a small story...

A story by Noodles crew...

 They were never the best couple.

They had their peaks and valleys their highs and lows like everybody else

but their relationship was do able, manageable.

and there was the little dream...

Then the pandemic hit.

and there was the isolation and the realization that they didn't really have much in common

 and the constant togetherness. 

They were just two people struggling and lost

They tried to find common ground but, in the end, she drank, and he sat on the couch playing video games all day and night 

They began to feel boxed out while at the same time boxed in, glimmers of a growing frustration hovering over them every day made it worse

Then came that day

They had walked through the door, and she had turned to say something small and mundane

and she realized his hands were around her throat

then he slapped her...hard

so hard she heard here neck crack

but the worst, the thing she'd never forget was that look on his face.

Maniacal and terrorizing a look she would remember for the rest of her life.

and the dream dissolved completely.

The police came.

neighbors peered through their doors, some venturing into the hallway.

they took him to jail and her to the hospital'

There were orders of protection and persecutors and police

At some point she realized this was going to go on forever...

this was her life now.

She took the box from the back of the hall closet and removed the revolver.

She had a hard time aligning the bullets in the chamber as she had never held a gun before this

she finally loaded the barrel

She wasn't really thinking of anything in particular as she walked to the front door

She said "I'm sorry as she squeezed the trigger

then she turned the weapon on herself.

Two weeks later a couple moved into a small rustic farmhouse somehere in Italy...

and started to live a small simple life