Croak

“Can you pass me the butter” she asked.

“Huh?” I was still reading through the newspapers and didn’t hear what she said

“The butter…” she was pointed with her finger.

I passed her the bowl and continued reading through the paper. I could hear her noisily spread the butter over her half burnt toast. It was always beyond me how someone could find it impossible to make something as simple as toast. I put the papers down, the milk had now soaked into my cereal and it was reduced to some degree closely resembling cardboard. I added a little more milk and tried to down the rest of my breakfast.

I dropped the bowl into the sink. I picked up the bucket with the wash cloth and the soap. Just as I was heading outside to start cleaning my motorcycle, I saw her standing in front of the mirror. She was looking at herself, pulling on the little tummy fat that she had gained since we had moved in together. I didn’t mind it. She looked healthier, she didn’t see it the same way.

“Babe”, she asked “Do you think I have grown fatter?”

“You look fine.” I said and walked out to the front yard. I had not paid much attention to Fojan, she was muddy and dirty. I started the laborious process of scrubbing, washing, waxing and wiping. I must have been at it for a good three hours or so before I could see some signs of the elbow grease make a difference.

I turned around and saw her sitting by the front door. She was sipping on her very insipid Chinese tea, it’s not that I hated it, it just didn’t give the caffeine hit that I had gotten so used to.

“I made you some coffee.” She beamed and passed me my oversized mug. “She looks nice, all clean and shiny.”

I took a sip from the mug, stood back and admired my work. “She does look good.”

“I’m heading to the gym, do you want me to pick up anything on the way back?” she asked as she headed back inside.

“I’m out of shampoo.”

“Anything in particular?”

“No, as long as it doesn’t smell like rainbows and unicorns it should be fine.”

“Babe”

“Yeah?”

She hesitated for a second, “Uh, nothing… I love you.”

“I love you too”.

She picked up her bag and made her way out “Don’t forget to close the gate” I yelled as she was leaving. I heard it clang and slowly squeal its way open. I sighed quietly and walked up to close the gate. I could still see her in the distance. She had a tiny frame and the spandex made her seem even more elfin. Her single ponytail was bobbing around. I still wasn’t sure how she ended up with me.

I picked up my helmet and decided to go for a short ride. She was back home when I had returned.

“Where did you disappear?” she asked

“Just went for a short ride.”

“You should really join me at gym.” She had her hands on her hips and her head cocked to one side. This was her ‘don’t mess with me stance’.

“We already went over this” I sighed “The gym is your alone time and having me there doesn’t make any sense.” I leaned in to give her a kiss and she pushed me away.

“You’ve been smoking again”

“So?”

“You smell like an ashtray…”

“Are you trying to start a fight now?” I asked

“We don’t do anything together anymore” her voice started cracking up “I don’t even know why we are in this relationship”

I didn’t see this coming. We had been together for quite some time now. The sex was decent, we managed to squeeze in conversation in our busy schedule, we always knew what the other half was doing, and we laughed together. I still couldn’t come up with a half assed attempt at convincing her that things weren’t as bad as they seemed. Maybe she was right, maybe we had become a little lax about the whole relationship, maybe we just got so used to doing what we do that we were slowly losing ourselves.

She was sobbing now. I could do nothing but hold her and hope that it made her feel better.

“Hey” I nudged her a little “do you want to go out?”

She nodded, she wiped her face. “Where?”

I handed her a helmet “You’ll see…”

She had her hands tucked into my jacket and had her head on my shoulder. We had not spoken since we had gotten on the bike. She slid down the seat and sat closer to me. The sun was going down. I pulled off the main highway and got on to one on the dirt tracks. She held on tighter as we navigated around the deep ruts and massive boulders.

“We’re here” I announced.

“Where are we?” she was still soaking in the surroundings. She walked towards the little pond of crystal clear azure.

“Be careful, there are snakes around here.” I cautioned.

She didn’t care, she was happy. I was happy too. This was my little secret, a little haven for me to disappear to when I needed peace and now it was ours.

We climbed one of the larger rocks and watched the sun slowly disappear behind the hills in the distance. The sky still had hues of red that were slowly turning purple. We could hear the cricket’s chirp and the frogs croak. All the sounds together formed some form of weird melody but it was peaceful.

She pointed to a cluster of stars “The Big Dipper and the Little Dipper.” She sounded rather proud of herself. I was more than amused. “You don’t remember do you?”

“Remember what?”

“You were trying to act all fancy on our first date, you kept pointing at all the constellations and mouthing off the names like you were some big shot astronomer. You weren’t but I knew that I loved you then.”

I kissed her gently on her lips. “We should go now.” She was smiling, I could almost see her face glow in the fading light. We had fallen in love again.

I jumped off the boulder and held out my hand to help her down. “So, how much did you say the gym membership was?”