"Boarded Up House" copyright 2008 Kristin Fouquet A STANDARD PACK by Kristin Fouquet from Twenty Stories “ N o TV,” my wife said. “I want this week to be just about us as a family.” That’s how my vacation started, with a television ban. We never seemed to have any money to actually go anywhere. So we’d just cocoon, you know, become mad reclusive types and not even answer the phone. Before my son was born, I’d take my week of vacation and we’d rent around twenty videos, buy bottles of booze and comfort food, and prepare to shut out the rest of the world. In the old days, she and I would get drunk watching whatever was on the tube or maybe a movie. If we were in the mood, we’d just have sex right there on the sofa, maybe on the rug, but you know, right there, right then, when we wanted to. Afterwards, I’d fix us some refresher drinks and we’d sit nude in the blue glow of the set. It was the best, like a hedonistic marathon. Sometimes, we’d forget wha