Cards in the Cloak

by Jeremy Bursey

  ***

  Coming home was about as awkward feeling as it had been the last time he’d gone on the McWalter hunt, especially since he’d taken more than double the amount of time he’d promised his wife it would take, which was how much he’d blown it by the last time. And he’d expected the same type of punishment coming home, so he’d ordered dinner at his favorite steakhouse before coming home.

  But Nancy didn’t punish him for his outrageous tardiness outright. She was certainly quick to show her anger through the words she spoke, but her actions were soft. What she did instead was something far worse. She made him a promise of her own.

  “No intimacy for a year,” she said.

  That was all it took for Norman to recognize just how badly he’d blown it. He did think he could get that number down with a lot of work and a lot of kissing her feet. But she was really mad. And she was much better at keeping promises than he was.

  “And if you have the gall to go on this wasteful quest again, you better come home with results, or you won’t get the best of me ever again.”

  He wanted to complain, but he already knew what she was thinking. She said her thoughts out loud anyway.

  “I’ve already got my kids, so it’s no skin off my back to keep the shop closed.”

  Norman couldn’t sleep for the next few days. He really needed to find this jerk McWalter’s family so that he could put all of this nonsense behind him. He was beginning to think that finding the cure for the flu wasn’t worth the punishment.