"Will you please turn that off!" she screamed. The music was blaring and she couldn't hear herself think. The children were turning the house over and Mark was just sitting on the couch with his laptop open and the music blasting.
He didn't seem to hear her. He was too immersed in whatever he was doing. She stared at the man as he sat in obliviousness watching his screen. Time froze as she stared wondering how on earth he could be so unaware of his surroundings. How could he not care? She almost wished she could feel such apathy; to be immune to the cries of her children! Because even when she was too busy, and tired and unable to meet all of their demands, even their crazy and unnecessary demands, their cries still pierced her. Wouldn't she love to be able to zone out and not even hear their cries?
No, that was not what she wanted. She just wished that Mark could hear them too and that they would affect him the same way they did her. How could he hear his daughter sitting on the floor three feet from him wailing and not notice her?
"Mark? Mark, can you hear me?"
"Wha? Yeah, jes a sec, Beth," he muttered.
"Unbelievable!" she said striding across the room and picking up the three year old before Jamey threw another block in her direction. "Jamey, stop that! And go get your shoes on! Addie, are you dressed yet?" she called down the hall.
There was no answer, but that didn't surprise her one bit.
"Bea, go check on your sister, will you?"
"She'll never let me in!" Bea said, not looking up from her book. "She doesn't even answer when I knock on the door."
"Bea, just go!"
Beatrice slammed her book shut and stormed down the hall. Beth could hear the distance shouts of her daughters as they yelled at each other through the doorway, but she couldn't deal with that now. Jamey hadn't moved from his pile of blocks and the baby was now crying.
"Jamey! I said get your shoes on! Mark! Can you get the baby? She's crying again!"
Mark was still staring at his computer. Beth dropped the 3 year old on his lap and left to get the baby from their room. When she returned, the 3 year old was on the floor and Jamey was trying to fend her off.
"Stop! Stop!" he cried. "Mom! Get Kate to stop touching my tower!"
"Jamey, I told you to get your shoes on. You can't be building a tower right now anyway!"
"Make her stop!" he screamed.
Beth looked at her husband on the couch surrounded by all the chaos and wondered again how he could withstand such noise without intervening.
Rather than shouting for his attention again she dropped down on the couch next to him with the infant in her arms and looked at him. "Mark?" she said. "I could use some help!"
He seemed to pop out of his reverie as he looked away from the screen and to his wife beside him.
"Hey," he said. "What's up?" Beth let out a snort of laughter and frustration.
"Mark, honey. We gotta go! None of the kids are ready and we're gonna be late!"
"There are more important things than punctuality," he told her.
"Like your computer?" she said, unable to withhold the snark.
"Sometimes," he replied, with a smirk at the corner of his mouth.
He stood up, setting his laptop aside and pulling his wife and youngest child into an embrace and began to dance with her.
"I'm not really in the mood," she said, but he saw the smile growing behind her furrowed brow. "We gotta get going!"
He smiled as he spun her about and looked at their children fighting on the floor as he sang along with the lyrics: "We'll remember the best time in our life!"
I need to know what's going on! Are they just having a rough day? A rough season? What was he working on?! These are the things I need to know!
ReplyDeleteHaha. I dunno either, man. I got dropped into the scene the same as you! Maybe I'll write more. Maybe you'll just have to decide for yourself if he's a bad stereotype or if there's something else to it.
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