Matters of Gravity

Episode #25

The Tommy Bonns' new home was everything Maria had thought it would be. The bedroom in which she awoke was huge and the décor was Margie through and through. The tones in the post-modern images on the walls matched the colors of surfaces on which they hung whether Maria appreciated the art or not.

Roger was not with her now. He had exited more than an hour earlier saying that he and Tommy were going to work out. "Be careful," she had said, "You're not very used to that anymore." He had kissed her then without comment whereupon she drifted back to sleep thinking about their lovemaking of the night before.

But now there was a rap at the door, that was evidently why she had awaken. Margie let herself in without invitation.

An excited, "Hi," had Maria wide awake then as Margie flung herself on the bed beside her. "It is so fun to have you here in our house."

"It's lovely. Everything is as perfect as I knew it would be."

"Do you think you'll move back to the Bay Area to live at some point once you pry Roger away from his hermitage? The Canyon is so God-awfully far away from everything."

"I really like it up there," Maria defended. "I've never had so much peace in my life."

"There's only so much you can say for 'peace' though, don't you agree? 'Peace on earth; good will to man', that sort of thing. That's for Christmas." She interrupted her own soliloquy with laughter. "In the end we all must be about something."

"Roger and I are 'about something' and we have a lot of fun besides. It will be nice to coordinate directly with Julie on a couple of issues while we're down here, but we coordinate pretty well with 'sky hype'. We want to check out some old texts at the physics library on the farm while we're here, but we are not out of touch; we communicate to the outside world often and have plenty of access to everything we need."

Margie bounced up, "Sky hype?" she mimicked as she entered the adjoining bathroom.

Shortly Maria heard the trash can in the bathroom open and shut, then the toilet flushed, and finally she heard the faucet followed by Margie's return.

"Don't you two want children?" Margie queried as she flopped once more upon the bed.

Maria could only stare at her inscrutable sister-in-law. "Well, don't you?" Margie insisted.

"That's a very private matter I would think. We haven't discussed that possibility yet actually."

"Why not? You must have made some kind of decision if you're still using condoms."

Maria found herself becoming angry at the thought of Margie checking their trash. She recalled the perpetual disagreements between Roger and Margie that she had not been a party to – until now – and that she could never previously have understood.

"So does this mean that you and Tommy have quit using birth control?" was all Maria could think of as a response.

"No, of course not," was Margie's retort. "We never started."

"Never started? Are you kidding? How long ago did you 'never start'?" Maria chuckled almost vindictively now.

"Years."

"Years? How many years?"

"We never started when we 'started' because we loved each other and that was years ago."

"You may not have known about Tommy's precautions but I'm sure he took precautions."

Margie ignored the comment and continued on a lighter note. "But I think it would be fun if we both had our kids close enough together so they could enjoy each other growing up."