“This is the eighth day in a row it’s rained.”
“No darling, the sixth.”
“The sixth, are you sure?” Tina nodded her head, “feels like eight. Look it’s raining so heavily you can’t see the railings on our deck.”
Tina had had enough of her husband’s whining about something totally out of their control. Not being one to sit around and mope like him, she left standing next to him, “while you look outside at the torrential rain, I’ll make some breakfast. What did your new buddy say about the rain?”
“New buddy?” he asked.
“Steven Evans that new buddy.”
“He’s hardly a new buddy.”
“All right, Joyce’s old friend.”
“Oh him. I’ve only just started watching him.”
“You could fool me,” replied Tina looking in the fridge for the eggs. “Don’t we have any eggs?” Chris did hear her but pretended he didn’t which was more convenient.
“Well since he called the rain the first day and went against the weathermen orthodoxy whatever that is, he hasn’t been right one time.”
“Did you hear me about the eggs?” Tina asked again.
This time Chris could no longer ignore his wife, who was not only getting tired of his moaning but now realised they didn’t have any eggs. “I have no idea,” he replied trying to turn away from the large glass doors which looked out over the beach and the ocean beyond that. But it was like a magnet. As hard as he tried, the harder the miserable scene playing outside his home held him. He finally used all his strength, turned and walked into the kitchen where his wife was trying to create some semblance of normalcy.
“We don’t have any eggs,” Tina said again and then looking at her husband who looked miserable for the sixth day in a row added, “darling.”
“I don’t cook,” he answered opening the fridge and peering in. “It looks like we’re out of butter as well,” he noticed looking at the butter dish.
“No, we aren’t. there’s plenty in the freezer. I just have to take it out and defrost it.”
“Defrost it?” he questioned.
“Yes!” replied his irate wife, “defrost it, like in the microwave.”
Chris closed the fridge and was immediately pulled back to the glass doors. Tina sensing that he was disengaging from normal life again, watched him begin to move in that direction and said to him in an unmistakable tone, “don’t you dare Chris! I’m talking to you about breakfast.” He immediately stopped in his tracks now believing that he had overdone things, as he tended to do on many an occasion.
He turned and faced his wife who was still standing in the kitchen but with a bread knife in her hand, or was it a butcher’s knife, he couldn’t tell. He walked back into the kitchen and stood by the fridge. He took a deep sigh, “I guess we either go to the restaurant and have breakfast, or I go out and get eggs,” he sounded like a ship which had broken its moorings and was being buffeted by the winds and angry sea.
“Well if you’re asking me,” replied Tina, putting a frozen stick of butter in the microwave while her husband watched her in amazement.
“How do you know when it’s done?”
“Done? What’s done?” she asked knowing exactly what he was talking about, but Tina was now a woman on a mission. She was becoming her old self, refusing to be dragged down by her husband.
“The butter. How do you know when it’s defrosted and not liquid?”
“I don’t know Chris. I guess when it starts dripping out of the microwave, I’ll turn it off.”
He was about to counter that but closed his mouth as fast as he could because it was now obvious, even to man like Chris, that his wife had had enough of hm.
“Ok darling,” he began hoping that those two words might finally get her to soften slightly, but he was mistaken. “If the choices are between going out and eating or getting eggs I’ll opt for the latter.” He paused for a second to see if there was any softening in his wife’s face but there was none. How could he possibly believe that one sentence which he really didn’t mean, and she knew that, would change the way in which she viewed him? He knew he had no alternative now but to get dressed, get into his car and drive across the drawbridge a distance of some five miles to the large grocery store and buy some eggs. “Anything else you need from there darling?” he asked.
“Since you asked,” said Tina not about to forgive her husband just yet for making the last six days of her life miserable, “I’ll draw up a list while you get dressed.” He looked at her in amazement, “or are you going in your pyjamas?”
That was his cue to leave and get ready to do some heavy grocery shopping. A few minutes later Chris made a reappearance dressed appropriately for the weather, however, the scowl that had been plastered over his face for the last six days was now much more pronounced. He rolled his eyes when he was handed the grocery list. Tina was ecstatic.
“You have butter on here,” he said as he carefully looked down the list. “I thought we had butter.”
“We do darling,” she answered emphasising the last word, “but who knows how long this weather is going to last and we may run out.” Oh boy Tina was enjoying her exalted position of mistress of the house and he a mere vassal. There were a number of items on the list he didn’t expect and thought he never saw in the house, but he had given up. He knew he was being punished for his insolent behaviour and he must for marital tranquillity, accept his punishment and make the best of it.
He stepped forward, forced a smile and gave his wife a peck on the cheek. He then turned and walked down the stairs. Tina waited until she heard the door to the garage open and then close to utter her final word, “wanker!” She shouted it out loud enough for the next door neighbours to hear, though luckily they weren’t home. Not feeling better, she walked into the living room and turned on the news. Just in time it seemed. It was Chris’ newfound friend. She sat down with her mug of coffee which wasn’t as hot as she would’ve liked.
“This weather,” she heard Steven Evans say, “should finally be out of here folks by this evening. Here we see high pressure building which will force this weather system further out to sea and we will have sunshine by about 4 this evening.” Tina turned off the TV and walked over to the microwave to reheat her coffee.
As soon as she opened the door the butter oozed out onto the counter. “Damn!” she said as she realised she had forgotten to time the defrost. She was glad Chris wasn’t there to watch this scenario unfold, otherwise he would have a field day with it, but that didn’t matter she still blamed him.