Gift for the Givers

We were explicit: we did not want a microwave. So, his family gave us one for Christmas. I told my mother about it on the phone. Later, when we opened gifts at my parents’ house, she held aloft a mink coat from my father. “Oh, look!” she exclaimed, “a microwave!”

Deborah Jones is a retired TV news writer/producer with a passion for wombats, red wine, and Oxford commas—not necessarily in that order.