By: Dima Harmon
Lilith had had a very long day when she came home. She had to fix a problem with a business model that an individual made several mistakes on. She had to fix the found mistakes and send a detailed letter explaining the issues and formally apologizing for the inconvenience and that she hoped this would not sour the business deal by offering a discount on the deal . She was tired and was not exactly looking forward to coming home. Her husband, George, was supposed to take care of some things.
She walked through the front door and sighed at the depressing sight of the house. There was an etched gloom filtered through the house. What should have been a really nice wood and light coming through had the look of overcast grey and darkness that a storm would create. The dinner plate was ready for her and even the silver looked bland and on the verge of tarnishing. She opened the lid of the tray and the chicken and vegetables looked ragged and poorly put together.
Lilith took a couple bites of the bland ragged food and went to find George to see if things were handled. She didn’t have to look far, George was slumped in an armchair by the fireplace, however the fireplace looked as miserable as everything else. George had a bottle in one hand and a pipe in the other, and there were a series of bottles on the floor strewn about some with some of the alcoholic contents in the bottle. It looked like George went about drinking and couldn’t even remember that he still had some in the bottles before getting a new bottle.
Lilith remembered when she gave marriage a shot. After the opera there were a couple of other situations where they ran into each other and after several talks it seemed like it would be a good idea for marriage. Lilith was also the kind of person who would not oppose marrying someone that she was not sure of. Sometimes things work out, she would always say to herself. In addition from the business side and financial standpoint it seemed to make the most sense.
Lilith was praying to God that at least things got handled before the boozing took place. She woke up George very abruptly.
“GEORGE!” George woke up with a start and looked around trying to see who called his name.
“Oh, Dear home, glad your home. Hope your day went well.”
“I see we are already several bottles in?” George looked around and had a look of disappointment on his face. “Oh I hadn’t realized how many there were.”
“You did promise me you would try to ease up on the bottles?” replied Lilith.
“I'm sorry, I didn’t mean to… to… to have this many.” Stammered George.
“Did you take our contribution list to the capitol building for the Christmas ball?”
“Oh right I knew I was forgetting some things.” Lilith was starting to get beside herself. “Some things!” she thought, “Four things to do! Take the list, go to the bank to get a loan and make a payment on a property, mail the documents at the post office.”
“So what did you get done then George?
“I’m sorry I was going to go to get some of the stuff done but got enthralled by a book and started to have beverages.” Lilith was having serious doubts about this marriage. It seemed that she was making all the effort in making things work and George was just sitting around getting drunk.
“Are you planning to go see how business is doing tomorrow?” George had a habit of not showing up to their shared business costing them clients and quite a bit of money,
“Sure I do, I’ll be sure to be there at a reasonable time.”
“How does Eight O’clock sound? So that way you can prepare for the new client that will be showing up at nine- O’clock.”
“Of course, dear…anything for you.”
“Of course he says that,” thought Lilith. “That's all he ever says when the bottles start piling up.”
“Why don’t we go to bed. So that way you will be up tomorrow.” Lilith was getting tired of losing clients. Tired of having a weekly rotation of bland drunk conversations. Empty assurances followed by a slew of apologies and having to smell alcohol breath in bed. Lilith went into the dining room and called the maid. She was famished and was looking forward to having a meal. Within a minute or two the maid was in the dining room.
“Yes Ma’am? How may I help you?”
“Is Supper ready?” Replied Lilith.
“Not quite. Master was late on addressing when it should be made.” Lilith was getting angry and agitated but knew this was not the Maids fault nor the cook.
“OK!” She exclaimed. “From now on Supper preparations need to start promptly at Five - O’clock!”
“Yes Ma’am.” Replied the maid. Lilith huffed over back to George. Sharply told him to get up.
“Why didn’t you tell the maid to inform the cook to start making dinner?”
“Ohhhh…. I'm sorry. I lost track of time.”
“This is madness. Madness I say!” Thought Lilith. Every time she had a legitimate concern it was always replied with the phrase “I’m sorry.” Or “It won’t happen again dear.” and of course the worst one when George was drunk was “I lost track of time.”
“Of course it is easy to lose track of time when you have been coddling the bottles. Snapped Lilith.
“I’m sorry.” slurred George.
“And that is another thing. Stop saying you are sorry all the time. It makes you sound very unintelligent. You sound like a child. You are a man and the man of the house needs to take responsibility and admit when he is wrong. I am a lady. Typically a lady only has to worry about several things around the house. Decor, clothes and what parties we will be attending and such. Not the whole aspect of the house.”
George was gazing up at her with a dazed shocked look. Lilith was clearly showing how displeased she was. It seemed like the past six months she was dealing with everything.
“Now George, get out of the chair and let's go sit at the table while we wait for the supper to be made.” George did as he was told and got up, wobbled out of the room and into the dining hall and sat at the head of the table. They waited for a half hour while George drank more ale, and Lilith tried to enjoy a glass of red wine. When the food came out they dug in. Lilith was very elegant when she ate, taking very small bites and sipping the glass of wine. Meanwhile George was fumbling around and was missing his mouth quite a few times. Towards the end George’s shirt was looking worse for wear with slopped ale and gravy and a random assortment of crumbs and bits of chewed meat and vegetables. Lilith was not looking forward to getting to sleep. She almost had the idea of making him sleep somewhere else in the house.
“Well then shall we get to bed then dear?” asked George.
“You go ahead, I will be there shortly.” Replied Lilith who was making an effort to not show her voice cracking slightly, and a big knot in her throat.
“Ok then.” With that George stumbled out of the room and was stomping upstairs completely unaware how loud he was leaving Lilith on the verge of tears due to how difficult this day was.
It was at this point Lilith woke up very suddenly. It had been a dream. She was not married to George. The house she was in was her parents. She double checked the hallways to make sure the walls were a rich shiny mahogany. There was no dry decadent look to the house. In fact whatever house she was dreaming she was in was had no familiarity. She went downstairs, had the Maid of the house fix her muffins and tea and she sat outside in the fall weather to enjoy the breeze and clear her head.~~