Nov 18

“I'm on my way to pick up Todd from soccer,” Abby said curtly.

“You didn't stay to watch the practice?”

“No, I had some errands to run. You know, groceries and such.” Abby made a mental note to stop at the store on the way to the soccer field so as not to return home empty-handed.

“Oh, good. We have no food. Did you buy eggplant?”

“Of course,” said Abby. “I know how much you love them.”

“You like them too.”

“Yes, but liking eggplant is kind of girly, don't you think?”

“No! It's the most manly vegetable. Any real man would love eggplant. Unless they didn't know how to cook. Or lived in a country that didn't have eggplant. You know, like China or Communist Russia.”

Abby never knew what to say in response to Richard's crazy rants about food so she just sighed and made up a lame excuse about needing to get off the phone because she saw a cop up ahead. It wasn't true and she was still walking anyway. She laughed to herself as she thought about how silly it would be to get 'pulled over' for walking while talking on a cell phone.

She continued walking the familiar route, about a mile down the road, back to the soccer field where her car and her 12-year-old son were waiting. She smiled, waved to Todd, and mouthed “I'll be right back.” Then she jumped in the car and sped off in the direction of the grocery store. Unfortunately the first three stores she stopped at were completely out of eggplant and, as it was the one food item she told Richard she had already bought, she needed to continue searching. Consequently she was about 20 minutes late picking Todd up from practice. She would have to tell Richard that the practice had run late and hope that Todd was not yet old enough to notice and correct her lie.