I have been in this hot bedroom beside my wife since about 11 pm. She should have been past out cold, like a freshly, quickly reeled in deep sea fish one tends to snag when the boat captain has all the dodads ands gizmos that tells where the fish are, to the second. Literally!

"Big school" the mic boomed and then squelched. "Drop your lines with a 12 lb. weight for 22 seconds and make sure you yank back hard when you feel tension on your lines. It will feel like something is playing the same guitar strings you are plucking. Happy hunting."

Her new sleeping medication is a tad better than the previous tabs she was prescribed. Perhaps a baseball bat and some swings at softballs into a net or an aerobic bike ride? Sex would be fine with me. Sadly, we are currently in an "asexual" phase and I respect my wife and her wishes implicitly, particularly when it comes to that type of thing. Who wouldn'r?

Right? Right! Right...um...uh...?!

1

1

q

"I know 'who wouldn't', friend."

"What?" I asked my wife. But though not sleeping, she was not awake enough to have uttered any words I noticed immediately.

"I said...'I know who wouldn't, friend'. You had asked, hadn't you?"

I hadn't asked out loud, but this was a voice. At least it sounded like one, outside my own head. So I chanced a reply, "How do you know I'm 'friend'? Seems just as likely not. Specially...when...you're inside my home."

"Are you going to do me harm?" The voice then told me "I know the answer. You're not." then the voice added "...even if you could."

"That sounds pretty dang certain." I declared, even putting in a little laugh; just to let it know it hadn't gotten to me. Even though it definitely had.
It was creepy. A voice answering question that had never lost my vaulted head. Creepy.

"Be that as it may...I am not your problem. Your problem is your wife. Because you let her be." it paused to let the point sink in, "Tell me, what specific malady has been ascribed to her? And not her own self diagnosis or that of one of her thyroided, gall bladdered, syndrome wielding posse. But what actual medical problem require that you be kept at bay. Kept at bay of the primary biological function of the woman's body? And one of your own as well, hmmm?" The voice sounded like a raised eyebrow as it said the last part "How many kids?" I suspected it knew the answer to that already too...