The Douglas Farm

A minute later, Oliver returned from the bathroom and stomped grumpily into the kitchen. Lisa realized by the scowl on his face that his foul mood was still going strong. Her shoulders slumped in disappointment a little, but she decided to be as cheery as possible in hopes that it would rub off on him.

"Hello dahling," Lisa said pleasantly as she walked over to Oliver. She leaned in toward him expecting a kiss, but instead stumbled forward as he bypassed her and sunk into his usual spot at the table. Lisa felt somewhat hurt by the fact that he just completely ignored her, but she pushed that feeling aside. He's just going through a rough time, she reasoned. She put on another bright smile and proceeded to serve him some coffee.

"Hi dad," Eb called cheerfully, obviously trying to help Lisa lighten Oliver's mood, but it was to no avail. Oliver only glared at him and replied bitterly, "Don't call me dad."

Eb shrugged at Lisa and mouthed the words, "I tried," to her. Lisa smiled at him tenderly and mouthed, "Thank you," to him. She then decided to take a stab at relieving Oliver's vile mind-set, a mind-set that seemed to engulf the entire kitchen.

"How was your morning, dear," she asked in an attempt to ease the tension in the room. But in her desperation to make a light-hearted conversation, she forgot that that was probably the wrong question to ask. Her instinct was confirmed when she heard her husband sigh deeply.

"My morning was awful," he said angrily. "Nothing would go right today! I've never been so frustrated in my life!"

Lisa patted his shoulder sympathetically. "I'm sorry, dahling."

"Yeah, me too," Oliver mumbled angrily. He took a sip of his coffee and then leaned his head on his hand. Lisa's sadness doubled when she realized her first try to ease her husband's stress had failed. She decided to resort to plan number two.

"Vell, maybe your favorite lunch vill make things better," she said cheerfully as she turned to the stove to serve him his plate. She poured a crusty looking spaghetti sauce on her pasty lump of spaghetti. She then turned around and placed the plate in front of Oliver, a hopeful smile spread across her face.

This smile quickly faded away however, when she saw Oliver grimace and poke warily at the meal before him.

"What's this supposed to be," he asked.

"Your favorite meal, spaghetti," Lisa replied.

"What did you do to it," Oliver asked bitingly. Lisa pouted at the hurtful words.

"Dahling, I made this especially to ease your stress," she explained.

"Well, you failed. It's only adding to my stress," he replied scornfully.

"Olivah," Lisa exclaimed, shocked that he was being so rude to her. She was about to elaborate on how much work she went through to make him that special meal, but he didn't give her a chance. He stood up from his chair and began to head toward the back door.

"Lisa, next time you want to cheer me up…try picking up something from the restaurant. You know, something that's actually edible," he snapped. He then walked out the back door, slamming it behind him. Lisa stood staring at the door for a minute, flabbergasted at his treatment toward her. She then sighed wearily and began to clear away her special meal from the table, depressed that her efforts to make her husband feel better had failed. Eb looked at her with pity in his eyes.

"You okay, Mrs. Douglas," he asked as he stood up from the table and carried his dishes over to the sink for washing.

"Yes, I'm fine Eb. Thank you for asking," she said as she watched him go from the table to the sink and back again absent-mindedly. "I just can't believe vot a bad mood all his stress has put him under. In all the years we've been married, he's never talked to me like that. I'm beginning to vorry about him," she confessed. She looked at the dirty plate that once held her husband's special meal with contempt and stuck it in the sink, vowing to wash it and the other dishes later when she was in a better mood.

"What now," Eb asked.

"I guess I'll have to come up vith some other vay to cheer him up," she replied. Lisa then sighed once more and continued serving Eb his lunch, vowing to come up with more ideas before Oliver returned home for dinner.

Okay, okay, so it's not the best chapter in the world, but I was having a really hard time coming up with ideas to express Lisa's hurt over Oliver's bad mood without over-dramatizing it. I finally just threw ideas together and the product was this dull chapter. Sorry! I promise I'll come up with something better for the next chapter…I hope! Please continue to read and review! Bye!