Fire Extinguisher... Magpie Tales#23

Mary quickly drew back from the window in the Card shop as Doris crossed the road. She had that determined look of someone on a mission. Perhaps it wasn’t the card shop she was aiming for, but no the bell pinged as the door opened.

‘Hello my dear, are you hiding from me?’

‘Not at all,’ said Mary as she came from behind the counter. ‘How are you these days Doris?’

‘Well I mustn’t grumble, aches and pains that come with age, you know. But never mind about me, how is your husband, we haven’t seen him at the Writer’s Group for a few weeks now. Not since Willow used a fire extinguisher as a writing prompt. I found it hard myself to come up with an idea of what to write about, but Ted was always one of the first to imagine the most exciting of stories from the most mundane of things. But what could you say about a fire extingisher? It wasn't like your Ted to skip a story because it was too ordinary, he was a very clever writer, I thought.'she added.

‘I think you must be mistaken Ted has been every week since it first started,’ Mary answered. ‘He was one of the founder members.’ And she remembered exactly how Ted looked when he had left for the Writers Group the previous evening, his step had a spring in it as he walked down the front path, turning to wave good bye to her when he reached the gate. In fact, since he had been attending the group, he had almost seemed younger and a lot more attentive to her.

‘I was only saying to Evelyn that it has been awhile since Ted had been at the group and she agreed.’ insisted Doris. And it was Evelyn who remarked that that nice young Lily who wrote the poetry hadn’t attended for a while too. I expect its just coincedence and Ted's lost interest in our little writer's group'

Mary tried to look unruffled, but Doris’s words had stuck home and she knew that the old gossip had deliberately come to tell her about Ted’s absences at the group.
'Yes I think you're right there and he's been to the pub instead waiting for the right moment to tell me,...  and now you’ll have to excuse me Doris I have this card order to finish before I close the shop this evening,’ she said opening the door for her and turning the sign to ‘Closed.’

‘Good bye my dear,’ said Doris, ‘do tell your lovely hubby I was asking about him.’

‘I will, oh yes I will, I most definitely will’ answered Mary as she closed the door. She went into store room and sat down heavily on the chair shaking with anger. She didn’t know what made her more angry, the discovery that her husband was a no good two timer or the way Doris had looked when she was informing her about his non attendance. No wonder he always looked so happy when he was leaving the house on Tuesday evenings, and what about that weekend away last month when he was supposed to be going to a Mills and Boon Writer's Weekend Workshop?
'Very important,' he had said, 'for good male writers to get the women’s angle in stories and what better way than a workshop on writing Romantic Stories.'

Mary felt sick, I ‘ll give him Romantic Stories, she thought. ‘He’ll wish he had never heard of the Writers Group. I expect they all knew about him and that 'Miss.'Isn’t it true the wife is always the last to know.