The Children Are Laughing Again

14

Mark had been held up at work and it was almost seven by the time he got home. He saw no sign of life in the house as he got out of the car and walked across to the back door. It was closed but unlocked. The house was silent and there was no immediate sign of Judith.

Mark made his way into the kitchen. The dishes from this morning's breakfast were still on the table, exactly as they had been when he left this morning. He boiled the kettle and went into the sitting room to see if Judith was there. She wasn't, so he assumed she was sleeping again and left her be. He had no desire to repeat the same conversation over and over. It was well beyond the point of driving him crazy.

Mark tidied away the breakfast dishes and made himself a sandwich whiled the kettle boiled, then he sat down and tried to unwind with a coffee. There was nothing on the TV worth watching and the news was the same boring old shit so he flicked it over to one of those American comedy shows.

When he finished his coffee he made his way upstairs into the bedroom. Judith wasn't there. He sighed and walked down the landing. As he suspected, Judith was lying sleeping on the floor with a blanket curled around her in the spare room.

Mark shook his head and walked back down to their bedroom. Talking off his shirt as he did. He got some clean clothes out of the wardrobe and checked the shirt was ironed before setting it down and he went to shower.

After, he was coming back out of the bathroom with the towel wrapped around his waist when he met Judith coming out of the spare bedroom. She was still drowsy, it was as if she was barely waken at all. He stopped briefly to look at her and said, "Have a good sleep?" Before heading on into the bedroom.

Judith followed him in.

"Where you going?" she asked, seeing his clothes laid out on the bed.

"Out."

"Out where?"

"I'm going to the pub, Judith," he said, removing the towel and giving himself one last wipe down.

"With who?"

"I don't know yet."

"Then why are you going?"

"Jesus! How many questions are you gonna ask?" He threw the towel on the floor at the bottom of the bed.

She was stunned by his outburst, he hardly ever raised his voice to her. "I need you here, Mark."

"And I need a drink, okay!"

"And what about me?"

"What about you, Judith? You lay around here all day fantasizing about something that isn't even there. You won't get any help even though I've told you thousands of times it would be the best thing for you. And worst of all you expect me to sit here and watch you do it all, day after day. Night after night! You're obsessed! And I'm sick of it, Judith! I honestly don't know how much more of it I can take. You need help!

"And I'm damn well fucking sure after everything I've been through, I'm entitled to a drink."

She stood there stunned as he turned away from her and continued to get dressed. She had never heard him like this before. In one way she was surprised he had held everything this long, but in another she hated him for speaking to her like that. For shouting at her. And worst of all, for not believing her.

"You're an asshole!" she said and walked out of the room.

"That's it. Run on down to your imaginary friends. You don't give a fuck about anything else anyway!" Mark was so furious that he walked over and slammed the door behind her.

Ten minutes later he was in the car, spinning the wheels on the gravel to get away from there as fast as he could.