They both had so much in common.

Mainly, they both wanted to get married.

So they did.

It was a wonderful relationship.

Well, at least the first few hours together were wonderful.

Then they woke up.

The first thing they both saw in the cold light of morning was an elephant in the room. The giant grey beast was standing in the corner and happily munching on a bowl of peanuts. However, neither Henry nor Henrietta felt comfortable mentioning it.

“Hmmm…I don’t really like that elephant in my room, but if I say something about it, I just know she’ll be offended.”

“My word! That elephant stinks but if that’s what he wants, I better not say anything about it.”

Since neither Henry or Henrietta were willing to address the real issue at hand, They began the day remarking about the state of the weather and spent the rest of the day exploring that subject in great detail.

Big mouths like to make small talk and they both had really big mouths.

Long story short, since nobody was willing to deal with it, the elephant was allowed to stay. Munching of any food it could find, generating massive amounts of foul smelling waste and generally enjoying its life crammed in that tiny room.

As time went on both Henry and Henrietta became annoyed with the elephant. For one thing, it ate all their peanuts, and since all they made at their work was peanuts, this made their life very difficult.

The beast also made it strangely difficult to indulge their passion for interior design. The elephant simply took up too much space in the room! Not only that, the feng shui of the space was in a total state of chaos.

Henry became more and more angry and Henrietta for allowing this massive grey beast to live with them. So it was with Henrietta, rage bubbled inside her, rage at Henry for dragging this stupid pet home from the circus in the first place.

Urban legend has it that you can ignore the elephant in the room for awhile but the longer it stays, the stinkier it gets and the more at home it feels.

Surprisingly enough, some animal experts now say that the first step in removing an elephant from your room is acknowledging its existence.

However, this advice is considered radical by others who continue to question whether the elephant in the room actually exists. “The hard evidence for an elephant in the room is basically peanuts, lots of peanuts,” one prominent member of the scientific community said just before being rudely overpowered by a still unexplained trumpeting sound.

However, even though they both knew they were living a lie, they were terrified to speak the truth about their situation.

So it was that each person continued to refuse to speak of the elephant to the other. Since no one was willing to deal with the real issues at hand, the elephant stayed.

As time went on, rage over this elephant consumed both Henry and Henrietta and they began to lash out at the other in increasingly disturbing ways. Eventually, this led them to dissolve their relationship due to irreconcilable differences.

However, the elephant in the room remained, untouched and unmolested.

Really, we’ll all be better off if we don’t mention it.