Sepia

The picture had been his idea.
She had always hated it.
He seemed to think it the height of sophistication.
To have placed himself and their various pets into a faux ye olde picture and been clever enough to include a reference to the raven.
Which he seemed to think he needed to explain.
"The raven
himself is hoarse ..."
Yes she got the reference.
He had grinned like a boy when he showed it to her.
She had kept her comments to a minimum.
He hadn’t noticed her dislike.
And then he had it framed. And placed it in the hallway.
So that it was always commented on as people entered the house.
But somehow she always seemed to have to answer the questions.
Yes, he made it himself. Yes, those are our dogs. Yes those are our cats.
No, we’ve never had caged birds.
It is a raven.
Yes, that is how we met.
Yes, in his English tutorial.
Why sepia?
That was her least favourite question.
Why indeed?
Sepia.
That which is now faded.
She had a sudden desire to smash it.
In the division of assets there had never been a dispute about the picture.
Of course it was his.

Sepia

But the desire to destroy it now was strong.
Or would leaving it be a better form of revenge?
So that the task of having to answer the questions might now fall to her replacement.
Only she wouldn’t know the answers.
She could not name each one of those departed pets.
She would not get the reference to the raven.
How would she explain the choice of sepia?
Well, it was a long time ago.
A faded memory.
She hadn’t yet become his student.
That was from back then.
When he was still with …
She spied a black marker pen left out to label boxes.
She amended the lettering on the picture.
YOUNG STUDENT FANCIER
She laughed deeply then shut the door.
It would certainly leave them with some new questions to answer.