Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for July 16, 2014

Arnold, if the answer to the question is not an immediate yes, just shrug and move on.

Somehow I don’t think Evie is ready to go back to “gathering” as they traipse across the world… And, besides Arnold, how can you have a good marriage when your wife needs to spend some quality time with her grandkids and you’d rather keep on wandering without a tether? Evie needs to have a permanent docking station to go back to during her wanders…then I think your marriage might just have a chance… ;)

This might work, 6 months with her family and 6 months exploring the world. Sounds good to me.

I want to be a nomad. Unfortunately, I can’t afford it.

He has a point there!! His life is definitely not boring.

Aaah, but would he be willing to grow up and move back to the states for you as well?

Then why get married at all, when they can remain intimate friends?

Grow up? Stay in one place and be boring?

Money shouldn’t be a problem. Evie won the lottery a few years ago.

Did Evie really win the lottery? I don’t recall that and I recently went back to the archives and read every strip. Maybe I missed that!

Or will she?

You could achieve the same result from jumping out of a plane.

I love you will you marry me in that order!!!!!

AUGH!!! SAY NO!!

Two things: first, I don’t hear him telling her he loves her and can’t live without her – just that they’re compatible and have fun. second – Evie is getting on. What happens to his idyllic existence when her hip or knees give her trouble, and she can’t hammer nails or climb a ladder and needs a more quiet life? Believe me – it’s hard traveling with a bad (pick one – back, knee, hip). Far better for them to keep it as is.

P.S. when younger I had a boyfriend like Arnold. My mom would have called him “a fiddlefoot”. Charming, fun to be around, but not husband material. Roots are needed for it to work.

Arnold doesn’t see Evie as a grandmother or mother – he sees her as an individual and unattached. He rather to ignore the fact she has family and misses them. Evie is not a wanderer like Arnold. She is only in for the adventures in one spot. She wants to only meet Arnold in specific spot and then go back home. Arnold also misses the fact that Evie is into her golden years while he is not. Just continue the way you are now – enjoy adventures together while Evie is “in town.”

ahem… she’s never bored anyway….

I was just responding to your comment of “Wives cost money, lots of money.” I was merely saying that Evie would’t be costing Arnold lots of money; she is much to sensible for that. We aren’t told about Arnold’s income, but he seemed to be doing OK for himself before he met Evie. Most people can afford a trip once in a while to visit family

I wish she would say yes!