Unexpectedly, Milo - Matthew Dicks [23]
“I bet you just love him, don’t you?”
“If he can help us fix our marriage, you’re right. I’ll love him. But it’s not about who wins or loses. It’s not a contest. It’s about us. Right?”
“Did you know that he was going to be a man?”
“Christine, you made the appointment. I just showed up. I had no idea who the doctor was until I saw him. But who cares if he’s a man or a woman as long as he can help us? Right?”
“Yeah, right.” Christine turned and walked to her car without saying another word.
Milo had the urge to shout at his wife, remind her that there were no cameras rolling, no histrionic music playing in the background. “We’re not in a movie!” he wanted to bellow. “We’ve got no audience!” He wanted to remind his wife that her dramatic exit would only serve to make their next conversation more awkward and difficult, whereas a simple exchange of farewells would have made things so much easier.
Instead, he played his own clichéd role in her melodrama, turning with head down back toward his car. Better to keep the train from thundering down the track any faster than necessary.
Once he was sure that Christine was well on her way home, Milo reentered the doctor’s office and tore from the magazine the poem that he had been reading and memorizing.
He had no idea why.
chapter 6
Milo stopped at a RadioShack on the way home from Dr. Teagan’s office, provided his credit card and zip code to a middle-aged clerk who seemed under the illusion that he was a genuine electronics expert, and purchased a cable that would allow him to watch Freckles on his television rather than the tiny camcorder screen. Milo had intended to pay cash for the item, but after seeing the silver pen in the clerk’s pocket protector, the kind that required the user to click a button on the end in order to eject the ink point, he switched to a credit card, suddenly consumed with the demand to click the man’s pen at least once, but probably many more times.
When the clerk pointed to the pen already on the counter, one without an alluring retractable point, Milo was forced to pretend that this pen wasn’t working by pressing down with diminished force on the sales receipt. “I’m sorry. This is out of ink. Can I use yours?” he asked, making sure to point to the pen in the clerk’s pocket lest he offer another pen behind the counter.
Milo was forced to click the pen a dozen times before the demand was satisfied. In order to maintain possession of it long enough to do so, he asked the clerk about purchasing a warranty and service contract on the cable, even though he knew that such a request was absurd.
On his drive home, he reflected back on his session with Dr. Teagan. Though he was happy and relieved to discover that his understanding of the concepts of space and time apart had been normal, he wasn’t sure if it was worth the anger that the meeting had engendered in Christine. Though the two had committed themselves to at least one date before next Wednesday, they had hardly parted on good terms. Milo wondered how long he should wait before calling his wife.
Then, as if on cue, the phone rang. Milo answered, expecting to hear Christine’s voice. Instead, it was Andy, informing Milo to bring his laptop to the Wednesday-night meet-up.
“I’ve got a new game for us to try out. It runs online, so bring your machine. There’s a thirty-day free trial that we’ll all sign up for and play. I think we’re going to like it. A lot like D and D online.”
Andy was one of a foursome of guys, Milo included, who got together every Wednesday night for what Christine referred to as Nerd Time. Though she had initially intended the moniker to be endearing, she had begun to use it more acrimoniously in the past year. Milo never told his friends what Christine thought of their get-togethers, but he couldn’t disagree with her estimation. Among the many activities in which he and his friends would engage were video games, Sabermetric baseball, Dungeons & Dragons, and the occasional game of setback or poker. They rotated homes each week, with the host choosing the activity and