Jack -Short Stories

I Never Wanted Him

When getting to know someone, it's sometimes best to know where they came from or perhaps what their parents were like.

In a darkened room of the far corner of the house sat a man, tired and exhausted, stressed out beyond repair. The man sat back in his large office chair, feet crossed at the ankles and propped up on the edge of his desk. His hands covering his face as he fought to gather his thoughts. Ronald Nolan let out a heavy sigh as he wiped his hands down his face. 'I can't do this anymore,' he thought to himself as he sat up in his chair, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. Ronald's job as an insurance salesman had grown far too dismal for the man who thought he had done the right thing by taking an upright job. Long nights and a boss who forced his employees to work as much as he legally could was not what Ronald had in mind for himself. The whole situation was starting to wear on his marriage. Of course that was only one of the many reasons why his relationship with his wife was strained.

Ronald's wife Mary was pregnant with their first child, something that he had not planned for. He had wanted children early on in their marriage, but he knew he was far too old to handle the demands of a small child at this point in his life. Mary, it seemed, could not have been more pleased with her pregnancy. She spent many days fixing up the extra bedroom in their home, making it suitable for her new baby and singing cradlesongs to her unborn child.

A knock on Ronald's office door brought the man from his dark thoughts and he dropped his hands, folding them on the desk in front of him, "come in," he called softly, knowing that it was only Mary on the other side. The woman pushed the door open just a crack allowing a sliver of golden light from the hallway to cut the room in two. She smiled at her husband reminding herself that anything she said could set him off, "I wanted to show you these two blankets I bought at the store this afternoon." Mary took one small step into the room, two baby blankets held in her hands, one green and one yellow. Ronald rubbed a hand across his brow, annoyed by the fact that he worked so hard for the little money they had and his wife had no qualms about spending it. Never mind if it was for his child or not because he didn't want the child in the first place. He pushed away from the large wooden desk and waved his hand out, signaling for Mary to carry on. Mary nodded her head once and walked over to her husband's side, holding out each blanket so he could touch the fabric.

Roland took the yellow blanket from Mary's hand, running his fingertips over it to feel the texture. He had never felt anything so soft in his life, at least not that he could remember. Mary watched her husband, catching a brief glimpse of the gentler side of him that she had not seen in some time. The man softly touched the blanket to his cheek, almost allowing a smile to form on his face until he noticed the price tag hanging from one corner of the blanket. His fingers went to grasp the tag, slowly turning it over and groaning when he saw the price. "I have the receipt. Whatever one you didn't like would be the one I would take back," Mary blurted out before her husband could say a word. "You spent forty five dollars on a damn blanket Mary?" Ronald shoved the baby blanket back into his wife's hands. "I wasn't going to keep them both, I swear," Mary was already on edge due to her pregnancy and all it took was Ronald's harsh words and her eyes lined with water. "How much is that one then?" he nodded toward the green blanket. "This one? This one was just a bit more because the fabric is nicer," Mary replied. Ronald looked up at Mary as if she had two heads. He hated when his wife acted like an idiot. "Jesus Mary! You know damn well we don't have money to spare on such frivolous things. It's just a piece of fabric for crying out loud!" Ronald had unconsciously stood up from his chair and had backed Mary into a corner, glaring at her, her face now streaked with tears. She shook her head in disbelief and stormed out of the room. If this situation had come about years sooner then Ronald may have reacted much differently but mostly he hated himself for getting Mary pregnant in the first place. It didn't matter to him that she was ecstatic about having a baby. No, he was not getting what he had expected from his chosen path in life and that was the only thing he could ever think about.