A Day in the Life of a Marriage
By Mark Goulston MD
For the next five weeks Couples Company the novella, A day in the Life of a Marriage will be featured. See how much you relate to this scenario. You may be surprised. This story is a compilation of Dr. Mark’s thirty-two years in psychology and marriage counseling and relates to many of the most common feelings, situations and issues present in the modern marriage. Portions of this novella deal with sexuality and this is not recommended for children under the age of eighteen. Parental Guidance is strongly suggested.
Part 1: Revulsion of one once Revered
Midnight: Jane stared into the darkness, her back facing that of her husband John’s, as usual. Two hours earlier she feigned sleep as he tried one of his many routines to turn her on sexually, routines, which in reality usually turned her off. Puzzling to her his idea that pushing his flabby stomach up against her back. Squish squash, if six packs existed, their presence remained unaccountable. Moving about, increasingly amorous though terribly predictable, she next felt a blast of hot moist air enveloping her neck with cigarette laced alcohol marinated breath.
Cringing she muttered as if in her sleep. Further maneuvering, in an attempt to do two things a once, she quietly shuttered at the sliding his hand over the side of her thigh, cresting her hip while pushing aside flannel to reach inside cotton underwear to simply plunge his fingers into her crotch. To her, how could he believe such crass insistence produced anything more tangible than a wish she were dead? Comprehending such lay far beyond her. Sexy, this was not.
Quietly feigning sleep augmented with sleepy mutterings now regularly played into her nighttime ritual. Within a few minutes John took the hint, frustratingly opting to desist. On this occasion as on many, after his clumsy attempts at foreplay received the patent eighty-six, he arose from bed to find solace at his computer, lost for an hour within a world he could control and affect, albeit simply bits and bytes.
Back in bed, Jane fell asleep briefly, awakening upon his return an hour later, though he did not know her status. Within ten minutes, John fell into deep slumber, alternating between raucous snores and periods of breathless silence for what felt like an eternity. Silently, attempting not to move with her hands buried beneath her body in a mummy like stance, Jane willed a sleep, which would not come.
Ironically, now that the treat of his imposing sex on her was over, instead of relief, she felt sick. Though commencing as a dull pain, quickly the dread built to full-fledged nausea. Reviewing the evening’s meals and snacks, nothing she had eaten could cause such discomfort. Since her thirty-fifth birthday three years prior, Jane fastidiously monitored what she ate. Spice foods after 8:30PM were out unless she wanted to be up all night burping up remnants and partially regurgitating garlic up the back of her throat. However, this evening, roasted chicken would hardly cause the nausea she felt.
At thirty-eight, she was too young for menopause. Her cycle assured her this moment of discomfort originated elsewhere than PMS and stress within her life maintained itself at the same steady level, neither over-extended nor placid, simply normal stress. As she thought about the possible causes for her discomfort, she realized the sick feeling began when John had left the bed earlier; now it intensified with his return and quick decent into sleep. Astonished, she realized what the pain was truly about. She was lonely.
Part II: A Day in the Life of a Marriage
The Thoughts Keeping Her Awake
