He took her to the zoo but all the animals were asleep. Invisible. But not in the reptile house. Now that’s a snake, she said. Scolding him.

The astronomer says, I couldn’t stand him any longer, and then she says, I banished him like Pluto, and then she sighs and says, Is it cold?

These were the noises we heard: insouciance; deliberation; arrogance; temerity. We quit breathing in order to live. Until the kids ran away.

They were both tired, the fight a tax on their energy. You don’t listen to me, he sighed. She ignored him. Maybe I’ll start a blog, he said.