Enough to Miss Christmas

"Paul," I cried as soon as Karen was out of earshot. "What were you thinking?"

"Don't worry," he answered as he picked up his newspaper, "I have no intention of hitting her. We agreed. But I got her attention, didn't I?"

"That's not the way it's done," I muttered, closing my eyes.

He could tell I was upset. "I didn't mean anything by it. She pokes around sometime and doesn't listen to you."

"You can't just threaten something, especially when you have no intention of carrying it out."

"It was no worse than saying, 'I'll ring your neck' or 'I'll sell you to the Gypsies'. Parents have been threatening kids for centuries."

"Not in my house. It was an honesty thing."

"A threat worked with King Solomon. He never intended to cut the baby in half. Karen's been testing us lately; that's all I'm saying. This business of your perfect household, at least in her mind, is getting stale."

"It wasn't perfect," I spit back; "I just had better parents than we are!"

I left the room, covering my face. I knew I'd over reacted but I was trying so hard not to falter, even an offhand comment like that could disrupt the balance I'd worked to achieve. He didn't come to bed immediately. When he did I remained turned away from him, feigning sleep. He put his arms around me and apologized.

"I'm not very good at this stuff. It's all new to me. I don't mean to undermine you or lose touch with the kids, but they're growing up and changing."

"We have to talk, to them and to each other. We have to talk, and talk, and talk until we all understand one another." It was our first disagreement, but given the situation, a mild one indeed. I knew I was wrong. It was my damn short fuse. I vowed to be more understanding of this husband I loved so much.

It was less than twenty-four hours later when we were tested. We'd asked Karen to come home directly after a play audition to watch Timmy. Paul and I were invited out to neighbor's house and we wanted to finish dinner early. It was important to us as we'd not socialized in town and we were pleased to receive the invitation. The allotted time came and went. Another hour passed and we were forced to call and cancel. The neighbors graciously understood and I rescheduled our social evening for a few days later. Another twenty minutes passed before Karen came rushing in, excited that she'd been awarded a part in the production. As soon as she saw our faces as we waited in the living room, she remembered what she'd promised.