Singed Synapses and Deranged Dendrites

What is it saying? (#fall)

After dinner Molly Sanders sat in the living room with her sister Elizabeth and brother-in-law Marvin, forearms pressed against her large bosom frantically chewing her nails. The threesome had ceased to make meaningful conversation years ago. Molly's sister didn't even notice her sister's disgusting habit anymore. 

Molly wore a pale-blue flowered smock and a straw hat with plastic blue flowers that matched (somewhat) in color to the dress. Never mind the sun had gone down hours ago or that they sat indoors. She wore blue shoes with a low wide heel and stockings with more than three runs in them. Her blue plastic earrings bobbed while she gnawed at her fingers. 

Suddenly Marvin's eyes bulged out of his round bald head, so much so that Elizabeth wondered for a fleeting moment if he were having a massive stroke and then for a not so fleeting moment what glee she would feel to be free of him.

But Marvin was now tilting his head and turning it ever so slowly. Then he put his hand to his ear and cocked his head at an angle so severe, his wife wondered if it might get stuck in that position and if it did and how difficult it would be for him to drive to the club and leave her for a blissful afternoon alone.

"Do you ever think it is trying to tell us something?" asked Marvin. He nodded in the direction of his craned neck, towards the kitchen. 

Molly startled at the sound of Marvin's voice and the sheer terror at the idea of whatever 'it' might be.

"That what is trying to tell us something?" asked Elizabeth, realizing her husband was now listening to something rather than suffering from a disabling malady.

"Shhh..."said Marvin, listening for a few seconds more. The only sound was the whine and groan of the old dishwasher whirring away in the kitchen.

"The dishwasher?" asked Molly, her eyes now bulging as she noticed the bizarre mechanical noise that clearly had been present for years but that she had never noticed before this moment. 

Marvin nodded and slowly rose and hobbled over to the kitchen. He leaned over and put his cheek against the dishwasher. He stood there stooped over for a good minute.

"Uh-huh," he said. "That's what I thought."

"What?" asked Molly, panic rising in her voice. "What is it saying? Who is saying it?!"

Now Elizabeth watched her sister's eyes fall on the old whirlpool that they had used to watch the dishes every day for years. Her sister's eyes grew big as saucers and Molly wondered if her sister would have a coronary and finally move out of the house and into a retirement home for good.

Marvin was now walking back to his chair in the living room. "I can't say," he said, sitting back down. 

"Why, why can't you tell me?" asked Molly, frantic.

A long pause ensued. 

"It's too personal," said Marvin.