Mrs. Kenneth James Stevens Wants A Baby by Leanne Dyck (Ch 6)

 Chapter five: So she did find him. That's a relief. He was on a bench reading about Mayne Island--an island Aster hates. Her hatred of the island begs the question, why was she on that ferry sailing toward it?

photo by ldyck

Chapter six

Aster had agreed to spend the Victoria Day long weekend on Mayne Island only for the sake of their marriage. Kenneth James had begged her to let him show it to her. “I promise, you’ll fall in love with it.”

Aster had her doubts.

She enjoyed the ballet, the symphony, fine dining. What could a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean offer her? What? She feared she already knew the answer. Nothing. Yet she had agreed to go with him thinking that it would be nice to spend time alone together without any of the usual distractions—but if this was an example of how he was going to treat her. Well, she didn’t know why she had come.

With a huff, she pulled her knitting out of her purse. Some of the stitches fell off her needle and she wasn’t surprised. That was simply how this nightmare of a day was going. Thankfully, she was a skilled knitter and was easily able to collect all the fallen.

Soon, the only sound the couple made was the clicking of her needles and the periodic turning of the pages of his book.

“What the—?” Kenneth James’ comment pulled Aster’s attention away from her knitting and down to the floor. A yellow plastic dump truck had bumped into his ankles.

“Truck. Truck. Truck.” A curly blond-haired toddler ran after his toy but stopped about a foot away from the strange man.

“Well, hello, there.” Kenneth James smiled. “Is this your truck?”

“Mi-ne.”

“Here you go then." Kenneth James turned the truck around and rolled it to the boy. “Vroom.” 

“Truck. Truck. Truck.” The boy used his entire body to stop the truck and rolled it back. Back and forth the truck travelled between the man and the boy.

Thoroughly entertained by the game, Aster set her knitting on her lap.

Few men would have the patience or the aptitude to play with a child but Kenneth James did. Aster found herself fantasying that the boy was their son. She ran her hand across her knitting. She considered ripping it all out, re-casting the stitches, and knitting a baby blanket. After all, they weren’t growing any younger. If they were going to have children, they needed to start soon. What better time than this weekend.

“Daniel, what are you doing all the way over here?” A woman said, coming to collect her son. “I’m so sorry about this,” she apologized to Kenneth James.

“Not at all.” He offered the woman a smile and she returned it.

Aster waited until she was once again alone with her husband before broaching the subject. “I watched you with that little boy. You’d make an excellent father.”

“Say what now?”

“We’re not getting any younger, you know. We could start trying tonight or tomorrow morning. I can’t remember do you like it in the morning or at night?”

“It? What it?”

“You know.” Her voice fell to a whisper. “It.”

“Oh, you mean sex.”

“Kenneth James don’t be vulgar.”

“Sex isn’t vulgar. Not if you’re doing it right.”

“Kenneth James Stevens would you please lower your voice.”

“The movies. The TV. The Internet. Everyone screams,” With a smirk on his face, he mouthed ‘sex’, “and you want your husband to lower his voice?”

“Yes, please.”

photo by ldyck

Mrs. Kenneth James Stevens Wants A Baby

Chapter seven

And so Aster has shared her desire to have a child with her husband--which seems to have caught him off guard. Will he embrace the plan? Will they become parents? Will Aster make a good mother or...?

Mrs. Kenneth James Stevens Wants A Baby by Leanne Dyck (Ch 5)

 Chapter four: Aster has lost her husband on the ferry? Will she ever find him again? Or is that how she ends up on-- ? (I've said--or written--too much.)

photo by ldyck

Chapter five

Children came running at and almost directly into Aster, thankfully, at the last minute they veered off. Were they wild? Did no one own them? Clearly, they weren’t being properly supervised. What if they injured themselves? What if they fell down the stairs?

“Stop running,” Aster called after them but they paid no heed. She’d tried to correct their behaviour and was the only one on the entire deck who had bothered. If something happened—. When something happened it wouldn’t be her fault. Her conscience would be clear. No guilt. That thought only lasted a second. It lasted long enough for Aster to realize that of course, she would feel guilty if or when the children got hurt. When that happened she knew she would scold herself because she hadn’t done enough. But what could she do? Only hope for the best. She decided to stick her head in the sand like the rest of the passengers.

This deck was much more populated and Aster was confident that she would find Kenneth James amongst these passengers. And sure enough, she found him on a blue vinyl bench at the front of the ferry, in front of an ocean view. How ever beautiful the view it was lost to her husband. His nose was in a book. But when was his nose not in a book? In the early years of their relationship, she’d thought it charming.

She charged up to him. “Kenneth James why didn’t you—.”

He ignored her, and just kept reading.

But others, strangers, looked at her.

