The Wii hummed to life when Mike gently pushed the red light-rimmed button on the front of the white console. His wife was puttering around in the kitchen, getting supper into the oven so they could indulge in their one electronic allowance. While the console booted up, he grabbed the two pristine white controllers and kept one of them while placing the other on the glass coffee table in front of their black leather couch. Humming a bit to himself, Mike simply watched the first prompt screen appear. He grasped the controller where he usually sat and took a seat, taking great care to aim the controller in the scope of the Wii sensor bar that was set exactly in the middle of the entertainment system’s central shelf. He reverently pressed the “A” button and watched the screen be replaced by the menu screen with satisfaction. 1
Holly, Mike's wife, set the time for the lasagna. Exactly ten minutes since it was a “Ready Meal”. She took off her oven mitts and walked excitedly to the TV room, looking forward to playing a video game with her husband. As soon as they saw each other, their “perfect couple” facade dropped like a rock into water. When it came to video games, the gloves came off and the trash talking began.2
“So, Mike, ready to lose again?” She smiled at him smugly and slumped down in her usual spot, snagging her remote as she did so, and expertly put the wrist band around her slim wrist, ready for battle. He likewise put the wrist band of his remote around his wrist and just smirked at her.3
“Not in the slightest, dear. You'll be the one cleaning up after dinner today. I plan on using several dishes. It will be very messy, I assure you.” He just looked at her. The gauntlet had been thrown down, the bet placed.4
“Oh, really? Fine, show me. Pick a game, Mikey.” She leaned back into the embrace of the couch and looked at Mike, cool and confident. 5
“You want me to pick, Holly? I'm so flattered!” Mike said with a sarcastic tone meant to be humorous instead of biting. Holly just nodded her head, still smirking to him. She gestured towards the CD binder they'd stored their games in. Muttering under his breath, Mike got up and retrieved it, flipping through it as he stood in front of the TV. After turning a few of the sleeves, his eyes widened and a gleeful twinkle alighted in his blue eyes.6
“I have just the game!” He said, carefully freeing the disc from its clear plastic sleeve and reverently inserting it into the humming console. Mike smiled mischievously at his wife and reached behind the entertainment center and pulled out two white folded mats.7
“You didn't!” Holly exclaimed. Her face was utterly shocked, and a tad pale. Mike ignored her exclamation and calmly hooked up the mats to the Wii as the game started its intro. Music played as the game introduced itself as “Hottest Party”, the latest installation of the Dance Dance Revolution franchise. After the mats were set up, he stepped into the middle of the arrowed mat in his socks and turned to look at Holly.8
“Well, come on now we haven't got all day here. Dinner will be ready before we know it. Not to mention the cleanup afterwards.” Mike didn't even wait for her to answer. He finished quickly disabling the hand motion icon prompts so they would only have to concentrate on hitting the arrow icons for their feet. Holly sighed and stood up, going over to take her own position on her mat. 9
“I will still win, honey. Just because I lost the last time we played this doesn't mean I won't beat you today.” Holly glanced at Mike as she pulled her legs up one at a time, stretching. Mike chose the feature that allowed them to do a sort of dance off, then picked “Karma Chameleon” as the song of choice, setting the difficulty to the “Difficult.” The music started and Mike glanced at Holly in turn before the first arrows sped from the bottom to the top of the screen.10
“Think you can keep up?” Mike laughed at Holly's expression. Priceless.11
“I sure can, hubby. Watch me.” The first arrows appeared and the couple stomped and hopped to the music, each of them hitting the arrows precisely. The music thrummed from their surround sound system, throbbing in their chests with the force of the bass. They always made it loud enough to do that, but not too loud as to where they couldn't hear each other. 12
Sweating, Holly noticed that Mike was doing better and better while her moves became sloppy and uncoordinated. Desperate, she said the first thing that came to mind to try and distract him. She wasn't above that, neither of them were. 13
