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It was only a wisp,” Marnie said. “But I felt it.”
“A wisp,” her husband said. He’d repeated her word, but his glance was skeptical. “Maybe you could explain further.”
“I’m not sure I can.” She poured them both a cup of coffee, a habit they had in the late afternoons when they returned from jobs. Charles always made the coffee (he got home ten minutes before she did—if she came straight home—but this was Monday and she always did on Mondays) and, if she was there, Marnie poured it. “I was in the faculty room—well, we all were, it was lunchtime—”
“Where’s the sugar?”
She sent him a dark glance and set out the sugar bowl. “So: it was lunchtime and we always all eat in that office. I’d brought a sandwich of those cold cuts you like so much—the deli ham and swiss cheese—and was unwrapping them—”
“Did you like them?”
“What? Like what?”
“The sandwich? You never eat that sort of thing; you generally eat cottage cheese or something, don’t you?”
“Charles! I’m trying to tell you something. It’s important.”
“Ah yes. An important ‘wisp.’”
She paused, stared at him.
He smiled, waved a hand. “Go on. I’ sorry.” Now he leaned forward, too eager.
She ignored that. “Anyway, I heard Kenneth – you know what a snob he is—say something to Charlotte—”
“Remind me who ‘Charlotte’ is. Do I need to know?”
“She’s that new one I told you about—pretty, wants to impress—although she is impressive just doing nothing.”
“Okay.” He drank his coffee, set down his cup. “Are there any of those cookies from the other day still around? The chocolate ones we got at that bakery?”
“I think so.” Marnie searched a cabinet. “Oh! I put them in the fridge. Here they are.”
Charles nodded appreciation, bit into one. “You were saying.”
“Yes—it’s important. Kenneth intimated to Charlotte that I might win the chair election! Kenneth said that!” She watched now as Charles walked around her to get the coffee pot and add hot stuff to his cup. He walked around her again to return the pot. Her head circled with him, right, left. “Don’t you think that’s important?”
“I don’t know why you want it. Don’t you have enough to do with all your papers? What does that involve?”
“More money, for one thing. Acceptance.”
Charles reached for another cookie. “It was a wisp, you say. What was it, exactly?”
“An important wisp! He said to Charlotte that when ‘she’ takes over, things will be saner in our department. Don’t you get it? I’m running against old Jim, who’s been the chair for years. Even Kenneth thinks ‘she.’ Me. Isn’t that great?”
“Great. A great wisp. That’s good, honey. Yes.”