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Shut the Door
diarrhetic
17 Apr 2003
"Shut the door" he said and got into the lift.
"I always do and it was only that one time I forgot." She replied.
The lift ride was slow. It stopped at different floors. Nobody got on.
"Why does it always do that? It seems so spooky." She said, watching the electronic dials of the lift mark its descent. "Don't be silly." he said. The lift opened at the ground floor. They made their way to the car park. He got into the car. She opened the door and got in.
"Fasten your seatbelts, I don't want to get fined," he said, snapping on the clasps of his seatbelt. "I know, its terrible isn't it? I know it's logical but I just don't like being told what to do." She said.
He drove out of the lot and stopped in front of security check. The barriers lifted and he manoeuvred onto the main road.
"Did you hear what Sally and Charles are going to do for their honeymoon? They've decided to go to Venice and Paris. They both applied for leave from their jobs for an entire month! I would really love to go to Venice. They say that it's really romantic."
He kept his eyes on the road, flickering now and then to the rear-view mirror. He signalled left and eased onto the highway ramp. There were little cars in sight. It was late.
"It seems like a long time ago but it's been just a year since we came back from our honeymoon." She scratched her neck idly. "Venice would have been a wonderful place to have gone. The Maldives was nice but Venice would have been more romantic. The rivers and the gondolas… don't you think?" She stared at his profile, waiting for his reply.
"Yeah." He shifted in his seat, and turned on the radio. Pop music filtered through the speakers from the rear. He made a left and exited from the highway and drove into a junction. There were more cars here. But less than the usual. He was stopped by a traffic light. There was a blue Ford waiting with him.
"You know what mum said the other night? She said that we should have children. She wants to carry a grandson but I told her we've got no time. We're busy people I said."
She opened her handbag and fished out a pack of battered cigarettes. She fingered one gingerly between her forefinger and thumb. She lit the cigarette. Blue smoke filled the car.
"Wind down the window" he said.
"Do you think that we should have kids?" she turned on him gaily. "It could be fun, playing with them. We could go to the botanic gardens and lay a mat and have a picnic. Remember that time? When it started to rain?"
They had entered a tunnel. He fiddled with the radio.
"Or how about 3 years ago, when you bought the rubber dinghy and we went to the beach to try to blow it up but we got so winded that in the end we used it as something to lie down on?" Her face showed pleasure at the memory. "That was a long time ago wasn't it? When we were still in school." She gazed at his face in the rear view mirror. His face was inscrutable.
"So how was work today? The market doing ok? Was it a bullish or horse-ish day?"
"It's bearish, not horse-ish" he turned to her, "and it was a good day. The dollar was running low but I suspected that it was a mere market reaction to the President's morning address and so I snapped it while it's value was low. Later when the impact of the new trade agreement sunk in, it started rising and I sold it with a 50% margin of profit. It was pretty obvious really. I don't see why no one picked up on it."
"Did you manage to eat your lunch?" she looked at him concerned. "I ordered that salmon specially from that restaurant which you liked." She laughed. "The manager, was surprised to hear from me but I told him how you liked it during one of our dinners before."
He looked at the mirror again. The road started thinning and there were more cars. They were getting closer to town. The lights flashing past became more regular and they blurred as he stepped on the accelerator.
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