Paper Example Mary Maloney's Thursday: Waiting for Husband, Patience Rewarded

Mary Maloney had been patiently waiting for her husband, a police officer. Finally, he arrived, Patrick Maloney. "Hullo darling," Mary says. The husband responds, "Hullo darling.” (Dahl 2012). Mary prepared a drink for him, which he silently took. Patrick later made the second round of the drink stronger. The day was on a Thursday, and it was the day which the couple usually went out for dinner in the evening. But on that fateful day, Mary recognized that Patrick was too tired. "Tired darling," Mary asks, "yes I'm tired," he responds (Dahl, 2012).

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Mary offered to prepared dinner despite being in her advanced stage pregnancy. His wife's insistence of being useful agitates Patrick, who asks her to listen to what he wanted to say. "I'll get it," Mary says. "Sit down," Patrick responds. Patrick proceeded to tell her what he felt about her but never stated it explicitly. He said to her that he was planning to leave her, and even she was offering to pay her to keep the story. A moment of silence followed as Mary was perplexed and fixed to the ground. She did not know what to say.

Mary then proceeded to make the dinner despite being in a state of shock. He never heeded to Patrick, saying that he was going out. She went to the basement where there was a freezer. Inside the fridge, the first piece of meat that appeared was a leg lamb, which she took it upstairs for dinner. She found that Patrick was facing away from her in the den. Without hesitation, he clubbed him in the back of the head using the leg of the lamb. This killed Patrick instantly. Mary was shocked by her actions. She did not believe she had killed her husband. Many thoughts ran across her mind. The first thought was how she was going to cover up the incident since it would create a lot of chaos since Patrick was a detective. The first step she took was to take the leg of a lamb that she had used in killing Patrick. She shoved it inside the oven and turned it on.

All these events took place in the house where they both lived with the detective. Mary's time was running out, and if by any chance, then the grocery person would notice that something weird had just happened. So it was the time to prepare herself to look good as if nothing had happened. She rehearsed how she was going to talk to the grocery salesperson.

After gaining confidence, she proceeded to the store, which was downstairs. She meets the grocer, asks her to give her potatoes, and has a little chit chat with the grocer. So she returns home, and she pretends that she has found her husband dead. Earlier she had switched on the oven and proceeded to the local grocer. So this was a deal to say Patrick had committed suicide. She calls the police who happened to be family friends since Patrick was a police officer. They immediately started the investigation.

Mary was tired and confused with the investigation and asked the detectives to finish what she was preparing. The officers sympathized with her and let her finish. While they were eating the lamb, each detective knew that the murder weapons which was yet to be found were under their noses. Finally, the detective realizes that the oven is still on with a leg of a lamb cooking.

References

Dahl, R. (2012). Lamb to the Slaughter (A Roald Dahl Short Story). Penguin UK.