I'm Mad at You (Details)
citation: Collier's, December 6, 1947, 120(23):16-17, 54-56
alias: None
teaser: For a man who worked hard at his marriage, Tim made it look awfully easy
summary: Timberlake Ryan is trying to get a smile
out of his wife Eve, who's angry with him. His efforts are interrupted by
a telephone call from Alice Mellett, one
of Eve's oldest friends, asking if she and her husband Jerry can stop by.
Tim doesn't want the couple to visit — he considers Jerry a zombie
— but Eve agrees to have them over.
When the Melletts arrive, Tim is an effusive, if not necessarily sincere, host. He uses the occasion to air the source of Eve's anger: Tim not being as neat as she would like. Tim reckons he needs a valet, and that means he must spend a lot of time thinking how to become rich.
Tim's latest get-rich plan is to buy several acres
of land in downtown Manhattan, replacing the existing buildings with an eight-room
frame house from Galesburg, IL. It would be
the symbol of normalcy — the living representative of
what New York subconsciously yearns for
— making Tim a
sort of unofficial ambassador to New York from the rest of the country.
After the Mellets leave, Tim intimates the couple is not really
married, but living in sin.
Tim jokes he and Eve
are not legally married either. She questions whether he regrets marrying
her, then realizes being mad at him is her
way of getting attention; a mini-courtship to reassure her of Tim's
love.
Casting a murder mystery he was reading aside, Tim brags he would not be caught if he were to do away with Eve, a conclusion to which she disagrees. Tim explains how he could murder her, blaming it on her neatness. When Eve finds holes in his plan, he counters that he would be purposely untidy, driving her insane.
Lying in Tim's arms on the couch, her anger thawed by Tim's banter, Eve finds herself more interested in him than in making dinner.
words: 3,063
genre: Timberlake Ryan, Slice-of-Life
similar: Manhattan Idyl, Breakfast in Bed, Long-Distance Call, The Little Courtesies, Week-End Genius, My Cigarette Loves Your Cigarette, One-Man Show, Sounds in the Night, Man of the Cocktail Hour, Tattletale Tape; You Haven't Changed a Bit, Sneak Preview, I Like It This Way, Husband at Home, Legal and Tender, Rainy Sunday, Expression of Love, Vive la Différence, Bedtime Story, Take One Rainy Night, Old Enough for Love, The Sunny Side of the Street, No Time for the Billiard Ballet
people: Timberlake Ryan, Eve Ryan, Alice Mellett, Jerry Mellett
places: New York, NY: Fifth Avenue; Galesburg, IL
comments: Forthcoming