Missing

The two of them were sitting on the reclining loveseat, reclined, relaxed, sharing a bottle of wine. The evening was gorgeous considering it was mid-February in Southern Indiana. She had the window in the living room open for the fresh air, but a fire in the fireplace for whatever bit of chill had started to set in as evening fell.

It was a Saturday night, the work week over for them both, and they were watching TV. A Dateline 48-Hour Mystery show was on and the episode was the story of a woman who had disappeared and her husband had become, of course, the prime suspect.

He said, "So, what do you think of that?"

She answered, in an off-handed manner, "He really nailed his coffin closed when he didn't report her missing for three weeks and she turned up dead in the canal five houses down."

"Well, you travel a lot. You're independent. You know how to take care of yourself. If you left ME, pissed off, I probably wouldn't look for you, either, knowing you were most likely fine, just angry." He said. "At least not for a couple of weeks."

She sat her wine down before she dropped it and leveled a look at him that could have intercepted and destroyed a nuclear bomb.

The air was so brittle in the room that her voice almost made a visible crack in it..."You're telling me that we've been together for twelve years, and you honest to God think that I would get angry and walk away for two weeks without contacting you? I wouldn't leave here for a DAY without contacting you...thank God I have girlfriends who would be a little more concerned!"

Three weeks later, another Saturday had rolled around, another bottle of wine had been opened and the big decision for the day was whether or not to go to Wal-Mart. They both hated it, but they both knew they needed to go, so they made a list and decided to make it a fun expedition to get what they needed and then go look at stone to put in the patio they had been planning for a couple of years.

On the way there he said, "Don't walk off and leave me in Wal-Mart, I panic when I start looking for you in there and can't find you."

You know? We never really know anyone. We think we do, but about the time we get comfortable, we realize we know nothing about the person we are walking through this life with.

She said, "Wait, aren't you the same person who said a few weeks ago that you would let me go missing for two weeks before you even thought about looking for me??"

He just smiled and drove, obviously not as confused by this as she was.