Marialle phoned me one Friday afternoon towards the end of May in an absolute frenzy of excitement, so excited was she that she had to take the afternoon off work. Well she was officially declared unfit for work by the school nurse, following a ’swoon’ in the staff-room.Marialle swoons where the rest  of  us faint.Anyway,she recounted the lunchtime events to me, which I must admit at times sounded a bit garbled ,such was her level of sheer  joy, and I suspect  a glass or two of Chablis, to aid recovery.

Bart, her loyal other half had phoned her during lunch-time . Now this in itself would be unusual, well , Bart’s not exactly given to phoning his wife –or anyone else for that matter-without good reason. So having got over the initial shock, and taken on board that nothing untoward had happened to Phoenix or Meggie, the latter being their delightful fourteen year old daughter- and I wouldn’t like to suggest that her concern would necessarily be in that order,-she listened to Bart’s request.’ ’Marialle,  darling,  would you like to come and see Chicago with me ? , I’ve got the tickets right here in front of me’’.

‘’What? When?  responded Marialle, in a state of complete shock, I mean you have to understand, here is a man who plans ahead for weeks to go on a day trip, and other than that the only spontaneous journey he’s ever been known to take is to the local Euro Spar, usually for some basic household essential s, like food, which Marialle never gets around to buying.

Anyway, Marialle literally had to be physically supported by her colleagues, who gathered around her, showing normal human curiosity and concern.  ‘’Bart has just asked me to go to Chicago with him, next Friday, wedding anniversary present, I can’t believe it, I’m shocked...oh my goodness...oh dear I feel so shattered’’.Also remember here that ‘feeling shattered’ is a phrase Marialle uses or abuses frequently.In this case it was to indicate how emotionally shocked she felt after hearing Bart’s request, but ‘happy shattered’.

Marialle  went on at some length about the good news ,and would I mind taking Meggie  while she was away ,she had no idea how long she was going to be away just yet..had to wait until Bart got home ,fabulous news , had to pack,what would she wear? don’t forget Meggie’s vitamins, Dolly will mind Phoenix, hair done ,nails, check passport, and on and on and on she went.

I must admit ,I was a bit shocked myself at this turn-up for the books. This was very out of character for Bart. The previous week-end, Marialle and Bart had thrown a huge party  to celebrate their wedding anniversary, well really it would be more accurate to say Marialle threw the party and Bart was there. Bart is not the sort of man inclined towards  social events.

In truth he is, some would say a little odd. I’ve no wish to be unkind here, but some friends and I  have a kind of ‘in-joke ‘ about what substance it would require to unstick Bart’s feet from the coffee table ,in short ,he’s a great advocate of ‘putting the feet up’.His first reponse to any invitation is ‘’Ah,sure I’d rather stay at home and put the feet up’’.

This could be seen as a commendable virtue in a man from the perspective of many women, at least she would know where he is at any given time, even if it is stuck to the coffee table. To poor Marialle, well her perspective is a bit different on this one ,she has even toyed with the idea of donating the coffee table to charity ,just to get rid of it.However,she does realise  that’s not really an option ,it’s a designer coffee table and as she says  ‘’I paid an arm and a leg for it’’, now , I say that’s a heavy price to pay for two feet.

Marialle does not find that remark amusing, at all, at all.

Anyway, back to the party. It was a significant event, at a local level .It didn’t quite make the ‘Tatler’ but it did make the ‘Dunbile Observer’.Marialle was happy with that ,after all she reckons it’s much more important to be recognised at a community level, and it’s ‘’ever so good ‘’ for Bart’s business.

Bart who is a pharmacist   jointly owns and runs the local pharmacy with Jim, his business   partner, a man I might add whom Marialle dislikes enormously ,not least because his wife is ten years younger than she is.Marialle is given to referring to her in very unflattering terms, best not repeated, in the interest of not offending any female dogs and all that, if you know what I mean.

Marialle likes to refer to Bart as a ‘’pharmaceutical giant’’ and reckons that  Jim’s wife or as Marialle calls her ‘’That One’ only married Jim because she was jealous of Marialle,and couldn’t wait to get her hands on the village’s other ‘’pharmaceutical giant’’.Sometimes I do have to bite my lip when she gets going on this topic.

Well the party was going great, the wine flowing, the food,-delivered by the lovely young man from the delicatessen,-was delicious and the craic was mighty  .

At some point in the middle of all this , Marialle decided to  give Bart his anniversary present  ,she had gone to such trouble and expense,why would she waste an opportunity to let the locals see the kind of  ‘class act ‘ she is .She does regard herself as being quite the  connoisseur of ‘good taste’ .So Marialle stops the music ,gets everyone to gather round and hands over the beautifully wrapped gift to Bart, who did look a bit uncomfortable, very much outside his comfort zone,I would say.

Bart opened his gift, as we all looked on, and to lots of oohing and aahing he showed off his  ‘Mont Blanc’ watch.Marialle had surpassed herself on this one. She felt quite chuffed with her choice of gift and the statement it made.

Now it was Bart’s turn, he coyly took a small parcel out of his pocket, oooh! Marialle does like small parcels. Nice jewellry comes in small packets, and boy, did she like nice jewellry. The wrapping she noticed was unimpressive, but sure that’s ok, she opened the gift , her face fell, she almost swooned ,but in the interest of social standing opted not to do so. Inside was a bottle of perfume, she definitely saw a few days before ‘ON SALE’ ...’Half Price’...in Bart’s pharmacy .

Gathering all her decorum, and that wasn’t an easy task, she thanked poor Bart politely and requested that the party continue.

The following morning ,as Bart was coming out of the spare bedroom, he promised Marialle he would make it up to her, soon- and so –that very day ,Bart decided he was going to find out what ‘nice musicals’ might be on in the city. He even drove into town on Friday morning to pick up the two tickets for the musical ‘Chicago ‘ ,rather than risk the disappointment of anything going wrong.

A soon as he got back to his office ,he phoned Marialle and asked her would she go with him, to see ‘Chicago’.

The rest is best left unsaid.