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| "What use is a newborn baby?" Mehregan Javanmaard, (Wiki.) |
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The Mysterious Case of Betty Blue, The Final Chapter. (19.)
Louis Shalako
Scott was knee-deep in changing diapers.
With little Eddie’s crib in the corner and the
changing table right under the window, it was still an iffy thing. He’d barfed
more than once doing this job. For some reason today wasn’t so bad.
“Hey, little buddy.” The squirming body kicked and
fussed and Scott held onto a tiny hand, grinning from ear to ear. “Come on,
help me out here.”
Eddie fussed and squirmed something awful.
It was getting on towards dinner time and Betty
would be home soon. He’d better put some thought into that. Unwrapping the
stinky diaper, he put that in the garbage. He rolled the kid over.
Scott mopped the poop off the kid’s backside and
disposed of the wipes in the plastic garbage hamper. He took a fresh moist one
and made sure Eddie’s ass was as clean as a baby’s bum.
He hummed softly to himself.
“I never thought I would live to see the day.” With
a scratchy sound, the Velcro fasteners were done up and the kid was good to go.
The sound of the door came from the front of the
apartment.
“Ah. Here’s your mother now.”
Scott put the baby back in the crib for the moment,
although Betty would be in there soon enough.
He went out into the living room of their new
two-bedroom apartment, which was looking a lot better since they had
re-painted.
He never thought he’d see that come to pass, either.
Thanks to the new, ceramic, but pretty good set of
used eyes the Cartiers had given him as a wedding present, there had been a
moment of horror when he saw the place, really saw it for the first time.
It was hard not to think less of landlords in
general, but the truth was he’d lived like that for a long time and still hated
the thoughts of his old life. He had a moment of wonder.
I wonder what
my old place looked like after ten or twelve years.
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| Aude, (Wiki) |
“Honey. I’m home.”
They smiled into each other’s eyes.
“I’m positively famished. What’s for dinner?”
Scott threw his arms wide open, put his chin
down, cocked his head and grinned like there was no tomorrow.
“Me.”
Her laugh resonated around the room and probably
in other parts of the building.
“No.” She gazed hungrily into his eyes, and then
down to where Scott kept the throbbing, big red rocket hangared. “That’s
dessert—I need food, real food.”
The pair clung together in a bear hug as Eddie
babbled happily in his crib. Already her eyes were sliding over his shoulder
and seeking out the door to Eddie’s room.
Scott sighed. He let her go.
“So, it’s like that, eh. Off you go then. See your
kid.”
Once last peck from her, and then it was off to the
kitchen for Scott.
A house-husband’s work is never done.
“Betty?”
“Yes, dear?” They were already laughing and giggling
in there and there was no end of nonsense from either one of them.
“Can you bring out that garbage bag when you come
and I’ll take it down?”
No answer.
He would just have to live in suspense, then.
Pots and pans rattled and banged. There were some
frozen pork chops, a few potatoes, and a couple of tall cans of Bud. They had
the makings for salad and there were still a few soft-pack containers of
formula for the baby.
They had each other, and you really couldn’t ask for much more.
END
About
Louis Shalako
Louis Shalako began writing for community newspapers
and industrial magazines. His stories appear in publications including
Perihelion Science Fiction, Bewildering Stories, Aurora Wolf, Ennea,
Wonderwaan, Algernon, Nova Fantasia, and Danse Macabre. He lives in southern
Ontario and writes full time.
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