As Becky made dinner for her and Mark, Mark sat at the table watching an episode of Law and Order with a cold Budweiser in his hand. Becky was cooking hot dogs but she realized that the hot dogs buns had expired and they were all funky.
"Hey Mark can you go to the store real quick and get hot dog buns?"
Mark paid no attention to her. She waited a few seconds and tried again. "MARK!" This caught his attention, and he looked at her.
"What'd you say?" He asked nicely.
Becky felt herself getting angry, and tried to cool her temper. "These hot dogs buns are expired. Can you get some more from the store?"
Mark looked around. "Uh why don't you just make something else?"
Becky glared at Mark. She was mad going to this conversation, so it came as no shock to her now as she blew up. "We don't have anything else! When I went to the store yesterday all I could get was toilet paper, milk, eggs and hot dogs because you bought that stupid car part on Sunday."
Mark also felt himself getting angered. "I had to buy that! How else do you think I could get to work?"
"But you could have tried to fix it before you got a new one."
Mark rolled his eyes. "No I couldn't. There was no way to fix it. I could tell just by looking at it."
Becky crossed her arms. "But you could have tried!"
Mark shook his head and mimicked his wife's posture. "What do think I am a freaking MacGyver? I bet you only say that because your dad fixes everything."
Becky cocked her head. "Well he tries. And he does it BECAUSE HE KNOWS HE CAN'T EVER AFFORD A NYTHING NEW!"
Mark smiled wryly. "And yet he spends his money on a trip to Disney World. You know Beck, I'm sick of this. Ever since your mom died you compare everything I do or don't do to your dad and we're always fighting. We've always fought but now it's all we ever do."
Becky held her ground. "Well it's not all my fought. Ricky offered to pay you to install his CD player into his truck and you turned him down."
Mark flailed his arms. Fighting his extreme anger. "I turned him down because I don't have time. I do a have a job remember?"
"But you didn't have work today! My dad worked at the diner today because they called in a rain day!"
Mark looked around guiltily. He hadn't told Becky that the Construction Company called in a rain day and he didn't think Becky would find out. He was sure that Dan wouldn't call Becky today.
"I fixed the carburetor on Jack's bike today. He did a me a favor."
Becky sighed heavily. "I bet that favor was a bag of pot, wasn't it?"
Mark looked at his feet. He had been completely drug free since he married Becky, but he started hanging around with his friends from high school again and fell into old habits. He didn't smoke regularly, but he was doing it more frequently. Becky could see the guilt on his face.
"What if they decide to give you a random drug test at work? Not only will you get fired but you'll get my dad in trouble."
Mark looked back at Becky. "I only smoke after work and on the weekends. And I don't do it that much."
Becky shook her head. "Well that DOES NOT change the fact that we are drowning in debt and can't pay it."
For the rest of the night and in the morning neither Becky nor Mark spoke to each other.
Once again Becky sat on her bed crying. Mark was devoting way more time to his friends than her and the rent went up so that the Mobile living community could pool their money for an updated and better water purification system to go with the well. Becky and Mark were struggling to pay their rent. Becky couldn't do anything, they had paid their rent late for the last seven months and even then it was the most minimal payment. The land lord stopped by after Becky got home for work today and the word 'Eviction' came up. Mark wasn't home yet but Becky had already made up her mind about what she was going do so she packed her bags.
After an hour, Mark walked through the door in a very good mood. Becky smelled marijuana. Becky stared at him grimly.
"Mark, I want a divorce."
Marks smile transformed into a frown. He suddenly turned gruff and mean.
"What?" Becky became aware that Mark was balling up his hands into fists. Something than on very rare occasions she had saw her father do.
"All we do anymore is fight, and we can't make the rent together. I think it's best for both of us."
Becky grabbed her bags and flew out of the door as she dodged the remote that Mark threw across the small room.
Becky cried and cried as she drove to her aunt Jackie's. Dan stood up as she barged through the door and straight into his arms.
Dan knew right away his daughter was crying and hugged her back. "What's wrong Becky?"
"I'm divorcing Mark." Becky said in between sobs. Dan and Jackie and DJ all looked at each other. They weren't surprised by this but this did come as a shock.
Dan embraced his daughter in his fatherly way. "Why, Beck?"
Becky buried her face into her dads' stomach, which she found to be way smaller than she remembered. "I can't do it anymore, dad."
Dan stood there hugging Becky, letting her get over her hysterical crying fit. Eventually she did, and she pulled away from Dan and faced Jackie. "Can I stay here, Aunt Jackie?"
Jackie nodded. "I guess but I don't know where you'll sleep."
