Dear Adelaide,

6

I hopped down the stairs after having at last changed out of my night gown. Evelyn was waiting in the kitchen.

"Sorry about all the mud."

"Oh don't worry about it, Dear. I'm glad you were enjoying yourself. Besides it's only dirt." Evelyn beamed as she set a plate of scrambled eggs and sausage out on the table for me. She wore a baby blue house dress that looked like the sort you would see in an old CocaCola ad and her golden hair was done up perfectly in bundled curls. I'd never seen anyone look so nice in the morning.

"Did you sleep well?" She urged.

I thought back to the night before, how the bathroom door had been left hanging open. I nodded slowly. "Yes."

It was then I caught notice of the quizzically large array of bouquets that lined the shelves of the kitchen, the flowers fresh, and more beautiful than any I'd seen in the supermarket. "Those flowers are lovely." I said and Evelyn beamed giddily.

"Oh! I just LOVE flowers! A room is never just perfect without them, I always say! Bernie brings them for me! The bouquets. He grows the most beautiful flowers! Why, he might just bring me a new bouquet everyday! That's the thing with fresh flowers, they just wilt so quickly once they're picked! But Bernie has a green thumb you know! He grows them practically all year round! And he never forgets to bring them for me!"

I smiled at the notion. Perhaps Bernie wasn't as frightening as I'd made him out to be in my head. Perhaps he was just an old man just very particular about his flowers?

"I saw those Purple Crepe Myrtles in the garden."

"Oh did you?! They're the most beautiful things aren't they? I used to sit out there beneath them all the time. Having picnics and the like... They're a perfect place for a picnic you know." She sighed. "Oh...but I don't do that anymore. Arnold says the sun isn't so good for my skin."

As if on cue, Arnold came into the kitchen then, dressed in a button up shirt and a dark blue suit jacket, a tie hanging loose around his neck. Evelyn bopped towards a mug sitting on the counter, placing it in front of him as he stood by the sink.

"Your morning coffee, Dear." She proceeded to take both ends of his tie between her fingers and begin shaping it into place. He writhed backwards as she pulled it a bit too tight.

"Uch!" Arnold made a glottal choking sound and caught his neck in his hands "Uch! Uch! I'm- it's too tight. I'm choking to death! Lo-Losing air! Evelyn! Are you trying to kill me darling?" He choked and coughed as he fought for air, scratching at the tie around his neck.

Evelyn let out a cry and grabbed a hold of his tie, trying desperately to undo it.

"What have you done! Oh! What have you done! I'm choking darling, I'm...I'm near death now I think! No use in trying to save me!" He pulled away from a trembling Evelyn and tugged upwards and stuck his tongue out for a moment and Evelyn jumped back, as distraught as a spooked mouse. "Are you sorry, Darling?" He choked one last time then stopped moving altogether. Evelyn's eyes were welling up. Arnold dropped the act and let out a fool's laugh. "Just a joke. Just a joke."

"Oh." Evelyn pressed the smile back into her face and straightened her spine, primped her hair. "Oh Arnold, you're always joking with me." She laughed teasingly but her small manicured hand was shaking as she laid it on the countertop.

Arnold took a sip of his coffee and let out a yelp. "Ah! Uh! I think you've burned my tongue clean off!" He bent over, writhing in place.

Evelyn was once again set into a panic. "Oh! Arnold dear! I- I let it sit for ten minutes to cool, just like you've asked me!"