Quiz

The day had been totally disjointed. Their usual, comfortable routine had been ever so slightly nudged out of its expected rut. There is laziness in knowing what the day brings, a conservation of effort that lulls and threatens to dull. 

The first hint of the way their day would go was the early morning cup of tea. They had coffee instead. This wasn’t a whim it was a practical solution to the discovery that there was only one tea bag left. Rather than face a negotiation so early in the day it was simpler for both of them to have coffee. The lonely teabag, still in its jar, was left untouched.

Because they had coffee, only one instead of the usual two cups of tea each, breakfast came around much sooner. The paper wasn’t finished and the quiz, usually completed over the second cup of tea, was left beckoning. Breakfast, being earlier, turned into full on bacon and eggs instead of laidback toast and marmalade. Bacon and eggs require serious skills, cutlery and concentration so still the quiz remained to be done. 

It was morning coffee before they sat down to do the quiz and as they did so their neighbour, who they see only twice a year, appeared. She came in to share their morning coffee and a long overdue catch up followed. They could have done the quiz with her but that is not how it works; it is their thing to do, their quiet challenge against the world and each other, it’s private.

By the time the neighbour left their dog was looking rather circumspect about the delay to his morning walk. They headed off, dog in tow, knowing that lunch would be late because of it. When they returned they were ravenous and sat down to a substantial spread that took considerable effort to prepare and devotion to eat. Not just their usual cheese and biscuits consumed absentmindedly.

Afterwards, as a result of the grand afternoon, they both end up had an afternoon rest. Siesta they preferred to think of it as, very civilised, lets you enjoy the evening. They catnap for much longer than intended and spend the time before dinner rushing to get the vegetable garden watered, the washing brought in, the rubbish put out. It was a veritable panic. No time for the quiz.

With all the chores done some reward and refreshment was needed before contemplating dinner. Wine glasses were filled, chairs arranged on the deck and conversation was well underway when the quiz was remembered.  But the paper was inside on the kitchen table; it could wait until after dinner. 

The evening weather was seductive and they lingered on the deck, pecking at the cheese and biscuits that they would have ordinarily had for lunch. When they went in to concoct dinner they were surprised at the time. Their usual pre dinner television shows were long over so, having decided on a simple salad, they toiled together in the kitchen, still sipping their wine and chatting. The intended roast dinner would wait until tomorrow night. 

They usually had a cup of tea after dinner but, well, they opened another bottle of wine. They settled in to watch a movie instead of going to bed, feeling a little naughty. Their dog took himself off alone to bed, forsaken.

The quiz still sat on the kitchen table, waiting. 

Next morning there was still only one tea bag. This time a quick trip to the local shop was made before the day properly started. Over their second cup of tea, one of them smiling and the other sitting in barely contained silence, they prepared to divide up that days’ freshly delivered morning paper. Then they remembered the forgotten quiz from the day before. 

Hastily yesterdays’ paper was retrieved and the ritual begun. But yesterdays’ quiz turned out to be different, the questions where phrased strangely. In particular the last question was a complete departure from the customary who, what, when or where. When he read it out she looked up, not believing what she had heard. He read it out again.

‘What is the answer to the question formed from the first letters in each of the preceding questions?’

She laughed. Then, with her looking over his shoulder, they worked it out.

‘ I love you will you marry me?’ They said slowly and in unison.

Astounded that their ritual had been hijacked, they quickly picked up that mornings paper again. They sat side by side to share the answer, equally intrigued and inexplicably nervous. 

The quizmaster had her answer and as they both read it they knew they had theirs too.