The CBB :: View topic - Madge Finds Out

#61: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:51 pm

He's actually a nasty old man really - not bothering to discover why Madge has those symptoms - dismissing her ideas as 'she's decided that she's menopausal now'.

Basically I want someone to come and carry Madge away to a life where she's respected, and I want Jem's member to turn gangrenous and fall off! Twisted Evil

Nice update Cryst - thanks.

#62: Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:54 pm

Lesley wrote:

Basically I want someone to come and carry Madge away to a life where she's respected, and I want Jem's member to turn gangrenous and fall off! Twisted Evil

Well it doesn't seem to serve much of a function does it?! And the member is all he has by way of appendages! He certainly hasn't any b...s!!!

#63: Author: Sam, Location: Essex, UK

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:41 pm

I am enjoying this very much!
Jem really has no idea, does he?

#64: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:03 pm

Thanks, Cryst. I'm not surprised that Madge is angry with Jem.

#65: Author: Cryst,

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:10 pm

Lesley wrote:

and I want Jem's member to turn gangrenous and fall off! Twisted Evil

Now, now Lesley, we need to develop more subtle forms of revenge. Here's the next bit ...

Jem was a little late arriving home that evening due to a minor emergency at the San. By the time he got there Madge was busy getting herself ready to go out for dinner and David was nowhere to be seen, though the little car was still parked by the house. He had decided to make the most of his last afternoon at home, put on his walking boots and take himself off for a long ramble. Madge had offered to phone the restaurant to change the reservation so that he could accompany his parents, but David demurred. “I’d really like to spend some time this afternoon and evening out of doors, Mother, and I can easily fix myself a sandwich or something when I get in. Anyway, you and father have things to talk about, and it would be much better if I wasn’t around for that.”

Madge reluctantly agreed and asked Marie to leave him out a tray for his supper. So presently Madge and Jem set out together for dinner at their favourite romantic restaurant, with a multitude of undiscussed issues bubbling away under the surface. Madge wondering how Jem would take the news of her forthcoming trip to Austria and the appointment she had made with Doctor Schmidt, and determined not to raise the subject of their marital relations herself; Jem with no particular agenda, but intending to steer the conversation away from any exploration of sexual matters; both resolved that their marriage would remain unconsummated for all time; both fearing that the other wanted it otherwise.

#66: Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:23 pm

Lol! What a pair! Madge doesn't know what she's missing, and Jem has forgotten - if he ever knew!
Let's face it celebacy was the done thing when they were young. My parents married in 1947 and were both virgins - at 34 and 42!

#67: Author: Sam, Location: Essex, UK

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 9:58 pm

Isn't the marraige declared not valid if it is unconsummated? Madge should divorce and marry somebody nice, and Jem needs slapping with a larhe smelly trout.

#68: Author: Cryst,

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:58 pm

In the event the dinner went surprisingly well. They were shown to a secluded little corner of the room, and were thus able to converse in private. The food and wine were, as usual, excellent. Their turbulent emotions did not noticeably impair either their appetites or their digestive systems. Madge’s symptoms were mercifully absent that evening, apart from one moderately severe hot flush over the tomato soup. The conversation, it has to be said, was initially somewhat stilted, but nevertheless not completely disastrous.

During the main course Jem reacted rather badly to the news that Madge had, without his knowledge or consent, made an appointment with a doctor unknown to him, but even this exchange could have been worse. Once he had quizzed her rather pompously about Dr Schmidt’s credentials, and realised that David had been assisting her, he backed down. There was a further tricky moment when he offered to accompany Madge, but she was able to persuade him without too much difficulty that with Rosa as a companion she would be quite happy and able to travel alone.

Thus, by the time they reached the dessert, they had more or less resumed their normal, easy camaraderie, with the conversation ranging over their usual comfortable topics of the events of their daily lives, news of family and friends, household management issues, the futures of the children. An unspoken agreement was being gradually being made between them. Their marriage would continue, apart from the cessation of the unnatural night-time activities, as it had for the past thirty years.

It wasn’t until bedtime that anything explicit was said to seal this pact, and it took Madge, in her dressing gown and slippers, and with a generous layer of cold cream on her face, but yet managing to assume the dignity and authority she had learnt from her headmistress years, very few words to do it. “There’s no need for you to get my milk tonight, Jem,” she said coldly. “In future I shall be preparing it myself.”

These few words, spoken calmly but firmly, and with a slight air of condescension and contempt, made more of an impact on Jem than any stream of hysterical insults. They hurt him more than any physical blow. He felt three years old – like an insect, a worm, a naughty middle caught in a childish act of mischief. As Madge sailed regally up the stairs to bed, mug of warm milk in hand, he collapsed into his favourite armchair - his crossword unsullied, his pipe forsaken - and wept.

#69: Author: Sam, Location: Essex, UK

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:05 am

Good for Madge! You are spoiling us with so many updates, Cryst!

#70: Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:23 am

Jem, if I were you, I should move permanently into the garden shed....

#71: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:49 am

Thanks, Cryst. I'm glad that Madge has been able to make Jem feel very x infinity small! I also think that it is a good idea that she prepares her own milk in the future.

#72: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 5:45 am

Well done Madge - and Jem? You deserve it!

Thanks Cryst.

#73: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 7:38 am

Brilliant, Madge!

#74: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 12:12 pm

Thanks, Cryst. Jem is getting what he deserves, which is precisely nothing.

#75: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:43 pm

Caught up at last. Good for Madge, she's back to her old self. It's all a bit of a shame, though. And I don't know about Madge, but I'll certainly never regard my Christmas dinner in the same light again! Shocked

Like everyone else, I love David.

Thanks, Cryst.

#76: Author: Identity Hunt, Location: UK

Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 6:14 am

Oh Cryst, this just gets better and better !
Thank you !

Poor, poor Madge.... I do hope she and Jem manage to get back on track together.

#77: Author: Michelle, Location: Near London

Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 8:45 pm

It's a shame Madge can't end up with David. They're both so lovely. Thank you, Cryst. What wonderful updates!

#78: Author: Cryst,

Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 9:38 pm

Michelle wrote:

It's a shame Madge can't end up with David.

No, no, no ... we're not going there!!

Thanks for all the helpful comments, everyone. We'll be back to Madge's love life later, honestly, but at the moment the action in this universe is in my other drabble which his happening at the same time but in Sarres.

#79: Author: KathrynW, Location: London

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:59 am

Just caught up with all the update Cryst, thank you so much! As brilliant as ever Very Happy

Kathryn

#80: Author: LL, Location: madpanicaaaarghmove, London

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:43 pm

Have just read all of this, huzzah!
Thanks a lot Cryst!

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