One Chair

She'd suspected what he was doing, though she denied it...to herself and, later, to her friends and family. Still, she'd seen the guilty look on his face if she joined him on the porch when he thought she was busy with the dishes or other chores. After nearly twenty years of marriage, she really wasn't surprised.

She had her chair, he had his, and they'd often sat side by side on the porch on summer evenings and autumn afternoons. After he retired, he began spending more time on the porch. Alone. That's when it started.

Nobody complained; the neighbors just stopped visiting. One afternoon the police came. He denied exposing himself and they left after warning him. They came a second time. And a third. The third time they took him away.

He never touched anybody, never hurt anybody. But a few weeks later the police took him away a second time.

She put his chair on the curb for the trash collectors to cart away. She never sat in her chair again.