To Be a Virtuous Wife, According to the Manual novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Marlene Tries Page Forty-One

"Page forty-one," I said, "has one line on it."

"I know that. Everybody's mother has read that line."

Marlene pushed past me into the kitchen and sat in my chair.

"I want the other thing. The loopholes."

"Who told you there were loopholes?"

"Honey, I live next door. I have a bedroom window and a thin wall."

My face went up in flames, and I put the coffeepot on.

Hal took one look at her, grabbed his toast and his lunch pail, and fled to the plant.

We had the kitchen to ourselves. The sun came across the table, and Marlene folded her hands on it like a girl in school.

"All right," she said. "Eight years. He's gone six nights in seven."

"When he's home, we have coffee and play gin rummy."

"We go to bed, and he's tired, and I'm tired, and he says good night."

"And?"

"And I'm loud about everything else. I'm loud about the weather and the mayor."

"I have never once said to that man what I'd like."

She picked at a thread on the oilcloth.

"I didn't know you could."

"You can," I said. "It isn't even in the book. It's in the margin."

I took the Guide down from the shelf and opened it to page twenty.

"Rule 7. Let him talk first."

"He doesn't talk."

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