Reverend Thornhill’s Wife

Keeping strictly to the early-morning ritual, Diana Thornhill prepared coffee, boiled one egg, and lightly buttered two slices of toast for her husband, then put cereal on for the girls, and went and dressed for the day while they ate. When they were finished, she washed the dishes and put them carefully away. In the usual rush, she saw the twins off to school, putting Lauren’s hair up for her, and nagging Kelly about brushing her teeth thoroughly to get the food particles that had lodged in her braces. All as usual. So much the exact pattern of her mornings. The ordinariness of it made her happy, and it surprised her. It also increased her sense of unreality.

From the doorway, she watched them climb on the bus, hauling their book bags. They waved to her from the windows, as they always did. She waved back, and the motion of her own small hand crossing the plane of her vision seemed to swipe the ordinary feeling away.