The Phone Call

I take naps. There's the after morning dog walk nap, the after breakfast nap, and the after lunch nap. Then there's the after the after lunch nap, nap. It was during this nap that the phone rang. The reason I take so many naps is because my naps are constantly being disturbed by people. Usually Mark, and sometimes the telephone, so I take a lot of little naps. This time it was the phone along with Mark yelling that the phone was ringing that woke me up. I grabbed the phone, but when I am awakened it takes my brain a few moments to comprehend things.

"Uh, hello?"

"Hi!"

"Hello?"

"Hi, it's me Al."

"Who? Hello?"

"Al, Al your real estate agent."

"Hello?"

Meanwhile, across the room Mark is screaming at me, "It's Agent Al! What the hell is wrong with you?"

When I finally realized what and who I was talking to, a feeling of dread came over me. There would be no reason for Agent Al to call me unless there was a problem. There was a problem. It seems that the people buying our house, who are foreign nationals, can't bring all the cash into the country that they need to close the deal. They wanted an extension. I mumbled something about getting compensated for that, and hung up the phone as Agent Al was telling me they might walk if I demanded compensation.

I can handle misfortune and things going badly. What I can't handle is things going badly on one hand, and Mark nagging me on the other side. Within minutes I was fully awake and trying to think about what I should do, while across the room Mark is calling me a pussy for letting people walk all over me. I've told him not to do that, but he insists on throwing gasoline on the fire. Over and over I've told him to not talk to me like that, but for some reason it only encourages him to say even more. He knows how to push the right buttons. This time he pushed one button too many and I exploded.

When all the smoke cleared and my angry tirade that included throwing things across the room ended, I had time to reflect on our predicament. I think I have a good solution, but we'll have to wait for the buyers to let me know if they'll go along with it. Meanwhile, I think it would be a good idea for me to go back on my blood pressure medication.