Pratt:Fine. Same.
Sully:You say that about every city.
Pratt:They're all the same city with different signage.
I laughed, always a good thing to do before noon.
Dara from 4C showed up mid-afternoon with a bag of Chinese food . I took her coat.
"Cal wants a rematch," she said, already inside my kitchen opening the containers. "He also wants you to know he wants to bet twelve dollars next time."
"High-roller. I still think he uses weighted darts."
We ate on the couch with the TV muted, captions running under a home renovation show. On screen, a couple stood in what had been described, via caption, a bonus room.
Dara pointed her fork at the screen. "She doesn't want the Murphy bed."
"She said she wanted the Murphy bed."
"She said she wasfinewith the Murphy bed. That's not the same thing."
"She literally said—" I looked at the screen, where the caption had moved on. "She said it would be practical."
"Practical." Dara turned to look at me. "She said practical."
"That's a positive word."
"Sully, when someone says a Murphy bed would be practical,they are describing it the way you'd describe a colonoscopy. It might be necessary, but it's unfortunate and definitely not what anyone wants."
On screen, the husband put his arm around his wife and pointed at the wall where the Murphy bed would go. She smiled at the wall.
"She wants a garden," I said.
"I agree. She wants a garden, and he wants a Murphy bed for guests they don't have."
Around the forty-minute mark, she glanced at the wall.
"Not back until when?"
"Few more days."
She looked at me, then back at the TV. "You're counting."
"I know the schedule. I watch the—"
"I know," she said. "How many away games this month?"
"Dara."
"Asking for a friend."
"Six."
I looked at the wall. It was just that—a wall. Pratt had been gone for five days already, and I still found myself listening for sounds from the other side.
Tricia was right. Reorganizing was my vibe. I turned my attention to the vinyl album shelf. I could arrange things by type of music instead of artist. That would put the Bee Gees next to Donna Summer instead of the Beach Boys.
I pulled all the albums off and stacked them on the floor. The room immediately looked worse.
