Flight of the Three Eggs
Home again from the weekly supermarket expedition, DS [Devoted Spouse] and I begin to unpack the green bags straining with goods and put them away in the kitchen cupboards.
I finish emptying my bags first and begin to busy myself folding up surplus plastic bags, flattening cardboard cartons and tidying up kitchen benches. I am enjoying myself putting things back in order.
In this mode of light-hearted super-housewife efficiency, I notice that DS is now carefully placing the fresh eggs in the fridge egg rack, so with a flourish I sweep my arm towards him, seize the now empty egg carton and with a dramatic gesture, toss it towards the pile of flattened cardboard.
Unfortunately for me, there are actually three eggs remaining hidden in the closed carton and these now slip out smoothly and take flight, describing neat parabolas through the air before coming to rest with a quiet ‘thwack, thwack, thwack’ in the centre of the kitchen floor.
DS’s expression as he observes the flight of the eggs conveys in an instant, surprise, breathless anticipation of the coming small explosions and a wide smile, unusual in one who is more typically rather reserved and retiring.
For my part, I am dismayed, appalled, and yet also greatly amused by this messy event which is but another example of my characteristic impatience to get things done. ‘Uh, oh!’ I murmur, ‘There I go again!’ And I laugh at myself and even at the mess on the floor.
DS, shaking with suppressed mirth, watches me don rubber gloves, seize the necessary equipment and get down to the floor to clean up what is now a sea of gluey egg whites streaked with golden yolks and adorned with small egg shell boats. Eventually, still smirking, he turns away to make coffee while I dispose of the egg carnage in a hastily prepared hole in the back garden.
Eventually, we sit and sip our coffee, still enjoying the absurdity of our recent moment of chaos. We smile a lot. Our eyes meet and we realise again that even small shared events like the flight of the eggs are exactly what make being married to each other such fun and yet such a profound blessing.
12 Feb 2009