His anger could be felt in stomp of feet on the floor.
The slam of a door exclaimed his rage and there were holes in the walls where his words had failed him.
Pushed beyond that, it was the look in his eye, the vast crazed hazel that glowed particularly ember.
Where Neil Breslyn was not articulate, his mood was an exclamation!
Unfortunately for Neil, Sylvia was a woman of principal. She was not easily moved by emotion, her own included. She was merciful to children, the sick, the dying or infirmed but would not make provision outside of sensible charity.
Sylvia was a mind over matter sort, one whose feelings from this day or that did not determine her contribution.
This arrangement did not work well for Neil who functioned within the realm of being the exception. That is to say that for him, standard must remain fluid and allow for his mood on any given day. He could not be counted on to be one kind of man or another, he was only ever to be understood!
It was a charm at the beginning, before there were children. Sylvia had doted more than she ought! But now, with the feeding, and changing, teaching, and mending there was very little special provision to be given to anyone, especially a grown man!
But it was this extra care which Neil thought to be a woman's proper expression of love to a man, and being denied, he was at a deficit. So he justified more drinking and bellowing and misbehaved even more.
He could not be pleased, rationalized with or even lectured to.
And so she wasn't sad to see him go.
Leaving was the most righteous thing he had done. She secretly admired him for it. She hated him for how it left her; no job and seven children, but his resolve to chose something within his whirlwind of a troubled mind was something indeed.
It had seemed he had left for anger, but she knew it was shame and that was a lonesome road. Sylvia knew her husband better than anyone and by now, after almost twenty years of marriage, she knew that only he could face that shame and she hoped that he might.
She blessed him when he left, though he spit rage to her, half drunk and guilty for having pawned her wedding ring for rent.
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