It’s a wonderful life

Chris and Janice had just sat down to watch a movie like they do every night. Right after they put the kids to sleep, they make a snack and curl up on the couch to watch whatever had come in the mail from netflix. This night it was the 1946 classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring James Stewert.

Janice had fallen asleep while laying in her bathrobe, something she always changed into when she came home from work. After many evenings of wearing it while making dinner and cleaning up after the kids, it had worn though around the butt and elbows and accumulated a patchwork of faded stains. Tonight, it’s tacky surface held on to the popcorn that she had been stuffing into her mouth as she watched the grainy, black and white film. She fell asleep with her hand still in the Orville Redenbacher bag, which was burnt brown on the edges from baking in the microwave for a few minutes too long. Around her neck, laid a necklace of popcorn that had missed her mouth to curl up next to her aged cheeks.



Chris had moved from the couch onto the floor. He wore a white under shirt from earlier in the day, and a pair of boxers. He had woke his wife when he got up to take a leak, and didn’t want to disturb her by trying to curl up next to her again. He lay on his stomach with his face only a few feet away from the screen, much like a young child does when it has the television all to it’s self on a Saturday morning. His eyes were wide and darted around, canvassing everything that happened before them. His mouth was open and his face expressed a type of dumb awe. Suddenly, without warning, he leaped from the floor and landed on his feet with the type of spring he hadn’t had since he was in 10th grade wrestling. His wife awoke, choking briefly on a kernel of corn that sat unfinished in her mouth. “Christopher! What’s wrong?”
“I can do it!” He bleated, completely ignoring Janice’s plea.
“What?”
”I can make a difference!” He whispered, more aloud for effect than to himself. He then darted, still in his t-shirt and boxers, out the front door and into the street.

Janice waited for a while. She put the movie on pause and watched a re-run of “Everybody Loves Raymond” while munching on the cold popcorn. She was still munching, without expression, when Chris came back in the middle of a back-to-back line up of Seinfeld episodes. She looked to him and he looked back, his face graven. He slowly laid back down on his stomach and put his chin in his hands. His ankles raised up and began swinging past each other behind his head. Janice pressed the pause button on the DVD player and the movie resumed where it had left off. She then got up, shook the popcorn off her robe, and walked slowly with swollen feet to the front door. She turned on the porch light and went to bed.