“I want to have kids,” she stated, looking at her husband. The statement had the desired effect. They’d both agreed to not have children when they decided to get married, so her admission took him by surprise. Mike snapped his head to look at her, his mouth open in shock. His concentration broken, his feet tangled up with themselves during the complicated section that erupted on the screen. Holly grinned devilishly at him and kept right on stomping, her score edging higher as his came to a standstill for his lack of hit arrows. Mike's surprise bled to anger as he regained his rhythm, stabilizing his sync bar that showed how well he was doing. 14
“You did that on purpose! You knew I would freak out!” His face angry, Mike spared a quick glance to Holly, who at once looked apologetic. Angrily, he snapped his head back to the game.15
“Yeah, I kinda hoped for that,” Holly admitted, executing a complicated spin move to hit a slur of arrows on the screen. “But, I was totally serious. I . Want. To have. Kids,” she continued, trying to look at Mike again without jeopardizing her score. Neither of them spoke for the rest of the song. Each of them finished with high scores. Holly had won, but Mike didn’t have to say it aloud that it was an unfair win. Wordlessly, Mike chose another song. “Lips of an Angel,” setting it to “Difficult.” 16
“Well?” Holly inquired, nervous and a bit sick to her stomach.17
“I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to have kids,” Mike said flatly, not looking at her. They both started to stomp on the arrowed mats to correspond with the fast moving arrows on the screen. The crinkling of the mats and the music filled the silence between them. Both jumped, stomped, and executed the same unique move at the same time.18
“Well, I didn't really know when to tell you…,” Holly stated sheepishly, quickly wiping the sweat from her brow.19
“And you chose now to tell me?” he panted, hitting a fast succession of arrows that Holly only managed to hit a few of. Pursing her lips in annoyance, she made sure to hit the next sequence without fail.20
“Well, it sort of came out, alright? So…,” she trailed off, glancing at him quickly. She met his eyes before he turned his gaze away. 21
“To put it plainly? I still don't want kids,” Mike said, a bit of an apology in his voice. Holly parted her lips in slight surprise and objected.22
“And why the hell not? You always loved to take care of my little nieces and your mother even said you loved to babysit the little boys who lived on your block!” Holly fumed.23
“I admit, it was fun to take care of the kids, but that's different from actually having one of my own!” Mike protested in his defense, grunting as he twisted awkwardly, surprise in his face at the complicated behemoth of arrow clusters appearing on the screen. He and Holly were silent as they battled with the beasts. When they were successfully stomped and slain, Holly tried to reason with him.24
“No, it's not different! You loved those kids! The love in your eyes was plain to see! Having a child of your, our, own is hardly much different!” Holly implored, turning to look at him and plead with her eyes. He had turned at the same time, and he quickly turned his head back around when he saw the emotion in the baby-blues that mirrored his own. 25
“When I took care of those kids I didn't have to put them to bed, didn't have to constantly be surrounded by their squabbling and crying. I only had to deal with them for a few hours, then I got to hand them off,” he panted. He jumped forwards and back, trying to hit the triple two arrow stops that sped from the bottom of the screen.26
“You had to deal with that while you babysat them! You had no problem with those times!” Holly argued, missing the next couple arrows with a stumbling foot crossing. Cursing, she righted herself and continued, noticing that she was only a few points below Mike's score.27
“It is different, Holly! A baby is a big responsibility! I just don't know if either of us are ready for that kind of commitment right now,” Mike replied, furrowing his eyebrows in concentration. The song was almost over, and he planned to increase his lead.28
“We are ready, Mike! We've got stable jobs, a beautiful home, and a caring family. Our schedules are flexible enough, too. Please, Mike,” Holly pleaded, amazed to find tears brimming in her eyes. Mike didn't look at her. 29
“You seem to just be thinking of what you want. Have you considered, for just a moment, about what I might want? I don't want a child. I just want you,” Mike looked to her, noticing the tears that started to slide down her face as the song ended. The game announced Player 1, which was Mike, as the winner. Taking it as a cue to leave, Mike just walked out of the room without claiming his victory. Holly watched him put his shoes on and grab his keys. He left the house without a word. The tears kept falling as Holly listened to Mike start his truck and pull out of the driveway. Holly silently turned the game off and folded the mats. A ding echoed from the kitchen. Dinner was ready.30
