Friday, December 20, 2013

Emmettville Chapter 1:3



3

“Hey, Hun, how was your day?” Kevin asked, popping his first top———well, the first one at home anyway.
“It was a day,” Natalie groaned.
“I’m sorry, babe. Was Karen on the war path again?”
“No worse than any other day, I suppose.”
Kevin let it go at that and settled into his lazy boy. Natalie barely cared to discuss work anymore. She worried it would bring Kevin down, or that he might think her to be a complainer, so most of the time, she just didn’t. This was fine with Kevin and in some ways, his preference, though he didn’t like to admit it. He just didn’t know what he could do, at least until the economy got strong again, and it wasn’t always easy for Nat to wind down once she got going. He loved his bride but he also loved some quiet time after work with his cold mistress, Coors Light. You see, she required very little of him, she only gave. Sometimes that’s just what a fella needs; trouble was, sometimes was turning into all the time. He used to drink a beer or two after work. Then it was a six pack for a while. Nowadays it was a half rack a night on work nights and all bets were off on the weekends. He felt a little guilty spending so much money on drinking when they had so little to spend, but he wasn’t sure how to cope otherwise; not that he could admit that. Kevin wasn’t really hurting anybody unless he contemplated the health of his liver, which he sometimes did.
“Hey babe, while you’re up, could you grab me another beer?”
Natalie winced, “Of course, love.”
“Thanks babe, love you.”
“I love you too.”
And so it went on for the rest of the night until Kevin was reasonably tanked, Natalie was reasonably tired, and the Coors Light was all gone.

(c) Rusty Henrichsen 2013

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