Ketchup Popsicle - 11 (Actual Chapter)

Lynn, John's fiance, had the sweetest temperament that Sandra had ever seen in a woman. She was soft spoken almost to the point of being obnoxiously so. It made Sandra wish she had a softer tone of voice and was as quiet and demure as Lynn. But where would the fun be in that?

"I really envy you." Lynn said as they prepared coffee and cut up the cake for everyone in the kitchen. Sandra was bemused by this comment.

"Why on earth would you envy me?" She asked.

"You seem to have it all, a house, a baby…Mike." Clearly Lynn had no idea what life was like for Sandra, but for fun she allowed herself to pretend that her life was worth envying, that she was in deed happy. For the most part she was, if you removed the Mike factor.

"Thank you Lynn." Sandra said modestly. "That’s nice of you to say."

"I can’t wait until John and I start our family. For now I’ll just have to live through you and Daniel." Lynn smiled warmly.

"OK then, let’s get this food out to everyone shall we?" Sandra had enough of playing pretend. Lynn and John were truly happy together and would make excellent parents and raise a family together, all after their perfect marriage of course. They planned to get married in the Bahamas. It made Sandra more than envious. It made her green with jealousy. It also made her very resentful of her own situation. She wished that she could have made her father proud and fallen in love and gotten married and then had Daniel. But if all those things would have fallen in place, it would not have been with Mike and Daniel would not exist. She was torn on this matter and decided that it wasn’t worth focusing on what could have been and with whom.

Sandra and Daniel had both begun to take life in stride. Literally. Sandra had become a champion treadmill runner, running for an hour at a time, three days a week. It was so freeing and exhilarating to push herself to levels that she never thought she could physically handle before. The adrenoline rush was addicting and Sandra found herself waiting on the ouside stoop with Daniel every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning for Marta to bring them to the gym. Daniel had begun and quickly mastered walking and then running as well. Sandra’s heart was in her throat in the beginning every time he tumbled and fell, but he would always collect himself up and carry on before she had a chance to reach him. Daniel was a boy on the go, seeing the world through a new perspective and treating every single day as a new adventure in things he could reach, grab or pull down off of counters and shelves. He especially loved it when Sandra would chase him around the house when he got his hands on a tube of tooth paste or a bottle of ketchup from the fridge.

Thankfully, he still napped however and while Daniel napped Sandra discovered and explored the internet. She looked for possible part-time jobs knowing that she would eventually have to go back to work. She played around of Facebook adding pictures of Daniel and chatting with a few friends from grade school who she looked up for fun. She typed in Bobby’s name everyday but never hit the search button for fear of actually finding him. What would she say after all these years? Would he even remember her?

One fateful day Sandra decided to open Mike’s email account to see who he keeps in touch with, knowing that he had a multitude of people that he called friends. It came with the territory of being a salesman she figured. But she did not prepare herself for the email she read from him to a woman named Kate asking her to ‘hook up’ sometime. Hook up? The last time Sandra checked that meant a date? Was Mike dating? Cheating on her? Sandra didn’t know how to feel about the email other than outraged. She sat at home all day looking after their child while he's out hooking up with people. She stared to cry and she didn’t stop until Daniel woke from his nap.

Sandra pulled herself together and took Daniel across the street to the park. She sat on the bench while Daniel motored around the toddler section of the park, climbing up and down the ramps and playing with the different levers provided for the amusement on little hands. "Of course he’s cheating on me." She thought. "How did I not see it? I practically have to force myself on him to get any kind of physical attention. I’m in the best shape of my life and he doesn’t even notice." Daniel put a chubby hand on her knee and looked up at Sandra. She hadn't even noticed him there.

"Mumumum," He said. He patted her knee and went back to the playground. This was his way of asking her to watch what he can do. Sandra watched him climb the ramp and go down the tiny little slide landing with a soft thump on his diapered bottom and squealing in delight while clapping his hands together.

"Good job bum-bum!" Sandra clapped and smiled at the rug rat as he proceeded to repeat the act over and over and over again everytime waiting at the bottom of the slide for her applause. Sandra decided to brood later when she confronted Mike, and to enjoy her time with Daniel while she could. Everyone was always warning her to enjoy every second of Daniel’s childhood because ‘they grow up so fast’ and Sandra swore to him that she would do just that, enjoy him and make sure he enjoyed his childhood as well. She would deal with Mike later.