Not wanting to create a scene, she abandoned the carefully prepared speech she’d planned to deliver and—.

The part of the bench he’d left for her was torn and once again she found herself face-to-face with proof of how little he thought of her. Having no choice, she joined her husband but her bottom didn’t thank her for the predicament she’d been forced to accept. Her gaze drifted from the ocean to the book her husband held in his hands.

Mayne Island and the Outer Gulf Islands: a history by Marie Elliot. Of course, he was reading about that island. He was obsessed with it.

And she? She had grown to hate it for the same reason other wives detest gulf or hockey. The island was a rival for his attention.

photo by ldyck

Mrs. Kenneth James Stevens Wants A Baby

Chapter six

So she did find him. That's a relief. He was on a bench reading about Mayne Island--an island Aster hates. Her hatred of the island begs the question, why was she on that ferry sailing toward it?

Mrs. Kenneth James Stevens Wants A Baby by Leanne Dyck (Ch 4)

 Chapter three: It's obvious that Aster is not pleased that she ended up on a remote island. How did she get stuck there? Let's go back to the beginning...

photo by ldyck

Chapter four

Before

From the passenger seat, Aster watched her husband weave his way through the ferry’s car deck. As if following a clearly marked path, he worked his way through the maze of boat-sized trucks. Believing that she could simply follow him, Aster pushed the door o—. The neighbouring truck was too close. Crawling out required Aster to move her body in ways more appropriate for Yoga class—bend, stretch, slid, pull. Finally free of the car, she felt a sense of victory but—. Bumpers, side mirrors, trailer hitches blocked her progress in every direction. Balancing on her toes, Aster searched for her husband. There he went past that truck and that one, never looking back. Clearly, he wasn’t worrying about, had no thought of her.

“Not very chivalrous, my dear Kenneth James,” Aster grumbled.

Alone, without any possibility of aid, she squeezed her body past a side mirror and around a trailer hitch. She nearly missed colliding with the corner of a truck’s bed. By the time she caught up to her husband, he was slipping through an automated sliding door. The door closed in Aster’s face. She scanned the wall looking for some way to open the door. She was still searching when she heard a thud. She jumped. A man behind her heaved a heavy sigh and Aster knew he was annoyed at her.

She watched as magically the door began to slowly, ever so slowly, slid open. Aster wanted to thank him but—.

“Tourists!” The man spat, pushing past. A wave of body odor trailed behind him and struck her in the face.

Aster wondered when he had last bathed. She wondered how many other passengers were in a similar state. Concerns about hygiene gave her pause. She opened her purse and pulled out a tissue. After wrapping the tissue around the handrail, she followed the man up the stairs. The tissue slid steadily upward as she ascended the stairs.

Aster had to push, with her arm and shoulder, to open the once-white door that was at the top of the stairs. The door nearly weighed a ton. She almost tripped over a protrusion in the threshold. Its presence and the fact that no one had bothered to mark it—possibly with red tape—annoyed her. How many people had been injured?

To her right, a blue trash can stood against the wall. She used her tissue-wrapped hand to push the lid open. The lid— The entire trash can was in sorry need of a good scrubbing with a disinfectant and a heavy bristled brush. And the thing stank.

A few feet ahead a large window offered a view of the ocean. At least the ocean was better than the gray, greasy cave she’d just left. To the right of the window was a door to the outside deck. She could clearly see that there was no one standing out there. To her left was a row of bolted-together chairs. They didn’t look comfortable. The first row of chairs faced the front of the ferry. A woman sat in the far corner of the first row. She was knitting while reading the magazine open on her lap. Aster watched the needles coil the yarn and longed to inquire as to what the knitting would yield but the woman looked like she didn’t wish to be disturbed. The two middle rows faced each other with a gap of about five feet between them. A gang of adolescents slummed in these chairs. Aster quickly walked passed without giving them much heed. If she ignored them, she hoped they would ignore her. The last rows faced Vancouver’s ferry terminal. These chairs were empty. Kenneth James wasn’t here. Had he vanished? Past the row of chairs, another door offered her her last opportunity to go outside. Her husband had to be somewhere. Aster pushed the door open and this time wasn’t surprised to discover that it was weighed.

A man smoking a cigarette thoughtlessly sent smoke in her direction but the wind blew it back in his face. Aster suppressed a smile and went back inside. Returning, she discovered another set of stairs. She retrieved another tissue, wrapped it around the handrail, and ascended. There was no door and no protrusion at the top of these stairs. This deck seemed brighter and somehow more cheerful than the last until—.

photo by ldyck

Mrs. Kenneth James Stevens Wants A Baby

Chapter five

Aster has lost her husband on the ferry? Will she ever find him again? Or is that how she ends up on-- ? (I've said--or written--too much.)