It had been two weeks now, Emily was out of the Rehab Centre and back in her old home with her husband, Jack. She hadn't self harmed in a while though she was acting a little bit strange.
Emily sat on an armchair next to the window, glancing out of it, she was cradling a pink blanket bundled up as if a child was inside of it although there wasn't. She watched as a older man and woman made their way down the street, arguing about who will get access and first choice of what they'll watch on the television when they get home. Emily chuckled softly, shaking her head and smiling, looking down at the blanket she had in her arms as if she was looking down at her baby girl. "The word is such a crazy place, Tanya, one day you'll see how crazy and funny it is." She said and giggled a bit.
Jack stood in the doorway, watching his wife as she interacted with this blanket in her arms that she had imagined it was their miscarriaged child. She had always wanted a baby girl, he hated to see her like this and he didn't know what to do. He couldn't put her back in that Rehab Centre again, he couldn't do that to her, not again. That place didn't do anything but help her stop hurting herself and made her be extremely annoyed when she was followed around her own home.
The man couldn't cope with his own wife the now, he was scared that if he talked to her, that she would talk to him as if Tanya was here, as if they were able to be parents, as if they didn't have an empty nursery upstairs they didn't have the strength to take apart yet. They were so prepared to be parents, nappies were in the top drawer, baby wipes and baby grows in the second top drawer, small toys that were easy to put in the drawer since the room wasn't the biggest room in the second last drawer and in the last drawer: there was pictures from her scan, the gold bracelet they bought for the little girl three weeks before they lost her and hair accessories like bows, ribbons, hair clips and hair ties.
"Jack, you silly, instead of standing in the doorway, would you like to hold Tanya?" Emily asked her husband, she smiled at him, watching him as he looked from his wife's face to the blanket. He hated that he could see her like this, it wasn't meant to be like this. They were so ready to be parents until that day.
Nodding his head slowly, he wasn't sure what he was going to do, how could he hold this blanket and act as if that was his baby girl? He approached his wife, she gently passed "Tanya" to him, staring at him as if she was warning him to watch her neck. Jack smiled, playing along with what Laura was doing. She excused herself to go for a nap for an hour.
Emily exited and then went upstairs meanwhile Jack sat down on the sofa and sighed, he placed the blanket next to him and gently weeped for a while until he thought of an idea. He had to called Emily's Mother, she was aware of the situation and so she was the only one that could help him. The two agreed not to tell anyone to avoid them trying to break it to Emily that her baby is gone.
~~
Emily ran downstairs, she kept looking for her baby in the living room and then entered the kitchen. "Where's my baby? Where's Tanya?" She asked her Mother and Jack who were sitting at the counter, having coffee as they waited for Emily to wake up. Emily's Mother looked at her daughter, she was so worried about her, she always was worried about her. Even more so when she went into the Rehab Centre.
"Baby, sit down, we have to talk to you about something really important and you need to listen." Emily's Mother told her calmingly, Emily looked worried and stressed as she sat down next to her Mother at the counter. She looked from Jack to her Mother.
Emily's Mother clasped a hand over Emily's hand on the kitchen counter. "Baby, you lost Tanya a while ago, you're really sick and it makes you think she's still here, you're imagining that the pink blanket holds your baby inside of it." Emily's Mother tried to ease her into it but Emily wasn't having any of it as she growled at the pair. "My baby is alive! How could you say this, Mom? How could you let her say this, Jack? You were holding her earlier!"
Jack watched as his wife argued with anything they said, she just wasn't letting it sink in that her baby was gone, she couldn't change what had happened. "You didn't want her, Jack! That's why you're letting her say all of this stuff to me! That's why, you never wanted a baby girl! You wanted a boy to play catch with and now that you can't get that, you're letting her say this to me!" Emily shouted at Jack, pointing the finger at him. As much as Jack tried to control himself, he couldn't with this, how could he? "Don't you say that to me, don't you dare. You knew I would be fine with a beautiful baby girl or a boy.." Jack tried not to shout at her, no matter how angry he was at her, he could never shout at her in the condition she was in. He tried to storm past them both but Emily grabbed onto his hand.
Pulling his hand closer to her and holding it tight, she gently hugged onto it, closing her eyes and then she opened them to look at him. "Is it true?" She asked him, she hadn't once heard the words from his mouth, only her Mother would keep telling her that Tanya is gone.
"Yes.." Jack whispered, he sighed a bit, rubbing his forehead with his free hand, the tears rolled down his face. "Your Mom is right, she's gone." He told her, he slipped out of her reach as she just sat on the chair, letting it sink in and then she fell to the ground. She weeped as Jack picked her up from the ground, she cried into his shoulder mumbling about their baby how she should still be here, that she was an innocent and that she was just a baby, not even commited the crime of being cute yet..
Hey! Forever here with a review!
This was an interesting continuation of the last part. I really liked seeing the whole matter from the eyes of Jack. He is indeed not of the type I thought him to be. Let's get into the review!
Jack is quite a good person, in my opinion. I didn't really think that he would think that Rehab centre could be the way but he indeed thought that. Seeing from his perspective, it seems like he is not at all responsible for Emily's actions. He tried his best to help Emily cope up and to adjust with her. I really liked how he decided to bring Emily's mother into the picture. Emily's mother too was very different from what I thought her to be like. Now it seems like both of these people understand Emily.
The change in Emily was actually a little bit strange. I mean, she actually accepted that her daughter was dead, she was never born. Then why this sudden change in her, why did she suddenly think that her daughter was alive and started talkinh with her? I would like a bit of clarification on this particular part. I would suggest to elaborate a bit about why exactly this change happened to her? And also, a bit about what happened in the middle. Like was she very angry with Jack when she came home back? Little details like these count a lot when it comes to story writing.
Anyway, I really liked how Jack decided to shoot the reality at Emily, no matter how much harsh it was and how much bad it was for her current state of mind. I do think that it was actually required. If Jack had delayed in telling her so, it would do nothing but cause problems after problems. It's very fortuante that Emily managed to kind of accept the truth, whatsoever. If she hadn't accepted the truth, I wonder what would have happened. Nothing very good, to be very honest.
Overall, this was a very thoughtful story. It made me very sad about what happened to Emily since her very childhood. First of all, her father abandoned her, then she lost her child. A lot of misfortunes. I wonder what is going to happen next with her. Will she go back to self-harming? Hopefully, not.
Keep Writing!!
~Forever
Part 1 of this story is here: work.php?id=96324