out of the tub and dried herself. Wrapping the oversized towel around her, she rummaged through a drawer for something to wear for the night. Ordinarily, she put on a pair of pajamas like the ones Alice had dressed her in when she stumbled home that first night, weak and sick. She hoped, though, that her husband’s kiss might be a prelude to more, and she might have a visitor.
She donned a silky pink gown, sheer and willowy, and misted herself lightly with lily-of-the-valley scent. All preparations completed, she went to bed. Alone. And tossed. And turned. Hours went by. Sleep did not come. Neither did David. Anger did, however.
What did he think he was doing, kissing me like that and then leaving? He’s a tease! He’s my husband, for heaven’s sake! He knows he can come to my bed, and that kiss was proof he was thinking about it, at least. So where is he? How can he treat me like this? Was it some sort of repayment for the way he thinks I treated him?
She fell asleep for only a few minutes before she was awake again, agonizing over the situation. Finally, she threw the covers back and got out of bed. Determined to not give in to the desire for her husband, she had to find something to do. She didn’t want to wander around the big house in the middle of the night, so she entered her closet dressing room and put on a warm robe.
“I might as well get to this now,” she said, as she started through the clothes on the rack.
A pile of discarded clothes grew on the floor. Out went the mini-skirts. Out went the shirt with “bitch” written across the front, along with all the tees she judged to be a size too small. Dresses that were as short as the mini-skirts topped the stack. Dresses and blouses with a plunging neckline started a new pile. A few things were added to the growing stack that were acceptable in style and size, but Marnie was puzzled as to why she would ever buy the particular color.
The last rack held the evening dresses. “Surely I didn’t attend this many parties,” she muttered as she discarded dress after dress she judged suitable for a teenaged exhibitionist, “and if I did, why in the world would I wear something like this? No wonder men came sniffing around. It’s like these clothes say, ‘I’m a tramp, come get me’,” she said, dejectedly. “No wonder people formed a bad opinion of me when I dressed this way.”
It was four o’clock in the morning before she was tired enough for bed. The shoes and items in the drawers could wait for another time. She drifted off to sleep quickly, again thinking she must have earned the reputation people thought of her.
It was after 10:00 a.m. before she woke up. She dressed in jeans and a sweater and headed to the kitchen, looking in at the empty playroom on the way. David had already fetched Jonathan and fed him breakfast. If I were a good mother, I would have been up earlier and checked in on him already. It was another thing she let herself feel guilty about.
She fixed herself a bowl of cereal and milk. After she ate, she rinsed the bowl and put it in the dishwasher. She might as well get it over with—facing David had to be done. She found David and Jonathan in the TV room. Jonathan was working his new puzzle on the table in front of the window, and David was on the sofa reading the newspaper.
“Good morning,” she said. Jonathan rushed to her and hugged her knees, his usual form of greeting.
“Good morning,” David said. “I was beginning to wonder if you were going to spend the day in your room.”
“No. I had trouble sleeping, so when I finally fell asleep I overslept.”
He gave her a piercing look but said nothing about her sleep habits.
“It’s raining today, so we thought we’d stay in,” he remarked.
“I’m working the puzzle you gave me,” Jonathan said. “Come see.”
He pulled her toward his project, where she admired his puzzle-working skills. She vacillated between sitting down with Jonathan and joining David, when he asked, “Want part of the paper?”
“Sure.” She took the sections he held out to her and sat down on the other end of the sofa.
It had never occurred to her that reading the local paper might be an excellent way to jog