Family Dinner





Karen looked at her husband, George, across the table. She felt a flush crawl up her chest onto her cheeks, like a spider. She brushed her dirty blonde curls off of her shoulders and looked away from him. It was too unbearable.
How was she going to bring this up? This was going to ruin everything. She was disgusting. She cheated, she actually cheated. What was she thinking. Maybe she just wouldn’t tell him…no. She wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
She looked over at her husband as he began massaging his temples, clearly exhausted from work. He looked at her and gave her a weak smile. She smiled back and looked at her food. She twirled her fork in her spaghetti, creating an endless spiral. She reached across the table to take the salt shaker and began to shake it over her spaghetti, but only after a solid ten seconds did she realize that nothing was coming out. Embarrassed of her spacey behavior, she quickly returned the salt shaker to it’s place. Karen continued to brainstorm. She could bring it up casually, “Hey Henry I had an affair, pass the salt?” No, no.
*****

Between her two parents, Halle had received about 30 unsavory looks in the past five minutes. They knew. ‘They knew for sure,’ she thought.
She looked down at her outfit. She should have at least changed when she got home. She jammed her fork into her salad, making a disruptive thud. She looked up, waiting to be scolded, but her parents kept staring into their plates. They were so disappointed that they didn’t even want to speak to her. That must have been it.
Essentially it’s her mom’s fault, right? Her mom knew that nobody would be at his house when she dropped her off. She remembered the entire conversation in the front seat of her mom’s minivan. Halle had said, “Mom just so you know, his parents aren’t home. So, I don’t want you to kill me after.” Then her mom said, “Halle I know him and his parents well. He has been your boyfriend for over a year; he’s a good guy, and I trust you guys,” and smiled. Yeah, her fault.
*****

He thought she knew. She could see right through him. Henry held the envelope in his hand under the table. He rubbed the corners and bent it, as if the more he messed with it, the greater the chance that it would go away.
She was going to hate him. Their family wasn’t in debt, but he didn’t know if they could make it with only one paycheck. She worked so hard and he had let her down. He was a failure. He had failed her, and he had failed Halle. He had told her that he had his anger management under control and she believed him. That same lie was now the same reason they were unemployed. How would he tell her? Maybe he should just slide the envelope across the table.
He adjusted his glasses over the bridge of his nose and pretended to eat his food, catching small glances of Karen and Halle. He picked up his wine glass by the top and moved it in small circles, watching the deep red liquid splash around. The dim lights in the dining room didn’t help his melancholy mood. He ran his fingers through his light brown hair, and then took a sip of his wine, trying to digest; not his food, but the situation.

*****

Karen looked at her daughter eating her salad in silence. She was just about ready to slap herself in the face.
What if he left her because of this? She wouldn’t blame him. She thought he knew something was up; he had been looking at her every three seconds with a weird look in his eye. Every time she opened her mouth to speak, her throat became dry like a desert and she was unable to speak. She wanted to just scream it and get it over with.
*****

Halle could feel the tension in the dining room; thick enough to cut with a knife. She and her mom locked eyes for a second and then looked away from each other.
‘Just blurt it out…’ She took a bite of her salad, so she had an excuse to not speak. Picking the light pink polish off of her fingernails, she chewed her salad slowly. She couldn’t believe it all happened just a few hours ago. She needed to say something.
Halle looked up again to see both her parents looking at her. They looked at each other, and then kept eating. Her mom cleared her throat; crap.
“So, Halle how was your day?”
“Good.”