Pre-Willy

'Joseph,' she whispered. 'Joseph, wake up.' She shook him a bit until finally his watery eyes parted. 'Are you awake?' she hissed.

'Now I am. What time is it,' he mumbled.

'Just after eleven,' she replied.

'A.M. or P.M.?'

'A.M. Joseph, don’t ask such stupid questions.'

I’ll ask anything…'

'Shh', she cut him off. 'You’ll wake them,' she pointed to the two people in front of them.

'So? We sleep with them,' he grumbled.

She shrugged. 'Joseph, I want to go somewhere; just with you.'

'Where?' he inquired impatiently.

'I don’t know,' she said. 'To the market for a bite to eat. To a show. To anywhere you want. But somewhere without them,' she pointed at the pair with renewed contempt.

'Why?' he asked.

'Because it’s been such a long time and because every time we’ve tried to involve them, we end up doing nothing. I’m just so tired of sitting here in this room watching television and knitting.'

'They’re not so bad; we should ask them to go with us.'

'Oh, Joseph, we go through this all the time,' she argued. 'They’re dead weight. We need to come up with our own plan. Let’s just go somewhere.' She spoke the final word more loudly than she wanted.

The other two woke with a start. 'What’s all this racket?' George demanded. 'We’re trying to get some sleep.'

'Sorry, George, we were just discussing something,' Joseph’s wife replied.

'No doubt about going somewhere without us,' he replied.

'Joseph,' his wife snorted, 'how could you tell them about our plans?'

'What plans? I didn't tell them them anything.'

'Our plans to go somewhere!' she yelled.

George interjected, 'If you want to go somewhere, then go; we’re not stopping you.'

'Now, the whole plan’s ruined,' she frowned.

'Where’s our daughter?' asked George’s wife. 'Where’s our breakfast?'

'Oh, put a sock in it,' George yelled; 'don’t be ungrateful.'

'If you want it bad enough, go make it yourself.'

George's wife looked shocked at such an insulting suggestion. 'Hmph,' she managed, before rolling over and pulling the sheets over her head.

'She said she only had a few loads this morning,' Joseph chimed in.

'Then, I guess we’re not going anywhere if we have to wait for her to return,' Joseph’s wife scowled.

'Where would we go anyway?' Joseph asked again.

'Somewhere!' she yelled before grabbing her knitting and propping herself against her pillow.

A young blonde-haired boy of no more than 10 entered through the door of the lackluster shack. 'Hi Grandma Georgina, Grandpa George, Grandma Josephine, Grandpa Joe.'