fire watch - episode 003 - The Delilah fire mystery

part 04 Married life

The year was 1997.
A summer festival came around town every summer bringing all sorts of people to the city to have fun and get really drunk which wasn't a very good mix. Anita and Tom had just finished watching the film Titanic which had just come out at the time, when they got back to their house they decided to take their dog for a walk, which was a terrible decision. As they walked around the lake, someone wearing full black came up to them with his hands in his pockets pointing his head down. He came up to them removing a sharp blade from his pocket. Anita screamed letting go of the dog lead in panic as Tom moved to shield her from harm. With Mayhem being released he bounded forward baring his sharp teeth angrily ready to attack the man. However, the man kicked Mayhem aside into the lake spreading water and mud everywhere, Mayhem attempted to get out but was a little trapped by a few sticks so he was out the fight. Anita yelled "oh m-y-y-y-y G-god o-o-oh s-s-shit f-f-f-f-fuck d-d-d-dog!" She got flustered and had trouble speaking when she was stressed and scared. The man advanced on them shouting for them to give him everything in their pockets, or he would stab them. Tom had three choices, 1 he could grab Anita and Mayhem then run as far as fast as he could however the man could chase them and getting Mayhem out the river without the man fighting would be impossible, 2 he could give the man everything he had on him however he didn't have anything and even if he did he just wouldn't be able to bring himself to hand over his stuff to the man, 3 he could try to fight the man because he had fought in a war when he was younger before he met Anita, so he had some fighting experience, he had killed men with his bare hands so believed he would be able to put up a fight. Tom decided to try and fight him off, the man grabbed for him and Tom accidentally grabbed the sharp blade of the knife, slicing up his palm. Even through the pain, he punched the teeth out the guy severely cutting up his right hand however the man had been knocked out. Anita called the police in a panic. Tom cried with pain until the police arrived taking the man away and making sure that Tom and Anita were okay. Tom checked if Anita and Mayhem were okay then they went to the hospital for his hand. While waiting Anita requested they take a different path from then on, Tom agreed not wanting to take that road any more either, even though he hated having to admit that he was scared, he claimed it was to protect Anita and Mayhem, hiding the truth.
After that traumatic event.
Life seemed to go back to normal. Anita was working at the university and was moving science extremely far forward. The scientists were still attempting to create a cure for nuclear radiation poisoning however the Demons' breath may have got on the path for a lot bigger than just radiation poisoning but everything, every single illness on the planet even growing limbs back to be even stronger than ever before. However, they also discovered that the chemicals could react very wrong and cause horrific effects there was only one good path in a sea of wrong and horrible paths, but they thought they could stay on that path and were willing to do anything to get to that goal of having a cure for everything, but it was dangerous because the virus seemed to be learning. Anita really love to draw, she drew plants for her research, she drew where they went, she drew Tom a lot. Of course Tom would flex like a He-man and of course he looked awesome. Life was awesome.
The year was 1998.
Tom and Anita had been dating for almost 10 years and for the past year every morning Anita and Tom would wake up and Anita would always ask Tom when they would be getting married because she really wanted to, but Tom was waiting for the perfect moment to ask her he also wanted it to be really special for her. There were many times he almost did it, but things would get in the way like his plan not working or something stupid happening. Like one day he wanted to ask her when fireworks were going off, and he was about to do it when someone else proposed to their girlfriend, and he didn't feel right to do it. Finally, on the day when they met each other 10 years before on his birthday. Tom proposed to Anita in the same bar they met in, at the exact same table. She loved it. They began planning how to get married, they also spoke about if they ever wanted children because Anita was 38 and the typical cut-off point for being able to have a child for a Zurm was typically 45, after that age, it got a lot more difficult and the chances got lower as they got older, so they wanted to try and have a child but to do that they wanted to get married first.
At the beginning of 1999.
They finally got married at the most beautiful beach they had ever seen. Sadly Tom and Anita didn't have any family left their mothers and fathers had died a long time before that, and neither of them had any siblings. However, they both had a lot of friends which was nice. They rode away in a new truck, one of Toms friends had gifted him saying "this is what you should have wished for, but it paid off" they had their honeymoon on an enjoyable island far away from everything it was lovely. Furthermore, they decided as a joke to not tell anyone that they already had sex before marriage about 9 and a half thousand times before that, which was extremely very totally very wrong... for some reason. When they got home, they immediately started enjoying married life. However, they noticed not a lot had changed, they still went to the pub every week, they still walked Mayhem around the lake, and they really loved that, life was just as it was... until everything changed.
Towards the end of 1999.
It was just a completely normal day. Tom and Anita were sitting relaxing on their balcony watching the beautiful sunset over the mountains, drinking chilled drinks like a normal evening "honestly look at the beautiful lake and mountains, I really love it up here, it's just so beautiful, it's actually breathtaking" said Anita taking a swig of her water. Tom nodded in agreement "it really is" he took a sip of his beer "you want a beer?" she shook her head "I'm alright, thanks" "funny you're usually the first to go for them" "I know, but not tonight" He bent down picking up a small rock on the balcony throwing it towards the lake, admiring it skim across the surface of the water watching the ripples cascade across the smooth surface "yeah, the way the sun bounces off the water and also goes behind the mountain it's beautiful. I love living up here" "yeah it's amazing up here. By the way I just thought I should ask, how do you feel about children?" Tom pondered over the question tapping the bottom of the beer against his other hand which he did with all objects when he was thinking "well they're not very smart or good at much, but other than that they're pretty good. And if you think about it, every single bad evil person in the universe was once a child yeah think of it like that than it's strange, but other than that children are pretty good" "no, you idiot I meant if like you know we had a child, you know a little us running around" he smiled "I'd like that. I think I'd like a little me running around. The world doesn't have enough Tom yet" "oh really?" "Yeah, of course, you can never have enough of this perfection running around the world. However, I only want the one child, because we can put all our attention on that one child, and we would have a bigger connection with the child which I think is best for everyone involved" She laughed "yeah, you're right there needs to be more of us in the world. And yeah I would only want to have the one child because of all the reasons you gave. So when would you want to have a child?" "I wouldn't mind when to be honest, but I think soon because like we're 39 and like I want the child to know us for a long time, I don't want to die randomly, and the child not know us for a long time, if that makes sense" "yeah I completely agree, would you want a boy or a girl?" "I really don't mind as long as it's healthy but if I could choose somehow, I feel like I would want to have a girl, I can imagine it easier" "yeah, same I'd love to have a girl they're just easier" "yeah I guess" "Yeah, hey guess what, I'm pregnant" he smiled "yeah, I knew that was coming, and I'm excited, more excited than I've ever been, I can be the most amazing dad of all time" they kissed and spoke for hours about it. Tom and Anita were so excited.