Learning How to Bend

EPILOGUE - April 8

This is being posted on April 8th because IT'S MY BIRTHDAY. What better way to celebrate my own birthday then finally bringing Learning How to Bend to a close?

Thank you all for coming on this journey with me!//

-- December 2019 --

Being married to Thaddeus Andino was an adventure, to say the least.  I moved some of my belongings into his penthouse apartment, but most of the furniture I either gave away or sold.  We had hung the painting from my living room up on the wall in the hallway to Thaddeus's—our—bedroom, and my bedroom furniture we placed in his extra room for use if any family members requested someplace to stay, which had happened twice in the just over a year we had been married.  Vasilisa and her mother stayed with us for one weekend, and Susan another.  In general, though, life became entirely about me, Thaddeus, and Chelise.  Joe and Katherine were still integral people in my life, but neither of them checked on me as frequently anymore, and we only saw each other maybe twice a month versus twice a week.

It was Christmastime.  Thaddeus and I had flown to Texas for a couple days to spend time with my stepmother before traveling straight to Vermont to see his family, too.  That took some heavy convincing on my part, as after our previous strained visit, he did not want to see them.  Evangeliya seemed better than before; her doctors had prescribed her new medication which appeared to address her symptoms more successfully.  She had even just finished a couple online college classes, with plans to take two more in the coming semester.

Neither of us, however, wanted to spend Christmas Day out of our own home, so we flew from Vermont on Christmas Eve to return to New York.  We had a late dinner with Katherine, Joe, and Elizabeth, who actually walked to me when Thaddeus and I walked in the door.  I kept Betha on my lap almost the entire time, blowing on her neck, tickling her, trying to figure out any way to make her smile or laugh.  The only instance I let her go was when she fell asleep; Kat, in turn, put the baby in her crib so we could exchange gifts.  Thaddeus, still not big on gift-giving, left the purchasing up to me.  Much to his dismay, I made him help with the wrapping.  What started as simply trying to decide which holiday-themed bag to use ended in me throwing tissue paper projectiles at him from behind the couch.  It was a futile attempt at a battle, though, as Thaddeus unfortunately knew very well about my ticklishness, and thus I had to concede.

When the elevator dinged to announce our arrival at the penthouse floor, I walked out first with Chelise. Thaddeus followed close behind.  Betha absolutely adored my golden retriever, and the sentiments seemed mutual.  Chelise's tail wiggled back and forth so fast when she saw the tiny human that her entire rear end moved, and she walked in a zigzag pattern.  Like Chelise did with me, she kept such a close and caring eye on Betha, even allowing the child to use her as a brace to stand tall and wander toward Kat.  Chelise stayed right by her side every step of the way and licked her face if she fell.  The dog seemed to innately understand that Elizabeth was a precious human being to so many individuals, and thus that meant Betha was important to her, too.  She was so attached to Betha, in fact, that she had not wanted to leave Joe and Kat's apartment.

"Little love, what did you buy?" Thaddeus asked, looking down at the shipping box in front of our door.

"Good, I was starting to think the first part of your Christmas present wouldn't get here in time.  Push it inside, will you?  I imagine it's quite heavy."

"I thought we agreed we weren't getting each other gifts." He leaned down to shove the big package inside the living room after I opened the door.

"Well, this is an exception." I released Chelise from her harness and hung it on the latch right inside the door.