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.”
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...?
