Those three words

Marlene was 42. She had three children and a demanding, demeaning, disgusting husband who had made more of a second, third and fourth child than a husband as the years passed and the family grew. He was tall and broad, with arresting eyebrows and dark blue eyes that looked right through a woman to her defenceless nakedness and he had never lost the taste for captivating a woman, devouring her and then spurning her at the very height of her love and need for him.

He repeatedly spurned his wife. In all his habitual womanising and aggressive ranting and self-satisfaction, he trod upon her soul and those of their children, grinding mercilessly beneath his feet these inferiors, his property to be disposed of as he saw fit. But he did not spurn Marlene publicly. No, the mother of his children was sacrosanct, his pubic image, the happily married family man must remain intact

Despite all this, Marlene did not look her age. Her roots were tinted and her body in good shape from the aerobics classes that were almost her religion. The lines of her face showed a life full lived but her eyes sparkled with a die-hard mischievousness and she was ever hungry for the thrill of conversation with strangers and unexpected joys, discovering a R10 note in her coat pocket or finding parking easily when she really needed to.

Once all the children were all at school, she got a job at the local travel agent and learnt the ropes and did the necessary tests and moved through the grades until she was now a Senior Travel Agent and manager of her branch of Travel 2000. Marlene’s youngest was now at college and she felt that she had done her duty by her children. She applied for a transfer to Cape Town. It came through.

Marlene packed light. She took only her favourite clothes and the jewellery that was worth anything. She would refashion it into new trendy stuff to match her new life. Her heart skipped a beat. She was wildly excited and absolutely terrified. She lugged her bags downstairs and left them at the front door. Then she collected a few small ornaments and packed them carefully into a box and took some pictures off the walls. She took the bags, box and pictures outside and packed them into her car. Marlene went back into the house, put her rings in the ashtray next to the phone and locking the door and security gate behind her, threw the keys through the window which she had left slightly open.

He phoned just as she had thrown the remote control through the steadily closing gate onto the driveway. She hoped he didn’t drive over it. Marlene pressed the green phone and said, “Hello Charlie?”

“Ah - Marl... I’m bringing Dave and Tommy home for chow, all right. We’ll be there in about an hour or so, you'll rustle something up will you?”

“Charlie?” Marlene took a deep breath and put the car into reverse.

“Fuck right off!”