…THEN COMES MARRIAGE, THEN COMES…
Days passed by in a calm happy manner for almost five years, by which time, aunties with noses much too long for their own good began asking Emily why she hadn’t had a baby yet. It annoyed her at first. Then as she thought about it, she realized that she was ready to have a child. Perhaps Ethan was too. So, one evening, with no preamble what-so-ever, she sat down with Ethan after dinner and said, “E, I think we’re ready to have a baby.”
Ethan, who as usual had been reading something on the computer about the newest advancements in surgery, looked up a little startled and ran his fingers through his wavy hair. “Say what now?”
“We’ve been married a while. I’m ready to have a child. Aren’t you?”
“Erm…”
“Look, there is never going to be a perfect time to have a baby. Something is always going to be wrong with the world and we can’t wait for everything to be all peaches and cream. If we do, that baby isn’t coming. We’ve got to have her and raise her right, so she can grow up and make the world a better place. Or he can; whichever it turns out to be.”
Ethan looked at her and opened his mouth to ask her where the desire for a child had suddenly come from then shut it abruptly, changing his mind. Instead, he began mentally calculating the possible expenditure a child could bring with it. As the numbers grew, almost as if she could read his mind, Emily said, “I know it costs a bomb to have a child, but we can afford a baby. We don’t have to give her the world, just lots of love, care, and joy.”
Ethan smiled a closed lipped smile and thought to himself that it was exactly like Emily to naively ignore the financial aspect of having a child. They could perhaps afford one child. If they had twins it would be a financial nightmare. Plus, most women wanted to be mothers. He also thought about how he would have to rework his schedule to fit a baby. It would not be impossible, just extremely difficult.
He sighed.
Out loud he said, “Sure Sweetie, let’s make a baby.”
Emily threw herself into his arms and after years, the two of had another night to remember.
******
Emily’s back today. Hope you’ve been following along! To catch up, please click here.
UBC Post 18!!!
Filed under: Fiction, novella, UBC October, Ultimate Blog Challenge Tagged: baby, children, Emily, fiction, Marriage, novella, story, then comes marriage then comes, UBC, UBC October 
