Stonewalled
by Marian Brooks
Caroline stood
at the doorway to the kitchen, hands on hips. Edward
knew something was up although he pretended not
to see her. He continued to work on his Sudoku.
Fox News blared in the background.
“We have
to talk,” said Caroline.
“Later,”
he replied holding his hand up practically in her
face.
“OK, when?”
she asked.
“After
the Eagles game” he suggested. “They
really need to get rid of Andy Reed.”
Persistence
was Caroline’s long suit. About an hour
before the game, she gave it another shot. No
luck. Edward was reading the newspaper,
dozing on and off and watching Great Tank Battles
of WWII on the Military Channel.
She turned off
the TV which somehow woke him up. She had
his attention finally and launched into how
lonely she’d been. She estimated that Edward
spoke about two hundred and ten words a day to
her and that he wasn’t the least bit curious
about her hobbies, the books she read, her
friends or the stories she wrote. “We
need to find a common interest like dancing or
doing a 1000 piece puzzle, maybe playing Scrabble
or Gin.”
All of this
she shared with Edward. His eyes were
closing.
After the
football game, Caroline asked if he’d heard
anything she said. He claimed that he “took
it all in”.
“Well,"
she asked, “do you have even one, single
suggestion for an activity we could do together?”
“Yes,”
he said. “I’ve given it a lot of
thought. You are right and I am sorry. How about
Russian Roulette? You can be first.”
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