Alexander Jankiewicz
Superior, Wisconsin, USA

Nothing Is Lost

I've never really believed in making New Year's resolutions. But in order to make her happy, I agree. After a moment of pretending, I tell my wife I've made one and then ask if she's satisfied. She says she doesn't know yet and then asks if I'm going to finally quit smoking.

"Um . . ." This is all I can muster, even though I already knew that was where she was going. Again.

"You didn't really make a resolution just now, did you?" she asks in an impatient tone.

"Well . . ." The thought enters my mind that I should get some kind of credit for at least pretending.

"You jerk," she says as she gets up to leave the room.

"My momma didn’t raise me to be a quitter," I say loud enough for her to hear. I heard this said somewhere before and thought it was funny. But my attempt at humor clearly fails.

"Jerk!" I can sense she's definitely not happy as she shouts back from the kitchen.

I then yell out, "That’s okay. I still love you." I learned from our young daughter that this can be a very effective thing to say when trying to diffuse a stressful situation with my wife.

"Jerk!" is all I hear in return. For some reason, it's much more effective when my daughter says it.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, my daughter says, "No, Daddy, like this—'That's okay, Mommy, I still love you!'"

My wife walks back into the room. We both look at our daughter. My wife then grins at me and says, "But you're still a jerk."

missing pieces
scattered throughout the house
come together
in our daughter's smile—
a portrait puzzle complete