That night, Becky became a mother hen to Jerry which Dan didn't mind. He knew that this was probably his daughter's way of coping. Jackie, Dan, DJ and Becky had Chinese for dinner. Like usual Dan had to force himself to eat. It was no wonder he had lost another eight pounds in the last week, he never ate and because of Jerry he hadn't had any time to plant himself in front the TV (Not that he could do that at Jackie's) or even read a newspaper.
Becky went to put Jerry down for the night and Dan followed her. He spoke quietly as she put pajamas on Jerry.
"Hey Beck are you sure you want to divorce Mark? It seemed like things were going good for you two."
Becky turned around to face her dad. "I thought you wanted me to divorce Mark?" She said trying to keep the conversation off of why she wanted a divorce.
Dan cocked his head trying to find the right words in his head. "Yeah I did when you first married him…and when I punched him on Thanksgiving…but I want you to be happier. I can stand you being married to Mark as long as I know you're happy" Dan said as he sat down in the rocking chair.
Becky took Jerry off the changing table and laid him down in the crib and put his blanket over him and then handed him his bottle. Dan reached behind him and dimmed down the lights enough to where Jerry would go to sleep yet he could see Becky. He spoke low, even though Jerry could go to sleep at a Grateful Dead concert.
Becky sat down on Andy's wooden toy box. "I should have listened to you and mom when we were first going out."
Dan sat back letting that sink in. "Listen Beck if you want to get a divorce you should. BUT you should try to talk out your problems first and see if you can fix them. How do you think your mom and I stayed together so well?"
Becky listened to her father. "Dad did you ever think about divorcing mom?"
Dan looked around the room. "Uh yeah and I'm sure she thought about divorcing me…probably more times than I thought about divorcing her…but still. Yeah I did."
Becky looked at her dad whose body was silhouetted from the light in the hall way. "Why didn't you?"
Dan laughed quietly. "I guess because I knew that if I did I'd have to pay alimony and child support. Do you know what the going rate for child support for three kids is these days?" Becky knew that her dad was joking. She walked over to him and lightly punched him in the shoulder, as he laughed and flinched. The two made their way to the living room, where Jackie was playing with toy rings with Andy and DJ was doing homework on the table.
"Hey dad. If you're building a deck and it has to have exactly eight joists and be eight feet long and six feet wide how many two by fours would you need?" DJ asked innocently.
Dan smiled and stared at his oldest son. "You know your sisters have both asked me similar questions before. Hey Becky what was my answer when you asked me about two by fours?"
Becky smiled at DJ. "More than one."
DJ stared at his dad. "Why do I ask you for help with math homework anyway you always give me the wrong answer."
Dan smiled. "I only told you the answer was three that day because you were being rude." Dan explained referring back to the day he helped DJ with his math homework and then was arrested for assault that night.
DJ just stared at his dad.
Later, the whole family decided to go to bed. Jackie went to bed in her bed with Andy next to her, DJ slept in Andy's bed which was actually more comfortable size wise than he expected, Dan slept on the floor next to the couch where Becky slept, and Jerry slept where he always sleeps at Jackie's. In Andy's crib.
Dan laid awake on the floor. Becky turned around and looked down at her dad.
"Want to switch places?" She asked, quietly in complete darkness.
Dan kept his eyes closed as he answered. "No. The couch is too small for my legs it's hurting my knees."
Becky went quiet for a while but then spoke again. "It feels so weird to not be sleeping with Mark. How do you do it every night?"
Dan had a solemn look on his face. He held his arm out held Becky's hand. "I don't. That's my secret."
Becky was sincere and caring when she asked. "Are you okay dad?"
Dan hadn't been looking at Becky as they talked, but now he opened his eyes and moved his head so he could look up and see Becky on the couch.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He said lying through his teeth.
"Dad I know you're lying. You're never happy and it looks like you never eat or sleep. I really miss mom too, but I think that she'd want you to get over her and move with your life."
Dan didn't say anything, but he thought about this. That was a good point. No matter what happened in their lives, Roseanne always acted like they should just accept it and move on to try to live a happy life. Especially when her and Jackie's dad died or when Ed married Crystal.
Dan though about how she tried to get him to accept what happened with his dad and his mom, but it never seemed like he could. His mom was a lot of the reasons he drank.
Dan realized he hadn't said something and that Becky was expecting him too so he replied, "Beck, I love you and your sister and your brothers. You guys make me happy."
Becky gave Dan a look that said she didn't believe him. "You don't look happy."
Dan sighed. "Maybe not. But I do try to be happy."
