Mortifying Penance

The nuances in courtesy exchanges and
social consideration are many; as civilized
people and in accord with a social contract
of polite dialogue, we acknowledge the
presence of others and with frequent
exposure regard them as acquaintances.
That category is somewhat more than
requiring of attention than mere strangers
yet they are in essence, strangers, not
friends, as those whose well-being deeply
concern us. Yet as fellow travellers in life
and the propinquity of neighbourhoods
fairly frequent yet slight encounters occur
and with them the kind of social gestures
that affirm one as a social creature, so
invariably conversations of blessed brevity
are launched, but on occasion release 
fails to materialize and one is left scouring
imagination to offer small conversational
tidbits, awaiting the observable inclination
for the other to move on, freeing you from
this servitude to civility. Today you
exhausted so many topics in a relatively
brief period, filling in dead space while
the other simply nodded as though rooted
in fascination with the stream that extruded
from your brain via your mouth. You
glance at your husband, deep in conversation
with her husband, willing a conclusion which
eventually arrives. Later you querulously
ask what on earth could he have to discuss
with the other, and he responds in surprise
not much; he was awaiting the opportunity
to break off, but you seemed to go on...
and on, and he wondered what you had to
discuss with the man's wife that kept you
so deep in a protracted conversation....