{"id":1697,"date":"2012-06-11T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/?p=1697"},"modified":"2022-08-03T13:17:22","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T17:17:22","slug":"the-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/fiction\/the-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"The Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u00a0know there\u2019s going to be a fight before my key\u2019s even in the lock.<\/p>\n

Robert, our one-year old, is crying upstairs. I heard him as soon as I got out the car. When Robert cries, he really cries. And Robert cries a lot. I\u2019ve had a long day. I don\u2019t need this. I get a beer from the fridge, slump on the sofa, flick on the telly to drown out the crying.<\/p>\n

And then she starts.<\/p>\n

“Aren’t you going to see your son? He’s been like this all day. All day! I thought when you got home you might want to help out and give me a break. Please, Bob, I’ve had a whole bloody day of this!”<\/p>\n

Here are my options:<\/p>\n

I can give her the cold, empty glare. Let her know I think she\u2019s pathetic and I will not demean myself by getting involved in such a petty argument. She\u2019ll have nothing to go on; no ammunition to come back with. I call this The Stonewall. She can’t leave Robert crying. She’ll go to him. Leave me to my TV programme and my beer.<\/p>\n

I could rise and go to her. Place my arms around her. “You\u2019ve had a tough day, haven\u2019t you?” I’d say. “Why don’t you go on up and see to Robert and I’ll fix you a nice drink. A large one\u2014gin and tonic, ice and lemon. And then, Bob\u2019s treat, I’ll order us a take-away. No need for you to cook tonight. You need a break, I can see that. You\u2019re tired.” A pat on the bottom to send her on her way. I call this one Mr. Nice Guy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got two kids from my first marriage. Two beautiful girls. I love them. I love Robert too, but it\u2019s different. I never wanted another child. She did. We fought about it. She pleaded, she cried. I gave in. I gave her exactly what she asked for.<\/p>\n

Third option: I turn to her, I don’t get up, but look her full in the face. I twist my mouth up and wag my head side to side with a high, screechy voice. “Aren’t you going to see your son? He’s been like this all day! I thought when you got home you might want to help out and give me a break. Please, Bob, I’ve had a whole bloody day of this!” Then start laughing, because I can\u2019t help it. This one\u2019s the Puerile Rejoinder. It\u2019s the coup de grace.<\/p>\n

But I just turn back to the telly. The door slams and footsteps pound the stairs. Robert’s wailing dies down, then stops altogether. I mute the TV and listen to the muffled sobbing from upstairs, easing back into the sofa and sipping my beer.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve won.<\/p>\n

These days I always do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I\u2019ve got two kids from my first marriage. Two beautiful girls. I love them. I love Robert too, but it\u2019s different. I never wanted another child. She did<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[258,85],"class_list":["post-1697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","tag-disputes","tag-marriages","writer-gc-perry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17693,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697\/revisions\/17693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}