Signal Loss

The cable modem had been blinking for three days. Marcus stared at the erratic lights from the kitchen doorway, wondering if the intermittent connection was some kind of cosmic metaphor for his marriage. Elena hadn't spoken more than twenty words to him since Tuesday, and even those had been functional—pass the salt, did you pay the electric bill, the spinach is going bad.

He moved to the refrigerator, pulling out the forgotten bag of spinach. It was slimy at the edges, wilting like something that had given up. Just like them, he thought, then hated himself for the cliché. His therapist kept telling him to avoid narratives, to see things clearly instead of through the lens of his own misery. But the spinach was undeniably rotting, and Elena was undeniably sleeping in the guest room.

The cat, Barnaby, wound through his legs, purring with an enthusiasm that felt almost mocking. Barnaby didn't care about marital estrangement or professional failures. He cared about dinner and sunny patches and the occasional mouse that made it into their duplex. Marcus reached down to stroke his head, and the cat leaned into the touch, eyes closing in bliss.

"At least someone still likes me," Marcus said softly.

Elena appeared in the doorway, looking exhausted in that way she'd been looking lately—like she was carrying something heavy that he couldn't see. "Did you call about the cable?"

"I will tomorrow."

"Okay." She paused, her hand resting on the doorframe. "I'm going to bed. Early day tomorrow."

"Right."

She left without another word. Marcus stood alone in the kitchen, the spinach still in his hand, Barnaby still weaving around his ankles. The modem's lights flickered in the other room, searching for a signal that kept disappearing.

He put the spinach in the compost bucket, washed his hands, and turned off the kitchen light. Some connections could be restored with a service call. Others were more complicated. Barnaby followed him down the hall, tail high, demanding nothing except presence, which was, Marcus realized as he climbed into his empty bed, exactly what Elena had been asking for all along.