Jump to Conclusions

“That’s quite a leap. I don’t see how you get from point A to point B in this argument.”

Mary stared him down. Expectations were minimal. One expected one’s spouse to do certain things for the other. But when those things were not done, well, resentment set in.

“Expectations are unrealized resentments.” Mary stated this with authority, like it was a rule, such as gravity, or one of God’s ten commandments.

“Again, how does this pertain to the particular discussion we are having?” John felt himself falling into a hole, a rabbit hole. Soon he would be in never-never land, that land of female psychology. A land where he always felt like an alien, as if he needed a Visa or even a Passport and inoculations.

Mary stood and found her illustration. She felt that John perhaps needed some help understanding what she was talking about.

“Okay, dear.” Now ‘dear’ was hard for her right now. He was not ‘dear’ when she was upset, but to be polite, she would put him at ease. “I have a problem with this.” Mary held up a bath towel.

John stared at the white towel. He was really puzzled. He’d just folded that, or one just like it, and placed it on the shelf. What is going on?

“Okay??”

“John, honey, it may not seem like a big deal to you. But for me, the towel needs to be folded like this.”

Mary proceeded to fold the towel into some type of origami shape, thought John.

“If you fold it this way, all the towels will fit nicely on the shelf thus enabling them to take up less room on the shelf and making the bathroom look less cluttered.”

Mary smiled broadly.

“Huh. You don’t say.”

“It seems like a small thing, but trust me. I’ve spent many a day folding these buggers to get just the right shelf to towel ratio.”

Mary again smiled broadly.

John was truly puzzled. First at the need to fold in such a complicated manner, and second at his wife’s need to fold and refold each towel. Did she need to see a doctor?

“John, honey? Are you listening to me? Do I need to show you again?”

“No, no need. Thanks. I think I got it.”

“Great. Okay.”

Mary hugged the towel.

“I think I’ll need to practice some more before you trust me with those, though.”

She threw the towel at John.

“Here you go. I’ll go draw a schematic for you. Step by step. That way you’ll get it right. Thanks sweetie.”

She kissed John, then scurried off to the office.

Oh great, thought John. Now there’ll be a final test as well. He grabbed the towel, stuffed one end in his mouth and screamed.




W/C 461