Moving in
I have been attending a writing class to try to get my creative juices flowing again. It's not poetry but here it goes:
“She has to go!”, Deborah declared as she busied her hands with a cloth on the already clean benchtop.
“She’s not so bad darling” Barry muttered incomprehensibly as he shovelled another mouthful of cereal into his already full mouth.
Deborah’s head snapped around as she glared holes into the back of Barry’s head . “Of course you would say that, young little thing prancing around. I told you this would happen, I told you to put a small ad in the classifieds, we’d get a lovely little home body, but no, you put a whopping big billboard out the front and outsource the screening process to the first schmooze in a fancy suit”.
Barry continued piling cereal into his mouth, he knew by now that saying nothing was his safest option.
Deborah swept the floor again hurriedly. "I mean look at this place, it looks like a brothel in here. Spills on the benchtops, spoilt food in the fridge, crumbs on the floor, what will our friends think, what will my mother say when she sees the squalor you have us living in Barry? Barry? Are you listening to me?" She waited for him to offer a quick grunt and continued without another breath. "I was looking for something in the fridge the other night and she stormed in, turned the light on, gave me such a fright. And then she tried to hit me with her shoe, the nerve, walking around my house like she owns the place."
Barry opened his mouth to speak, but was abruptly cut short.
"And that!" Deborah gestured to the can of no frills bug spray towering over her, "it smells absolutely horrid, I don't know why she keeps insisting with it, it's not like the benches will clean themselves just because she sprays her fancy spray on them".
Deborah finally took a breath, her tone shifting from rage to almost defeated "I thought you said you'd talk to her", she looked at Barry pleadingly for a response.
"I tried, I thought I made it pretty clear" Barry shrugged. "At first, she jumped every time she saw me so I thought if I just hovered around I'd keep her in line. I was waiting for her in the kitchen the other day when she got home, she just rolled her eyes at me and sprayed more of that funny cleaning spray. So I waited for her in her room the next day, to really show her it's time to pick up her game but she came home and saw me on her laptop and just walked out of the room, like I didn't even exist".
"Look darling" Barry stood from the table, moving to put his hands on Deborah's waist "I know this is our home, but maybe your cousin Carol had the right idea, maybe we should just pack up and move", barry nodded gently not sure if he was trying to convince himself or Deborah. "You always say it's too small here and that you'd love to get away and start fresh. Let's do it!".
Deborah blinked at Barry, gobsmacked by his suggestion. This is our home she thought to herself, but in the back of her mind she remembered how long she had been nagging at Barry to make the move and every excuse under the sun that he had managed to find. She took a deep breath "let's do it!".
Barry's eyes went wide, shocked that Debbie had actually accepted his ridiculous suggestion that he'd made merely in hopes of calming the situation. But it was too late, Debbie was packing their few belongings into their suitcases already. By the time Barry had washed his bowl, Debbie was grabbing at it to put it in the bag as she zipped it shut. Barry glanced around one last time, this is it he thought. He took a deep breath, grabbed his wife by the hand and together they scurried under the door.