Buh-Bye

by Jane Banning

I leave messages, hoping for the right tone of breezy and fun, mysterious, urgent, or poignant. I think, there, now she'll call, and I go on with whatever, but in the back of my mind is the hope of a return call and the silly conversations I don't have, living in my household of males. She's sorry, sorry, very busy, forgot to return the call, a lot of work to do, not one single minute to sit down. The lunches with the daughters and sons-in-law, the shopping, the dinners out, the collegiate basketball games. Yeah, I got it. It just takes too damn much effort.

6S

Jane Banning lives in Oregon, Wisconsin with a household of males, and has quite a few good women friends, actually.