NCFM NOTE: Ortega Sunday is a heart-felt work about abused men and the last option, suicide. It’s a worthy read and might help others help those they care about, including themselves. More a short story than a book this is a great read and available at Amazon for download as an e-book, $5 and 10% goes to NCFM. Here’s a brief preview. We will be serializing some of Mr. Sharief’s work so stay tuned…
Ortega Sunday
© 2013 by Omar Sharief
To good men, and to the mothers, sisters, daughters, and women who love them.
One crazy fucking highway, one wicked crotch rocket, and one very depressed son-of-a-bitch. The equation was suicide. Perhaps he’d fail, but at least the math was in his favor. Samuel had just finalized the decision yesterday though he had needed this for some time now. Lately the plans just seemed to speed up, faster and faster. It all began last Sunday.
Sunday Evening
“You’ve always been a failure and that’s what you’ll always be”, Abigail dragged the words out nice and slow.
Sam thought he’d be used to those words by now; it wasn’t the first time his wife had told him that. But it still hurt; it hurt bad. He tried not to show it though. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much if it were totally unsubstantiated. Sam was horrible at accomplishing long term goals…the career ones. She was kind of right.
“You work at Payless Shoes, you loser.”
But why’d she have to be like this? “I’m going to college!”
“What? Are you going to become a shoe manager?”
He caught the sneer but continued his defense. “I don’t know what I’m going to do!” Then he trailed off in reflection…”I don’t know.” Gentle this time….ashamed for not knowing.
“Well what do you know Sam? Anyways, it’s my fault not yours. I was stupid enough to marry you.”
That was Sam’s chance to answer her question…the “what do you know” question. Because in fact, there were a lot of things he knew. Instead, something else came out. “Why do you abuse me like that?”
“Abuse you?? I’m not abusing you, I’m just telling you the truth. Besides, I can’t believe you just said that. I can’t believe you said that! Why did you say that!?”
Oh shit, Sam fucked up. Her voice was escalating: quickly. Very quickly. Was she PMSing? It’d been a while since…
“You jerk. You fucking jerk.” That’s when she started pushing him. She pushed again. And again. “You asshole! I wasn’t abusing you, you fucker.”
“What is this then?? Isn’t this abuse?” Damn it! He kept digging his own hole.
“This? This is for accusing me like that. How dare you! I’m the woman in this relationship, not you!”
Then she started smacking him in the chest. They kept coming, one hand at a time; one after another. “The best defense is a good offense,” he could hear his Sensei as if he were right behind him. “You only have three choices; flee, fail or fight. Doing nothing but deflecting and defending will quickly lead to loss…and that’s a voluntary, stupid choice of your option to fail.” His Sensei had coined the term, “Re-Offense”. And it was so; there is no such thing as self-defense. A person who is defending himself has to re-offend. This is well accepted by legal officials as a civil and natural response to an attack…unless your attacker is a woman, and you are a man. They were painful… the smacks to his chest. And she wouldn’t stop it either. But, he figured, she wasn’t really trying to hurt him; she did have nails and could be striking him in the face…it was more threat and intimidation than anything. But God, when was she going to stop? When he ran? This was his house too. He was tired of running out. Again the Sensei’s words: “Don’t defend yourself. Flee, fail, or fight.” But he defied his Sensei’s discipline and caught hold of her wrists. He was defending instead of re-offending…
You can finish the by downloading it from Amazon, Ortega Sunday.
Reprinted with permission of the author.
Omar
AUTHOR BIO
Omar Sharief, part Indian, part Caucasian…and one hundred percent American, was born in Indiana and raised in California. He spent 4 years as a United States Marine, 4 years as a missionary, and is now going on 4 years as a firefighter, where he plans to finish out his career. He holds a Criminal Justice Degree from Rasmussen College, St. Cloud MN (and the debt that goes with it). He enjoys swimming, table tennis, basketball…and writing about men’s issues through short stories and non-fiction. But most of all he loves Jeeps, Jury Duty, and Jack & Coke.
Would like to know if Omar Shariff has written any other book?