July 06, 2004
Mid-afternoon, my phone let me know I had missed a call-I had forgotten I had put it on mute so that it wouldn't disturb Mr. Y's throbbing head. I checked my voice mail, and I did indeed have a voice mail there, awaiting my absent-minded attention.
It was X Partner Unit.
I called him back.
"I need your keys to the house." he said, business-like.
"Oh yes! Sorry. I will send them to you now." I had been meaning to do this, but it meant digging them out of a box and I was being a lazy cow.
"Fine. Send them to me at Company X, not the house. I am moving next week."
I felt my head give a little chime inside.
"You are? You've sold the house?" I ask, a strong and vivid memory of the solid sweetness of my little white sugar cube house in Stockholm.
"I've sold it. I am moving into my new flat next week."
"Oh." I say, wondering what emotion I was feeling. "How much did you get for it?" I wasn't sure if he was going to tell me to mind my own business, since I had signed my half of the house over to him.
"Almost what we paid, but not quite."
The housing market had collapsed just months after we bought the house, a sign of recession and depression, a knock-back on the redundancies from Company X and a wheezing aching economy that saw more and more people off work from depression and stress. I never have any luck with real estate.
"Look, I need you to take the cats." he said. "What can you do about it?"
I felt my chest squeeze and compress thinking about my two girls, my black and white darlings that I miss on a daily basis.
"I can investigate what it means to put them in quarantine." I replied, and promised to call him back.
Some phone calls around the area and I talk to a woman who runs a quarantine kennel. She sounds like Maxine the chronic smoker, all choppy cockney consonants and a lifetime of gin and tonics running down the line, choking me with her lemon slice. She tells me what the costs are, to start with, and they are astronomical, running to about £600 pounds a month ($1100) until the end of November, and then she gagged out that it almost always runs over time. And their cages (cages! For fucks sake!) aren't heated, that would cost extra in the winter-it turns out their cages (!) are outside.
My girls have never been outside.
I can't imagine the terror they would be put through.
I call X Partner Unit back, feeling the hair on my head falling out over the horror of what is to come.
"Can we discuss this?" I ask, trying to keep my voice even. "They will have to be in a cage for 5 months, and it's outside."
I hear silence on his end, and then the sweet sound of acquiescence. "No, that's no good, I agree." he breathes, and I wonder what will happen next.
"Please- can they just stay with you until the end of November? I swear I want them, I swear I am taking them. Please?" I ask.
"I will take care of them. But you should know they are a huge burden and responsibility."
"I can send you money."
"I meant emotionally."
"Please. I am so sorry, I will take them first chance they can fly which is November 28th."
"Fine. I am just trying to get on with my life, my new life." He says, a bit sniffy, and I wonder if you can just pull the drain on love and watch it swirl out of the sink, into the gutter, into the rest of the garbage. A part of me hoped he would stay in that house, I saw it as a little oasis of security and calm for him, but I see I had it wrong.
Our neighbor Joe walks by in the evening, and Mr. Y beckons me to the door. Joe is carrying a little airport kennel, and inside are two perfect calico kittens, all enormous eyes and cotton candy fluff, tiny pencil erasers for paws and whiskers like soft knitting needles.
I fall apart.
Joe lets me hold one, and then I come inside for a back rub, only it's too late, I am all tears. I cry to Mr. Y, wanting to tell him simply how much I miss my girls and how worried I am that X Partner Unit will give them away, put them to sleep, resent them. I want to tell him this but it comes out wrong and I make a mess of it the way I always seem to make a mess of things, and we were a tiny bit stilted for a short while after that.
Maybe now Mr. Y won't point out cute kittens that he sees (I hope he does).
Maybe now X Partner Unit won't tell me what his plans are for my girls (I hope he does).
Maybe now I should just calm down about my girls and wait the remaining 5 months out (I surely will try).
Maybe tomorrow the doctor will call and tell me why I am so tired and cold all the time, why I went from a lifetime of insomnia to feeling completely wiped out all the time.
I wish I had answers, but the truth is, perhaps I should be wishing I knew what the questions were.
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Posted by: melanie at July 06, 2004 10:24 AM (jDC3U)
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Posted by: ilyka at July 07, 2004 11:03 AM (c3lYA)
I want to give testimony of how priest azula brought back my divorce husband back to me,were married for 9 years then we break up, due to the fact that he never love me again.
i have many felling for this my ex because we have gotten 2 kids together and i will want us to come back again. but all way i tried for us to come back all went in vain. i was confused and sad because i needed him back into my life, so i decided to contact priest azula, i never believe in spell casting i just decide to make an effort and see if something can come out of it. i contacted them and they told me that they needed to cast return back of love to him, they did the spell and after 2 week my ex called that he still love me and wanted us to be together again,what surprise me most was that he was married to another woman, and after the spell casting he divorce the woman for me that same week. it was the spell i cast on him that brought him back again. we later got married again and now the kids are happy that their father is back to their mother again, i really thank this priest azula for bringing back my ex husband to me. i want you my fellow women who want back their divorce husband to contact priest azula for his return, do not lose hope you can make this great step as i did then your ex husband will come back to you. and also your ex wife too okay,
his email address id is helptemple@yahoo.com
Posted by: lilly at October 24, 2012 02:18 PM (oJhXc)
I want to give testimony of how priest azula brought back my divorce husband back to me,were married for 9 years then we break up, due to the fact that he never love me again.
i have many felling for this my ex because we have gotten 2 kids together and i will want us to come back again. but all way i tried for us to come back all went in vain. i was confused and sad because i needed him back into my life, so i decided to contact priest azula, i never believe in spell casting i just decide to make an effort and see if something can come out of it. i contacted them and they told me that they needed to cast return back of love to him, they did the spell and after 2 week my ex called that he still love me and wanted us to be together again,what surprise me most was that he was married to another woman, and after the spell casting he divorce the woman for me that same week. it was the spell i cast on him that brought him back again. we later got married again and now the kids are happy that their father is back to their mother again, i really thank this priest azula for bringing back my ex husband to me. i want you my fellow women who want back their divorce husband to contact priest azula for his return, do not lose hope you can make this great step as i did then your ex husband will come back to you. and also your ex wife too okay,
his email address id is helptemple@yahoo.com
Posted by: lilly at October 24, 2012 02:20 PM (oJhXc)
i have many felling for this my ex because we have gotten 2 kids together and i will want us to come back again. but all way i tried for us to come back all went in vain. i was confused and sad because i needed him back into my life, so i decided to contact Dr red, i never believe in spell casting i just decide to make an effort and see if something can come out of it. i contacted them and they told me that they needed to cast return back of love to him, they did the spell and after 2 week my ex called that he still love me and wanted us to be together again,what surprise me most was that he was married to another woman, and after the spell casting he divorce the woman for me that same week. it was the spell i cast on him that brought him back again. we later got married again and now the kids are happy that their father is back to their mother again, i really thank this dr red for bringing back my ex husband to me. i want you my fellow women who want back their divorce husband to contact Dr red for his return, do not lose hope you can make this great step as i did then your ex husband will come back to you. and also your ex wife too okay,
his email address id is redrocktemple@yahoo.com
Posted by: lilly at October 24, 2012 02:21 PM (oJhXc)
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