Dark Price of Paradise

Saving the Marriage

Teuila stopped at the clinic, she had a dress she had packed into a spacious handbag she sometimes carried. Most of the time it contained papers, notes, or documents concerning island politics. Today, all Teuila had carried in her bag was the dress.

Teuila came into the clinic waiting room smiling. Talking to the five or so people in the waiting room. Saying hello to Kane. Daisy was in the infirmary, already at work caring for the eleven patients in the infirmary. One had come in early this morning.

Teuila stopped at Jill Lagas' bedside. The girl was pale, her eyes hallow. Her husband had not come in. Dark circles had formed around the young woman's eyes. Teuila picked up Jill's hand and held it for a while, until Jill woke up.

"Miss Tay. What are you doing here?" Teuila had heard that listlessness in her own voice in the last few weeks.

"I heard you weren't feeling well, so I came in to visit you." Which was a lie. Teuila had not even known Jill was in the hospital. It wasn't until
Tay brought in the dress for Daisy that she learned Jill had come in that morning.

"Paul says I'm not really sick, that it's my imagination. Truth is, I'm afraid Miss Tay." Jill admitted.

"Afraid of what?" Teuila continued to hold Jill's hand Jill suddenly squeezed it tightly for support.

"Of another tainted boy." Jill relaxed her tight grip.

"I'm told that you don't have to worry about that." Teuila assured her. "It was just exposure to that radiation in the cave that caused the defect in the child you had. If you get pregnant this time the child will be normal."

"You don't know that." Jill replied.

"No, not for certain, but we never can know the whole scheme of things." Teuila was beginning, just beginning to understand the scheme of things behind her own depression. One thing was that she could help others like Jill, because she had been through it.

"Paul hates me." Jill was crying now.

"I doubt that." Teuila had gone through this too. Thinking that her friends should hate for what she had done. "It wasn't any fault of your own." "He does. He hasn't touched me. Worse, is I don't care. I'm afraid if he does I'll have another tainted baby." Jill was also ashamed. That she had brought a tainted child in the world in the first place. She didn't admit that.

"Maybe he is afraid that the tainted baby is his fault. Maybe it isn't your womb that he fears to be tainted, but his seed. Do you think it is possible that he's afraid to seed a tainted baby as much as you are afraid to grow another one in your belly."

"No, he's so assured. So collected. He wouldn't think that way." Jill thought she knew her husband, that by living with him, she knew how he was.

"Some men don't wear their emotions on the surface. They don't think it's a manly thing to do. Paul is that way. You've lived with him, you know he is." Teuila had experience with men. She knew how they acted, how other men expected them to act, and the pressure society placed on them to act in a certain way.

"Talk to Paul. Let him know how you feel. Ask him if he wants to touch you. Decide if you can let him touch you. If not, maybe it's time to leave the marriage. You can't stay married, afraid to touch each other. Afraid to pleasure each other. Afraid of having kids. You two have to talk it out. To decide if you can get over what happened. If you don't you'll just both be unhappy."

Teuila offered a few more comforting words. She left the clinic to head home. Teuila felt the darkness trying to engulf her again. She stopped by the Victory Cafe. Ordered a cheeseburger. Even though it was ground pork, not beef, it was still Teuila's favorite food. The food she turned to when she felt she needed comfort.

Nash had taken Sefina and Charlie's advice and decided against proposing to Teuila in the middle of one of the tourist shows on the stage. He went to Teuila's house while she was gone. The doors were unlocked. No one locked their houses unless they planned to be gone for awhile.

Despite the ban on alcohol, Nash had managed to obtain a bottle of red wine. He had cook at the Victory Cafe prepare two dishes of a pulled pork flavored with pineapple and coconut that was popular on other islands. With this came rice grown on the island, mixed with curry, and a salad. While Teuila was gone, Nash sat up the dinner. Then waited with the velvet lined box that contained the engagement ring in his pocket. He would present it after the dinner.

Mike Hatta wasn't done with the situation concerning Teuila and the Council. He might be thrown off the Council by his actions, but he would make sure Teuila got hurt as well. When he heard about the incident between Teuila and the two men Mike bought them a bottle of Rum from the black market on the docks.

Teuila found Paul Lagas at the Farmer's Market in the Dock District. It was still afternoon and safe enough for 'decent' women. He was selling his crop of sweet potatoes. One of the staples of the island farms. Teuila had asked around about him and found his booth.

"Paul, your wife thinks you blame her for the death of your child." Teuila made sure that other people couldn't hear this conversation by keeping her voice low.

"Well, you know island rumor, most of what people say isn't true." Paul dismissed it as best he could.

"This comes from your wife." Teuila said. "She is in the clinic, thinking you don't love her."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with her. I told her as much. Told the Doc too." Paul was annoyed that Jill had insisted on going to the clinic.

"Not all sickness is physical. Some people get sick in the mind. Sick in the heart too." Teuila hoped she could get through to Paul how serious this was. "If you don't tell her you love her, she might not get better."

"How do I know she loves me. When I touch her she flinches. Got to the point I don't try anymore." Paul didn't want to admit how it hurt him for her to flinch away from him.

"She loves you. It's that she's afraid. Like you are. That you two could produce another tainted baby." Teuila saw Paul look down and away.

"Are you afraid of that too? Paul, it's okay to be afraid." Teuila touched Paul's hand. "You two won't produce another tainted baby. That is what the Tony and Eddie, the scientists that know, say."

"It was a boy, Teuila. A boy." Paul wanted to cry, but islander men didn't like to cry. It wasn't their nature. "It hurt so much. To see it that way. To know what had to be done for it."

"I know. You wanted a boy so badly. Someone to work the farm with and pass on the land. Only to have it all snatched away from you. Will you let Jill be snatched away too? Or any other chance that you two can ever have another child taken as well? You have to go to her."

Teuila watched the booth, did her best to sell the crop Paul had brought to the market. While Paul hurried to the hospital to talk to Jill. Three hours later the couple walked back to the booth. They had talked and decided to try to make another go at their marriage.