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By Root 357 0

and finding it void of automobiles. Visiting his house for the first time since the separation, he couldn’t help but think about all that he might lose if he and Christine were unable to settle their differences and resume their marriage as previously scheduled. The house, a spacious ranch on the corner of Wilson and Taft, had required a great deal of work when they first moved in, and Milo had done most of it himself. Rosebushes had been growing wild around the foundation of the house, and after attempts to prune them back, he finally decided to tear them out completely and replace them with plants that were more manageable. This process had taken more than a week to accomplish, and he could still remember the subsequent nightmares of rosebushes creeping into the house at night to enact their thorny revenge. Those hours of work and hundreds of tiny cuts on his hands, arms, and legs would all go for naught if he and Christine did not repair their relationship.

It was a small thing, he knew. The elimination of some rosebushes hardly constituted a marriage. But it was the accumulation of small things: the roses, their DVD collection, his relationship with Christine’s parents, the new lawn mower, the wedding photos, the flat-screen television, the plans for finishing the basement and replacing the windows, and the trip to Martha’s Vineyard later that summer. All of these small things were the stuff of their marriage, and combined, this stuff made up their relationship. Held it together. Made it tangible. Certainly there was more at stake than lawn mowers and DVDs and vacation plans, but Milo was beginning to realize that these things had become important to him, perhaps because Christine no longer was. The part of him that had always known that Christine was not right for him had jumped at the chance to move out and grant Christine her space, even when the part of Milo that loved his marriage struggled to hold on. And perhaps that was the crux of the matter: Though Milo was still unwilling to fully embrace the idea, he thought that he might have loved his marriage more than his wife. The home, the companionship, the family, and, most important, the comfort in knowing that his oddities were safely hidden away. That after more than three years of marriage and five years together, his wife did not have even an inkling of the U-boat captain who sometimes insisted he open a jar of jelly or smash a Weeble.

Though this was good, Milo found himself wanting more. Part of him believed that he could still find the joy and excitement and genuine love that he had felt for Christine in the beginning. This hope is what had led him to the idea to do something romantic for Christine, and how he found himself, a dozen roses in his hands, on the doorstop of the house they once shared.

Milo entered through the side door facing the driveway, feeling like an intruder upon setting foot in the kitchen. It had been just over a month since he had left, yet in that time the house had begun to feel foreign to him. At any moment, he half expected a police cruiser to pull into the driveway, officers piling out in order to arrest him for breaking and entering. Nevertheless, things inside the house looked as they always had. The kitchen was spotless, with uncluttered countertops, clean appliances, and an empty drying rack by the sink. Christine insisted on cleanliness in the kitchen.

Milo placed the glass vase on the small kitchen table and was turning to leave when he remembered the need for clean sheets in his apartment and instead passed through the kitchen, heading for the bathroom. Multiple sets of bed linens had been one of the many things that Milo had not thought about in his attempt to exit the house as quickly as possible.

In the linen closet adjacent to the master bedroom he found several clean sets, most of which were given to him and Christine as wedding gifts. He took a set that had not been a wedding gift, as well a few extra towels, as they were also in short supply at his apartment.

Needing to relive himself, Milo took a few more steps