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Bedroom Voice

I have known S for a little over a year now. While that is enough time to form some impressions it is not nearly enough to know anyone with any degree of clarity. S is an over-achiever, a new mother, a corporate climber and a nagging know-it-all. Her denouncements can be as scathing as her praise can be over-the-top. She has a big voice and a bigger personality. With a combination like that, S is a not too easy to get along with and I have found it best to keep myself at safe distance. This is her public face.

Then there is the one she shows when her husband calls her and that can be upwards of ten times in a day. No matter what her frame of mind, or the external circumstances at the time of the call, she will answer his call in what can only be described as a bedroom voice. The conversation goes on for a few minutes each time and she snaps right back into Virago mode after she is done.

We have always watched this transformation back and forth with complete amazement. The less subtle among us have looked at her with open-jawed astonishment. We wonder why she would not get some privacy if she needed to whisper that low and in that suggestive tone of voice. The majority of folks in our vicinity are married or in relationships for various lengths of time. They too have their spouses and significant others calling every once in a while but S is the only one who responds to these calls in the very special the way she does.

We go through our life gathering experiences along the way, some of us having the opportunity to see a lot more than the others. Yet in all of our collective knowledge of the ways of the world, S is clearly a lesson we have yet to learn. We look away from her and at each other, uncomfortably, as she engages in her "quickie" bedroom-voice conversations - it is like being a voyeur except it is not of our own free will. We have no idea how to deal with our discomfort and can't imagine why she would feel none whatsoever.
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Anonymous said…
Absolutely love your writing style. And the story is very funny. I shared in your awkwardness. Good luck with S!
11:58 AM
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