A husband waits for his wife to return home. He is cross because she's late and he needs the car but - perhaps there's a good reason that she is late home...
Where was she this time? It was always the same when he wanted to go out. Promises. Yes, I'll be back by then. And then he'd be waiting and looking at the clock and reading the small ads in the Evening Telegraph even though there was nothing he wanted – except to hear the car returning.
As ever, his feelings were a mixture of annoyance and anxiety. What if..? And the anxiety heightened the annoyance because he was irritable at being made to worry, like the mother who scolds her child with the words 'Just think of all the worry you've caused us.'
He looked down the road again. The conifer trees at the edge of the path were just visible. It had been dark for some time. Lights and engine noise awakened his spirits. But it was the wrong noise: the car went straight past. How much traffic there was whenever you were waiting for someone!
He noticed the coleus needed water. It always needed water but he couldn’t bring himself to attend to it now. Waiting paralysed his ability to do anything else.
Where was she this time? It was always the same when he wanted to go out. Promises. Yes, I'll be back by then. And then he'd be waiting and looking at the clock and reading the small ads in the Evening Telegraph even though there was nothing he wanted – except to hear the car returning.
As ever, his feelings were a mixture of annoyance and anxiety. What if..? And the anxiety heightened the annoyance because he was irritable at being made to worry, like the mother who scolds her child with the words 'Just think of all the worry you've caused us.'
He looked down the road again. The conifer trees at the edge of the path were just visible. It had been dark for some time. Lights and engine noise awakened his spirits. But it was the wrong noise: the car went straight past. How much traffic there was whenever you were waiting for someone!
He noticed the coleus needed water. It always needed water but he couldn’t bring himself to attend to it now. Waiting paralysed his ability to do anything else.