Aaron's Wife

my friend Aaron
married a woman who insisted on not one but two
formal China settings for twelve
in her Saks 5th Avenue registry
 
she named their son Henri
pronounced Ahn-ree
and trained Aaron 
to correct those who pronounced it incorrectly (that is to say everyone)
 
Henri
excuse me AHN-ree
is a gifted artist
like his mother
look how he holds the paintbrush
in his chubby four-year-old fist
mixing blue and red on wax paper
 
Purple! he screams
causing his mother to jack up his inflated IQ 
another 10 points
I think he's at 300 now
 
maybe Henri
will grow up to be an acclaimed save the planet environmental artist 
like his mother,
Aaron's wife,
who is a big consumer of single-use plastic
and the driver of an unnecessarily large mini van
 
Henri has a sister named CoCo (after CoCo Chanel of course- Adam's wife is also a fashion designer)
Coco is an exceptionally beautiful child
I hadn't been aware of that
but Aaron's wife told me
 
Aaron's wife
nags him to smile
in their many family photos
Don't you want your children to have happy family memories?
she hisses
 
after one
particularly gloomy Thanksgiving
Aaron drives to a cheap motel
and hangs himself
 
Twenty years later
CoCo is a skinny influencer
with 150,000 followers
and hundreds of photos of herself
many featuring her bared belly
 
I've looked for Henri on social media
-all over the internet in fact-
 
he's nowhere to be found.