Nightmares & Geezenstacks Read Free

dementia, Harry, just amnesia, but worse this time. Fifty years off—his memory is way back before he even married Grandma…”
    Suddenly old, aged fifty years in fifty seconds, he wept silently as he leaned against the door…

NIGHTMARE IN GREEN
    He awoke with full recollection of the decision, the big decision, he had made while lying here trying to go to sleep the night before. The decision that he must hold to without weakening if ever again he was to think of himself as a man, a whole man. He must be firm in demanding that his wife give him a divorce or all was lost and he would never again have the courage. It had been inevitable, he saw now, from the very start of their marriage six years ago, that this turning point, this tide of his affairs, would come.
    To be married to a woman stronger than himself, stronger in every way, was not only intolerable but had been making him progressively more and more a helpless weakling, a hopeless mouse. His wife could, and did, best him at everything. An athlete, she could beat him easily at golf, at tennis, at everything. She could outride him and outhike him; she could drive a car better than he’d ever be able to. Expert at almost everything, she could make a fool of him at bridge or chess, even poker, which she played like a man. Worse, she had gradually taken over the reins of his business and financial affairs and could and did make more money than he had ever made or hoped to make. There was no way in which his ego, what little was left of it, had not been bruised and battered over the years of their marriage.
    Until now, until Laura had come along. Sweet, lovable little Laura who was their house guest this week and who was everything that his wife was not, fragile and dainty, adorably helpless and sweet. He was mad about her and knew that in her lay salvation for him. Married to Laura he could be a man again, and would be. And she would marry him, he felt sure; she had to for she was his only hope. This time he had to win, no matter what his wife said or did.
    He showered and dressed quickly, dreading the coming scene with his wife but eager to get it over with while his courage lasted. He went downstairs and found his wife alone at the breakfast table.
    She looked up as he came in. “Good morning, dear,” she said. “Laura has finished breakfast and gone for a walk. I asked her to, so I could talk to you privately.”
    Good, he thought, sitting down across from her. His wife had seen what had been happening to him and was making things easier by bringing up the subject herself.
    “You see, William,” she said, “I want a divorce. I know this will come as a shock to you, but—Laura and I are in love with each other and are going away together.”

NIGHTMARE IN WHITE
    He awoke suddenly and completely, wondering why he had let himself drop off when he hadn’t meant to, and quickly glanced at the luminous dial of his wrist watch. It gleamed brightly in the otherwise utter darkness and told him that the time was only a few minutes after eleven o’clock. He relaxed; he’d taken only a very brief cat nap. He’d gone to bed here, on this silly sofa, less than half an hour ago. If his wife really was going to come to him, it was too early. She’d have to wait until she was positive that his damned sister was asleep, and sound asleep.
    It was such a ridiculous situation. They’d been married only three weeks, were on their way back home from their honeymoon, and this was the first time he’d slept alone in that time—and all because of his sister Deborah’s absurd insistence that they spend the night in her apartment here on their way back home. Another four hours’ driving would have got them there, but Debbie had insisted and finally carried her point. After all, he’d realized, a night’s continence wouldn’t hurt him, and he had been tired; it would be much better to face his last lap of driving fresh, in the morning.
    Of course Debbie’s apartment had