Mount Everett
-with the best will in the world, Everett’s hope for his wife is that the day only gets better.. -it's a vain hope, considering the day's conclusion is at his dreaded sister-in-law’s..
Even though Everett had gone to bed with a vague feeling of impending pain, it was with some surprise that he awoke the next morning with a headache.
His eyes would not open; his neck was in a crimp. A persistent un-rhythmic throbbing washed his body.
So it happened
the first words of Everett’s day were mooted as: “oooo.”
Eyes elsewhere, Lois gave up chewing. The toast was cardboard cold.
She could have looked over to notice Everett in his pain, still in that uncomfortably tiny hotel bed. The room was quite small. That would have been no effort.
Lois sipped her juice instead.
Everett leveraged himself to a sitting position. “o.”
It was at this Lois raised a look over her glass. “O?” She set it down.
A fist to the wobbly table top, she punted her weight from her chair,
paused. “O.”
The disdain of the syllable wrecked havoc with Everett’s bowels.
“Already up an hour now. Dressed -you can see, if you bothered opening your eyes.”
Her other fist on her hip
she waited a moment for a response.
There was none.
In one seamlessly arch movement-
she snatched the serviette across her lips
tossed it on the remnants of her breakfast
-grabbed her blue woolly coat from the back of the broken chair
and postured to move to the door of the room.
“I’ll wait outside. The room’s packed. Bags are here by the door. Except the toiletries. That’s your job. You’ll need a wash besides. Take the soaps. Nice wrapping. Probably work like lye, but we can give some away at Christmas.”
She made a fist upon the door knob. “Now get up.”
“I’ve a banging head on this morning dear. Banging-”
“And my back’s barely keeping me up. Don’t hear me whinging about it, do you? No. Face the task Everett. Stop trying to get out of your fair share.”
This provoked Everett to raise an eyelid the merest millimetre.
Morning decked him; the light ushering pain through his eye socket to his toes.
Swaying to recline -his shoulders fluttered like stump wings-
Which Lois took no notice of. “You know we’re due at Mae’s by lunch.”
At which Everett’s stomach choked a mighty pirouette.
“You do this every time. Every time, Everett.”
Which -of course- was not true.
Everett had never had a headache like this before.
Maybe
..on occasion his body did react against his wishes..
To the untrained eye
it might even appear that these occasions coincided with something specific...
Actually,
if he were being honest-
whenever Mae’s name was mentioned, Everett did seem to succumb to a severe..-something. Well..-
taking the situation in such light, Everett had no alternative but to slide his body to the edge of the bed. “All right. I’m coming.”
Now, if he had just got out of bed with no further comment-