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Cindy relaxed by the pool while Josh smoked cigarettes and tended the grill.
“Hot dogs are almost ready, Cindy.”
She rifled through her magazine. “When are you going to look for a job, Josh?”
“Tomorrow,” he smiled.
Cindy shaded her eyes and stared at him. “After all the time I’ve spent with you, Josh, I’ve come to realize that while empires might rise and fall, tomorrow will never come.”
“Come on, Cindy, that’s hardly fair.” Josh’s cigarette jiggled in his mouth as he spoke.
“I’m starting to lose faith, that’s all.”
“Hey,” Josh brightened, “why don’t we join the church around the corner?”
Cindy threw her magazine on the ground: “Whatever for?”
“So we could be like the neighbors.”
“The neighbors all have jobs, Josh. The bank is about to foreclose on our home.”
Josh took a swig of warm beer. “Take it easy, Cindy, you’re working yourself into a state.”
Cindy was about to respond when a deafening roar shook their home.
“What the heck is that?”
“Wow,” said Jerry, “did you see Kristin’s new Mercedes?”
Cindy rolled her eyes, “Does she have to show off like this?”
“I wish that baby were mine, let me tell you.”
“The girl or the car, Josh?”
“The car, of course. Are you kidding? She looks awful with that overdone breast job.”
“I frankly didn’t notice she even had a breast job,” said Cindy coldly.
“Oh,” Josh shrugged, “I wouldn’t have either, but she stopped by to chat with me the other day when I was doing yard work.”
“You never do yard work, Josh, what are you talking about?”
By now, the odor of charred hot dogs permeated the air.
“Sure I do. You were at work and…”
“And what?”
Kristin’s car roared around the corner again and she waved at Josh. “Yooo Hooo, Honey.”
“Honey?”
“I gotta give it to her; she’s a friendly gal.”
“You betcha.” Cindy stood.
“Where you going?” asked Jerry.
“Inside.”
“Why?”
“I’m cold.”
“It’s 97 degrees out here.”
“Whatever.”
As Cindy slammed the door shut, Josh crushed his cigarette out: “I don’t believe her.”
“Hey there,” called Kristin from the roadside. She’d stopped her car and had unrolled the windows. “Those hot dogs smell awful burned. You want to go get a burger?”
“Sure,” he smiled. “I’ve always wanted to take a ride in ….”
“Get in,” she winked.
# # #
Later that night, Cindy channel-surfed until she fell asleep, while Josh fulfilled his wildest fantasies.
“Tomorrow,” Josh assured her, and Kristin smiled in self-satisfaction, unaware that she could live a full life and die a natural death before tomorrow ever arrived.
Cindy was luckier. She would have no memory of the vivid nightmares she experienced on the night before she awoke to a new tomorrow.
And she would never look back on yesterday again.
