Beginnings and Endings

              Jack showed up on Sunday afternoon.   He muttered a vague greeting, then dropped down onto the couch.  “I was listening to the game on the radio,” he said.  “We are so hosed.”

              “Yeah.”

              “Got any beer?”

              “In the fridge.”

             Jack went into the kitchen.  When he came back he was carrying a beer in one hand, and the bag of Doritos Jonah had just bought in his other.  He opened the bag and set it on the table, so that it was within easy reaching distance of Jonah’s chair.  “This flavor is pretty good,” Jack said, crunching hard on a sample chip.  “Cool Ranch, huh?  I’ve never tried it before.”

            “It’s been out for a while now.”

            “No kidding?  Guess I’m pretty clueless when it comes to new trends in snack products.”

“There are worse things to be clueless about.”

“Yeah, like stats.  My fantasy football team is getting crushed this year.  I just haven’t had time to keep up, you know?”

“My team is pretty hopeless, too.  I'm in last place at work.”

“Your team is always hopeless,” Jack answered, grinning.  “But that reminds me—you wanna go bowling this Saturday night?”

            “I thought Kelly didn't like you to go out on weekend nights.”

            “Oh.  Yeah.  Well, she moved out.”

            Jonah tore his eye away from the T.V.  “She did?”

            “Yeah.  Yesterday.  She said she was just waiting until Mom died.”  Not looking at Jonah, Jack grabbed another handful of chips.  “She said I wasn't ‘emotionally available,’ or some bull shit like that, but I don’t know what she’s talking about.  I was home every single night, just about, and, I mean, I wasn’t going to give up poker night.  It was only once a month, for christ’s sake.”

            “Wow.”

            “Yeah.”

            “Well, you’ll find someone else.  You always do, right?”

“Not this time.   That’s it for me.  I give up.  Three strikes and you’re out.  I know I wasn't married to Sheila, but close enough.  I’ll never understand women.  They could be locked up in a room and studied for a thousand years by the world’s leading scientists and we still would never understand them.”

             “I don’t know…”  Jonah stared hard at the T.V. screen.  Thinking of Deb, he said, “I don’t think they’re all that different from us.”

             “Maybe not,” Jack answered; suddenly he sounded very, very tired.  “But if that’s true, it means we just aren't marriage material.  You and me, I mean.”  Jack shot Jonah an uncomfortable glance before he took a swig of his beer and pointed at the T.V.  “Look at that moron,” he said.  “A loss of two yards, when there was a huge hole right up the middle.  The Heisman curse strikes again.”