Ellis

A short story by Mary M. Isaacs

His wife came into the room mid-sentence. As usual. Enter talking, he thought, automatically.

"…so I thought, we should go to the park! We haven't been out, all together, for a long time. Ellis needs some fresh air."

He hated going to the park. He wouldn’t even look up as she spoke to him; he was watching TV and resented the interruption. He turned up the volume with the remote, but she kept on talking.

"I liked going to the park when I was little, like Ellis. I liked the swings and the slide and the sand, I liked everything in the park except I didn’t like the merry-go-round. I never did like merry-go-rounds, they always make me dizzy. But you could go on it with him. I could sit on the bench and watch. Why don't we go there now, this afternoon? It's a nice day. And Ellis needs some fresh air…" Her last words were spoken as she left the room, on her way to find their son.

His concentration was broken now--might as well get it over with. He turned off the TV and bent down to relace his shoes. The park wasn't too far away; he knew that she would insist on walking there...





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Copyright 2019
Mary M. Isaacs
All rights reserved
For the rest of the story, "Ellis" can be found in the collection Holy Innocence, link on the right sidebar