A Divorced Couple Is Stuck Together [Fictoid]

They hid in the storm cellar when the twister hit, thinking it would be over in minutes.

But the tornado hurled the carcass of a half-ton elk against the grate and cellar door.

“Oh, damn, we’re sealed in,” she said.

They’d agreed to meet one last time to divide the last of the household property including her swivel chair but their intense dislike to one another made the job impossible.

“Can’t we get out?” he asked.

“No, we’re trapped.”

“Typical!  Your fault.”

“My fault?!?!?”

“If only you kept us solvent -- “

“You never contributed to the household finances!  You claimed to be a financial specialist but you lost all our money speculating on raisin bread futures!”

“It…coulda worked,” he said, sounding far less assertive.

She tried the door again.  The dead elk had not decomposed in the interim.

She gritted her teeth.  Don’t let the little poindexter torment you, she told herself.  Figure a way out of this.

“So here we are,” he said at last.

“Here we are.”

“No zest, no pep, no love!”

“You’re the last one to talk about love.”

“I thought we loved each other once.”

“We did,” she said, not unkindly.  “But I intend to live.”

“We’ll both live,” he said.

“Not together.  Not in the same community, not even in the same tribe.”

“Several tribes vie for new members,” he said.  “Perhaps I should join them.”

“Perhaps you should,” she said, imagining her ex-hubby running the gauntlet.

© Buzz Dixon