Before the sleep

Chapter fourteen

Daddy

I can't believe I'm here without her. I'm sitting at my desk listening to one of the new stunt doubles like everything is just sunshine and rainbows in my life. I'm supposed to be checking his health and make sure he's in perfect shape to do his job. He's bound to get hurt in his line of work so I'm here to make sure his body can handle it. His papers lie before my eyes in the mist of the craziness I let grow on top of my desk but my mind keep reverting to my wife in the hospital.

She's alone and afraid but life doesn't let me be by her side. Instead, I have to be here working. The bills still need to be paid and the bank is pressuring me to keep up with my payments on the student loan I took out to continue to medical school. Don't even get me started on the hospital bills which our insurance stopped paying two months following the accident. Life goes on without my Irene.

"You're good to go Jimmy," I say to the ebony haired man sitting in front of my desk without looking up. "I'll send my approval to the director right away so you can start working."

"Thanks Doc," he smiles brightly at me. I take his offered hand before he walks out the door.

I sigh and lie back on my chair. The plush fabric give the muscles in my back much needed rest. I wiggle my fingers to ease the tension that hours upon hours of paper signing brought on them. My eyes wander around the yellow lavender painted room before landing on my computer screen. I grin when a picture of my wife and I standing in front of the alter comes up. Then the slideshow followed with a picture of her in her very first working outfit – a seaweed green waitress dress.

Her lips were set into a thin line, brooding about the miseries she was thrown in unprepared but her eyes glowed with the first taste of true freedom. Freedom to spend, freedom to earn, to enjoy, to fail, and to succeed.

Contrary to what her parents might want to think, they did us a favor when they pulled their funds out. It tested us but it made Irene stronger. It made us stronger. Now, nobody can take what we have because we built all of it from scratch. None of what we owned was handed to either of us. We worked days and nights for every penny. That's what made them dearer to us.

That day she barged in my dorm demanding that I helped her get a job was the start of our new beginning. It was the day life started to toss obstacles after obstacles on our relationship. It was the day we went to war with life.

That faithful day commenced the morning following her parents' disturbing visit. I fell off the bed when someone's pounding on my door made every object on my desk shake.

Wiping the last residual of sleep on my face, I pulled on the knob. A disfigured Irene strode inside with a large sweater over her pajamas. Only the bottom of her Scooby-doo PJs was visible. Her brown hair was all over the place, sticking out in all directions. Heavy bags slouched under her red eyes while white crumbs was smeared around her dry lips.

"I need a job," she croaked before I could open my mouth.

Her request took me aback but I hurriedly erased it before she saw it and thought I was doubting her ability to work. Not that I was. Just a tiny bit since she had been sheltered all her life of the real world. She was raised to be the boss not the underpaid employee.

I was ready to be proven wrong at any time.

"Well?" she said with her voice cracking.

"Are you alright?" I walked closer to her. "Do you need me to get you some water?"

Her face hardened. "No, I need a job."

I pulled her to the bed with me. We sat on the edge. My fingers ran along her arms in what hopefully was a comforting touch.