Tommy's Song

The new single-floor home rested upon a rectangular plot of land, fourteen acres of tall grasses that stretched into a wall of trees at the end of the lot. The mid-century interior opened up to a kitchen, in front of which was the living room furnished with oak and white sheetrock walls. Maroon furniture surrounded glass tables, facing the back wall of windows that invited the backyard's acreage into the home. The move into the house had begun under the midday sun, and Tommy would be quick with his minimal belongings. He was quite excited, which he did not show in its entirety.

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Their belongings had begun filling the living room's spaciousness, stacked in boxes and disorganized things from which they had taken a momentary break. Lily returned from somewhere while Tommy sat at the dinner table quietly before envelopes of mail.

"What'd you get?" Tommy asked Lily. His eyes were slanted from being middle-aged while still beaming with a vague hopefulness that his partner enjoyed the place as much as he did. His uninteresting t-shirt and sweatpants held him to the extent of comfort that did not conceal his anticipation; he withheld much of his opinions of a wonderous new life, considering the annoyance of being redundant. He wanted her to take in the space, avidly seeking her approval.

"Well, not a whole lot. I got the juice you've been asking for." Lily placed groceries in various places across the kitchen. She was quite passive with her words, still refraining from expressing any evident reaction to the house itself.

Tommy took a deep sigh of the new air, sitting lower in his chair as he exhaled, "I can already feel the urban noise drowning out." He looked at Lily from the small dining table between the kitchen and the living room. She hardly reciprocated his response, quiet as the sage green cardigan that drooped over her petit build, wearing jeans and unsuspecting sneakers as she often did without occasion.

Tommy watched his partner stare around the room and its new corners. The ambiance of a newly purchased home was empty, faint in its dim lights and unfurnished spaces that reverberated his conversations; the blue atmosphere of the supple sky diffused into the hallways, succumbing to the plainness of the entire house.

"What happened to that contract you were about to sign?" Lily spoke as she walked around the kitchen, digging through cabinets.

"What, for that software company?" Tommy replied abstractedly.

"Yeah, that software company."

"They wanted someone else." He yielded to his dismay.

"Since when? I thought you were ready to start."

"They just wanted someone with better talent. Too many damn people."

"Have you tried anywhere else?"

"No."

"And why not?"

"Let's just move first, already."

"Tommy," Lily's tone dropped slightly. "Are you going to use moving as an excuse now?"

"Hey, come on. I know you're upset about that. I hate being jobless. But no, I'm not going to use moving as an excuse, okay?"

A fret emerged from his partner visibly. "Tommy, it's been half a year now. I'm getting tired of watching you not get your life going, and moving's not helping. It's exhausting hearing you say the same thing yet again," Lily complained.

"Oh, come on, I got this place for us. And I told you I don't need you to work extra. Just sit here and relax. I'll move the stuff, okay?" His heart raced as he struggled to find an end to the conversation.