Accident
by Thalia
Rating: PG-13
They lived together and it was convenient. He had always wanted a
suitable flatmate, so that he wouldn't be alone in that overly large
place that batty old Uncle Hubert had given him for his twenty-first
birthday. And it worked out pretty well, all things considered. And when
they went out to buy groceries together, people would smile at them and
compliment him on having such a beautiful daughter. Except Susette was
not his daughter, and Mina was not his wife.
He had known her in college, once upon a time when things were
different. Kevin remembered a bright-eyed freshman in pressed jeans and
a white designer cashmere wrap sweater, running through the courtyard
and nearly bowling him over. She was quite late to her bio lecture, and
he helpfully pointed out the location of her lecture hall. They happened
to bump into each other the next day after he came out of his history
class, and had spent a nice afternoon in the campus cafe, sipping tea
and chatting. She was a pre-med back then, the darling daughter of a
local wealthy businessman.
And yet, five years later, they would be sharing a flat and she would be
working for wages as a waitress, insisting on paying at least some part
of the bills and buying clothing for her daughter at the local Walmart,
on sale. If they had still lived in the same town where they went to
college, people would have called Mina Angell a fallen woman.
Things had unraveled for her four years ago, when Richard Angell, the
wealthy tycoon father, was arrested for embezzlement. The perfect law
school boyfriend that Mina had been seeing left her without a second
glance, and when Kevin had met her again, she had been working at a
sleazy bar in the wrong side of town, her beautiful hands rough and red
from the winter cold, a bulge in her tummy and a stony expression on her
face as the burly man in the bar stool demanded another beer.
She hadn't told him too much of her story and of why she had dropped out
of school, but Kevin could put together the pieces easily enough. The
talk after the end of her shift had turned into a weekly date at a cafe,
and then one night she had fled to his flat after a falling-out with a
customer at her job. Kevin had taken her in with no questions and within
a month, it was as though she'd always lived there.
He had held her hand in the local hospital when Susette was born, and
stroked her hair when the baby was placed into her arms.
She didn't know how to cook and he would find her long, golden hairs
clogging the bathroom sink in the mornings before she went to work, and
she had her moody spells and there were rainy Sunday afternoons when she
was off work and she would sit by the window, the newspaper forgotten in
her lap, tears falling down her face. She fussed way too much over how
he looked and always drank the last cup of coffee.
And then there were nights, especially when it stormed, where she'd
wordlessly crawl into his bed almost like a little girl afraid of the
thunder, and he would hold her and feel her shivering, and he would wake
up in the morning to find her arms wrapped around him, the oversized
t-shirt that she wore hiked up to her waist, his arm tingly from where
she lay on it. Susette, with the curiosity that little children always
had, always asked him why she wasn't supposed to call him 'Daddy' if she
called Mina 'Mommy'.
Mina always insisted that someday, when she had made enough money to
support herself and her daughter, she'd move out and give him his life
back. He would always tell her that he didn't mind them, and that it
didn't matter.
He was getting way too accustomed to the state of things, perhaps --
the odd pair of female stockings he'd find in his hamper or the empty
plastic cups of jello left on the coffee table. There were some times,
when they would go to the park together for a picnic and Mina would
smile as she admonished her daughter not to pick the lettuce out of her
sandwich. And then Susette would run around and go down the slide again
and again and Mina would just sit next to him, the sunlight gleaming on
her cornsilk hair as she rested her head against his shoulder, and Kevin
would wish that everything was different.
She never told him all of her inner demons, and he didn't think he would
ever be able to break through the entire way. But Kevin didn't tell her
all his thoughts, either, or all his feelings.
Perhaps it would be easier this way. Perhaps. Falling in love with her
was a complete accident, after all.
~fin
(
geocities.com/wyse_k)