk and talk at the same time? For anybody else these reasons mightn’t seem like feasible ones to want to leave someone over, but after seventeen years these originally minor annoyances had become as conspicuous and unbearable as a misplaced apostrophe.