Sarah & Patrick

‘Oohhhhh it’s so hot today!!!!’ Sarah was starting to sweat.

‘You’re telling me. Wish she left the aircon on.’ Patrick replied.

Julie would never leave the air conditioner on during the day. She felt guilty having it on at all. The heat didn’t bother Simon. Nothing seemed to bother Simon.

‘She keeps talking about her menopause. I think she’s taking some pills. Have you seen them on the shelf?' Sarah didn’t miss a thing. Patrick on the other hand was a bit aloof. Didn’t notice every single detail like Sarah did.

‘Not really. Tell you what I have noticed though. Why aren’t we going to the dinner table much these days? Even at breakfast. We seem to be stuck in the kitchen all the time now.’

‘I know. We used to get out so much. Breakfast and dinner. Remember when he’d forget to put us away at breakfast? So much to look at! All the cars driving by. The people walking their dogs. The old people up and down the street. I never realised how good it was to look out the window.’

‘Well I know why we stopped going out there at breakfast.’ Of course Patrick knew, he knew everything. ‘Sarah, you know you make such a mess.’

‘What? Me? That’s not fair, you can’t blame it on me.’

Sarah did make a mess. Every surface she was placed on was left with a ring of residue, spilling out in no shape or form. It got into everything. The placemats, the embroidered flowers on the table runner, little clumps of salt all over the dining table that drove Julie mad with irritation.

‘Look, I know you can’t help it. You are, after all, a saltshaker.’

‘Well I’m not like you, that’s for sure. All neat and tidy holding your perfectly rounded peppercorns, just waiting to be neatly ground into sprinkly spice for their eggs. Did you know that in fancy restaurants the waiters bring out these GIANT grinders, way bigger than you, and perform this little ceremony with your food while everyone patiently waits? When do they do that with me? NEVER! I am holding a health hazard apparently, it must be consumed sparingly. I sometimes get confused and start to think I am the salt, not the shaker’. Plus I keep making a mess and she wants to ‘contain’ me. I heard her say that the other week you know.'

Patrick had heard that too but he didn’t want to upset Sarah further. Julie had been quarantining them on two coasters in the kitchen next to the coffee machine. They (well specifically Sarah) were making far less mess these days. One less minor inconvenience for Julie to fuss about. Recently, Julie and Simon stopped eating at the dining table in the evenings.

‘I wonder why they’ve stopped eating at the dining table? I loved those dinners.’

‘Yes, me too. I loved listening to them chat about all sorts of things. They seem to have an interesting life. Those stories from school. CRAZY.’

Julie and Simon were never short on stories and loved to share them over the dinner table. Well, Julie did. She loved the detail and would go to great lengths to explain everything. She had a habit of paraphrasing conversations, so Simon didn’t miss anything important. Simon’s stories, in contrast, were more succinct. Often missing any context and going straight to the main event, the scandalous act committed by a child that day. Julie then had to question him extensively, to understand the background, the characters, the motives, the conclusion, the consequences. Simon was always short on this detail.

Sarah would listen intently, Patrick dipped in and out, losing focus on what was said and tuning more in to the sound of their voices instead. One thing he did listen to though was their nightly ritual of ‘5 Wonderful Things.’ Julie and Simon would take turns to share wonderful things that occurred that day. They called this their ‘Gratitude Practice’.

‘I miss listening to their 5 wonderful things. I found that fascinating, what humans are grateful for. They literally have the whole world at their disposal. Pretty sure you could do 100 wonderful things every day and never say the same thing twice.’

‘You are so right Patrick. I miss listening to that too. I found Julie hard to follow sometimes though. She’ll say her wonderful thing, then go off on a tangent and tell some back story which I can’t always link to the wonderful thing. Do you find that Patrick?’

‘I most definitely do!’ Simon is so black and white. I love my team at work. The sunrise was beautiful. I saw a Rufous-throated Honeyeater this morning.’

Sarah and Patrick had learnt a lot about birds since Julie bought Simon those bird books and he splashed out on a very fancy set of binoculars.

‘Look, don’t get me wrong. Julie’s wonderful things are nice too. She always has those cute little anecdotes about the kids at her school. Plus she likes nature too. But when she starts rambling, my mind wanders.’ Sarah felt a little bad, tangent or no tangent, she wanted to hear the wonderful things again.

They sat in silence for a while. Side by side, sitting on the coasters, next to the coffee machine, staring at the oven.

‘Maybe we could start our own 5 Wonderful Things.’ Patrick could sense Sarah was starting to get a bit depressed.

‘Okay. Shall I go first? Or would you like to?’ Sarah was a bit surprised. Patrick wasn’t one for talking about his feelings.

At first, they found it a bit awkward and weird. They were after all, mostly stuck in the kitchen.

‘Simon forgot to use us this morning, so we got to go to the dining table for breakfast’.

‘I would like to piggyback on that Sarah and say that I heard Simon talk about us as if he really valued us and raced into the kitchen to fetch us.’

Over time, the 5 wonderful things became easier to find, there were SO many wonderful things that happened in a day. Sarah and Patrick were never happier.

‘I loved those Swedish Meatballs Julie was making in the slow cooker today. We helped her with that you know.’

‘I loved the music she was playing. I’m really liking that Birdy album she seems to have on high rotation. I’m learning all the lyrics of the songs.’

‘I was watching Simon come in and out of the kitchen giggling to himself. Must be listening to something funny. Don’t know what it is, always has those headphones in.’

Julie and Simon went back to eating at the dining table not long after, when they realised they’d fallen into the bad habit of eating in front of the television.

Life was certainly wonderful for everyone.

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