Mike drove down their street, a bit angry with Holly. They had agreed not to have kids, and she suddenly changed her mind?31
He just drove, not really caring where he ended up. Mike made turns and stopped at street lights like a robot, his anger slowly draining away as the time passed. Soon, he found himself driving by the playground that was a few minutes from where they lived. Kids were still playing on the playground, their parents keeping an eye on them as they chatted about this and that. Before he knew what he was doing, Mike found himself pulling into a parking spot of the playground parking lot. Turning off the engine, he just watched. Kids romped on the equipment and played tag, squealing and shrieking in their fun. He watched the couples beam at their children and give loving glances to each other as they sat on the benches. He’d only been there a few minutes when the sun began to set. Parents herded their children to the minivans and SUV’s and drove away, leaving Mike alone. He sat there thinking for the longest time. 32
Darkness fell. Mike started his car and he made his way to Sullivan’s, a bar that he and his buddies always went to for a drink. Laurence was sitting at their usual table when he sauntered in, obviously deep in thought. Grinning, Laurence waved him over.33
“Mike! Good to see you again!” Laurence yelled, slapping Mike on the back as he sat down next to his friend. Mike gratefully took the second beer that Laurence had, twisting it open and throwing the cap onto the dark wood table.34
“Holly told me she wanted kids!” Mike said, getting straight to the point. He took a swig of his beer and watched the surprise appear in his friend’s expression.35
“Really? I thought you guys had decided…,” Laurence began.36
“Yeah! That’s what I told her! She tried to convince me, but I just left. I-I-couldn’t deal with it. The look she gave me, the sound of her voice as she told me why we should have kids,” Mike sighed and took another sip of his beer, looking down at the table. Laurence huffed and took a drink of his own beer before answering.37
“You guys should,” he said, a grin sprouting on his face. Mike just looked at him, stunned.38
“Seriously?! Why…,” Mike started. The bar was quite empty, so Mike lowered his voice. “Why do you say that?”39
“To tell you the truth, I wanna be an uncle!” Laurence guffawed, thumping his drink on the table. Mike just shook his head and drank a bit more from his bottle. Getting up, he walked out of the bar, Laurence’s laughter following him as he went out into the night. He had some thinking to do.40
Holly woke up the next morning to find herself alone in her bed. Mike hadn’t come home after he left the evening before. Her face pulled into a grimace as she recalled their heated discussion. Looking to her alarm clock, she studied the time, 7:00 AM. It was Saturday. Holly got out of bed and shuffled out of her room and down the stairs towards the kitchen, feeling her eyes burn with emotion. Mike usually woke her up with a kiss and a carefully prepared breakfast. Her feet slapped softly on the wood flooring as she walked across the expanse of their dining room and into the kitchen. The green walls were pale with the bright rays of the sun as it rose to greet the day. A figure sat at the small table that graced the center of the room. He was hunched over a steaming cup of what appeared to be coffee. Immediately, Holly recognized the bedraggled individual to be her husband. 41
“I was wondering if you were going to get up. You’ve always been an early riser,” Mike said, his voice was hoarse. Holly sat down across from him and searched his face. She didn’t reply. The silence stretched between them. Finally, Holly spoke.42
“Where did you go last night?” she whispered, looking down to trace a whirl on the wood of the table. 43
“To Sullivan’s. Laurence was there, and we drank a bit. I just drove around afterward,” Mike answered, getting up to wash his mug. He didn’t tell her about his time at the playground. Holly watched him carefully clean every inch of the ceramic before drying it and returning it to the cupboard. He came back and sat back down.44
“So….about yesterday….,” she started, her eyes searching his face. He met her eyes and then looked back down as if embarrassed. 45
“I shouldn’t have left like that, Holly. I’m sorry. It’s just…,” Mike trailed off, turning back to look at her helplessly. 46
“I understand. I just kinda…threw that at you. I hadn’t realized that I really did want kids until the thought entered my mind,” she stated, wanting to bring the idea up again.47
“Yeah, you did throw me for a loop,” he replied, a mirthful glint entering his eye. He smiled.48
“I sure did!” Holly laughed and Mike joined in, filling the kitchen with the sound. Once their laughter trailed off, Holly took a deep breath, fully intending to start her argument again for why they should have kids.49
