Shhh! Scribbler at Work

Late Night Reveals

(prompt: 'secret' 9/2/2018)

Wanda sighed. Exhaustion weighed heavily on her now. "I've never been so glad to see a Sunday - and a sleep-in. Never in my born days." She sighed lustily again.

Harry chuckled. "No my love - never ever! Well... not since our last dinner party, anyway." He loved her rolling eyes and tight-lipped grin. Hanging up the tea-towel, he gave her a hug. "Come sit down for a few minutes before we go to bed— " and as he saw her ready herself to protest, he continued, "I have something important to talk about. Won't take long, but I can't wait any more. You've been too busy all day AND night."

She nodded and reluctantly sat at the table, accepting the liqueur Harry poured.

"I've been looking at new cars." His face straightened. This subject had clouded his thinking for days. "The old girl's getting on, you know. One problem after another now as her bits and pieces wear out. Reg reckons it's time - and he should know. He's been repairing her for nearly a decade."

Wanda sipped her drink thoughtfully, barely tasting its golden charm. "But that would mean a loan, wouldn't it dear? ANOTHER one?"

"I know." Harry's face was abruptly wreathed in misery. "That's the trouble. I guess we could pull in our belts another notch - but parties like this'd be the first thing to be sacrificed. Just the tip of the iceberg. " Now it was his turn to sigh. "On the other hand, who knows how many repair bills are looming for the old girl? It's a 'no win' situation in anyone's language."

"Except..."

Harry looked up to see Wanda wore a secret kind of 'Madonna-ish' smile. "Except?" he repeated.

"Well-ll, maybe a loan might not be the only alternative."

"Pardon?"

"Just maybe there is a 'hidden treasure' hiding somewhere around," and her smile deepened at his look of bewilderment, as he repeated her words again.

"Hidden treasure? What? You've been watching too many re-runs of those 'Pirate' movies with that Captain you love... Sparrow?"

Smiling and shaking her head, she persisted, still with that intriguing expression on her face. "Oh no, Harry. It's me. I have a 'hidden treasure'," she whispered, although there were none but the two of them in the Lounge room now. She stood abruptly,  rapidly leaving the room with a burst of renewed energy. Harry barely had time to pour another drink for himself before she returned - to reveal a thick wad of notes in a tightly closed shower bag.

"It's from all my catering for those fancy cocktail parties - and my baby-sitting." She continued her furtive whispering, even glancing over her shoulder 'in case'. "I've been saving it all. I just knew a rainy day was coming - even here, in the driest State of the driest continent!" It was a stash of hundred dollar notes.

"And I can have it? To buy the new car?" Wanda nodded with great enthusiasm and hugged him tightly.

She never saw Harry's mock-evil grin as he peeked over her shoulder at the mini-microphone carefully hidden in the pot plant. She wouldn't know until after the new baby was theirs that he'd found her stash weeks ago and only needed absolute proof - from the horse's mouth.

After all these years of marriage, Wanda wasn't the only one who could keep a secret.