Flash Memoir: That Time David Bought me a Rolls Royse

 3/5/2022 (c) 

I was still on maternity leave and David was still working the dinner shift. He told me we had money, but so far we weren’t living it. Or at least I and the baby weren’t. The only groceries in the apartment were popcorn and one old bag of rice, and not always butter. I learned how to eat it dry. That wouldn’t be so bad except David liked to call me on his break and describe the quail under glass, the steak tartare, French onion soup, or whatever he was having that night. Even then, under the weight of that unnecessary cruelty I made excuses for him. I would make excuses for years, mostly to myself.

One day he came home from work in a Rolls Royse. It was an older model but mostly clean and such a pretty blue-gray. He said he bought it for me. I would have preferred food but said nothing as I didn’t want to appear ungrateful.

“You should drive it into work and show your coworkers!” he said.

 I wasn’t working. I could wait to show it off. He was insistent, so I drove it downtown.

“What did they say?” Well, they thought it was a pretty car.

“No,  about me?” Well, yeah. They thought it was a generous gift.

He let me know that my enthusiasm was insufficient. Perhaps the lack of nutrients going into my body and my baby sucking out what flawed nutrition she could took my mood down. In any case, a week later my car was gone.

“Where is it?” I asked.

“Oh, I sold it and made a tidy profit.”

 I pointed out that as the Rolls was a gift it belonged to me and he had no right to sell it. Plus, I could use that tidy profit to fill the fridge. Never saw the fridge filled or the profit. This is how his gifts worked. They were rare and they would come then shortly go.