Rebecca
07-26-2007, 11:26 PM
If this isn't a genre you like, please don't post. This story has no fantasy of any kind in it.
December 14, 1990
“Caroline, what’s wrong with you?” he said to her. But even soft reassurances couldn’t help her. “You haven’t been yourself lately.” She looked at him with her fragile blue eyes. The tears in them made her seem like a child again, the one he knew so many years before.
“Carrie, talk to me, please. I know something’s wrong… You haven’t watered the flowers for a week, honey. You haven’t even look at him.” She shot invisible daggers at him with her eyes. Oh, is that how he could tell something was wrong; that she hadn’t been watering the damn flowers? They weren’t really even hers... they technically belonged to the people they were renting the beach house from.
“I’ve been waiting for weeks, Joe. And it still hasn’t come. I called the doctors back home today,” she told him quietly.
“Been waiting weeks for what?”
“My period, Joe!” she snapped at him. He didn’t understand what she was talking about. She hated getting her period. He thought it should have been a blessing that she wasn’t getting it anymore, until he realized what she was talking about.
“You don’t think…” he said.
“Joe, I think our honeymoon just ended,” she said, and those few words seemed to explain everything that went unsaid between them.
It was weeks later.
Caroline scrubbed the floors of the kitchen for the third time in that week. She couldn’t stop fixing everything wrong in the house; it made her feel better about everything that was still broken outside.
She couldn’t believe she was pregnant. Even more so, she couldn’t believe this had all happened on her honeymoon. They had been planning to stay at the beach until the end of December, but of course nothing felt the same again. They were no longer just a happy couple, over night they had become a family.
Becoming a family had always been Caroline’s fear. She had watched so many romantic couples lose their spark after they had children. She never wanted to be that way with Joe, but it was too late now.
All they could do was prepare. The baby was due in July, but as newlyweds, all Caroline and Joe had was small bits of money and lots of new silverware. Joe already worked full time at MayoTech, a huge company in the area, but even that was barely paying off the house and car loans they had. He got a part time job at the local drug store, coming home for an hour or two in between his jobs and then heading back to work again until the drug store closed at 11 PM.
Caroline wrapped her fingers around the small sponge she was holding in her hand. She took a deep breath of air and tossed the sponge at the wall, leaving drips of water running down. It made no noise, but she felt a sense of relief from it. She pictured the sponge in her other hand as the doctor that offered her the suggestion that she was pregnant weeks before, even though she knew deep down it wasn’t his fault she was pregnant. She squeezed it tight, and threw it as hard as she could against the wall.
There, she thought, thanks for ruining my life.
December 14, 1990
“Caroline, what’s wrong with you?” he said to her. But even soft reassurances couldn’t help her. “You haven’t been yourself lately.” She looked at him with her fragile blue eyes. The tears in them made her seem like a child again, the one he knew so many years before.
“Carrie, talk to me, please. I know something’s wrong… You haven’t watered the flowers for a week, honey. You haven’t even look at him.” She shot invisible daggers at him with her eyes. Oh, is that how he could tell something was wrong; that she hadn’t been watering the damn flowers? They weren’t really even hers... they technically belonged to the people they were renting the beach house from.
“I’ve been waiting for weeks, Joe. And it still hasn’t come. I called the doctors back home today,” she told him quietly.
“Been waiting weeks for what?”
“My period, Joe!” she snapped at him. He didn’t understand what she was talking about. She hated getting her period. He thought it should have been a blessing that she wasn’t getting it anymore, until he realized what she was talking about.
“You don’t think…” he said.
“Joe, I think our honeymoon just ended,” she said, and those few words seemed to explain everything that went unsaid between them.
It was weeks later.
Caroline scrubbed the floors of the kitchen for the third time in that week. She couldn’t stop fixing everything wrong in the house; it made her feel better about everything that was still broken outside.
She couldn’t believe she was pregnant. Even more so, she couldn’t believe this had all happened on her honeymoon. They had been planning to stay at the beach until the end of December, but of course nothing felt the same again. They were no longer just a happy couple, over night they had become a family.
Becoming a family had always been Caroline’s fear. She had watched so many romantic couples lose their spark after they had children. She never wanted to be that way with Joe, but it was too late now.
All they could do was prepare. The baby was due in July, but as newlyweds, all Caroline and Joe had was small bits of money and lots of new silverware. Joe already worked full time at MayoTech, a huge company in the area, but even that was barely paying off the house and car loans they had. He got a part time job at the local drug store, coming home for an hour or two in between his jobs and then heading back to work again until the drug store closed at 11 PM.
Caroline wrapped her fingers around the small sponge she was holding in her hand. She took a deep breath of air and tossed the sponge at the wall, leaving drips of water running down. It made no noise, but she felt a sense of relief from it. She pictured the sponge in her other hand as the doctor that offered her the suggestion that she was pregnant weeks before, even though she knew deep down it wasn’t his fault she was pregnant. She squeezed it tight, and threw it as hard as she could against the wall.
There, she thought, thanks for ruining my life.