Fiction: Mrs. Blake and the Ugly Immortal

This August Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by David M. Gascoigne and is hosted at Elephant's Child over here. This week's prompts are happen, truck, hollow, daffy, tired, joke and/or relationship, nature, true, home, aphorism, dragged.

Fiction: Mrs. Blake and the Ugly Immortal
Immortals are dreadful was what Mrs. Blake had to say about her experience though she really meant the opposite. She remembered things all too well but now and then, she would wonder if her mind had gone soft that night.
    It happened long ago or so said Mrs. Blake. That Friday evening, Mrs. Blake was walking home carrying three paper bags of groceries because Mr. Blake had been too lazy to have the car fixed and too lazy to go with her. As she walked, Mrs. Blake had thoughts. One was when she get home, she will call her lawyer to draw up papers to divorce her husband. Another was what to cook for dinner that Horace didn't like. A third was why was it the grocery store didn't offer free deliveries unless you spent 100 dollars or more. Mrs. Blake was three dollars short and she offered to pay it but the checkout girl insisted that's not how it's done. She gave Mrs. Blake a look of utter impatience while drumming her fingers on the cash register. There were ten or so people behind Mrs. Blake who were also looking impatiently at her. Mrs. Blake was too timid to go back and get another item which would have only taken her a minute or two but people, she believed, were impatient and more so, they were rude if you so much as delay them even for a second. She had a lot of unwanted experiences in that.
    So there she was walking home in the half darkness with three bags of groceries even though she could have them delivered if only she had been brave enough to weather other people's wrath. It would have not been so bad if she had her shopping cart. Last week, Horace thought it was a good idea to improve it but of course that meant he broke it but refused to admit it. She didn't know how many things that daffy husband of hers had broken but the list must be frustratingly long and not to mention his constant reminder. Every other day, he would remind her who was paying the bills. Just before she left for the grocery store, he had, again, reminded her and added she shouldn't complained about a little grocery shopping trip. Being angry made it hard for her to contemplate a respond. When she get home, she will call her lawyer right away. Yes, she will do just that.
    A tire squeaked and something struck her from behind. The next moment, she was floating in the air along with her bags of groceries. A singular thought entered her head: I will die being remembered as a middle-age, meek housewife married to a fat, lazy asshat.
    Then she was on her feet and the bags of groceries were back in her arms. She wasn't injured and there was no pain anywhere. Around her, there was no one about but there was a truck behind her with its headlights on. She couldn't see the driver but there was movements behind the steering wheel. The truck door opened and the driver got out.
    Mrs. Blake was ready to run but she thought, what for? There was no chance of escaping. She was a plump lady with short legs and she had not done much exercises other than opening a book and doing some housework. Horace, fatter than she was, had made fat jokes about her behind and how she really must not block the television. She didn't want to admit it but it was true that their relationship had gone down the drain some ten years ago. Her home was no longer a place of happiness and comfort. The aphorism, If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got, could possibly describe her marriage. Why she stayed so long was a mystery to her.
    The driver stopped in front of her. Under the streetlights, it was clear nature had not been kind to this man. He had square jaws, hollow cheeks, a crooked nose, deep set dark eyes, thick lips and skin like an alligator's hide. The bumps and dents on his face might had came about being dragged through a few mud slides with very sharp rocks. But his shoulder length black hair was shiny and smooth.
    "Good Evening, madam, I hope I did not interrupt your night's walk. My apologies," he said as he lifted his fedora and bowed. He gave her a smile that made him looked strangely handsome. His voice had a pleasantness that she had not heard before from anyone in years. "Would you like a ride home, madam?"   
    Mrs. Blake was not a dummy. She knew the consequence of accepting rides from strangers but somehow the man's smile comforted her. And he was dressed so like a gentleman with his neat black jacket over a crisp, white shirt and pants with not a wrinkle in sight and black shoes quite shiny and dirt free. She decided there and there to heck with caution. Her legs were aching and her arms were like lead and she had a sudden tiredness she had never known before. "Yes, if it's no trouble. Thank you very much, sir." She was certain she was at least ten years older than the man and yet, she could not help but called him sir.
    "No trouble at all, madam. I am pleased to offer it," he said as he took her groceries and led her to the passenger side of his truck. The door opened without anyone's help but Mrs. Blake entered and soon was comfortably strapped in with the leather so soft and yielding underneath her, she didn't even think about it. The man placed her groceries in the truck bed and then he got in. Soon they were moving.      
    Faint country music came out of the radio and it lulled Mrs. Blake in a dreamless but calm sleep. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised by the sight of her house. Did she tell the stranger where she lived? But soon she was out of the truck and her three bags of groceries were in her arms and he was saying, "Well, Patience Blake, I do believe we shall part here. I, again, like to apologize for my little interruption. Please forgive me for whatever harm I may have caused." He smiled and again, Mrs. Blake felt a strange comfort she had never gotten from her husband. "Oh, there's no need to apologize. My night's always interrupted. Thank you for the ride, sir," she said and smiled.
    He lifted his fedora and bowed again and was back in the truck and was gone before she realized he had called her by her name though she could not remember telling it to him. Many times, she had thought her parents shouldn't have named her Patience. When she get home, she might ask her lawyer to help her change it.
    Once inside the house, she told Horace of what happened but he didn't believe her. "Stop talking nonsense and make dinner!" was all he said with his eyes toward the television screen.
    She went to the kitchen, picked up the phone and dialed her lawyer. Once it was all settled and once she put the groceries away, she started on dinner. They were going to have spicy beef burger which caused rashes on Horace's face.
    With the little television set on, she began with grounding the beef with a mallet. Mrs. Blake always watched with the sound muted due to Horace complaining he couldn't hear his television but she could always get lost in whatever the history channel had to offer. This evening, they were focusing on bones found in Greece. The close caption said the bones of a particular man, possibly, a royalty of sorts, was found inside an old tomb. According to experts, the bones might be about 100 or more years old. They were still testing them but in the meantime they had a sketch of what the man might had looked like. Mrs. Blake let out a yelp. It couldn't be the same man, no, it couldn't be, she thought but she couldn't have forgotten that unique face.
    "When the heck is dinner, Patty? I'm hungry!" Horace's horsed voice made her pound the beef with a heavy hand. She was glad she had made the phone call. It was ten years late but she was glad. And her day wasn't a complete failure. The man who had given her a ride must be an immortal or else a ghost but Mrs. Blake preferred an immortal. Immortals were dreadful beings when they were angry but very kind when they were in a good mood or so she once heard. She smiled and pounded at the beef.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

    Mrs. Blake, now, Miss Georgia Patience, watched the world go by in her apartment terrace. Georgia was happy and comfortable in her home and yet, she missed a little bit of what life used to be but not so much that she would give this life up any time soon. She wished she could meet that man again if only to thank him. It was his smile, a smile without judgements or any of the negative things people often looked upon her with, that gave her the courage to change her life. She knew whatever vows she had make on the way home from the grocery store would not have happened if not for that smile. It had given her more courage than anything else she had known. As she looked out at the world, she still believed immortals were dreadful but they were also kind.