Mike had not adapted to the empty nest as he had hoped.
Pixabay
What was special about being able to lie in bed late on a Saturday morning?
He would much rather have been cheering Robbie on from the side line watching him play rugby.
So he and Sheila were able to stay out at a party for as long as they liked or sneak off home early if they preferred.
He thought longingly of the days of having to fetch Debbie from her parties at midnight. He had loved having her pile into the car bubbling over with snippets of teenage angst and fun.
Somehow they had missed the sulky teenager syndrome that some people had warned them of.
Mike and Sheila had started so early with their babies. He missed them intensely.
Their family room was no longer for a family. It was quiet…far too lonely for his liking. How he had loved the arrival of cheese dripping pizzas with anchovies on the side, for Robbie.
He sat on the closed toilet and shut his eyes….prayerfully.
Wendy sat on the side of the bath dreading the outcome. She fiddled her bare feet in the rough comforting feeling of the cotton loops of the mat. The motion soothed her tense calf muscles.
Her navy ringed blue eyes and his hazel flecked green eyes fastened on the cardboard strip willing the 10 minutes to pass.
Never in the history of mankind had a single 60 second minute felt like an hour they thought simultaneously and their glances clashed and darted away again. ……each locked into their separate fears.
The atmosphere in their bathroom was tingling with tension as minute 9 passed.
Sheila felt the dread paralyzing her from deep inside. She had adored being a mother and still did, but with the twins at college now she had embraced the freedom from lift schemes, helping her teenagers grow up and the endless schedules to which drumbeat she had marched for …..ever, she thought in panic. Could she really do it all over again? She thought NOT.
The first line on the slim strip of cardboard began very faintly…..one line was a negative result.
Pixabay
Sheila crumpled the instruction leaflet hard in her fist, the crisp folds of paper actually hurt her flesh. The previously shredded box lay on the tiles.
Mike blinked hard and counted to a painful 5 and opened his eyes……..
It was not what he had hoped to see……….a single line…….but wait a sec….ond. There it was, another line had joined the first.
It was a positive outcome.
They were going to be parents of a third precious child.
Sheila’s stomach did the hoola hoop of terror and joy that heralded the emotional roller coaster that announced her pregnancy. In an instant she was overwhelmed by the thought of all those ballet lessons if this were a little girl on the way. Over riding the enormity of what the future held was a deluge of love and protection over the personality she carried in her womb.
She sneaked a look at Mike.
His head was bowed and his hands gripped each other tightly as he appreciated the promise that their home was once more going to be the happy busy place that it had been. But he knew Shelia’s fears and respected her reservations.
He lifted his tear filled eyes to hers and in a moment of drowning incredulity and awe she felt the flood of joy bowl her over and encompass her completely.
Mike leant over, grasped her to his chest as they stood up.
In that tiled cold bathroom they let their warm tears mingle and overflow unchecked.
Mike spoke hoarsely with tears affecting his voice, “18 years ago at 20 and 21 we promised ‘for better or for worse’ and I think we are on a winning streak for a whole new ‘better’.”
She nodded her head and buried her face in his warm chest and felt a surge of comfort and promise enfold them.
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