Jealousy

To say Rebecca was a jealous woman was to say the ocean had a little water in it. Where others had to walk on eggshells, her boyfriend Richard's life felt much more like waking up in the middle of a minefield.

"Your professor is cute. Are you seeing her behind my back?"

"Who is this 'Mom' you've been calling?"

"Like I'm supposed to believe that man is only here to deliver our pizza."

He had to take a job working from home because she was suspicious of the women in his office, even eighty-four year old Edna Greene, and didn't feel too comfortable with him around men just in case he turned out to be gay.

Soon there was literally no one else in his life but her, but still her fears were not eased. "Who is that I see following you around all the time?" she asked.

"No one!" he swore. "I never even leave the apartment! No one has been in or out but you!"

"Then who is THAT?" she said, thrusting an accusing finger behind him.

He turned to look and saw nothing but his shadow. He looked back to her, confused. Her finger still insisted he explain his non-existent friend, so he turned back again to look. Nothing but...

"You can't be serious."

But she was. And since then, every time Richard heard her familiar knock at his door, he opened his window and had his shadow hide outside until she left again.

- Originally mailed to J. Joyner of Kannapolis, North Carolina