“So, you really want kids?” Mike asked hesitantly, glancing at her. She appreciated the fact that he brought the matter up first. 50
“Yeah,” she replied just as hesitantly. She didn’t want this conversation to end like the last one had. 51
“Why do you? Is it some sort of maternal urge to procreate or something?” Holly brightened when he asked her that.52
“Well, that may be a part of it, but I’ve always loved kids, babysitting and taking care of them, especially the infants. They’re just so cute, and the love they show in their eyes...so loving!” She reached across the table and placed a hand on his larger one, gazing earnestly into his eyes. “We’d become closer by loving and taking care of something we created out of love, Mike. We would raise them to be a great citizen, teach them morals and help them succeed in life! Don’t you feel like that would be bettering humanity, the world?” Holly finished, joy glowing in her face. Mike watched her speak and saw that she wasn’t kidding about how she felt about having children. 53
“You’re truly serious about this aren’t you?” Mike knew he was stating the obvious, but the words still came out of his mouth. Sensing that she was on the verge of turning him, Holly immediately answered.54
“Of course! We are ready for this Mike! Having a little bundle of joy love us as much as we love them, looking at us with such adoration and trust that we can’t help but smile, to protect them and nurture them? To watch them grow up and live their lives how they choose to? We'd love it!” She looked past him, smiling gently, as if she was seeing a child sitting and playing on the kitchen floor with their pots and pans. Mike knew that she truly wanted children, and had realized something while he’d driven around town. He had felt a response to what Holly had expressed. 55
Mike looked at his wife and saw the joy fairly spilling out of her. He watched her hand move to rest on her stomach and felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. Getting up, he walked around to sit in the chair next to her. He brought her close, putting his arm around her shoulders. Holly looked at him questioningly. He just looked at her as she looked at him.56
“I think having a little tyke around would be nice,” Mike said nonchalantly. He grunted as Holly threw herself into his lap, fairly squealing with delight and excitement.57
“I’m so happy! What changed your mind?” Holly asked, curious. “Was it what I poured out to you just now?” Mike only smiled. He'd thought a lot as he’d driven around before coming home. Mike's decision was due to more than what she had said to him. The scene at the playground played through his head again. He simply grinned and nodded his head, the giggles of children echoing in his mind.58
59
Holly, Mike's wife, set the time for the lasagna. Exactly ten minutes since it was a “Ready Meal”. She took off her oven mitts and walked excitedly to the TV room, looking forward to playing a video game with her husband. As soon as they saw each other, their “perfect couple” facade dropped like a rock into water. When it came to video games, the gloves came off and the trash talking began.2
“So, Mike, ready to lose again?” She smiled at him smugly and slumped down in her usual spot, snagging her remote as she did so, and expertly put the wrist band around her slim wrist, ready for battle. He likewise put the wrist band of his remote around his wrist and just smirked at her.3
“Not in the slightest, dear. You'll be the one cleaning up after dinner today. I plan on using several dishes. It will be very messy, I assure you.” He just looked at her. The gauntlet had been thrown down, the bet placed.4
“Oh, really? Fine, show me. Pick a game, Mikey.” She leaned back into the embrace of the couch and looked at Mike, cool and confident. 5
“You want me to pick, Holly? I'm so flattered!” Mike said with a sarcastic tone meant to be humorous instead of biting. Holly just nodded her head, still smirking to him. She gestured towards the CD binder they'd stored their games in. Muttering under his breath, Mike got up and retrieved it, flipping through it as he stood in front of the TV. After turning a few of the sleeves, his eyes widened and a gleeful twinkle alighted in his blue eyes.6
“I have just the game!” He said, carefully freeing the disc from its clear plastic sleeve and reverently inserting it into the humming console. Mike smiled mischievously at his wife and reached behind the entertainment center and pulled out two white folded mats.7
“You didn't!” Holly exclaimed. Her face was utterly shocked, and a tad pale. Mike ignored her exclamation and calmly hooked up the mats to the Wii as the game started its intro. Music played as the game introduced itself as “Hottest Party”, the latest installation of the Dance Dance Revolution franchise. After the mats were set up, he stepped into the middle of the arrowed mat in his socks and turned to look at Holly.8
