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Horizon
Are We There Yet?
It always starts out easy because we aren’t paying attention to the currents, the winds, the tides, the phase of the moon. We are filled with the horizon and confident.
There are the whispers around the church as Hugo watches his serious little bride come down the aisle. With his father long gone and his mother fiercely facing down the gossips, Hugo serenely surveys the horizon and sees only a way out.
Miriam turns out to be a faulty escape vehicle being pregnant more often than not. Hugo contemplates moving her and their growing family away to the city. He works as a clerk in the shipping office; work that he could certainly find in the city. But then the baby is born and they manage to cram the crib into the nook under the stairs and dinner is burned again. Hugo takes up with the church choir director’s daughter and Miriam is given a respite but when that young lady begins making demands it is finally time to make their move and it is off to the city with them all.
The city obscures all horizons and Hugo becomes confused. He does find work. He also puts Miriam in the other of the two bedrooms in their flat with the daughters. Five children are enough. Then there are four as the first of the cholera epidemics sweep the city. Then three. Miriam, terrified and enraged, gathers her remaining children and flees. Alone, Hugo…
