Flash #5

But what about Charlie? Here's a bit about Ellen's husband.
Word count: 9,514.

Charlie goes to the kitchen and dishes up the end of some kind of casserole. One bite turns him off, not much flavor and the texture was probably better two hours ago. It reminds him of something his mother would have fed him. But he is starving, so he keeps eating.
“Remember when you used to make Shrimp Scampi?” he asks as he crosses through the livingroom.
Ellen looks at him bewildered from the couch. “Yeah,” she says. “What about it?”
Charlie shrugs taking another bite of casserole. “I don’t know,” he tacks on, realizing what had started out as a compliment (Why don’t you cook your great scampi some time?) will most certainly end up in a fight.
He enters the girls’ room and finds Theresa sitting on her bed wearing nothing but Little Mermaid underpants, her hair long and somewhat tangled.
“How’s my big girl?” he asks.
Theresa looks up at him with a serious expression. “Daddy, why is the bad witch in Sleeping Beauty pretty and the one in Wizard of Oz so ugly?” She says it as if Charlie and she had been talking just two minutes ago.
“Um, don’t know,” he answers. “Show me the pretty one.”
Theresa turns her copy of Sleeping Beauty so he can see the picture.
“It says Evil Queen,” Charlie notes, running his finger under the words. “Is she technically a witch?” he asks, taking another bite of casserole.
“Good question,” Theresa says earnestly. “Maybe not. Maybe that’s the difference.” Her eyes stray to the bowl Charlie is holding. “I didn’t like dinner,” she whispers.
Charlie smiles. “Me neither,” he whispers back. “But I’m hungry – and Mommy made it so I’m going to eat it up.”
Theresa nods soberly. “She’s mad at me,” she says.
“Me too,” Charlie concedes.
Theresa sweeps a piece of hair out of her face, closes her eyes and shrugs. It is a carbon copy of an Ellen gesture, and he can’t help but smile at it. An image of Ellen flashes in his mind: standing in front of South Station on a cold night, when he didn’t want her to go home, her hair was long, she kissed him on the cheek and shrugged exactly like that. It had made his heart pound.