A couple are sitting at a table. They are wearing their outdoor clothes. He is smoking a cigarette and gazing over her shoulder into the middle distance. She is smoothing the fingers of her left hand, staring at her wedding ring, with a kind of bleak acceptance that she is still wearing it.
There; I've set the scene for you. You could flesh out a few more details -- the time of day, the season (who knows, it may have a bearing on what is going on), the year. You might like to think about how old the couple are; how long they have been married. Don't be afraid to follow the ravelings of your imagination.
Next I'd like you to concentrate on all the thoughts that are going on inside the heads of each of them. If it helps you, make a list. Think how difficult it can be to raise an awkward subject, then show one of them plucking up the courage (or becoming so desperate that they can no longer stays silent) to say something. The first salvo is launched. Each response is as difficult as the last; there is nothing quickfire about this, at least to begin with. Instead, there is plenty of displacement activity. See if you can convert all the thoughts that you originally listed into dialogue -- there is no room for interior monologue here. When you have finished, try taking out about one third of the speech, so that what is left is fragmentary and oblique.
If you want to have a go at this, post your work here and I'll tell you what I think.
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