Member-only story
Wally and Ester
A Short Story about Marriage and Escape
“You never listen to me.” Ester said. “I am so angry with you right now. You waited till the temperature reached 80 degrees to go take the fans and the air conditioning units out of storage in the attic.”
And the more Esther spoke, the angrier she became, and her wiry body shook as if jolted by miniature bolts of electricity. Even her fine silver hair seemed to stand up on its ends.
“If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times, it’s always about 20 degrees hotter in the attic. On an 80 degree day, it’s too hot to go in and get the stuff. You should’ve taken the fans and the units out two weeks ago, when I told you to do it.”
Nathan, forever the soothing influence, stood at Ester’s side, trying in vain to get his aunt to calm down. However, she grabbed Nathan by the shoulders and continued, “It was 80 degrees outside Nathan. Can you believe it? 80 degrees outside. It must have been 120 degrees up in there.”
Ester then released her grip on Nathan, shook her head, and with a defeated posture said, “I tell you, Wally never listened to me. I always told him that life would be much easier if he just listened to me and stopped being so stubborn. But he would never listen to me. Do you know how infuriating that is? Do you understand what this man has put me through? Do you?”
