Anything and Everything

This adorable little devil, despite being outside for a total of 3 minutes, somehow managed to catch a bird.

He growled at me when I tried to take it off him

The bird was as big as his head

Feet pounding. Arms pumping. Heart racing. 

The world flashes by in a blur, as feet connect with ground, propelling me along. Faster, further. But still, the desire to move drives me on faster.

Adrenaline pumps through my system so hard it's like I have superpowers. I can hear more, see more, move swifter than ever before. I run like my life depends on it. 

I have never been so scared in my life. 

********

“So, miss, can you explain to me exactly how this happened?” 

Two weeks earlier I crashed my car. It wasn't bad, actually quite a mundane incident, but my car got totalled. I forgot to put the handbrake on you see. And, well, when your car is parked at the top of a very steep hill, it shall roll down said hill, and crash into the wall at the bottom. 

“I just forgot to put on my handbrake, like an idiot.”

My wife was going to kill me. We had been completely reliant on this machine for the past nine months or so, and will struggle without it. 

“Okay. You're still going to need to come down the police station to answer a few questions.”

“Yes officer. What will happen to my car?”

I looked at my car, dismay clawing at my heart. We have never struggled with money, my wife and i, but we've never exactly been well off, either. Replacing the car was going to put a huge dent in our savings, and we don’t have that option right now. The bonnet of the car had completely caved in, the windscreen smashed beyond repair, and smoke billowed out of the engine. Had anyone been in there at the time, they would probably have died.

“Well, we’ll get it towed, and scraped. There's no way that's getting repaired. Definite write-off.”

“Okay. thank you, officer.”

I had followed the young woman back to the police station with a heavy heart, spent thirty minutes answering her questions and giving out my details, and then i was allowed to leave. I phoned my boss, explaining why i was going to be late in, and received a heavy sigh, but an understanding reply. “Okay, i won't dock your pay this morning, but you’d better get your ass here fast.”

I’d never been so grateful for working in a small shop in my whole life. Don't get me wrong, i love my job. I work in a bakery, and me and five others work there six days a week, making bread, and cakes, and pastries that are so good they could put any michelin star chef to shame. But it works long, pretty unsocial hours, and doesn't pay magnificently well. In fact, if it weren't for my wife working in an office high rise in the city, commuting two hours by train every day, we wouldn't have enough money to make do. 

But the fact that it was a sunday, and the hours were shorter, and the customers usually didn't start pouring in until midday, meant that my boss could handle me being an hour late.

When i got to work, i called my wife, informing her of the situation. She was a little, to say the least, miffed.

Okay, i got screamed at down the phone, before she burst into tears and started crying about how we didnt have money to waste at this point in her life, and with her out of work for at least the next two months, and me only earning megre sums, we wouldn't be able to get a new car for nearly six months at best.

But honestly, it could have been worse. She did the same, two months into our marriage, five years ago, with her first car. Luckily we had two car back then, and we never replaced her old one, but she let the car roll down a hill into busy traffic, where another car drove headlong into it, and put the other driver in hospital. She has very rightly been scared of getting behind the wheel since.

When i got home that evening, she had gotten her head around the idea, but was still pissed off at me, meaning we spent the evening in almost total silence, before she went to bed early, and i was left to stare at the note she’d written on the fridge titled ‘groceries we can't afford if you want a car’.

Frosty, to say the least.

*************

Pain cleaves its way through my chest as i sprint the last fifteen meters to the doors of the hospital. My breathing ragged, my legs quaking, i make my way to the receptionist. I can barely hear her over the roaring pounding of my heart in my ears. She has to repeat what she says at least twice, and i can tell that by the time i head off in the right direction, she fears im about to have a heart attack. My face beet red, and sweat dripping from me, i look disgusting, and had honestly hoped that in this moment i had time to stop and change. I don't. 

The run here from work took nearly an hour. What if i'm too late? What if…

I follow the signs, but the hospital is too large, and i get lost. “‘Scuse me, nurse. Where do i go for ward 3D?”

“Keep going love. And don't look so worried. She’s fine.”

But what if she’s not. What if…

The closer i get, the harder it is to breathe. In, out. In, out. But adrenaline has made itself at home in my heart, my brain swirling out of control with anxiety. I feel like i could pass out, but i can't afford to do that here, no matter it being a hospital.

I find the ward, i find the room. I knock.

I hear already hushed voices quiet as the door swings open. I go in, my gaze sweeping the small hospital room, before my eyes land on the one thing i was hoping to see. My wife, alive and well. Immediately, anxiety seeps from my bones, and a smile makes its way onto my face. My wife returns the smile. She doesn't care that I am covered in sweat, my face is flushed with blood, my hair sticks to my forehead, and I very probably smell.

Her mother, who sits beside the bed comes over to me and hugs me. “It's good to see you, girl.” she tells me, before kissing me on the cheek.

My father in law comes out of the bathroom, and claps me on the shoulder. “Congratulations.” he tells me, before shifting his gaze to his daughter. “See, i told you she’d be here soon.”

I say nothing, my gaze transfixed on the small bundle in my wife's arms. I slowly creep towards the bed, almost too afraid to look. Adrenaline, i welcome thee back into my heart.

“Don't look so afraid.” my wife laughs. How she looks so happy after what she’s been through, the pain she must be in, bewilders me. But thats one of the reasons why i love her; she has so much strength. “Sit.”

We have no boundaries, her and i, but still i am careful, and keep my distance, as i sit down on the hospital bed beside her. I wrap an arm around her shoulder, and look down at the tiny bundle. “So?” i rasp out, slightly surprised i even managed to speak at all.

My wife bounces the bundle up and down in her arms. She hasn't even told her parents. We had a pact, that we’d tell them together, but now my wife has to tell everyone by herself. “A girl.”

“We have a daughter.” i say, and it hits me like a brick wall. A daughter. I have a baby girl.

My father in law whoops with joy. “A granddaughter! Yeah baby!”

“Is the future going to be all girl?” my mother in law laughs, shaking her head.

“We can only hope.” my wife mumbles, kissing me.

Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhhh.

That's me