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What would you do?”
    “Stop talking crazy, nothing’s going to happen to you. You’re just still thinking about that nightmare. Hey, do we have any pickles?”
    I reached back in and grabbed the pickles, opened the jar, stuck my fingers in without benefit of a fork and handed the pickle to my husband, who looked at me as if I’d suddenly grown two heads.
    “Are you all right?” Larry asked.
    “Why, because I didn’t use a fork?” I almost smiled at him then.
    “Well, you’re acting funny, like maybe I’ve done something to you. Are you angry with me about something, or are you just angry at men in general because of your friend’s husband?”
    I decided to ignore that question. “I thought I was going to die today.”
    I noticed he took exactly two bites out of the sandwich I had placed in front of him before he acknowledged my statement.
    “You weren’t in another accident, were you?” He perused my body as though it were a legal brief. “Couldn’t have been too bad, you look fine to me.” He dismissed my statement and continued eating.
    His lack of concern only served to irritate me further. “No, I wasn’t in an accident. I was sitting at home wondering what to make for dinner, when this feeling came over me that I had the power to die. All I had to do was will it and it would be so.”
    Larry took a drink of soda and another bite of his sandwich. He had a smile on his face.
    “I don’t think you have any control over when you die, Mick. It’s not in your hands.”
    There now, I’d been firmly put in my place. As an attorney his thinking was practical and analytical and I’d always succumbed. Now I wanted him to listen, to give some credence to my feelings.
    “You’re wrong. I believe we all have that power. I’m sure others have willed themselves to die. I’m telling you, today I had that control. All I had to do was will it. I had to will myself not to.”
    “Then do it now. Let me see.”
    I knew he was teasing me, but he hurt my feelings just the same. “Larry, would you like to know what I really did today?” I asked.
    “I already know. You were with your friend Peaches.”
    “I don’t have a friend named Peaches.”
    “Okay, where were you?”
    He was laughing at me now. “I went to the store and got rained on. Then I met a stranger in the parking lot. I went to a hotel and made love with him.”
    “Oh? And what was this stranger’s name?”
    I looked at him, anger filling me, knowing that he didn’t believe me. “His name is Chance.”
    “And his last name?”
    “I don’t remember.”
    I wasn’t stupid. I was only going so far with this. I knew Larry wouldn’t believe me, but just in case I didn’t want him armed with the information to find my afternoon lover.
    Larry started laughing then. “That’s great. You go to bed with a stranger you met by chance, named Chance. Am I supposed to believe that?”
    Curiosity got the better of me then. Was I so predictable that my husband didn’t believe it was possible for me to commit the act? Did he think no one could possibly want me?
    “Larry, are you laughing because you don’t think another man would find me attractive?”
    “No, honey, I’m talking from twenty-six years on the job experience. You with another man? I don’t think so. And I’m damn sure you wouldn’t go to bed with a stranger. If you don’t want me asking questions about Peaches, just say so, but something so ridiculous I don’t believe.”
    “I told you, I wasn’t with Peaches. In fact, she doesn’t exist. I made her up.”
    “No, I don’t think so. Now that I think about it, I’m sure I’ve met her.”
    “You did not, she doesn’t exist.”
    “Honey, what’s wrong with you? Don’t let your friend’s problem wreck our night. We have a perfect marriage. Be thankful. Don’t try and invent problems. Stop talking crazy.”
    “Why don’t you ever hear me?”
    “Why are you trying to start a fight? I always listen to you.”
    I