Nose Blind

Marriages fail with staggering regularity. People’s lives are burning down all around us and we’ve grown accustom to the smell of smoke. 

A DINNER TABLE IN SOMEWHERESVILLEBURG
ACT I
Scene I

SETTING: A brightly lit dining room, walls an off-white. The only windowless wall is adorned with many framed family pictures encircling a large rustic wooden sign bearing the word “Believe” in fanciful script. A rectangular oak table is centered in the room atop a bright area rug over honey-colored hardwood flooring. A man and woman sit at opposite ends of the table. A Golden Retriever lay on the floor next to the man’s feet, chewing on a rawhide bone. The sounds of forks tinkling on ceramic and the man’s chewing noises are audible above the sound of a television left on in the family room.

HUSBAND
This meatloaf is delicious sweetheart.

WIFE
I’m glad you like it. (smiling) It’s a new recipe I found on Pinterest.

HUSBAND
How do you get the meat shaped like bread?

WIFE
(WIFE rolls eyes and ignores the question.) Did you hear about Jack and Diane?

HUSBAND
Just a little ditty. (HUSBAND pleased with himself, smiling with a mouth stuffed with ketchup-infused cow.) Get it? That song. Nevermind. What happened?

WIFE
I heard they’re getting divorced.

HUSBAND
That’s a bummer. (chewing) I guess they won’t be coming to the cookout next weekend?

WIFE
I haven’t heard from Diane but I don’t think so.

HUSBAND
That’s too bad. (chewing) That reminds me, I need to get my band saw back from Jack. Could you pass the potatoes?

WIFE
Mmmhmm. (WIFE stares at HUSBAND in a way that conveys offense to his insensitivity and possible doubts about her own marriage.)

(BLACKOUT)
(END OF SCENE)

 

More on this topic

This is the second post in an n-post series on divorce: Floodwater | Nose Blind | Emotional T-Rex Arms | To the Divorcing Human