Finally, Lenny was going on a holiday. It was a respite for her—a flying away, although temporarily, from all the hard realities of mundane mortal life. She had a life that had nothing surprising, a life exhausted, dead and dry due to over use. A lot of people travel to forget the slippery daily routine business, there isn’t anything bad about that. Lenny was suffocating; she wanted to run away to a beautiful lush green meadow, flooded with colorful flowers, a blue sky stretching above, streaks of white clouds spattered here and there. Lenny wanted to be free, she didn’t want to be a super woman and fly or something, she just needed a holiday which, Bob, her husband couldn’t manage. Bob hated travelling, he was more a recluse, and may be he had xenophobia, at least Lenny thought that. But that didn’t matter, what mattered was Lenny had to listen to everything that Bob said. Yeah, it is all right since Bob was the earning member of the family, but then Lenny had her needs too. Bob never thought about that, he never did. Lenny was unhappy to such an extent that he had actually scored three out of ten in a Cosmo quiz of ‘how spontaneous your relationship is?”

Lenny often thought what the problem was, but never came up with any conclusion. They had been married for ten years now; they still slept together and watched the same show on TV. Apparently, there wasn’t any problem. It’s just that the distance between them had increased like the space in between in bed. But they never talked about it. Lenny felt the pressure in her nerves and thought like a poet that in our designated island of life, we mortal millions live alone. She wondered how the poets in this world survive; I mean keeping in mind everything is so un-poetic around us. After much thought she felt she had changed, that she wasn’t the pretty blonde Bob had once married. But then, she thought it over and realized that she hadn’t actually changed, she had just stopped being Her anymore. The old Lenny had her dreams of a happy future, this one didn’t dream, and even if she dreamt, it would be a nightmare or something bad.

Bob had his likes and dislikes. Being opinionated actually helps at work but not so much at home. Lenny never liked to fight with him for that. So, they rarely boggled each other for anything. A time came when they hardly talked to each other, except the lame “yes” and “no’s.” Lenny was so abstracted by thoughts of her life, that her cooking had become a slapdash business with often inedible results. She didn’t want a divorce because she had no reasons to get one. Bob gave her a piece of jewelry with a kiss religiously on their anniversary every year. What more do you need? Especially when your husband is a Wall Street employee. Well, if you ask for more then I must say that Sex and the City and Carrie have spoiled you. Soaps have undesirable effects on women, Lenny actually thought about the essence of relationships after she began watching Sex and the City. Are relationships not the canons of a polite society? If so, then you mustn’t question them. But rules never stopped Lenny from discovering on one afternoon that she and Bob aren’t soul mates and that they had no attachments, what so ever. It was a massive discovery for a thirty something woman who had recently learned to think.

Lenny cleared her throat and rehearsed the dialogue again, “I want to go on a summer trip, Bob” she said over dinner.

Bob looked up from his plate and thought god she spoiled my steak, I hate it. “Where do you want to go?” he asked while he tore a piece of meat with his fork.