It wasn’t that Unis didn’t love Mort, that was a given, she had loved Mort since sixth grade. They had been walking home from school, as they had since kindergarten, and had taken a detour to explore a small creek. But above the gargle of the spring waters, came a distressed, high-pitched cheep. Unis couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but Mort went to the featherless robin as if he had radar.
In the moment that Mort gently cupped the tiny bird in his hands, Unis knew that she would love him for the rest of her life. It was just that she hated uncertainty, and sometimes Mort took spontaneous actions that left her feeling like laundry forgotten on a clothesline. It drove her crazy.
And of course Mort loved Unis, it was just that he always felt so rushed (except when he was at the Crawlback Inn) and he didn’t want to make her feel like she was in second place, so declarations and gestures came only when he felt they were appropriate – and that wasn’t very often.
Unis understood this, although it was difficult for her since she had written a paper on poetics in her junior year of high school, and it had led her to a life-long yearning to be swept off her feet.
This longing aside, Unis was not completely surprised to find that Mort’s idea of a Valentine’s Day treat, was to reserve five hours on a motor cycle, with a side-car for her, on the day after she had gone to Larissa’s House of Beauty for a new perm and set.
She could recognize his attempts of romance. But, when it came to their son, she just wished he would put a little more thought into matters of safety and cleanliness.
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