TheBanyanTree: Scenes

[Monique]

You made me promise to get a mammogram. And it wasn't enough that I promised
to look into it. No, you had to have specifics. When would I look into it?
What does "look into it" mean? By when would I have this "looking into" and
the mammogram itself done? So I promised, specifically, repeating each step
to your satisfaction. There is no indication that I need a mammogram, other
than it's been a few years, but that's more than enough for you.

You called me something the other day, something I can barely bear to
repeat. I was appalled at what you said, so much so that all I could do was
say, "Did you just call me MERELY MORTAL? You did, you know, label me as
such. I had reached for your shoulder, where you had hurt yourself somehow,
and was weakly massaging it, when you said, having been through this before,
"It won't work. It's deep, and no mere mortal can help." 

No mere mortal indeed. The rest of the day, all I could do was shake my head
every so often and mutter, "I can't believe you called me a mere mortal."
You couldn't believe it either. "Have I," you asked me, "been watching too
many cartoons?" 

What's too many?

You ran over my foot in Ikea. We were, as usual, goofing off, you in a chair
with wheels you were testing for movability, me walking away from said chair
but you hanging onto me, and so the chair ran over my heel. Ouch. I sat
down, I cursed (Ouch! That hurt!) and passer-by stared. You sat back down in
another chair next to me and took my foot in your hands, and massaged it
until the pain went away. 

Then I tried to get you to do the other foot but you were bored by then. 

I looked at towels in Ikea. I need towels. But the colors weren't right. And
when I said that, that the colors weren't right, that they wouldn't match my
shower curtain, you said, "What color is your shower curtain?" as if you'd
never seen it, as if you didn't make a habit of taking showers behind same
shower curtain. 

You called me one evening after work, when Stew was here, and as we were
talking we slipped into blah blah mode. "Blah blah blah?" "Blah!" "Blah
blah!" "Blah blah blah blah." Then much laughter. Well, it was a funny joke,
if one understands the language. Stew almost joined in because he does
understand the language, but decided it would be inappropriate.

When I return from my morning client there is bread baking in the bread
machine, the last packet of yeast being put to good use, and you waiting to
feed me fresh bread. In the morning, when I'm sitting on my couch working on
client files, you toast me bread and bring it to me, though I hadn't asked
for bread, hadn't asked for anything, but you bring it to me nonetheless.

When you phone me at night, the nights you aren't here, you ask me what I've
eaten that day, and if my calorie intake has not been sufficient you tell me
so, and I feel thoroughly chastised for not taking better care of myself. 

You don't know what color my shower curtain is, but when you look at me you
look AT ME, you see me, you look so closely I wonder what you're studying,
but it's just me.

Today it's my turn to fight the man, but we agree that tomorrow it is your
turn. It is too big a task for one person, so we take turns. Sometimes one
of us forgets to take our turn and does no fighting at all, which wreaks
havoc with the schedule. 

Luckily, the schedule is flexible. 


Monique