Rusted Ford out front up on blocks. Grass is yellow from winter’s anger. Piles of leaves with frost on them.

I heard you come in the front door, she said. Usually, come in the back.

Felt like mixing it up a bit, he told her.

Did you wipe your feet?

Everything is frozen out there. No need.

Well, take your boots off.

Too cold. My socks are thin. I don’t have those wool ones like you got, he looked at her.

Right. Always complaining. You want coffee?

Sure. He reached up in the cabinet and got out a bottle of whiskey. The kind with the turkey on it. Gobble gobble, he said.

Too early for that, she said.

Never too early. It’s almost noon. 

A loud siren blasted throughout the village, signaling that it was 12:00. They both covered their ears.

The wife poured him a half filled cup of coffee. He topped it off with the Wild Turkey.

You haven’t even gotten dressed yet, he said, looking at her in her robe with yellow chicks on it. It’s noon for Christ’s sake. I’ve already put in a day’s work.

What have you done?

Raked the yard.

Why?

Cause that’s what people do.

That so?

Yeah.

People live normal lives. They have jobs. They don’t live off the government.

I earned that money.

Right.

I can’t help it if my back is messed up. Not my fault I slipped.

I suppose.

Why are you like this? Angry all the time. Mad at the world. Pissed at me.

Tired of being poor, Ronny. This ain’t what I signed up for.

What did you sign up for?

I don’t know. Not this.

To have and to hold. Till death do us part. We agreed to that.

You were drunk.

Still meant it. Didn’t you?

At the time. Yes. Things change.  You’ve changed.

I’ve always been like this.

A drunk?

Don’t criticize my endeavors. You sit around here all day in that robe. Doing nothing. I at least go into town.

You go to the bar. Drink up your disability check at the first of the month, and then we ain’t got nothing for thirty days.

Do you eat?

Barely.

Looks to me you eat quite a bit.

Sonofabitch.

There’s people in China starving.

Silence.

He sat at the table, drinking his coffee and whiskey while she walked down the hall and slammed the door shut to their bedroom.