This was written for my creative writing class. We were given 10 sentences and we had to choose five and include them in a story. The sentences I chose were:

1. It wasn’t snowing but it might have been.

2. Do you know how hard it is to find the centre of gravity in a basset hound.

3. If you had been there I would have told you

4. How many people are interested in Nut Couplets

5. Oh to be seventy again

The Centre of Gravity

By

Nicola Pantazis

Amy sat, arms crossed, turned slightly away from her husband sitting in the chair a few feet away from her. Andy too had his arms crossed and was turned slightly away from his wife. Neither spoke. Neither acknowledged the other.

“This is pointless.” Andy snarled as he glanced at his wife.

“It was your idea, so don’t blame me like you always do.” Amy didn’t even glance at him.

“Well I regret coming here. I don’t always blame you!” He glanced at the marriage counsellor sitting in front of them both. “What does she mean by that?”

The marriage counsellor leant forward in her seat and rested her pencil down on her notepad.

“You need to ask her.” She leant back in her seat and started making more notes.

“What I mean is darling is that you blame me for every single thing that has ever gone wrong in our marriage.” This time Amy glared at Andy.

“I do not!” Andy shrieked.

“Yes you do!” She yelled. “You blamed me for your dumb dog’s accident!”

“It was your fault!” Andy jumped up from his seat in frustration.

“Sit down Andy.” The counsellor instructed him calmly. “Tell me about this incident.”

At first neither Amy nor Andy spoke or even looked at each other. They both knew that they didn’t agree on the events and whoever spoke first would be yelled at by the other.

“Here’s what happened.” Andy gave in. “It wasn’t snowing but it might have been, it was a very icy night. I was working late and Amy was walking our dog Ronny by herself because I was at work. So she takes him into the park and walks him around and decides to take Ronny down these stone steps so they could walk by the pond. Now Ronny can’t walk down these steps on his own so Amy picked him up and as they walk she decides to drop him and he breaks his back leg.” Andy laughed. “How hard is it to carry a dog?”

“Do you know how hard it is to find the centre of gravity in a basset hound?” Amy glowered over at her husband.

“Do you remember how much we had to fork out in vet bills?” Andy held up three fingers to prompt her memory.

“Amy what do you remember about that accident?” The counsellor asked.

“I remember everything about that accident as I was there unlike someone.” She pointed to her husband. “I had been working hard all day at the office; it was a particular tough day full of paperwork and horrible clients. When I arrived home I was looking forward to a nice, quiet night in with my husband, but there was a message on the answering machine saying he was going to be working late into the night and to not wait up for him, the message also reminded me to feed and take Ronny out for his nightly walk. So I walked the dog through the park and I felt like walking by the lake, so I picked Ronny up because I know he isn’t able to walk down them on his own. As I start walking Ronny starts barking at something, moving and fidgeting, so naturally like anyone else would, I lost my balance and I fell down while still trying to hold the stupid dog.” Amy finishes telling her side of what happened and then crosses her arms.

The whole room is silent. Neither Andy nor Amy looks at each other and even though the counsellor knows that they need to keep talking to each other, she also recognises what type of silence this is. As she expects, Andy is the one to break the silence.

“You fell as well?” He looked over at his wife for the first time this session without any form of rage in his eyes.

“If you had been there I would have told you, you would have seen what actually happened, but you assumed that I had just dropped him for no reason.” Amy glanced over at him but didn’t’t keep eye contact and soon her gaze was on the floor.

“I’m sorry.” As Amy looked up at her husband to conform she had heard what he said right, he looked down ashamed.

The counsellor remained quiet as she let what the couple had achieved settle in.

“We have about fifteen minutes left of this session. Is there anything else either of you would like to talk about?” The counsellor turned to a new page in her notebook.

“No I think that was pretty much what all of our problems were about.” Andy made a move to stand up.

“Actually, there is another problem I would like to talk about.” Andy sat back down at his wife’s statement. “He never takes any interests in my hobbies!” Amy declared.

“How many people are interested in Nut Couplets?” Andy asked the counsellor.

“Your wife seems to be.” The counsellor stated.

“Oh to be seventy again and have an interest in Nut Couplets. Well she doesn’t’t take any interests in my hobbies so I guess we’re even.” Andy crossed his arms.

“I do show interests!” Amy defended. “I went to that antique car show with you; I go to all the football matches you go to and I even went to that convention so you could meet a guy dressed as Spiderman!”

“Those are normal interests.” Andy looked towards the counsellor for affirmation.

“Spiderman?” The counsellor shook her head. “It seems to me that you just both need to talk more about any situations which may be misunderstood and for Andy to show much more interest in Amy’s hobbies and activities.” The counsellor looked at the clock. “Well our time is up, see you both next week.”

The couple stood and left the room, not looking very happy and not holding hands. The counsellor put the notes that had been made in this session in the couples file.

“I wonder what Nut Couplets are.”

THE END