A Little Hard Work

Six Months Later…

My job as the gardener for the science lab was going remarkably well. I enjoyed gardening, even if I was growing genetically altered plants. The work was easy, however the pay was poor. I dreamed of working with the scientists and helping them decide which plants to alter. I knew that it was a dream I would not live to see come true; I had no schooling apart from high school, and I didn’t intend to ever go to college.

Carlotta was an amazing housewife. We weren’t married, but we planned to wed someday in the distant future. She spent her days tending to my at-home garden of non-altered plants while also keeping up with the cleaning. She made sure that each day when I arrived home from work I had a good meal to eat. I knew that deep down she wanted to work a real job, but her therapist did not advise it.

Twice a week she went to see her therapist, and talk about what was going on in her life. They talked about her past, her future goals, and how she felt from day-to-day. Her mood swings seemed to rarely flare up and she was typically a happy person. Her therapist was glad to see her improvements since moving in with me. He began to lessen her depression medications and eventually decided to take her off of them all together.

She had told me the day we met how much she loved painting and that she had a large studio to at her house. It was a goal of mine  that I would give her a studio to paint in again. I had been saving a bit of money from each check I received and I finally had enough to buy her some basic art supplies and an easel. I stopped by Hobby Shop one day after work and picked up all the supplies I could afford. I called home and told Carlotta to hide in the bedroom until  I called her out. I told her I had a big surprise for her and I didn’t want her peeking.

When I arrived home, I quickly set everything up and went to the bedroom. I covered her eyes with my hands and led her out into the living room. She was so excited to see what it was, but I made her wait until she was right in front of the easel; which was set up with a pallet, a few brushes, all the paints I had bought, and a large canvas to get her started. I pulled my hands away and she opened her eyes. She was so ecstatic that she squealed and turned around and kissed me.

“I can’t believe you remembered! Oh, I’m so happy, thank you, thank you so so so much! I have missed painting tremendously. You don’t know how happy you have made me. Oh thank you Gideon!”

She kissed me again and then spun around and picked up the palate. She put a little dab of each color onto the board and selected one of the medium-sized brushes. I watched as she went into her own world and started painting. Her eyes lit up and danced with every brush stroke. Watching her paint was like watching a ballet. Her hands seemed to slide over the canvas, with each color and every line embedded with details. She did it all with no planning; it was just an image in her own mind. The best part of it all was the look on her face. Her luscious lips were slightly curved, forming a shy smile that only enhanced her natural beauty. I had made Carlotta happy, which in return, made me the happiest man alive.

Nearly every day she would complete a painting and start a new one. When one was done, she took it to the consignment store and sold it. She then stopped by Hobby Shop and picked up a new canvas. I’m sad to admit that she was making more money off of her paintings than I made working a whole day. At first I was upset about it, but when I mentioned it to Carlotta one evening she just laughed at me. She told me that it didn’t matter, she loved me either way.

For nearly a month, painting was her only focus. She spent less time cleaning and had almost completely stopped cooking for me. I knew better than to expect those things of her, but I can’t deny being a little grumpy when I got home and had to make my own supper.

One rare evening, we found ourselves relaxing in bed talking about all sorts of things. We pondered what our future together would be like and we both rested our heads on our pillows in quiet contemplation. I looked over to her. She was lost, deep in thought about something.

I noticed that she almost seemed to be glowing. Her dark eyes sparkled as she turned her head to look at me. When our eyes met she nervously laughed.

“Why are you staring at me?”

I smiled sheepishly at her.

“You are just so stunning today. Your beauty is radiating off of you, and I can’t seem to look away.”

She blushed as she tried hard not to let her smile show. I pulled her to me and wrapped my arms around her. Her body was so warm and delicate. I kissed her passionately, trying to show her how much I longed for her. She kissed me back, and I knew she wanted me too. We had planned on not taking our relationship any further, but the moment felt right. We had no reason to hold back, so for the first time in our lives, we made love.

Two months later…

Carlotta had not been feeling the best lately. She always seemed so tired and her memory was failing her constantly throughout the day. She became very thin, probably from forgetting to eat. It hurt to see my love like that, so I took her to get re-evaluated by her doctor. A quick check up revealed nothing, so we went home empty-handed.

We were both worried, but tried to pay no mind to her constant forgetfulness. I left her little notes around the house while I was out to work so she wouldn’t forget little things like getting the mail, or watering the garden. I made sure that she had a stockpile of canvas’ on which to paint and hoped that her mind would come back to her.