“Well, come on now we haven't got all day here. Dinner will be ready before we know it. Not to mention the cleanup afterwards.” Mike didn't even wait for her to answer. He finished quickly disabling the hand motion icon prompts so they would only have to concentrate on hitting the arrow icons for their feet. Holly sighed and stood up, going over to take her own position on her mat. 9
“I will still win, honey. Just because I lost the last time we played this doesn't mean I won't beat you today.” Holly glanced at Mike as she pulled her legs up one at a time, stretching. Mike chose the feature that allowed them to do a sort of dance off, then picked “Karma Chameleon” as the song of choice, setting the difficulty to the “Difficult.” The music started and Mike glanced at Holly in turn before the first arrows sped from the bottom to the top of the screen.10
“Think you can keep up?” Mike laughed at Holly's expression. Priceless.11
“I sure can, hubby. Watch me.” The first arrows appeared and the couple stomped and hopped to the music, each of them hitting the arrows precisely. The music thrummed from their surround sound system, throbbing in their chests with the force of the bass. They always made it loud enough to do that, but not too loud as to where they couldn't hear each other. 12
Sweating, Holly noticed that Mike was doing better and better while her moves became sloppy and uncoordinated. Desperate, she said the first thing that came to mind to try and distract him. She wasn't above that, neither of them were. 13
“I want to have kids,” she stated, looking at her husband. The statement had the desired effect. They’d both agreed to not have children when they decided to get married, so her admission took him by surprise. Mike snapped his head to look at her, his mouth open in shock. His concentration broken, his feet tangled up with themselves during the complicated section that erupted on the screen. Holly grinned devilishly at him and kept right on stomping, her score edging higher as his came to a standstill for his lack of hit arrows. Mike's surprise bled to anger as he regained his rhythm, stabilizing his sync bar that showed how well he was doing. 14
“You did that on purpose! You knew I would freak out!” His face angry, Mike spared a quick glance to Holly, who at once looked apologetic. Angrily, he snapped his head back to the game.15
“Yeah, I kinda hoped for that,” Holly admitted, executing a complicated spin move to hit a slur of arrows on the screen. “But, I was totally serious. I . Want. To have. Kids,” she continued, trying to look at Mike again without jeopardizing her score. Neither of them spoke for the rest of the song. Each of them finished with high scores. Holly had won, but Mike didn’t have to say it aloud that it was an unfair win. Wordlessly, Mike chose another song. “Lips of an Angel,” setting it to “Difficult.” 16
“Well?” Holly inquired, nervous and a bit sick to her stomach.17
“I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to have kids,” Mike said flatly, not looking at her. They both started to stomp on the arrowed mats to correspond with the fast moving arrows on the screen. The crinkling of the mats and the music filled the silence between them. Both jumped, stomped, and executed the same unique move at the same time.18
“Well, I didn't really know when to tell you…,” Holly stated sheepishly, quickly wiping the sweat from her brow.19
“And you chose now to tell me?” he panted, hitting a fast succession of arrows that Holly only managed to hit a few of. Pursing her lips in annoyance, she made sure to hit the next sequence without fail.20
“Well, it sort of came out, alright? So…,” she trailed off, glancing at him quickly. She met his eyes before he turned his gaze away. 21
“To put it plainly? I still don't want kids,” Mike said, a bit of an apology in his voice. Holly parted her lips in slight surprise and objected.22
“And why the hell not? You always loved to take care of my little nieces and your mother even said you loved to babysit the little boys who lived on your block!” Holly fumed.23
“I admit, it was fun to take care of the kids, but that's different from actually having one of my own!” Mike protested in his defense, grunting as he twisted awkwardly, surprise in his face at the complicated behemoth of arrow clusters appearing on the screen. He and Holly were silent as they battled with the beasts. When they were successfully stomped and slain, Holly tried to reason with him.24
“No, it's not different! You loved those kids! The love in your eyes was plain to see! Having a child of your, our, own is hardly much different!” Holly implored, turning to look at him and plead with her eyes. He had turned at the same time, and he quickly turned his head back around when he saw the emotion in the baby-blues that mirrored his own. 25
