Paris Rebellion: Stephanie's Rise to Joy

"Good God! It's raining again! Just another wonderful thing that I'm going to get blamed for."

The phone rang, and Stephanie answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, honey," her husband replied cheerily. "How are you?"

"I'm okay, but I was just thinking about what I was going to get blamed for next," she sighed. "I hope it's not the leak in the roof again."

"What? How could it be the leak in the roof again? We had that fixed three months ago!" he said with a confused tone of urgency. "That doesn't make any sense; we don't have any leaks in the roof."

She replayed the conversation in her mind. She thought she had been making a joke, but apparently she was mistaken.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she responded sheepishly. "I got mixed up with my art. I was being ironic."

"Did you say 'ironic'?" he asked. "Are you alright? It sounded like you were being sarcastic."

Stephanie didn't know how to respond to that one. She tried her best to think of a witty comeback, but nothing came to mind so she decided to drop the subject entirely.

There was a silence on the other end of the line for a few seconds, then her husband said, "I'll call back later; there's something I need to do before dinner." And then he hung up without saying goodbye. Stephanie wasn't really sure what that meant, but she figured it couldn't be good; no one hangs up on their wife without saying goodbye unless something bad is about to happen or has happened already. So she just brushed off the whole incident and continued working on her painting until her husband called back a couple hours later and they had their usual argumentative conversation:

"Why did you hang up on me earlier?" Stephanie asked with a concerned tone of voice.

Her husband took a deep breath and replied in his most condescending tone of voice possible: "You were being sarcastic, right?"

Stephanie rolled her eyes and said, "Yes; I was being sarcastic because we don't have any leaks in our roof." Then she added angrily, "And if we did have leaks in our roof why would I blame myself? That makes no sense! Why would I get blamed for something someone else broke?" She shook her head in frustration and added sarcastically, "It's not like I can fix anything around this house even if I wanted to." Then she paused briefly and continued with an indignant tone of voice: "And why does everything always have to be about blame?! What about responsibility?!" She paused again for a moment and then said sincerely, "I do my best; sometimes I do things right and sometimes I do things wrong; but it's not my fault that none of these repairs ever get done when they should be done, so why am I getting blamed for everything?! It's like everything is always either my fault or my responsibility!" She paused again for a moment as she tried to regain some composure and then continued calmly: "And who are you to tell me whether or not I'm allowed to take care of my own responsibilities? You're just some guy who thinks he can boss me around like all men think they can boss women around! Well guess what? We're both adults here and we can talk about whatever we want! You can't tell me what to do!" She paused for a moment and then added angrily, "And neither can mom and dad either!" And then she burst into tears.

His response wasn't much better than hers had been earlier, but at least he didn't hang up on her like he had earlier. Instead he took some deep breaths himself and then said calmly:

"Well first of all: yes, you are allowed to take care of your own responsibilities; especially since you never seem to actually do that fact alone proves that you're unwilling or unable to do them yourself." He paused briefly while trying to control his own anger and then continued calmly: "But secondly: we're both adults here too! Doesn't mean we can always talk about whatever we want! Sometimes there are certain things that people just don't talk about! You know perfectly well what those things are!" He paused briefly again while trying hard not to lose his temper before continuing: "And thirdly... *sigh*... Look... Maybe this isn't really worth arguing over..." He paused briefly once more while trying not show his frustration before continuing coolly: "...but I really wish you wouldn't say stuff like that anymore." And then he added quickly before hanging up: "Have fun at school tonight!" And then he hung up without saying goodbye this time. Stephanie wasn't sure what kind of reaction that last comment had caused from him exactly because it was so out of character for him anyway, but whatever it was must've been pretty bad because he didn't even bother saying goodbye this time either; which left Stephanie feeling frustrated by how badly their conversation had gone yet again by the end of the day; so frustrated in fact that she decided not go pick up her daughter from school today because nothing good could possibly come out of it after all this mess today! After all they've both been through together today Stephanie thought maybe it would just be best if they both cooled off a bit before seeing each other again later tonight when Stephanie picked up Gabrielle from school tomorrow instead; maybe things will be better tomorrow night after all Stephanie thought hopefully as she left work early today because only god knows where tomorrow will take them or what kind of mess they'll have gotten themselves into by the time tomorrow rolls around!