Evergreens by Liam Brown

Author:Liam Brown
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2023-05-16T10:49:51+00:00

19

Ben is trying. He’s really trying.

He goes to work. He comes home.

He cooks dinner, cleans dishes, does laundry.

He paints walls, grouts tiles, hangs shelves.

He goes to bed.

He wakes up and does it all over again.

He does this for months. And really – honestly – it’s fine.

Fine.

Life is like a treadmill set to a comfortable speed. No ups or downs. No changes in scenery. Just the same thing day in and day out. Over and over again. One foot in front of the other. Again and again and again.

This is what being an adult is all about, he tells himself.

I am a reliable, responsible married man.

This is my life now.

His job is a breeze. He’s in a new kitchen, a middle-of-the-road pub that serves standard English fare. Steak and kidney pies and bangers and mash. Lamb shanks and stews and ploughman’s lunches. Roast dinners on a Sunday. He can do it in his sleep. It’s busy enough to keep him on his toes, but nothing like some of the relentless conveyor-belt gigs he’s worked in the past. Not only that, but for some reason the head chef has a soft spot for him, and more or less allows him to pick his own shift pattern. As it stands, he only works one weekend in four, a luxury that is practically unheard of in the hospitality industry.

And then there’s the house. Admittedly, he hadn’t been too keen at first. He didn’t fancy rooting themselves to one spot. Or saddling themselves with debt. And he certainly wasn’t interested in the endless hours of DIY that the place would undoubtedly require. Yet after watching a few YouTube videos, he found he could turn his hand to pretty much anything. He’s plastered walls. Plumbed sinks. Fitted windows. While it’s not exactly fun, there’s a certain sense of satisfaction that comes with each task he completes. And there’s no denying it’s helped fill the time. Between work and fixing up the house, whole months have slid by. And isn’t that what being an adult is about, really? Finding something to pass the days without giving him too much time to think?

He goes to bed.

He goes to work.

He comes home.

He could lose decades like this, he thinks. Centuries. There will always be meals to cook. Walls to paint. Rooms to rearrange. And is that so bad, really? Sophie certainly seems content with it. After so many years of squabbling, they have finally arrived at an accord. He can’t remember the last time they argued. And while things aren’t exactly passionate, they keep each other company. In the evenings they watch Netflix. They talk about the news. The weather. The house. They sleep side by side in the same bed. So, this is marriage, he thinks. A comfortable chair. A lukewarm bath. A rerun of a favourite TV show. Who wouldn’t want that?

He goes to bed.

He goes to work.

He comes home.

The only real deviation from his routine are his monthly appointments to the Evergreens clinic. Yet even here, he is a reformed character.

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