In the Manner of Edward and Kelly….

Chapter 3- Turning to the new

{Click here for Ch. 2, and here for Ch.1}

Kelly gasped in delight, and pressed the ‘Play’ button again.

“Hi Edward, it’s Jennifer, from River Bluff townhouses, and we just wanted to let you know that your application has been approved for your end unit, and it looks like your financing has also been approved. Please call me back at your earliest convenience.”

Kelly knew the phone number by memory, having dialed it so many times in the past few months. They could move! A new home, and almost a real home, too! She fell on the sofa, ignoring how the scratchy material rubbed on her bare legs. As she lay her head back she thought, once again and with near obsessive detail, of the wonderful townhouse that her and Edward had found, and how they could hardly imagine living in it. The kitchen was tucked cozily into a corner with two windows; windows!! In the kitchen! And they didn’t look out over an ugly alleyway either but the heavy stand of trees behind the complex. Her and Edward could both work in this wonderful kitchen with room to spare, and it had a dishwasher! A dishwasher! And there was laundry! No more trips to the Laundromat on Sunday mornings, pockets heavy with quarters; lugging hampers with soiled clothes and bottles of detergent and bleach, books to read or the Sunday paper. They could lie in bed in the new sunny bedroom, nibbling on Edwards’ cherry-pistachio biscotti and sipping a macchiato; no one would have to comb hair or even brush teeth, and they could simply haul the paper up the stairs from the front step. The house had a front door; their own entry. No more listening to the neighbors across the hall stumble up the stairs in the middle of the night, drunk again, loud and coarse, fumbling with keys. Their new bedroom had a nice big closet too, and the house had two bathrooms!

But the best part of all; the new house had central air conditioning.

A drop of sweat rolled down Kelly’s temple, and she sat up, lifting her heavy hair off her neck. Going in search of a binder for it, she saw, possibly for the millionth time, how dreary and old their current place really looked. In the hot, bright white of high summer, the sun poured through the windows, the heat filled the rooms and the air was stifling. In past summers, they could only afford to turn on the tiny window unit in their bedroom just before going to bed, and usually Edward woke up long before dawn to turn it off again. But that was when pennies were tight.

Consumed by an absolutely giddy feeling, Kelly wrapped her arms around herself and pirouetted down the hall. Edward’s new position had been such a blessing; and to add to the delight of his bigger paycheck, she had been offered a new job with a larger firm just out of the blue. A former co-worker had joined this new company and one day called her up to tell her that a position was available and that Kelly would be the perfect fit. Within two weeks there was another job change, more responsibility and another notch up in the income bracket.

“When it rains, it pours.” Edward had said; as they popped open a bottle of champagne. He had splurged on the good stuff, and a dozen oysters that they dressed in pure olive oil and fresh herbs, showering them with a layer of manchego then broiling them crispy in the oven. They had splurged on Porterhouse steak, grilling it on their tiny Weber grill in the alleyway, the meat sizzling and heady with the scent of chopped garlic and lots of black pepper. They meticulously savored each meaty bite and talked about having steak every Saturday night. Kelly even went shopping with her friend Bev, and now there were new clothes in her closet. Sometimes she would simply finger the fabrics and gaze at her shiny new shoes; it was like she was looking at someone else’s things, and she often had to pinch herself in a reminder that, yes, this was all hers.

Edward had some new clothes too, and when he had to put on his brand new suit for client meetings, it took her breath away at how handsome he looked. His shirts were fresh and colorful, and he even had a few new ties to wear. For his birthday in September, she was planning on buying him a new briefcase. It wasn’t right that his nice clothes were offset by his old worn out bag. She even had one on layaway, and by the end of the month, it would be paid off, then she would have to hide it from him, but only for a short time.

She twisted up her hair in the bathroom, leaning to the right side to avoid the old cracked glass that distorted her face. ‘No more of this’ she thought to herself, thinking of her shiny new bathroom, with its violet-hued walls and roomy shower. She felt a thrill as she remembered the Jacuzzi tub, the high windows and the two sinks, and as she stared down at the old pitted sink in front of her, she recalled how much her and Edward had thought this place was so cute in its shabbiness when they moved in 8 years ago.

