Without the thought of the repercussion of his words, “What did you get married for if you don’t want children?”

            Marie looks at Hector with a pained expression knowing that one day the subject of children would surface.  Until this moment, Marie always trusted it would be only him and her.  She starts folding up the ironing board and wraps the cord around the iron, pretending she didn’t hear the question.

            “Well now that’s done; and I’m glad it’s over.”

            The word of a child never escaped from Hector’s lips during their four-year marriage, but it’s the veil over his eyes when he looks at the playground that unnerves her because he becomes so detached, she almost feels abandoned.

            When Marie was little, her favorite game was playing grown-up.  Marie would kiss her cousin’s cheek because he made such a cute husband, then drop the baby off at the babysitters before driving in her make-believe car to work.  The chance to make the game real ended when she went to see the doctor two days after her 24th birthday.  Now she stands behind Hector with one hand on his shoulder and her other hand holding a cup of coffee.  She looks around the apartment, “What shall I do now?”

            “Speak.”

            Marie puts the cup down, softly combs Hector’s hair with her fingers, and almost whispers, “When I count there are only you and I together.”  She stops and begins to turn away when Hector pulls her hand back with his placing it to his chest, and looks up at her.

 Written By Jo.Ann Rodriquez

(Lines from the poem “Wasteland” by T.S. Eliot, is used throughout the story.)

Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,

And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,

Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,

Which I am forbidden to see.

 ‘Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak.

‘What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?

‘I never know what you are thinking. Think.’

End

Written by Jo-Ann Rodriquez

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