A week went by and she appeared to be getting better. She was in a great mood one morning and as I got ready for work, she told me to expect a wonderful meal when I got home. She had made out a list of things to do that day, and as I skimmed over it, it seemed that the day would mostly be filled with cooking. I smiled at her and gave her a quick kiss as I ran out the door.

After I left, Carlotta decided to get right to work on the extravagant meal she had planned. Her first thing to do was make some home-made french bread. She used her mother’s recipe and after getting it ready, she let it rise, then she rolled it out into a long bread stick and put it in the oven. She was such a wonderful cook that she rarely ever used a timer, and this time was no exception.

She had gone into the living room to work on her latest painting, she lost all other thought and became so engrossed in her work that she completely forgot about the baking bread. That is until the smell of smoke snapped her back to reality. It only took an instant for her to realize what she had done.

She sprinted to the kitchen and was in complete shock. She couldn’t believe what had happened!

The entire left half of the kitchen was up in flames! Carlotta started freaking out, screaming and jumping around. The kitchen filled with thick smoke, and it started pouring out into the living room.

Carlotta knew that she needed to get help, so she ran as fast as she could out of the house and down the street to the neighbor’s house. She started banging on the door, screaming for them to help.

An older man opened the door with a surprised look on his face.

“Call the fire department! Now! My house is burning down! Help me please! Tell them to hurry!”

Luck was with us that day, the lovely old man who lived across from us was also the retired fire chief. He rang the fire bell and sent out a page for all units to hurry to our address. He grabbed his extra-large extinguisher and ran back to the house with Carlotta. For being old, he was still in amazing shape.

While the old man kept the fire at bay, the fire department rushed to our house and doused the flames, along with everything else in the kitchen. During the whole commotion, I had rushed home too, and found half the kitchen charred and burned when I finally arrived. The firemen were on their way out telling us to be careful next time.

It took us a few weeks to get any money from our insurance company, but we were able to fix up the kitchen. We even had some left over money, so we put tile up on the walls and installed a high-tech smoke alarm. That way we would never have to worry about her running down the street to the neighbor’s again.

There was one thing that we would never be able to replace though, Carlotta’s ego. After the fire, she was afraid to use the stove. She started going crazy, I caught her a few times yelling at herself and getting in fights with the voices in her head.

Apart from the evident mental stress it caused her, she also had become physically ill. She would wake up in the middle of the night with horrible cramps, or she would run off to the bathroom and get sick into the toilet. It seemed the illness got progressively worse, and eventually the sickness would hit at random times during the day, and not solely at night anymore.

I became increasingly worried and finally made a doctor’s appointment with her and told her that she was going, even though she refused. I dropped her off at the hospital on my way to work. The day went by extremely slow; my head was filled with horrible thoughts about what the doctor was going to find out. Mostly though, I was worried they would re-admit her into the mental hospital and I would have to be without her. Whatever the doctor’s were going to make her do, I would go along with it, because she was my whole heart and soul. There was no doubt I would miss her though.

I trudged home slowly, the day of uncertainty had made me not want to know the horrid truth of what was going to happen. To my amazement when I got home, Carlotta had made dinner. She was wearing a nice dress, and seemed pleasantly surprised. Maybe a little sick yet, but she was beaming when I walked through the door. 

We ate dinner, the whole time she was still beaming ear to ear. Yet she said nothing of her doctor’s visit. I looked at her quizzically, what was going on. 

She asked me to go to the park with her. I agreed and we walked hand in hand down to the park. She was still smiling. She finally looked me in the eyes and asked if  I wanted to know what the doctor had found out. Obviously I did, I had only been waiting all day! I just nodded, not wanting her to know how nervous I had been. 

“I’m pregnant!” She shouted.

I was in shock. “You mean…. I’m going to be a daddy?!?”

I don’t think my day could have been any better. This was the best news I had ever received. Nothing can compare to the first time you are told by the woman you love most that you are going to be a father. In the back of my mind I began to fret about money issues, but that moment in my life wasn’t going to be overrun by doubts. I just wanted to enjoy the day with my wife… and child. 

When we got home, I tried to hear the baby, but Carlotta wasn’t far along enough to hear much other than her heart beating. So I rubbed her tummy and talked to our growing little bean.

 

Chapter Four: Family Ties