Seven Days With A Demon

Chapter Seven

FRIDAY

"How's the missus?" Nora asked.

Ted grinned. I don't think I'll tell her about last night, he said to himself. "As far as I know she hasn't had any more visions or hallucinations."

The older woman nodded her large head. She had stopped by his cubicle and started up a conversation in her usual unabashed and abrupt way. She wore her usual attire: a dress that closely resembled a tent. With such a large physique, the woman had no choice but to buy big.

"That's a good thing." The older woman remained standing, her piercing eyes focused on Ted. "One thing to look for, I think, is sex."

Ted's brows shot up.

"If she's unusually interested in sex, it means she's tryin' to convince herself that her situation is not as bad as all that."

It made sense, Ted told himself. "I should think it would also be comforting.  Reassuring."

"It would," Nora agreed. "Or it could be part of her unconscious mind trying to decide."

"Decide what?"

"If she should run away," the older woman replied, "or kill herself."

Ted gaped.

"I never told you, but my husband is a shrink."

"Ah ha," Ted quipped.

"Bein' married to him, I learned a lot just from him talkin' about his patients."

"I should think you would."

"Like to think I helped him from time to time," she said.

"Sometimes just talking about it helps," Ted replied.

Nora nodded. "And I think Charlie liked to work out his patient's problems by talking to me."

"And along the way you got an education in shrink-ology?" Ted joked.

Nora chuckled.   "Guess I did." Her face turned serious. "But I think you should keep a close watch on your wife this weekend. See how she acts."

Ted nodded.

"And think about hiding sharp objects from her."

Ted clearly didn't like that possibility.

Ted called home late in the day and said he was bringing home dinner.

He brought home cartons of Chinese food from her favorite takeout place. Chicken teriyaki for her, moo shoo pork for him.

"I didn't bring home any wine because nothing from grapes goes with Chinese food," he explained.

"That's fine, but we're out of sake," she replied.

He shrugged.

They ate and chatted and told each other awful jokes about farm animals. "The chicken crossed the road because he had too much sake.   No, Mister Purdue was after him with a cleaver. Or was that Colonel Sanders with a pressure cooker? Nah, Sanders died some time ago. So maybe it was his ghost? Or the Zombie Sanders come back from the grave?"

By the time the food was gone they were giddy. It took several minutes to clean up the cartons as they kept telling more and more puns and bad jokes. "The Colonel got divorced when the Missus complained that he was spending too much time with the chickens and no time with her. No, that was the sheep. Kentucky Fried Sheep? I can't say mutton is finger lickin' good. Depends on how you cook it. Or what you do to the sheep before you cook it."