Husband at Home (Details)
citation: Ladies' Home Journal, April 1951:72-73, 229-230, 232-233, 235
alias: None
teaser: Sounds peadsful enoubf, doesud id …
summary: Ben Bennel is home with a cold, being attended by his wife Reaghan. He pretends to be so ill he will die, joking his body should be stuffed after death. He asks Reagh for tea.
Ben waits for the mail, drinking tea, looking out the window at the mailman. He tells Reagh he's always expecting interesting mail from all over the world.
As Reagh washes dishes, Ben continually interrupts her, looking for something to read, then explaining an idea for a cartoon.
Reagh explains to Ben she's set the clocks ahead so she'll not miss her favorite radio program, Destiny's Children. Ben's surprised Reagh listens to programs like this, and that the story is about a woman who won't forgive her husband for having been previously married. Reagh explains the characters' motivations.
Ben is surprised to discover how Reagh spends her days when he is usually at work. He then busies himself collecting items to construct coffee bags, to use like tea bags in making coffee. He enlists Reagh's help in the final stages, and to test the product.
Ben abandons the project, leaving Reagh to clean-up the kitchen. Tim returns to the idea of him dying, asking his body be bronzed after his death. He rejects Reagh's offer to have friends over.
Ben asks his wife promise she will remarry after he dies. Reagh calls his bluff, suggesting her next husband might not be so difficult. They both conclude they could never marry anyone else.
Attending to meat loaf cooking in the the kitchen, Ben interrupts her, asking where he can find India ink and an old reel of fishline.
words: 5,333
genre: Slice-of-Life
similar: None
people: Ben Bennell, Reagh Bennell, Cynthis Arden, Steve, Royce, the Everetts
places: Unspecified; Rangoon; Mill Valley, CA; San Francisco, CA: Alcatraz
notes: Forthcoming