SHE WAS STUNNED…
She was stunned by his words. Every Thursday night of their twenty-seven years of marriage she had served the same meal and it had never been an issue before. Having said his piece, he now sat silent across the kitchen table seething in rage and glaring at the offending hot dish. Only the sounds of the evening crickets filling the room.
She drained her glass of wine and opened a fresh pack of Lucky Strikes. It took three sparks to light the cigarette. After drawing the smoke deep, she released it slowly through her nose, and said, “Sometimes you are fucking exhausting,” then tapped the ash into her empty wine glass.
He lifted his eyes to hers, “your no goddammed picnic either.”
The crickets again occupied the silence.
She placed the cigarette in her mouth and in one smooth motion stood up, sending the kitchen chair toppling behind her, grabbed the casserole dish, burning her hands, and threw it hard at the kitchen wall where it exploded in a cloud of glass and pasta, most of the mess dropping into the trash can below. A few cheese-coated macaroni’s remained stuck to the wall.
The screen door slapped shut behind her.
He never moved even when he heard the Oldsmobile start and drive off into the night.