“When I took care of those kids I didn't have to put them to bed, didn't have to constantly be surrounded by their squabbling and crying. I only had to deal with them for a few hours, then I got to hand them off,” he panted. He jumped forwards and back, trying to hit the triple two arrow stops that sped from the bottom of the screen.26
“You had to deal with that while you babysat them! You had no problem with those times!” Holly argued, missing the next couple arrows with a stumbling foot crossing. Cursing, she righted herself and continued, noticing that she was only a few points below Mike's score.27
“It is different, Holly! A baby is a big responsibility! I just don't know if either of us are ready for that kind of commitment right now,” Mike replied, furrowing his eyebrows in concentration. The song was almost over, and he planned to increase his lead.28
“We are ready, Mike! We've got stable jobs, a beautiful home, and a caring family. Our schedules are flexible enough, too. Please, Mike,” Holly pleaded, amazed to find tears brimming in her eyes. Mike didn't look at her. 29
“You seem to just be thinking of what you want. Have you considered, for just a moment, about what I might want? I don't want a child. I just want you,” Mike looked to her, noticing the tears that started to slide down her face as the song ended. The game announced Player 1, which was Mike, as the winner. Taking it as a cue to leave, Mike just walked out of the room without claiming his victory. Holly watched him put his shoes on and grab his keys. He left the house without a word. The tears kept falling as Holly listened to Mike start his truck and pull out of the driveway. Holly silently turned the game off and folded the mats. A ding echoed from the kitchen. Dinner was ready.30
Mike drove down their street, a bit angry with Holly. They had agreed not to have kids, and she suddenly changed her mind?31
He just drove, not really caring where he ended up. Mike made turns and stopped at street lights like a robot, his anger slowly draining away as the time passed. Soon, he found himself driving by the playground that was a few minutes from where they lived. Kids were still playing on the playground, their parents keeping an eye on them as they chatted about this and that. Before he knew what he was doing, Mike found himself pulling into a parking spot of the playground parking lot. Turning off the engine, he just watched. Kids romped on the equipment and played tag, squealing and shrieking in their fun. He watched the couples beam at their children and give loving glances to each other as they sat on the benches. He’d only been there a few minutes when the sun began to set. Parents herded their children to the minivans and SUV’s and drove away, leaving Mike alone. He sat there thinking for the longest time. 32
Darkness fell. Mike started his car and he made his way to Sullivan’s, a bar that he and his buddies always went to for a drink. Laurence was sitting at their usual table when he sauntered in, obviously deep in thought. Grinning, Laurence waved him over.33
“Mike! Good to see you again!” Laurence yelled, slapping Mike on the back as he sat down next to his friend. Mike gratefully took the second beer that Laurence had, twisting it open and throwing the cap onto the dark wood table.34
“Holly told me she wanted kids!” Mike said, getting straight to the point. He took a swig of his beer and watched the surprise appear in his friend’s expression.35
“Really? I thought you guys had decided…,” Laurence began.36
“Yeah! That’s what I told her! She tried to convince me, but I just left. I-I-couldn’t deal with it. The look she gave me, the sound of her voice as she told me why we should have kids,” Mike sighed and took another sip of his beer, looking down at the table. Laurence huffed and took a drink of his own beer before answering.37
“You guys should,” he said, a grin sprouting on his face. Mike just looked at him, stunned.38
“Seriously?! Why…,” Mike started. The bar was quite empty, so Mike lowered his voice. “Why do you say that?”39
“To tell you the truth, I wanna be an uncle!” Laurence guffawed, thumping his drink on the table. Mike just shook his head and drank a bit more from his bottle. Getting up, he walked out of the bar, Laurence’s laughter following him as he went out into the night. He had some thinking to do.40
