Ethel
slowly straightened her back and wiped the sweat from her forehead
with the back of her hand. It had been a hot afternoons' labor
but, now standing back, surveying her work, she was satisfied
that it had been worth it.
She
had purchased sixty dark red brick colored patio blocks from her
local Walmart and laid them side by side over the newly dug dirt.Each
measured twelve by twelve and weighed about thirty pounds apiece.It
had been a hard back breaking job but she had done it, and all
alone. The dear boys at Walmart had loaded them for her but she
had taken each one, one at a time, from the truck bed and laid
them in place herself.
It
was a beautiful addition to the patio already there. She was proud
of herself and as tired as she was, she wondered how she had ever
been strong enough to finish so soon. It had started out with
a blinding headache at work so she had begged off early and come
home.. home to the shock of her life.
There
was her beloved husband, Arthur in the arms of the next door neighbor's
wife, Mildred, her supposed best friend.. This would not do..
no, this just would not do.. She could still see the look of shock
on their faces, a look frozen there now, forever.
Surveying
her lovely new patio, again, one more time, she placed some of
her small benches here and there with a few pots of flowers next
to them and then she went into the house to clean up the blood
and take a shower before she started her supper.
It
was then that she noticed her headache was finally gone...
