Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Entry #39

Retaliation
by Sandra Seamans


Mary grinned as she glanced around the kitchen one last time. The room was a salmonella nightmare. Dirty, food-encrusted plates were breeding bacteria in the sink, open cartons of milk were sunbathing to a perfect curdle on the countertop and several pounds of naked chicken breasts were dribbling sticky juices across the glass top of her husband’s pristine kitchen table. Thoughts of Frederick keeling over dead of a heart attack when he entered the desecrated kitchen danced through Mary’s head. Then she sighed, life wouldn’t be that obliging.

She ran her hand across the purple bruise that swelled across the left side of her face, flinching as she touched a tender spot. She couldn't survive another bout with her husband’s obsession. Life was too short to waste on a man whose only passion in life was a sanitary house.

7 comments:

briliantdonkey said...

Excellent descriptions that will keep me from eating the rest of the night.

"Sunbathing to a perfect curdle"???


shuddddderrrrr!

BD

Scott said...

You broke the mold here. Most attach sanitary obsession with the wife.

Nice descriptions.

Beth said...

This reminds me of that Julia Roberts film -- "Sleeping With the Enemy." Always made me glad I was the neat freak in the family.

Joni said...

Spectacular writing with a nice back door entry into the abusive relationship.

Very impressive.

Anonymous said...

Best line about milk since Neil Simon in the Odd Couple ("His refrigerator has been broken for two weeks. I saw milk standing in there that wasn't in a bottle." Nice way to tie in the rotting in the kitchen with the festering disease of an abusive relationship. Well done.

Fran Piper said...

Wonderfully punchy writing. The food descriptions were almost too icky to read!

Anonymous said...

I like it! Turned the obsession against him. Poetic justice.

High marks for pacing.