The Feast

Photo by Amelie & Niklas Ohlrogge on Unsplash

He sits there at the head of the table, the head of the family, while she fusses over him, her, the body of the family, love dripping from her shining eyes, even though she knows that he’s just come back from the arms of some other woman and that he will be in the arms of yet another one before too long, and we all sit around, all the kids, looking at him with silly happy grins on our faces even though we know, too, we know he will not be here long, he will leave us again, as he always does, but still we smile, all of us, while he’s here, because if we didn’t we’d spoil it, this time together, their time as a couple, man and wife, the only happy time she gets in her life, because it’s time with him, and that’s her only happiness, and her happiness is our happiness, and we want it to last, to keep it going for as long as we can, for her, because she deserves it so much, much more than him, but we can’t do anything about him, what he does or doesn’t do for her, so we have to do it, we have to make her happy, and we do it as much as we can, as often as we can, because when we stop she gets sad and it’s like a knife, the sadness, and the tears are like poison and we can’t stand it and we taste it, too, that bitter, bitter flavour of disappointment and loss and emptiness, we can’t bear it, the taste of her sadness, at any time, and especially not now, not while there is a chance to make her happy for a little while, and so we all smile and gather round the table covered with food that she had to borrow money to buy, and she brings wine bought on tick to the table for him, and we smile and do happy and he carves the bird and dishes it out and we all scoop the vegetables, the ones we never buy, sprouts and parsnips, and the sauces, cranberry and bread, the gravy, buttery mashed and crinkly roasted potatoes, we dollop them on to our plates, mound them, and we giggle and we begin feasting and he says the turkey is dry and we stop and the poison drips from her eye and the bitter, bitter taste fills our mouths.