Ketchup Popsicle - 8

Sandra woke up a few hours later, shuffled down the hall and sleepily tucked Daniel into his crib. The time on the clock beside her bed read 2:00 am as she drifted back to sleep feeling numb inside.

The next morning Sandra was greeted by the sound of Daniel’s pleading cries over the baby monitor. Mike had materialized beside her at some point during the night but it was clear that even though it was Saturday he was not going to be roused from bed to retrieve his son. Mike only seemed to think about Mike.

"Good morning baby." Sandra said as she entered the room and peered into the crib. Daniel raised his hands to her immediately, wiggling his body in anticipation of being held by his mommy.

"Come here little one. Let’s change your bum-bum." Although she was tired, it was easy being Daniel’s mom. Every atom in her body wanted to be close to him at all times. When she wasn’t in the same room with him she was thinking of him and even when she was holding him she was still thinking of him. He had become her entire world, her entire being, her reason for walking the earth. No matter how anybody treated her, Daniel’s chubby little hands on her face made the rest of the world melt away.

Mike staggered down the stairs at around noon. Sandra, sitting on the floor with Daniel, noted with a heavy heart that he had his gym bag in hand. Even though Mike wasn’t much company, she hadn’t anticipated another day alone.

"Heading out?" She asked.

"Yeah, there’s a pickup game starting today – it’ll be every Saturday." He said as he grabbed an apple and an orange form the fruit bowl in the kitchen that and then strolled back into the living room heading for stairs leading to the door. She didn't even know what a pickup game was and assumed it had somthing to do with soccer.

"Don’t you want to spend some time with Daniel?" She asked trying to sound casual although she was beside herself in disbelief.

"I will later." He said. Mike looked down at the baby who was rolling around on a blanket on the living room floor. "He can roll over now?"

Sandra rolled her eyes, "You missed it. He did it last night and hasn’t stopped since."

Mike picked him up and sat on the rocking chair with Daniel. "Are you rolling over?" He asked in a soft voice. "What a big boy. You’ll be kicking a ball in no time."

Sandra smiled sweetly at them and rolled her eyes again. She was starting to resent the fact that Mike did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted and then melted her heart every time he held their baby. It shouldn’t have been enough to make up for his shortcomings, but in the moment it was. And for the moment, Sandra didn’t have a lot of options but to grin and bear it. Her mind drifted to her childhood then for some reason. She was swinging on a swing feeling the wind through her hair and on her face. Her friend Bobby was pushing her with all his might so she could go as high as the swing would allow.

"We’re going to get married some day you know." She told him as a matter of fact.

"I know," Bobby replied, "You tell me all the time."

"We’ll live in a castle and we’ll be so happy and we’ll have lots of maids and servants and babies." She told him.

"Anything you want Sandy. I’d do anything for you." He said valiantly.

With that she jumped off of the swing and rolled on the grass. Bobby was at her side in an instant collecting her up onto her feet. He took her by the hand to run over to the monkey bars just as they heard her mother calling her for lunch from overtop the houses across the street.

Mike handed Daniel, who had begun to cry, to Sandra snapping her out of her daze. "You hungry baby?" She asked.

"I’ll see you guys later." Mike said as he headed for the door. Sandra chose to ignore him. She could see him standing there out of the corner of her eye waiting for her response. She felt suddenly indignant and continued to ignore him.

"Why don’t we go out for dinner tonight?" He asked obviously trying to sound positive, maybe feeling bad for leaving her on her own again with the baby.

She softened slightly. "That sounds nice." She replied, "Can we go to a Steak House? I haven’t had a good steak in such a long time." Her stomach was doing the talking.

"What? Yeah, sure. We’ll have my mom come over and look after Daniel." He said.

I'm not leaving Daniel with that sociopath, Sandra thought. "I think he’s fine to take him with us. As long as it’s after six. He doesn’t stop being colicky just because it’s the weekend." she said again feeling slightly bitter.

"My mom can watch him." Mike insisted.

"I'd really much rather take him along." Sandra too insisted.

"OK, whater, fine." Mike conceded. "I’ll see you guys later." he said again.

"See ya." Sandra replied cooly. Remembering that she was on her own again for the day with no vehicle and nothing to do. Her patients was beginning to wear thin but it was comforting to know that she'd be going out for a nice dinner that night and bringing Daniel too. She couldn't bear the thought of being away from him even if it were just for a few hours. He needed her and she would never let him down.

Holding Daniel up over her head making him giggle she asked, "What are we going to do today Buddy?"

"Ahhhhbllllrrrrp" he replied and Sandra agreed that would likely be the extent of it.