Photo © 2010 rawryder CC BY-ND 2.0)
He smiled over his Sunday morning oatmeal, plain and steaming, his grapefruit cut into halves. Smiled with his eyes. Gotta remember, always with the eyes.
“That’s your problem,” pointing at his wife’s sausage and pancakes, drenched with syrup.
“And that’s yours!” She pointed back, at his grapefruit, her well-rounded face slinging condemnation.
“It wouldn’t hurt you to get up off your ass once in a while, either, and exercise.” He suddenly realized he was no longer smiling. Remember, always with the eyes.
He had read that people who smile with their eyes live longer. Seriously. Researchers at Wayne State University in Michigan studied photographs of baseball players from the 1950’s. Those who were smiling with their eyes in the photos lived an average of 7 years longer than those who were not smiling at all.
A week later, he eyed her toast, golden brown and delicious. Of its own accord, his hand reached out and snarfed a slice.
“Be careful,” she said. “That has butter on it!”
He knew she was mocking him, but he couldn’t help but chuckle. He stopped, staring at it, debating whether to put it down or to put it in his mouth.
“You’re too much!” She interrupted his thoughts.
He focused on her headlight-blue eyes, which were beaming astonishment at him. He grinned at her and shoved the dripping shingle into his mouth, chewed and swallowed.
Gack! He choked. “I think I’m going to be sick!”
The following month, she slept poorly. He made her breakfast, between shudders of disgust, just the way she liked it. He brought her a tray in bed. Then he leaned over and kissed her tenderly on the lips.
“What’s that for?” Surprise.
“What’s what for?” he asked.
She motioned at the tray. “Breakfast,” she said. “And you haven’t kissed me like that in… forever.”
“What? I can’t kiss my own wife?!”
A pause.
He stared at the tray of what might be loosely termed food, grinned sardonicism. “I still don’t know how you can eat that.”
“See!?” As if to prove her point. “That’s what I’m talking about. You can kiss my fat ass!”
His face fell. “I just want you stick around. Because I’ll miss you when you die.”
After a year, they were carving smiles on each others’ whole-wheat bagels and feeding each other bites of egg-white omelet with onion and green pepper.
Sundays passed. The weekend of his big promotion at work. The months after the big layoff. The war. The great blizzard and other winters. Lazy weekends reclining under the summer sunrise. The colors of the autumns, the freshnesses of springtime.
She sat shiva with their daughter and sons, friends and family, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Onto a bagel slice, she carved two eyes and a grin.
“I already miss his smile,” her daughter’s voice said sadly.
Crows’ feet around her eyes, the old woman hugged and kissed her little girl. “I know. But it’s still here,”—resting her palm on the younger woman’s heart—”and will never die.”
I am extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it’s rare to see a great blog like this one today.
Hmm is anyone else having problems with the images on this blog loading? I’m trying to figure out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
Hi! I simply wish to give you a big thumbs up for the excellent information you’ve got right here on this post. I will be returning to your site for more soon.
Someone essentially lend a hand to make critically posts I would state. This is the very first time I frequented your website page and thus far? I amazed with the analysis you made to create this actual submit extraordinary. Excellent activity!
If some one wishes expert view regarding blogging and site-building then i propose him/her to pay a visit this website, Keep up the good work.
Can you be more specific about the content of your article? After reading it, I still have some doubts. Hope you can help me.
Greate article. Keep posting such kind of info on your page. Im really impressed by your site.
Hello there, You’ve performed a fantastic job. I will definitely digg it and individually recommend to my friends. I’m sure they will be benefited from this site.
First off I want to say great blog! I had a quick question that I’d like to ask if you don’t mind. I was interested to know how you center yourself and clear your head prior to writing. I’ve had difficulty clearing my thoughts in getting my thoughts out there. I do take pleasure in writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes tend to be lost simply just trying to figure out how to begin. Any recommendations or hints? Thank you!
It’s not my first time to pay a visit this web page, i am visiting this web page dailly and obtain good data from here everyday.
Your article helped me a lot, is there any more related content? Thanks! https://accounts.binance.info/el/register?ref=DB40ITMB
Hi! Quick question that’s completely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My site looks weird when viewing from my iphone4. I’m trying to find a template or plugin that might be able to resolve this problem. If you have any suggestions, please share. Many thanks!
Thanks for sharing. I read many of your blog posts, cool, your blog is very good.
Spot on with this write-up, I really believe that this site needs much more attention. I’ll probably be back again to read through more, thanks for the information!
Today, I went to the beach with my kids. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic but I had to tell someone!
Thanks for sharing your info. I truly appreciate your efforts and I am waiting for your next post thank you once again.
Hello to every body, it’s my first pay a visit of this website; this webpage consists of awesome and actually excellent information for readers.
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a bit, but instead of that, this is wonderful blog. A great read. I will certainly be back.
It’s hard to search out educated individuals on this topic, but you sound like you realize what you’re speaking about! Thanks
My brother recommended I might like this blog. He was entirely right. This post actually made my day. You can not imagine simply how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
Hey there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be okay. I’m undoubtedly enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
First of all I would like to say superb blog! I had a quick question in which I’d like to ask if you do not mind. I was interested to find out how you center yourself and clear your thoughts prior to writing. I have had difficulty clearing my mind in getting my thoughts out. I truly do enjoy writing but it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are usually wasted just trying to figure out how to begin. Any recommendations or hints? Thanks!
Excellent beat ! I wish to apprentice whilst you amend your web site, how could i subscribe for a blog website? The account helped me a applicable deal. I had been a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast provided brilliant transparent idea