From Raymond Carver's story, Fever, in which a man gets a fever and then tells the whole of his life to the woman caring for his children.
Lyrics:
So she left you here
With the kids in tow
And ran off to California with that guy that you both know
And now you’re all alone
In this big old place
A house you never wanted full of photos of her face
It’s the face you see
When you kiss your kids
And tell them that you don’t know where their mother is
Or when she’s coming back
So you lie to them
And tell them soon and then return to reading brother’s grimm
It’s the fairy tales
That’ll break your heart
All that happy ever after and those mushy kissing parts
So when she calls you up
You can’t help but hope
That maybe it’s to tell you that she’s finally coming home
And a happy end
Is still in sight
All can be forgiven and everything made right
But instead of that
She’s just called to say
She’s worried that your aura has lately gone astray
So you roll your eyes
And hang up the phone
Immediately worried that you’ll always be alone
But there’s that girl from work
Who seems awfully sweet
Maybe you should call her up and she if she would meet
You make a life
The two of you
And the kids that you both have could find some shelter too
But as the sun goes down
And the daylights fades
The facts of life settle in and the dreaming slips away
And I’m here today
To take care of you
But I also have to tell you that I will be leaving soon
You see Jim and I
Are getting old
He turned sixty two last week and we’ve got children of our own
They’ve invited us
To live with them
So we’re driving that old pick up truck down to Oregon
And I sure feel bad
For leaving you
But your stronger than you were back then and I know you’ll make it through
You can go on, hon
Just keeping talking
Tell me what it’s all about
You got a fever
And I’m a believer
That if you go on and get it all out
You can go on, hon
You can go on