Lady Baby

23

Max paced. One glance at his phone screen showed it was fifteen more minutes before Dami's visit. He had done everything to distract himself. He had washed the dishes and attempted to clean out his studio but ended up spiralling into a darker mood when he found one of Sharon's latest "art" pieces. It had a frightening resemblance to the artwork he had sold off the night of their first argument— the very one Uncle Olu bought. He hightailed out of the studio at the speed of light. Making breakfast helped. Lately, cooking has become a sort of relaxing hobby. Sharon made him get artistic with the whole thing. Who knew there was a whole world of food art on YouTube?

Uncle was seated next to Sharon in the living area. She was showing him something on her Tablet. Max strolled over and glanced at the screen. It was a rough digital art piece she had created the night before. The new Sharon was incredibly fast at understanding how it worked. She'd sit in a corner at his studio and go crazy with the whole thing. Then she'd begin interrupting him almost every second.

"Look, Maximum! See what I drew."

"Hey, how do I make it look like that?"

"Look, look. I think this looks like Baymax. Don't you think so?"

"There are so many brushes, Maximum. How do you make it all glowy?"

His answers had been full of monotones and distracted smiles. What consumed most of his attention was how to work with the bomb she threw the night before. Nothing in Sharon's medical record showed that she suffered any type of head trauma. He had called Freddy, their family physician, asking if a childhood head injury could affect an adult later in the future.

"Depends on the severity," she said, her voice still managing to be cheery at that time of the night. "Something like that will be difficult to hide. And judging from the length of time...hmmm. If the hit caused some sort of brain damage then it is possible, even though such occurrences are very rare. I will check her records once more, and see what I can find."

Freddy had found nothing remotely related to Sharon having a head injury. Max was unwilling to call her new doctor. The man was a walking, talking bag of bad news. But judging from the way things were going, it seemed he'd have to reach out with the latest development.

"You should sit down."

Max paused his pacing and glanced at Uncle Olu. He and Sharon were staring at him. "All that pacing wouldn't help the situation. I know my sister, the best way to get information out of her is to be as level-headed as possible. Fighting fire with fire will achieve nothing... and she's one of those who thrive in conflict."

"How do you fight fire with fire?" Sharon asked.

"It's just an expression." Uncle Olu swiped at the Tablet screen. "You drew this too?"

That took Sharon's attention immediately.

As Max sat, he fought for calm. Something in his guts told him this whole bump in the head thing affected Sharon. When he asked Uncle Olu about it when he returned, the man was also surprised. Aunt Maria never told him of such an occurrence. When Sharon's mum brought Sharon to live with them at the farm, she had been physically alright. Apart from how quiet she was, everything about Sharon appeared normal.

On the other hand, Sharon refused to say another word about the incident. Nothing he said would change her mind. A doctor's visit was in order. The first visit was with her mother.

He glanced at his phone screen once more. Ten more minutes. He stood again and began to mindlessly swipe through his screen.

"Look Maximum!" Sharon turned the Tablet screen and grinned. The action was so radiant Max blinked. "It's our wedding. I look so pretty. Am I still pretty?" Her gaze dropped to the screen and lingered on the image.