grocery shopping aisle five, spices. my pepper mill is empty, i recall, was it rainbow peppercorns i had? he shrugs sheepishly, i grab the bottle - gasp $9.63, are you fucking kidding? and it’s back on the shelf. in the kitchen, later, the flour bag is empty and the measuring cup is only half-full. he takes my car keys and goes without argument. in the safeway bag he brings me: a pound of flour, rainbow peppercorns.