Monday 30 December 2013

The Hobot 168


The words of It’s Not Unusual echoed around the room while on a screen in the corner Tom Jones gyrated to the music as he lip-synced the song. It was a young Tom Jones, an old recording, a ghost of Christmas past. The floor was covered in wrapping paper and the kids were playing with their new toys.
I just wish for once they’d actually just clean up the mess before they created more, Jess  thought to herself, is that too much to ask? Dai smiled and picked up the last present still unwrapped,
‘and this one’s for you, Merry Christmas Jess.’
Jess held the box wondering what it could be, Dai had been quite secretive about it this year, giving nothing away.
She peeled the paper off it revealing a Hobot 168.
‘What’s this?’ she asked, genuinely confused.
‘It’s an automatic window cleaner.’ said Dai beaming from ear to ear. ‘You just fix it to the window and it just cleans it for you.’
Jess looked at Dai, looked at the box and felt a tear roll down her face. There was a time when Dai bought her lingerie or perfume or jewellery, there was even once he’d surprised her with tickets to see Michael Buble. Where had those times gone? Last year it had been a new set of saucepans that was bad enough, but this was really going too far; a fucking gadget for cleaning windows.

Her urge was to walk out there and then, but she thought about the kids, could she really leave them motherless and turkeyless on Christmas day. No! So she smiled and said thank you as best she could and went back into the kitchen to cry over a hot stove.

6 comments:

  1. I understand she must feel awful and sorry and disappointed but probably she keeps teling him how tired she is of the work she has to do at home and maybe he was just trying to help her... I wouldn't jump into concusion that he has stopped seeing a woman in her... most men have very simple and direct way of thinking and they take woman's words literally: if she says "I spent the whole day cleaning windows and also had one hundred other things to do", a man understands that she needs help with houswork:) However, I would hate to get this kind of present too. I wouldn't cry though but take a revenge:):)

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    1. maybe he could help her to clean the windows and then buy her something nice for Christmas :-)

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    2. Sounds like a fairy tale to me ;-)

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  2. o yes but some men are not so bright and creative:) that would be ideal... but nobody's perfect:)

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  3. Ok. I know what he could do to redeem himself: take the children away, play Tom Jones’s Sex Bomb now, put on sexy leather boxer shorts, take this device and clean the windows himself while she’s watching:)

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  4. Maybe there is a lovely gift at bottom of the box and she have to take her hobot out to discover it :-) for sure is a dinner for two or a trip to any paradise ;)

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