The Magic Roundabout: Part IV

It didn’t really hit him right away, but one night it was different.  Maybe it was due to a cold that was beginning to affect him.  Perhaps it was stress from diagnosing a tricky problem on a customer’s car.  Regardless, the moment he stepped through the door to his house, he wasn’t happy. 

Hunger nagged him the whole drive home but there was nothing in the house that he wanted to eat.  He needed to shop for groceries and it was then that it hit him he was truly alone in the house.  He found that whenever he went, he would have to shop for one.  Cooking for two seemed better to Peter and he enjoyed whenever Marie did the cooking.  Now it was all on him. 

Even though he was hungry, he didn’t want to eat.  Was he supposed to go out and buy single serving TV dinners all the time?  Did he make a big pot of chili or stew and freeze the leftovers and eat them over the next month?  Oddly enough, he wasn’t sad that he was alone.  He was angry.  What was it all for anyway?  In a few years, Marie would graduate from college and probably move to the other side of the country and he might be lucky to see her once each year. 

Peter decided to order a pizza to be delivered.  At least now, Marie wasn’t around to bug him about not having sausage and pepperoni his pizza.  He could eat whatever he wanted so he ordered the works.  He had them put everything on it.  That’s the way he liked his pizza.  He would have cold pizza for breakfast.

As he munched his second slice, he thought of Marie and wondered what she was doing.  He smiled inwardly as the thought of a line from Forrest Gump:  “But late at night, I’d think of Jenny.”  So he thought of his daughter, the love of his life.  He wanted to see her and looked forward to the first break she got when she would come home.  Even if she wanted to ride home with someone, he wanted to go get her.  That way he could maximize his time with her.  Peter picked up his phone to call Marie. 

It was decided Peter would drive to get her the following Friday for the weekend.  They agreed on a couple activities when she got home, meals to eat, and a few laps around the roundabout.