And so she was a wife. She had been single forever and she became a wife and she didn’t cook because she never cooked and in these modern times you don’t have to cook to be a wife. You can work. You can cook or not cook. You can be a modern wife. You can like baking, like our wife, and not like cooking. You can dislike baking and cooking both. But her husband asked if she’d try so she tried. She wanted to please the husband because he did so much to please her. She gave cooking a good go. She thought, My mom had a career, but she somehow did this, I could do this. Early in the marriage, she made dinner, simple dinners, pasta, fish, a vegetable, a salad, rice. Once or twice she made his mom’s chicken recipe. She might have given more consideration to how that might go. It’s good, but it’s not my mom’s. Once or twice she made rice; her husband said It’s easy. Two cups water one cup rice. Boil the water, add the rice, turn the heat down, cover the pot, fluff. Once or twice, she burned it. Once or twice, he stood over her, watching. Once or twice, she told him to make it himself or let her just burn it but please right now just go away. Why did my mom do this, she thought. I will make you sandwiches for lunch, she told the husband. That’s the best I can do. She made a little chart of sandwiches he liked, which condiment and which cheese went with which bread and which meat, and she made him sandwiches to take for lunch, and she stopped making dinner.