The one thing they had never anticipated was how long it would take to move out, and move on.

Wiping all those painful memories out of her head, she turned into the kitchen and switched on the tiny fan in the window. Pulling open the fridge, she thought how nice it would be to have something cool and light for supper. Edward would be home later; the only drawback to his new job, and it would be nice to just pull out a plate for him as he walked in the door. She pushed containers around, assessing her options. She piled the counter with smoked salmon that Edward had done in their tiny oven, filling the rooms with the rich scent of hickory, a half full bag of new baby lettuces, some tiny radishes, a handful of basil and mint, and a container of dewy melon chunks. There were several blushing heirloom tomatoes hanging in the basket alongside a deep purple pepper, and two tiny cucumbers. She surveyed the spread, reaching for the Maldon and the pepper grinder.

‘I’ll core the tomatoes and stuff them with smoked salmon, mixed with a little of that herbed cream cheese and some snipped basil.’ She mused, washing her hands. ‘Then I can chop some mint; toss it with the melon and some lime zest. I’ll make a light salad with the greens and vegetables, use some of the cold wine and good olive oil and top it with those spiced almonds. I think we have some sopressata in here too.’ She rummaged again, pushing aside more containers. The faucet in the sink groaned as usual, a sure sign that other taps in the building had been turned on; the strain on the ancient plumbing making its usual complaint.

She carried her stuffed tomato to the butcher block, turned back for her salad and fruit, and went to sit, dragging her stool behind her with her ankle. The fruit smelled sweet and summery against the stagnant air that blew up from the alley outside that was thick with the sharp scent of gasoline and dust; as tired, old and worn as any air could possibly be. Thankfully garbage day was recent; summertime was the worse for that horrid smell permeating their dinner time. Their new home had a small dining room, and they already talked about what kind of new table they would buy and how nice it would be to not have to rearrange the closet each time they needed to get their stools out to eat.

‘We’ll keep the butcher block and toss these old stools.’ Edward had said, his voice definitive and certain. ‘Then we can actually use it for its intended purpose.’

New furniture, new living space; new life, new purpose. It was all new, fresh and shiny as a brand new penny, as gleaming and as hopeful as the first real spring day after the incessant cold of winter. The tomato tasted like the July sun outside, warm and earthy; the salmon was moist and smoky with just the right amount of pepper that they liked. Fresh chunks of melon burst in her mouth, tinged with mint and lime. The greens chilled her teeth and she chewed the salty chunks of salami carefully, extracting every spicy taste.

Kelly had sat for so long, and been lost so deep in thought that she was startled by the familiar squeak of the floorboard outside their door; a sure signal that Edward was home. She suddenly felt a deep pang in her chest. For years this had been the only way she knew he was coming; a warning sign to quickly wipe away tears, close a catalog that she had been yearning over or even drag herself off the couch from the gloom she had fallen into. It was the sound that always brought her back, and now, for a brief moment, she wondered what new sound, what new method she would need to learn to insure that Edward never saw her malaise or sensed her deepening sorrow. As she leaped up from the butcher block, she quickly looked around her, almost automatically, as if to see what she needed to hide from him, and with a quickening pulse and a joyful leap of her heart, she realized that there was nothing; nothing to hide or stuff away.

The door slammed and Edward strode down the hallway to her, his long legs graceful in his new shoes, a thin sheen of perspiration evident on his forehead beneath his great new haircut. He leaned in and kissed her warmly, pulling her to him with a hand on the back of her neck.

“So what have you been up to since you’ve gotten home?” he asked. Kelly’s mind raced over the last few hours, thoughts of their new home and the last traces of old life that they were about to leave behind; a wide smile playing across her face.

“Sit down. I can’t wait to tell you about it! And I have supper for you.”