Sunday, June 05, 2016

But Now I Have To Eat Twice As Much Since You're Not Here!

Says the cook to the Skype image.  The Skype image is frozen., the connection is bad  Something is cooling on the stove, & it worries him.  It's dinner for two, & there is only one person here.

The cook contemplates eating out.  He lives in a small town, but every driver seems impatient to get to the somewhere near they're going as fast as they can to get to.  He barely misses a collision on the way to get take-out.  One car, trying to change lanes to pass another car, does not check its blind-spot, & does not stop changing lanes when the cook leans on the horn like he is flattening dough.  The cook, shaken & in utter disbelief, decides to get take-out anyway.

He is the only person in the town who uses the turn single.  He is very aware of this.  He uses the turn single when he is leaving his driveway.

Household duties, once divided between two people, seem incredibly onerous now.  But as he doubles up on chores & obligations, he finds his mind is a blank when it comes to halving recipes.  Just use half the ingredients! he says to himself in the empty kitchen.  He realizes he hasn't needed to run the dishwasher for two days.

The house seems quieter somehow.  It must be, with only one person stumbling through it.  He turns the ceiling fans on in shifts, to make the air circulate in different ways throughout the day.  Thinking music might help, he plays a record he loves, & he plays it loud, but the silence between the tracks is louder, like a chasm.

Yet he has no trouble getting to sleep.  Yet he has no trouble waking up.

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