"I bumped into June this morning."

"Oh?" My wife can put an entire sentence into one word. In this case, a three syllable 'oh' ending on a rising note; she was feigning disinterest while prompting me for more.

"Yeah, at the farmer's market. It was just for a moment. She was buying tomatoes for BLT sandwiches." I wasn't sure how much information she was looking for. "She and Brad are going on a river cruise next month."

"Oh." ...a short, two-tone descending 'oh', coming from the back of the throat; translation: 'I'm the one who mentioned river cruises to her. So now she has booked one and I am just hearing about it? Well I could care less.'

"Apparently it was a last minute thing Brad did to surprise her for their forty eighth anniversary."

"Oh." longer, drawn out a bit with a descending tone. I took it to mean she approved of Brad's thoughtfulness.

I was feeling my way here. The ladies had had a bit of a tiff last week when both of them had taken sweet potato casseroles to the ladies club luncheon. June's tureen was emptied and my wife brought half of hers home. Apparently there's an unwritten protocol to these things that I will never understand. I took a breath and continued.

"He got a pretty good deal on it. The sale is still going on. June said we should look into it. "

"Oh." ...short, punchy. But troublesome for me because it was non-committal. I didn't know which way she would go. Oh, well. Confession time.

"I, uh, I booked us on the same cruise. Brad and I did it a couple of weeks ago. Before the, uh..

"Oh, sweetie. What a nice surprise." She gave me a big kiss.

-

"Hey June, it's me. Yeah, He just told me. Yeah. Well, it took them long enough. I was afraid the sale would end before they got the hint. Well, the weather is apt to be cool, so I think I'm gonna take....