Based on “Talking To Ourselves” by Phillip Schultz
I acted as if I was talking to myself, but I knew he could hear me.
Passive-aggressively conversing with him, while not actually talking to him.
I spoke loud enough under my breath that he might not even catch every word.
But the tone and the fact that it came on the heels of being snapped at ensured he got the message.
Even though I had stormed off and left the room, he could hear the ranting. I was sure of it.
He tracked me down after that, my trail of pissed-off was not hard to follow.
He surely left his own pissed off trail on the way.
Like Hansel and Gretel, we were heading to a hot oven, the breadcrumbs not serving us as we lost ourselves in the argument.
The apology, followed by “but you …” turned up the heat.
The flames were crackling as we pushed and pulled each other closer to the oven door.
Days later, the temperature cooled down.
We spoke to each other – not to ourselves.
We followed a trail we’d traveled before – not to the hot oven in the woods, but toward understanding and toward each other.