Holly woke up the next morning to find herself alone in her bed. Mike hadn’t come home after he left the evening before. Her face pulled into a grimace as she recalled their heated discussion. Looking to her alarm clock, she studied the time, 7:00 AM. It was Saturday. Holly got out of bed and shuffled out of her room and down the stairs towards the kitchen, feeling her eyes burn with emotion. Mike usually woke her up with a kiss and a carefully prepared breakfast. Her feet slapped softly on the wood flooring as she walked across the expanse of their dining room and into the kitchen. The green walls were pale with the bright rays of the sun as it rose to greet the day. A figure sat at the small table that graced the center of the room. He was hunched over a steaming cup of what appeared to be coffee. Immediately, Holly recognized the bedraggled individual to be her husband. 41
“I was wondering if you were going to get up. You’ve always been an early riser,” Mike said, his voice was hoarse. Holly sat down across from him and searched his face. She didn’t reply. The silence stretched between them. Finally, Holly spoke.42
“Where did you go last night?” she whispered, looking down to trace a whirl on the wood of the table. 43
“To Sullivan’s. Laurence was there, and we drank a bit. I just drove around afterward,” Mike answered, getting up to wash his mug. He didn’t tell her about his time at the playground. Holly watched him carefully clean every inch of the ceramic before drying it and returning it to the cupboard. He came back and sat back down.44
“So….about yesterday….,” she started, her eyes searching his face. He met her eyes and then looked back down as if embarrassed. 45
“I shouldn’t have left like that, Holly. I’m sorry. It’s just…,” Mike trailed off, turning back to look at her helplessly. 46
“I understand. I just kinda…threw that at you. I hadn’t realized that I really did want kids until the thought entered my mind,” she stated, wanting to bring the idea up again.47
“Yeah, you did throw me for a loop,” he replied, a mirthful glint entering his eye. He smiled.48
“I sure did!” Holly laughed and Mike joined in, filling the kitchen with the sound. Once their laughter trailed off, Holly took a deep breath, fully intending to start her argument again for why they should have kids.49
“So, you really want kids?” Mike asked hesitantly, glancing at her. She appreciated the fact that he brought the matter up first. 50
“Yeah,” she replied just as hesitantly. She didn’t want this conversation to end like the last one had. 51
“Why do you? Is it some sort of maternal urge to procreate or something?” Holly brightened when he asked her that.52
“Well, that may be a part of it, but I’ve always loved kids, babysitting and taking care of them, especially the infants. They’re just so cute, and the love they show in their eyes...so loving!” She reached across the table and placed a hand on his larger one, gazing earnestly into his eyes. “We’d become closer by loving and taking care of something we created out of love, Mike. We would raise them to be a great citizen, teach them morals and help them succeed in life! Don’t you feel like that would be bettering humanity, the world?” Holly finished, joy glowing in her face. Mike watched her speak and saw that she wasn’t kidding about how she felt about having children. 53
“You’re truly serious about this aren’t you?” Mike knew he was stating the obvious, but the words still came out of his mouth. Sensing that she was on the verge of turning him, Holly immediately answered.54
“Of course! We are ready for this Mike! Having a little bundle of joy love us as much as we love them, looking at us with such adoration and trust that we can’t help but smile, to protect them and nurture them? To watch them grow up and live their lives how they choose to? We'd love it!” She looked past him, smiling gently, as if she was seeing a child sitting and playing on the kitchen floor with their pots and pans. Mike knew that she truly wanted children, and had realized something while he’d driven around town. He had felt a response to what Holly had expressed. 55
Mike looked at his wife and saw the joy fairly spilling out of her. He watched her hand move to rest on her stomach and felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. Getting up, he walked around to sit in the chair next to her. He brought her close, putting his arm around her shoulders. Holly looked at him questioningly. He just looked at her as she looked at him.56
“I think having a little tyke around would be nice,” Mike said nonchalantly. He grunted as Holly threw herself into his lap, fairly squealing with delight and excitement.57
“I’m so happy! What changed your mind?” Holly asked, curious. “Was it what I poured out to you just now?” Mike only smiled. He'd thought a lot as he’d driven around before coming home. Mike's decision was due to more than what she had said to him. The scene at the playground played through his head again. He simply grinned and nodded his head, the giggles of children echoing in his mind.58
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Honorable mention
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