Baby Wars: Parenthood and Family Strife by Robin Baker & Elizabeth Oram

Author:Robin Baker & Elizabeth Oram [Baker, Robin & Oram, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788469740583
Publisher: HARD NUT Books
Published: 2018-04-24T22:00:00+00:00

SCENE 13: A Single Mistake

The old man reached for his stick and slowly pulled his failing body upright. Swaying slightly, he reached out for his second stick, then began to shuffle across the room, his shoes making a scuffling sound on the old brown linoleum. It was a late summer’s afternoon. The smell of freshly mown grass was drifting in through the open window. In between each mechanical pulse of the mower a radio could be heard babbling unintelligibly in the distance.

He was tired. He had been dozing fitfully in his chair, dreaming of his childhood days, when a shaft of brilliant sunlight had fallen across his eyes and roused him. The same beam was now picking out a collection of brownish photographs arrayed on an old dresser in the darkest corner of the room. Three of the photographs were larger than the rest. Their ornate frames were thick with the accumulated dust of years. After his wife had died he had continued for a while her weekly practice of dusting them, until it had begun to seem pointless.

The largest photograph was of an adolescent boy leaning against an old wooden gate, obviously posing. Tall grass grew at his feet, and the wind had tousled his thick hair into a mass and given him a fresh, rosy-cheeked complexion that made him look younger than his seventeen years. As he gazed at it, the old man could recall in the minutest detail the events surrounding the photo. A keen amateur photographer, his son had persuaded him to take this picture of him one day while they were out walking in the hills. It remained the old man’s favourite reminder of his son’s childhood, and because today was the day it was, he had been drawn to it often.

The middle photograph of the three was of a sheep dog that the man had once owned. He loved dogs and wished he was fit enough to have one now. The other showed two small boys side by side – the man and a friend as ten-year-olds. In their younger days the two had been inseparable. Their friendship had lasted well into their teenage years and hadn’t really started to fade until they met their wives. Unfortunately, the women didn’t get on at all. So the two young men had met less and less often, until gradually their contact was reduced to little more than a polite nod to each other across the street. Each got on with their separate lives, earning a living and raising their families. The old man had had only the one son, born when he and his wife were in their early thirties. His friend, always the devoted parent, had had two sons and three daughters.

Then, about two years ago the old man’s wife had died quite suddenly. Among the mourners at the funeral was his old friend. They spoke only briefly that day, but before long they began to spend time with each other again. The other man, concerned for his old friend, invited him to visit him at his home during this lonely period.

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