317 Days Until the Big Five-0

Prompt 2 from the book Branches by Nancy Beckett:

Tell the story of a couple that you have observed together over and over and how you were miffed, intrigued, jealous, or otherwise instructed in the ways of couples. What did they have that they allowed you to see? Tell the story.....


I don’t know if I can write about another couple. I feel like I am invading on some private territory. I view the relationship between two other people as sacrosanct. Talking about someone else’s relationship is like being a peeping tom. I don’t really want to go there. So I struggle with this prompt and then I try and think of fictional couples. Perhaps I could extrapolate on how Ozzie and Harriet, the Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Carol and Mike Brady or Samantha and Darren Stevens figured into my naïve approach on what would be the most important decision I would make in my entire life, the choice of a spouse. Aha, the light bulb went off AND then immediately popped. These fictionally happily married people were as poisonous as the Cinderella Story. No one was going to save me, laugh at how adorable I am when I burn the grilled cheese, or thank me for making their entire existence worth living. No wonder I married so late in life. I bought into all that crap. When the truth is Mike Brady was gay, and I think Darren was too. The ghost never materialized for poor Mrs. Muir and Ozzie and Harriet, well, they were Ozzie and Harriet. Lucy and Desi got divorced, as did Sonny and Cher. See what happens when you try to mix reality with fiction! Lesson learned.