To Protect and Serve Read Online Free PDF Page B

a tossed salad.  Nancy smiled to herself as she hand-shredded the lettuce – imagining each piece was a piece of Jonathon.
                  What the heck, Nancy added a pot of rice.  She supposed that some TV guru would say that she was being “passive-aggressive” but she just didn’t care.  The simple truth was that she and the girls liked rice.  She just never made it for dinner because Jonathon made such a big fuss over the fact that he was allergic to it.  He didn’t swell up or get hives or anything that drastic.  He just had digestion problems.  No one was forcing it down his throat.  He didn’t have to eat the rice. 
                  Nancy set an extra plate at the table.  If the real estate lady showed up during dinner time, she’d probably be hungry.  There was no sense in stopping dinner just for business.
                  At some point while Nancy was cooking, Jonathon must have wandered off to his computer.  It felt good to not feel that she had to answer to him.  There was a kind of freedom in it.
                  In fact, Nancy was feeling so perky that she went into the garage and found an old am/fm radio, brought it into the kitchen and tuned in a 1940’s swing station.  Dinner was easy to cook while humming along with Benny Goodman.
                  The lady showed up, papers in hand, at 7:00 o’clock. 
                  “Please join us for dinner.  There’s plenty.”  Nancy was actually glad to have someone else at the dinner table.
                  To Nancy’s surprise, the woman accepted.  She smiled and said that she hadn’t eaten anything since lunch and was starving.  As the meal progressed, Nancy and the girls had a wonderful conversation with the realtor.  Nancy could tell that Jonathon was becoming disgruntled because they were wasting time with what he called “chitchat.”  And for once, she didn’t try to soothe him.
                  Finally, the real estate lady finished dinner as well as the conversation they were having, and handed Jonathon the papers to sign.
                  “Why are you selling?” the woman said while looking in her briefcase for a pen.  She finally looked up when her question was met
     
    with silence.  She looked over at Nancy.  Nancy was stunned to learn that Jonathon hadn’t said anything to the lady.
                  “We’re getting a divorce.”  Jonathon’s voice seemed almost sincerely sad.  Nancy couldn’t believe that he was trying to make it sound as though this was a mutually agreed upon decision!
                  “Jonathon asked for a divorce a couple of weeks ago.”  Nancy tried to keep her voice neutral.  For some reason it was important to Nancy that it be known that Jonathon had wanted the divorce, not her.
                  The lady paused, looking between Nancy and Jonathon’s faces, trying to decipher the tone of conversation.  Nancy took pity on her and moved along with the papers.
                  The rest of dinner was an odd affair.  The girls became unusually quiet.  No more stories of the exploits of that day graced the dinner table.  Nancy and the woman haltingly discussed the new Mayor and his daughter’s latest escapade with the local authorities.
                  When the front door was finally closed after all papers had been signed in what seemed like ten copies each, Nancy went to the kitchen and started doing dishes after she’d sent the girls off to get ready for bed.
                  Jonathon came into the kitchen as she was loading the dishwasher, and leaned against one of the counters.  She had to move around him to get some of the dirty pots and pans from the stove.
                  He just leaned there, not helping as usual, with his arms crossed.
                  “Do you want to