Anita turned on her heel and walked out of the room leaving him dressed in nothing but briefs and his T-shirt. Howard put her behavior down to a temporary break with reality and went out to the family room to watch TV in his underwear. Whatever had gotten into her, she would probably calm down and then they could talk about it. It was probably only some woman thing anyhow. When Anita returned she said, “My secretary from work is coming over this morning. No, don’t worry, she can keep her mouth shut about what’s happened to you. We need her to notarize a document for us.”
“What kind of document?”, Howard asked.
“A legal document,” Anita replied evasively, “Honey, have you thought ahead about your condition? You’re already too young to drive and you might get even smaller. I know you wear the pants in the family, but what will happen if you have to go into the hospital? What if your condition gets worse and you can’t talk or write for some reason? We need to plan for every eventuality. In case of emergency I need to be able to handle our affairs, with your permission of course. Don’t you think that’s a good idea?”
Howard frowned and nodded his agreement slowly. “What’s she leading up to?” he thought to himself.
“I got to thinking about your condition last week and had an idea. I called our lawyer on Monday and had him prepare some documents for us to use in case of emergency. He sent the documents over to my office by messenger this afternoon and I asked my secretary to come here and notarize them for us. You don’t mind, do you?”, Anita asked anxiously.
“What kind of documents?”, Howard asked suspiciously.
“Oh, just a power-of-attorney,” Anita answered airily, “Just in caseÖ..Well, you knowÖ”
“Yeah, I know!”, Howard grumped. He thought about it for a minute and grudgingly said, “I guess you’re right. Tell your secretary it’s okay to come over. I’ll sign the papers.”
“Oh, yes! I almost forgot. There was one other document I asked the lawyer to prepare I need to tell you about,” Anita said causally.
“What’s that?”, Howard asked curtly.
