The living room is painted deep purple, directed by the second wife. We sit on the velour couch and look out the bay window to the snowy side of the yard, and wonder what this holiday will bring. When the kids were younger, there were bikes to assemble, record players to test out our new '45's, pajamas and robes to put aside, and surprises--dolls, toys, even musical instruments. Now that we have grown up a bit, it is a command performance, this opening of boxes and bags. The second wife does not like messiness, so we must discard all wrappings quickly after they are no longer ribboned and taped. D. seems to be having a lot of egg nogs this morning. Does he see that the crew is stiffer, quieter, more anxious to cut the morning short? Somehow we feel sorry for him, as well as ourselves, for the dreariness of pretending, for the icy exterior which will inhibit our exit, and for the inevitable ending of this chapter in which the players drift off to their own rooms and tasks, another holiday nailed to the wall, and finally tucked behind the purple paneling until another occasion brings us to this room again.
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ReplyDeleteThe living room is painted deep purple, directed by the second wife. We sit on the velour couch and look out the bay window to the snowy side of the yard, and wonder what this holiday will bring. When the kids were younger, there were bikes to assemble, record players to test out our new '45's, pajamas and robes to put aside, and surprises--dolls, toys, even musical instruments. Now that we have grown up a bit, it is a command performance, this opening of boxes and bags. The second wife does not like messiness, so we must discard all wrappings quickly after they are no longer ribboned and taped. D. seems to be having a lot of egg nogs this morning. Does he see that the crew is stiffer, quieter, more anxious to cut the morning short? Somehow we feel sorry for him, as well as ourselves, for the dreariness of pretending, for the icy exterior which will inhibit our exit, and for the inevitable ending of this chapter in which the players drift off to their own rooms and tasks, another holiday nailed to the wall, and finally tucked behind the purple paneling until another occasion brings us to this room again.