Archive for the ‘marriage’ Category
coffee table.
“I don’t know what the big deal is about a coffee table, anyway,” said Harold.
“The big deal,” Esther replied, “is that I’ve no place to put my drink.”
Good breeding could not hide her slur. Red wine sloshed to the rim of her stemmed crystal glass and a lopsided smile revealed purple teeth.
“Harold.”
He adjusted his glasses and pulled the book closer to his face.
“Harold.” Esther crossed her arms, shifted lift hip right rip until a triangle of sun through the window caught her cheek and bleached half of her cropped brown hair blonde.
Words blurred on the page, and Harold noted the page number; he would come back later and pick up where his attention scattered and left off.
“Harold.” She shuffled to the couch, and the rubbered pads of her pink slippers scuffed and tapped invisible divots into the hardwood floor. “Listen to me, Harold.”
Outside the margins of page 176, beyond the cardboard cover edge of Darkness Visible, Harold watched Esther’s pink clad foot raise one dangerous 45-degree angle from the floor, pausing one-half of a centimeter from the lip of his water glass positioned on the floor.
“Harold.”
Tap.
It clunked, the water stretched into an elongated oval puddle across the floor, disappearing under the couch, and the emptied glass barrel-rolled into the television.
Harold turned the page. “177,” he said.
