“Mary? Could you get me some more coffee?”
She gets up and goes over to the counter. Pours him his 3rd cup and it’s only 8 AM. She returns, sits and lights a menthol light.
“What’s on the agenda today old man?”
“Well,” he takes a drag of Pell Mell, “I’m going to crush those last bit of cans and take them to Benton to get some money.”
“Do you want me to go with you or are you taking Jason?” Exhaling a puff a smoke she looked up to watch it dissipate.
“Yea, guess I will take him.” He took a sip of his hot coffee.
“What you going to do when you get back?”
“I need to fix the flat on the old Dodge.”
“I need to go to the grocery store and pick up some milk.” She stubbed out her cigarette her personal pink ashtray. “Will you be here for lunch?”
“Should be.” He crushed his filter-less cigarette in his blue ashtray stained with black marks.
“Jeez, your going to let that coffee get cold. Wake up, Ira.” She tapped his shoulder before taking a sip of her coffee.
“Mary, I want pork chops tonight. I’ll get a package out of the deep freezer in the barn before I go so it’ll be thawed out for supper. You know what?” He lit another cigarette. “We never go out to eat anymore.”
“Yea, I know. That’s because we can’t afford it.”
“Well, we could save some money if you’d get the cable turned off.”
“Ira?” She stared him down. She put her cigarette out. “Now you know you can’t go without watching the news every night.” She scolded.