A Lack of Communication

I was having breakfast down at the cafe this morning. Actually, I was sitting around with my third cup of coffee, I had finished my ham and eggs about an hour earlier. Hembert Hanks came up to me and asked to borrow five dollars since he had left his wallet at home. I was getting it out of my pocket, but he held my arm back wanting to explain why he was having to borrow from me. It seems his wife was at home but would not answer the phone since she was mad at him. He said he had said something last week that got her upset. I told him that was an easy one, all he had to do was apologize and it would be over in a day or so. He said the problem was he had no idea what he had said and she wouldn't tell him. He said he had been sleeping in the guest bedroom and watching television down in a basement room where the pool table was set up. His wife, Maydeen, wasn't cooking or washing his clothes and he was at his wit's end trying to figure out what to do. I recommended he give her a generic apology with the hope that she would give him a hint about the supposed insult to her. This afternoon he came down to the lake where I was doing a little fishing and told me it worked. He had told her she was right to be upset with him and what he said to her was real insensitive and down right cruel. Maydeen looked him right in the eye and said, "You just don't know how deep a cut can go when I stand in front of a hot stove and fry and steam and bake and you say my food is pretty good." And Hembert being a fairly smart fellow looked her right in the eye and spoke in a voice as soft and sweet as when he asked her to marry him. He said, "I am so sorry. What I meant to say was the meal was good and it was pretty too. I just forgot and left the and out." He said she bought it.