Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Time

"What the hell happened to us?"

Laura was stretched out in her favorite chair, her neatly pedicured feet resting on the ottoman.  Her face was washed, her contacts in their usual resting place next to the sink, and I knew from experience that she would be drifting off soon after I started the movie.

"What are you yammering about?"  I sat on the couch, my own face devoid of makeup, trying to use the remote on an uncooperative blu ray player.

"We used to be out every Friday and Saturday, dressed up, partying all the time," Laura took a sip of her wine.  "We used to come home at dawn.  We used to wake up in strange places.  Now look at us--home on a Saturday, and at least one of us will be asleep within the hour.  It's not even nine!"

I nodded. I'd heard this song before. I finally got up to press the 'start' button on the blu ray player, since the remote wasn't cooperating. 

Laura sat up.

"Let's go out," she said.  "Let's go to a club and dance until they close. Let's drink and just have fun for a change."

"Laura," I sat down and picked up my glass of wine. "It takes you at least an hour to do your hair just the way you like it. We wouldn't get out of here before ten."

"I'll just leave my hair up.  Come on, you know that you want to go out!"

"You can't tolerate cigarette smoke in the bars," I counted on my fingers. "It gives you the sniffles, and people think you've been doing coke. The clubs will be packed, and there won't be any place to park close by.  We'll have to walk at least a mile, and you hate that."  I waited for a response, but Laura just leaned back in her chair and picked up her own wine glass.

"Yeah, you're right. Too much trouble."

We sat, sipping our wine in companionable silence.  

"Remember that time we started a fire in the ash tray at that dance club?"

We smiled at the memory.

"You know how we got when we were bored,"  I laughed.  We'd been quite rowdy in our twenties, always looking for a good time.  And finding it.  In our forties, Saturday night was a different chapter, in another book entirely. 



I know what sort of mood I was trying to convey, but I'm not sure that I actually accomplished it.  Concrit is welcome.


“Time is the longest distance between two places.”
~Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

12 comments:

  1. Ha! I love it. For some reason strange this makes me think of the "Fun Girls" from the Andy Griffith show, all grown up and staying in on a Saturday night. I think you nailed it.

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  2. This sounds like me and my wife! Although I never started a fire at a dance club but i did a lot of daft things.

    This story flows nicely,

    makes me chuckle and makes me want to know what happens next


    Enjoyed

    Ally :)

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  3. We did stuff in college (not starting fires...) that I wouldn't do now & hope my kids never do. Sat night @ home with a drink is a lovely night...especially when the kids aren't fighting.

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  4. This is familiar to me, but I wondered about it a little. Are they both happy in the place they are, or does Laura truly want to go out and relive some of those old memories?

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    Replies
    1. Laura'd rather stay home now, but just longed for the good old days a little.

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  5. in my 40's I truly long for those wild(er) nights of my 20's and early 30's. Esp when there is Kindergarten homework and watching ONE DIRECTION videos (Jacob really likes that band) over and over as my nightly routine.

    I wish the ending would have been more precise. Not better , it's written well, but just more to the point. We WANT TO GO OUT, we just don't know how...maybe not have the last line/paragraph at all...
    leave it at ..
    "smiled at the memory"
    let us drawn our own conclusions?

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    Replies
    1. You are right about the ending. I was having trouble with what I wanted to say, and I just decided to go to bed.

      And I do occasionally want to go out and be twenty again, but without the fire starting.

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  6. I think you did a great job with capturing the mood. It's funny, my husband and I recently had a similar conversation about this. We used to go out every weekend to listen to music (one of our favorite activities). The music usually doesn't get started until around 9PM, if we're lucky. Lately, we've not been going out and we had a similar conversation as your women had. You captured the mood perfectly. That questioning feeling about wanting to go, but also wanting to stay. AND it is a wonderful interpretation of the prompt. I loved this one:~)

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  7. I can relate to this. It's not that I would go out and party like I used to, but it's that I feel too old to have that option now:) I saw a documentary not long ago about these women in their 80's and they were wistful for the wild days of their youths. It was really sweet.

    I liked this Tina! Here's to all of us who COULD start fires again IF we wanted to;)

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