After Forever Ends - Ramone Melodie - Страница 70
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“Huh?” Her eyes flashed back to me.
“It means you can make plans, but you usually take the scenic route to see them through.”
“Ya think?” She laughed, but not as if it were funny, “I never thought within a month of graduating the culinary academy I’d…number one, be married…number two, be pregnant…and number three, most of all, I never thought I’d be living in Wales! I didn’t even know where Wales was!”
“Did you think he’d stay in the States?” I asked her seriously. I knew Alexander well enough to know he would never live that far from Oliver. Not for long anyway.
“He said he wanted to go back and I knew eventually we would. I guess I just thought it would be down the road or it would be like six months here, six months there.”
“Did he tell you it would be like that?”
“No. He told me that he had to go home as soon as he got his degree and his visa was up. I just didn’t think he meant it. I thought he’d want to stay for at least awhile. At least until the baby was born.”
“Alexander is usually pretty clear with his intentions,” I sighed, “But I can sympathize. You are very far from your home.”
“Ya think?”
I really wished she’d stop saying that. “It seemed a long way from Scotland when I came to Wales. And the Welsh are unique. The Welsh are…very Welsh. You don’t know what that means unless you come here.” I sat back and thought for a minute, “I imagine that you feel very much out of your comfort zone. But you married Alexander. He should be your home.” She began to cry. I knew I had said the wrong thing, but I was not sure why it had been wrong. “It’s OK, Melissa. It seems even with Alex you’re quite lonely…”
“I love him so much! I want to be with him, but I’m homesick already and I’ve only been here a month!” She sobbed, “Oliver has been very nice and Alex’s parents have been very nice…everyone’s been very nice, but this place…like, it’s not home. You all speak English, but it’s not English! I can’t understand half of what anybody’s talking about! Alexander talks about a going up a wooden gwelly and I don’t know he wants to go to bed! So I just sit there like a jerk! And I’m supposed to be a chef, but chips are crisps and fries are chips and prawns are shrimp! All I want is a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips and all I can find are shrimp flavoured ones! Gross! And all the food looks the same, but tastes different! I can’t get anything to taste right! Even chocolate tastes like crap here! And the other night Alexander took me out to dinner and they had peanut sauce on the plate with my meat! I almost puked!” She was obviously very frustrated, “And, like, I buy the shampoo I buy at home, but it smells weird. And I can’t drive! I’m always on the wrong side of the road! I feel like a moron!”
“You’re not a moron. You’re an American. We all expect you to be backwards. There are a lot of American tourists who come here and drive down the wrong side of the path, no one’s shocked by you doing it. Don’t be so hard on yourself. And not one of us you’ve met speaks the Queen’s English,” I told her. I was trying to be soothing, but at the same time I didn’t comprehend how she could not understand that when you’re married your husband is your home. For whatever reason Duncan chose that moment to snarl at a shadow on the wall. I tapped his shoulder to get him to stop as I continued, “And not one of us speaks American, either. You’re in Wales dealing with Welshmen. It’s a completely different lingo. I had to learn it, too, but you have to understand that to us, it’s you who sounds strange. We just all have to be patient.”
“That’s just it! I don’t fit in!”
“You fit in with Alexander.” I suggested desperately.
“I miss my mom!” She wailed.
“Have you called your mum?” I handed her a tea towel to wipe her eyes. “Have you told her how you feel?”
She nodded. “Yes. She and my sister are flying out in a few weeks when she can get time off of work.”
“Well, that’ll be lovely!”
“They’re excited,” It seemed to cheer her up just a bit, “They’ve never been to Europe.”
“Wales is very beautiful. Powys is breathtaking in spots. Oliver took me to see secret places when we were younger, places that aren’t in the tour books. Alexander knows them and I’m sure he will take you there as well. ”
“Alexander said he’d take us to England, too, and Scotland if we want to go,” She looked at me hopefully, “He says we can drive there.”
“You’re not far from England where you’re sitting right now. You could walk to it if you were determined enough. A little more than two hours’ drive will get you to London. The English countryside is quite lovely. And Scotland is a hop, but not a terrible one. I’m biased, but Scotland is amazing. You’ll have a wonderful time! You can ferry to Ireland like!” I still almost felt bad for her, but for some reason I couldn’t quite get there. Duncan growled again, “Listen, Mel, I know how lonely it feels to be in a new place and know no one really, but you’ll find friends. And you already have a best friend in your husband. You two are doing all right?”
“We are!”
I looked her straight in the face. I didn’t care what Oliver said about her, she was a beautiful girl, even if I did agree her mouth was a bit fat and oddly shaped, “It’ll take some time, but we’ll be your family, too, soon enough, if you let us. And I know Alexander well enough to tell you that he’ll not hold you captive in Wales. Once you have that baby you’ll go back to the states often as you can manage the time and the tickets.”
She smiled. “I’m not miserable, really, I’m just…”
“Hormonally challenged?” I offered, “I can only imagine what you’re going through,” I looked down at her belly, “It’s OK, Melissa. That’s a Dickinson you’ve got growing inside you. One of those is enough to put anybody over the edge at times, much less two.”
“I’m glad you answered the phone,” Mel wiped her eyes, “I think I’d die if you didn’t.”
“You wouldn’t die,” I told her, “Alexander wouldn’t allow that.”
Melissa and I spent all day together that day. I showed her around the wood and answered her questions about the faerie circle and the elves that lived there. She seemed to be able to believe it easier than I had. Finally, I asked her the question that I had been dying to ask, “What does it feel like to have that baby in you?”
She rubbed her belly, “Crampy, mostly. It’s not like I can feel it move yet or anything. I don’t think so anyway. But I’m already showing.”
“I wasn’t,” I stared at the bulge under her hands, “I was further along as you when I lost mine, but I didn’t show at all. I’m built more sturdy than you.”
Her eyes were wide. “You’re not sturdy at all!” She said it as a reflex to avoid my comment, but it was unavoidable, “I’m sorry.”
“For what? I have a woman’s body. Even when I was a girl I had a woman’s body. I've always had curves. I’d rather eat every day anyway than suffer to wear a bikini.”
“No. That’s not what I meant. Alex told me what happened to your baby. I’m sorry.”
“It happens,” I looked to the spot on the ground where my daughter had died, “But it won’t to you. You’re going to have a happy, fat little baby. And I’ll be its Auntie Sil.”
“Yes, you will!”
“And I’ll look out for the muffin, too,” I said as I looked at the sky, “I know you’re wanting to go home to your husband now. I can tell by the look of you.”
“I am,” She agreed, “I’m getting tired.”
“Come on then. I’ll bring you to him,” I walked her to the car, shouting at Duncan to stay. He sat in the grass, looking extremely put out.
Melissa talked non-stop all the way back to their flat about nothing much at all. I nodded and smiled here and there and pretended to be watching the road while I did my best not to listen. As she exited the car, I stopped her, “Melissa! Wait a second!”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
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