She woke up early to fix him breakfast…same as always…a pot of coffee..two fried eggs over easy…bacon and toast with grape jelly and butter smoothed over the browned bread…paper was there by his place setting…local headlines…high school sports scores…Ann Landers…

He was never in the best of moods come mornin’…seemed as though he was always just gettin’ to sleep when the alarm clock would go off at five…forcing his way outta bed and into the bathroom to take a long leak…splash water on his ruddy face…brush his teeth and jump in the shower…there was never any singin’…

As always there were work clothes laid out on the bed for him…placed there by her…pair of Dickies…a long sleeve shirt with his name placed on the left in black…a washed pair of white underwear and a tee-shirt as well…it was a uniform he’d worn for the last thirty years…it was all habitual…routuine…sky was still black as he looked out the window…

They talked very little at the breakfast table…spoke very little in general…years had past since they had a real conversation…’bout anything…their time together was always in silence…had nothin’ to say…had been that way since their son took off and left one night when he was still young…they blamed each other for it…she said he didn’t love him…he said she loved him too much…said she spoiled the child…couldn’t correct him anymore…the kid became uncontrolable…

In a way he was glad that the kid was gone…got tired of his sassin’…his violent threats…constant talk of wantin’ to kill himself…they tried to get the boy some help…but nothin’ worked…in and outta hospitals throughout high school…runnin’ away all the time…phone calls would come in the middle of the night from down at the police station…some kinda outburst in the mall parkin’ lot…a disturbance at a party…drunkin’ behavior…breakin’ into the church and pissin’ on pews…it was always somethin’…

So they sat there in silence…each and every day…he didn’t kiss her goodbye…she didn’t say have a nice day…they both had their functions…he made sure bills were paid and she kept meals on the table and the house was clean…some things are just better off left alone…kept quiet…no yellin’…nor screamin’…or kickin’…just quiet ‘tween two people…

And that’s all they had left…