If Only You Knew

Sadie has a longing that Burt doesn't understand. 300-word flash

If Only You Knew

Burl looked hurt. “You don’t mean that." Sadie kept silent. He waited for her to agree that she didn’t mean it. She didn’t.
He followed her. “How can you mean that, after all these years? How can you say that you wished we’d never married?”
Sadie opened her mouth. There was no explanation he would buy. Nothing she could say would change things. It was a new year and she was restless.
She went into her office and locked the door. She brought up her diary on her iPad.
“I wish he understood. He hasn’t changed, but I have. I want to be alone a little. I went from living with my family to living with him. I’ve never really been alone.”
Burl sat down in his easy chair and turned on the TV. But he wasn’t paying attention. He was worrying. Wondering what got into his Sadie. He went over the last few weeks.
“I retired last month because I had to. Not knowing what else to do, I hung around home. Being more organized than Sadie, I thought I could help by organizing the kitchen. How was I to know she had her own system? She made me put it back the way it had been!
“Then, I thought I’d help her with household chores. I washed red with white and burnt the dinner bad enough to set off the smoke detector. All she did was point until I left her.
Burl’s thoughts were broken by Sadie coming in to the room.
“Remember how you always said you’d like to take up woodworking? Why not start trying the idea out?”
Burl was up so fast and out the door, Sadie was sure she saw smoke coming off of his heels. She sighed and smiled.