It was all dark. Baron's purple and lifeless, yet mobile hands crept up Norma's chest as it softly rose and fell with her sleeping breaths. Like a slithering snake they crawled, inching up to her exposed neck. They grabbed hold of her with ferocity.

Norma startled awake. The sun spilled through their lavender laced curtains. Her hands groped frantically, but there was only air to grab around her throat. Calm, safe air. Baron snorted beside her and rolled onto his back. His crooked nose pointed toward the ceiling. She remembered the day it had been broken. Not by her, of course, but by some father of an ex-girlfriend. He had bumped into Bear at the flower shop long after he and that girl had split and he'd gotten with Norma, he told her, and the old coot had gave Baron a good one to go on. He'd come home with blood all down his shirt.

Norma had felt bad for him. She hated that old man that did that to her sweetheart. Back then she had no clue what Baron was really like. She didn't know that he probably deserved it. Lately, she was feeling more and more like Bear deserved it.

But to think that way was bad, her more rational side reminded her. Things are really getting crazy out there and she needed a tough, strong man to keep her safe. Wasn't he always telling her that? If something happened to him now, she'd be all alone.

He snorted once more, much louder this time, and it shocked her. She waited for another breath to come. A beat passed, then another. Norma started to panic. Her heart started to climb it's way into her throat. He still hadn't breathed.

"The hell you looking at, woman?" Baron grumbled.

"You're awake," Norma acknowledged with a sigh of relief.

"No durr," he taunted. "You think I could keep sleeping with you burning a hole in me like that?"

"I was just..." She started to say she was worried, but it would make her sound too paranoid. Or he could twist it into her sounding like she wanted something to happen. Secretly, maybe she kind of did. He would pummel her good if he even thought that. She settled on something safe. "Wondering what you wanted for breakfast."

"I don't much give two shits, Norma," he said eying her beneath his arm as it rested across his forehead. "My heads pounding like a jackhammer. Get me some pills."

She went into the master bath and pulled two Tylenol out of the medicine cabinet. She closed the swinging door and glimpsed into the mirror. Her eyes were almost black, she'd slept so horribly. Her hair was faded from its usual vibrant red to a brassy tone. Her face looked a bit swollen and a lot sad. She set the pills aside and splashed some cold water on her face before filling a cup to take to Baron. Once he swallowed them down, she took the cup.

"I'll get started," she said. "Bacon, gravy, and biscuits."

He stood up and waved her away. "Then stop talking and start doing. Have it on the table when I get out of the shower. I smell like a fucking sewer rat. Clean the sheets while you're at it."

Norma waited until he disappeared into the master bath and ripped the sheets from the bed, imagining all the while that she could wrap him up in them and throw him in the washing machine. Maybe the bumping around would teach him a thing or two about what it's like to be Norma.

She sighed and went into the laundry room, tossed the sheets in the washer, and started breakfast. It was done by the time Baron came to the table, although she had cut it close. It wasn't as if she were magic and could will the food into being done at the drop of a dime. It had to cook on its own time, but you just can't tell someone like Baron so.

Some of the normal breakfast talk never happened at the Decker table. Something as simple as "How was your night?" could be turned into an hour long rant about Norma questioning him and he's a man, he has a right to do what he pleases.

So she ate quietly and waited for him to speak first.

"What you looking so down for?" Baron asked.

Oh, no, Norma thought, here it goes.

"You not happy with me, Norma?" he pressed.

"I'm happy, Bear," she said. No, I'm not. I haven't been for a while. She almost gasped at the blunt thought. If he could read her mind she'd be done for.

"Damn right you're happy. You're warm aren't ya? Fed aren't ya? Safe."

"I sure am," she said. Safe is such a subjective word for her. She was safe from out there, but she wasn't really safe in here. Yet she knew what was expected of her.

"You could be missing like them other girls, didn't have no man like me looking out for 'em."

Norma's food had gone tasteless. The gravy lost its flavor like a stick of gum, quickly and without warning. It was just bursting with taste and then it wasn't, as if an invisible magician had stolen it all away. That magician's name was Threats. Her eyes flitted over to the fliers. Rested a moment on Harriet's young smiling face.

"But you ain't, because you got me. And you won't be, because you'll have me, even though you still don't make the biscuits how I like 'em even after twenty-some damn years!" His voice rose out from nowhere. It was normal and then big enough to fill a stadium by the end of his last sentence. She hadn't seen his point going in this direction.

"I'm sorry," she said, almost pleaded. "I left them in a little longer how you like..."

"Too long, Norma, how many times do I have to tell you?" He groaned. "You're so incompetent, I wonder why I waste time on you. There are so many other women could be where you're at, so many other women would like to make my damn biscuits how I like 'em." He flung the plate into the wall. "I'll be in for lunch. Fix it right or I'll start thinking about getting me another one that can do it right."

As Baron went off to work, Norma thought she might like it if he actually did. Then she felt bad, because she wouldn't want anyone else to have to deal with his crap either.