Danny could feel the tension rolling off of him in silent waves. He was a statue, a solid mass clenching cold silverware with white knuckles, staring into a plate of macaroni. His food was getting cold and she resisted the urge to put it away completely. His dark hair was disheveled for she determined that his hands must have found themselves raking through it anxiously entire home was silent, and the kitchen felt oddly cold despite wearing the thick long tan cardigan that was supposed to keep her warm. She sat next to him at the small wooden dinner table, waiting. Her hand slid to grasp his in an attempt at gentle reassurance but his own flinched at contact.
Her husband arrived home a few hours earlier with a strained look plastered on his face, as if his day was the epitome of hell. She didn't question him because he always came to her when he was ready to speak about his issues. She began to worry when it looked like he wasn't breathing at the dinner table. Her patience was wearing thin, and the curiosity was eating away at her when she decided to break the immense silence.
" Noah what's the matter?", he continued to glare onto his plate. " Just please tell me, I've never seen you like this before and It's making me nervous." her words were delicately laced with heavy concern as she lightly gripped his shoulder. His eyes slowly met hers, and she saw an awful mixture of anxiety and frustration weighing down his hazel eyes.
" I... I bought a new bed yesterday..", he said with disappointment. His mouth opened slightly as if he was going to say something else. He hesitated, "...I didn't know I did until this morning. I noticed there was something off about our room, but I could never put my finger on it until this morning." His body tensed " Danny, we had two-thousand dollars, now we only have a few hundred!"
Danny froze. The bills had just arrived that morning when she herself was leaving for work. She would have payed them herself, but she was already an hour late after wasting her time attempting to clean the dishes. She slowly leaned back, inhaling a deep breath that would hopefully soothe a fraction of her nerves. The bills were due Sunday and even though tomorrow was Friday they didn't make enough money total in one day to pay them off. Noah slammed his hand down on the table, snapping Danny out of her daze and causing the plate and silverware to jump slightly. Both of them visibly fired up would solve nothing and Noah being enraged was enough for two people. She rose out of her seat in an artificial calm.
"Look, I know your upset, but we need to relax a little if we're going to figure this out. We don't come home with enough in one day to total two thousand, and honestly..", She paused with her hands raised in surrender. " I don't know what to do.."
"They're gonna cut off the electricity Saturday if we don't figure something out.", Noah muffled behind two vanilla hands.
" Can we sell the bed?", she thought out loud.
He immediately responded as his head snapped up to look in her direction, " No!". Confusion swept over her accompanied by annoyance. What did he mean they couldn't sell the bed? If he bought it he could sell it, and quite frankly they did it all the time. What makes this problem so different?" I can't.. I mean I've tried plenty of times but I can never actually do it."She dismissed him by sucking her teeth.
"That's nonsense, come here." She waved for him to follow her as she left the kitchen. A small arch connected the kitchen to the living room that also ha a wooden door in the corner. Together they passed through the small dark wooden door revealing a fair sized orange room with a light blue king sized bed to their right. Two mahogany side tables each with one blue lamp resting on the top sat on both sides. A medium sized painting of a landscape with lush hills hung above the comfy looking bed. A green desk faced the wall on the opposite side with a desktop computer and a stack of multicolored books. Next to the desk there was another door that led into a tiny bathroom. A dresser to the right of said door sat in the corner with a small mirror above it.
" I can't believe I didn't notice it, It's way different from the last one" Danny approached it and placed a chocolate hand on the comforter. She applied pressure, testing the mattress to see how soft it was. It looked and felt extremely better than the last one. Their last bed always left her back aching and both her and her husband barely got enough sleep. If it wasn't for their latest predicament she wouldn't have a problem keeping it. Too bad it had to go. She lifted her head back up to her husband," All you had to do is.." She stopped. Wasn't there something better to do? She spent her entire day blogging about who know knows what and she was tense. Television seemed more important.
Danny made her way toward the door. Exactly when she reached for the handle Noah stopped her.
"Where are you going!? I thought you were going to sell the thing!", he said frantically
"Oh yeah. Your right I was." She turned right back around and started for the bed once again.
" No just forget it. It's impossible."
" Oh come on, it's simple!"she replied with a role of her eyes.
"I'm serious Danny, you don't think I tried? I did the same thing before I left this morning. I started to get rid of it, and the next thing I knew I was in front of the t.v screen! I thought 'Oh that's weird' and went right back. Do you know what happened?" His eyes were wide with something that Danny thought resembled insanity. She didn't want to answer the question.
"What happened?" She asked wincing with what she assumed to be protection from the answer.
" I started baking a cake! A freaking strawberry cake Danny! I don't even like strawberry cake!" He yelled. His hands grasped both side of his head signalling an upcoming meltdown.
" Okay! I understand just please calm down for a minute. Something strange is going on and I admit I don't like it either but for now, just for the sake of everyone, breathe." Noah inhaled a large breath, leaning his head back, eyes closed. He held it in for a lingering second until finally, he released the gas trapped in his lungs.
" Your right, maybe we should just get some rest. It's been a long week, plus I don't wanna wake the twins." he stated with his half lidded eyes. Their twin girls were upstairs sound asleep and right above their room. Thankfully the teens both slept like rocks. With the nod of her head Danny immediately changed into a black tank top, grey sweats, and slipped into bed.
" Are you coming?"she asked him.
" I'll shower first" he said directly as he disappeared behind the wooden bathroom door. She heard the spray of steaming water running and felt the heavy pull of sleep. As her eyes closed she observed a faint green glow shading her pillow in the dark from above. She would have missed it if she wasn't so exhausted.