Who Do I Turn To When You Turn Away

Title: Who do I turn to When you turn away?
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Medium: 40x50x4cm (15.7x19.7x1,6in)

Private Ownership

Who do I turn to When you turn away
Anastasia & Fernando

As the sun begins to set, reflection overcomes Anastasia. She cannot help but think of how fast time flies.

It seemed like only yesterday when she met Fernando, her husband of ten years.  A simple walk on the beach turned into one of the most cherished days of her life.

Now, as she sits on the crumpled, faded, red and blue blanket,   so many feelings and emotions consume her.

She looks at the gently flowing waters and takes in every ripple. Her heart is slowly breaking as she wonders if Fernando still loves her.

Lately, their conversations have been minimal with quick good mornings and quick good nights. He used to kiss her passionately, but now a quick peck on the cheek is all she gets.

His increasing late nights at the office makes her think that perhaps he has someone else occupying his time. She has watched too many talk shows about that sort of thing happening. Deep in her heart, she is hoping that she is worrying for no reason, but she knows things have changed.

As darkness surrounds her, she stands up while shaking the sand from the blanket. She slowly walks toward the house. She sees the brightness of the outside light and the darkness of her house. The dread of walking into an empty house sends her mind racing.

She slowly unlocks the door and hesitantly walks in. Silence fills the room. There is no sign of Fernando. For a split second, she thinks that maybe she has a missed call. Sometimes, her cell phone is quirky and does not ring. However, this is not the case.

Anastasia closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She goes into their bedroom and sits on the bed. While looking around the room, she notices the closet is ajar. She walks over to the closet and notices several pieces of Fernando’s clothing are missing along with his leather garment bag. Panic sets in. Tears roll down her cheeks. Upset fills her stomach and she shakes her head in disbelief.

She does not remember him saying he was going anywhere other than to the office. Why would his garment bag not be in the corner of the closet as it usually is? Maybe, he mumbled words of a business trip in his quick good bye earlier in the morning and she was too sleepy to acknowledge it. Maybe, he quietly made his exit to avoid a confrontation with her.

She walked back to the bed and lay down on his pillow. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Hours later, Fernando came home and walked into the room. He looked at her on his pillow and decided not to wake her. He closed the bedroom door and went into the guest room to go to sleep.

The next morning Anastasia woke up to find Fernando was not in the bed with her.  She jumped out of the bed and went into the bathroom. She brushed her teeth, washed her face, and showered. Afterwards, she dressed and opened the bedroom door. The smell of bacon filled the air.

Her face lit up in anticipation as she walked toward the kitchen. Fernando was at the kitchen sink washing out a pan. He turned around.

“Good morning. I see you finally decided to wake up.”

“Yes, I had a long night.”

“I can definitely relate. Business has been erratic lately.”

“What has been going on?”

“I did not want to worry you, but there was talk of a merger. You know how mergers can be.”

“Yes, I do. So how are things now?”

“Well, the merger is going to go through, and the good news is that I have been asked to become the new CEO.”

“Oh, that is great news.”

“I know. You know how long I have been waiting to get to this place, and it is finally happening. Honey, we have arrived.” He took her into his arms and kissed her passionately.

Tears flowed down her cheeks and onto his lips.

“What is with the tears?”

“I am just so happy for you and for us.”

“You should be. Are you sure that is all? Your eyes are red, have you been crying before now?”

She pulled away and turned around so she was not facing him. She looked down at the floor and contemplated on the proper response, but words could not leave her mouth.

He went over to her and gently took her hand walking her over to the couch sitting down close to her.

“Something is wrong, isn’t it? Please tell me why you have been crying.”

Her lips quivered. She turned and looked him in the face.

“Well, lately it seems that we were drifting apart. All kinds of thoughts have been drowning my mind. And when I noticed your garment bag was missing as well as half of your clothes, I thought you left me.”

“Left you? Why would I do that? I love you. The garment bag is in the hall closet. As for the missing clothes, I donated them to the men’s shelter. The new CEO has to make room for the new clothes. There is no need for you to worry.  Our union is solid. We are the unbreakable duo. The vows we made are still in effect. I do apologize for the late nights. I guess you did have a good reason to be concerned. I should have let you in on the deal. I will make it my mission to make sure I do not have you unnecessarily worrying. I love you.”

He plants a kiss on her lips. She kisses him back and hugs him tightly.

“I love you, too.”

They go into the kitchen and eat breakfast. He dresses and leaves for work. She waves goodbye as he pulls out of the driveway.  She looks up at the sky and out at the beach. She inhales a breath of relief. Her assumptions had no basis in reality.

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Heritage & Future

Each part of each piece of art is created by Award-winning artist Bender. Creation continues passionately with new discoveries every day, with the ambition and aspiration of the history and culture of Swedish soil and roots of the name that can be traced to the 1883, - for the future.

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