The Silent Wife

Natasha keeps Todd busy with errands, shopping, and doctors’ visits. They sign a lease on a two-bedroom apartment. Natasha is impatient for Todd to tell Jodi, but Todd hasn’t made up his mind about leaving her yet, so he hasn’t. Todd is annoyed by what he sees as Natasha’s pushiness and chalks it up to her age and pregnancy. He chooses to believe that, once their child is born, Natasha will show herself to be naturally nurturing; he can easily picture them having several children and a large family, and imagines their future children as quiet, polite, and clean. Despite this image, he still isn’t certain he wants to leave Jodi. They have a lot of good history, and he values the sense of equilibrium she brings to his life after his difficult childhood. He reflects on what it was like to meet her family, which leads him to reminisce about Dean’s family, which had been a refuge from Todd’s more fractious childhood home. To Todd’s eyes, Jodi’s family seemed similarly calm and loving, in spite of the fact that she had difficult relationships with her brothers. A few months after meeting Jodi’s parents, the couple found an apartment together.