Epilogue

Epilogue

Alexis

Three Months Later

It wasn’t the San Francisco water that was making me sick. I had ascertained it. If anything, the water here was far better than the one I was used to drinking in Fiddler’s Green.

It had been three months since our wedding and the honeymoon. Three months since we’d packed all our belongings and moved across the country to Palo Alto. We couldn’t decide whether we wanted to live in San Francisco or somewhere quieter around it. It was sort of a draw that we settled on Palo Alto. Will loved the suburbs, and I was fond of the greenery and the peace and quiet. We had just about enough money between the two of us to put the down payment on a small house in a gentrified neighborhood.

Both of us were happy, I believed. Apart from the nausea, that was.

Will had his job at the marina. He had shown exceptional talent to the proprietor of the marina in repairing vintage ships. According to the proprietor, he had never seen such deft work in his entire life. The work was steady, and it kept him busy five days a week. The paychecks weren’t bad, either.

I felt a little bit lost when I first came here, not knowing what exactly to do, but then I saw this amazing little bookstore in Palo Alto that had a “Help Wanted!” sign on its window. Within a month, I was not only their cashier, I was also the bookkeeper, both figuratively and literally. It had never occurred to me that my real passion was maintaining these quaint little bookstores.

Everything was going well, except for the morning sickness.

It was strange; I hadn’t gone out to a party last night. Neither of us had drunk alcohol, even though it was a Saturday night. Will was still sound asleep in the bed, not moving, not stirring.

I, on the other hand, had to rush to the bathroom immediately or risk hurling all over the carpet.

Once the contents of my stomach had exited, I sat there on the toilet, holding my body, feeling queasy, eyeing the medicine cabinet. I’d tried everything in there to subside the nausea, but nothing seemed to work.

Was it food poisoning from that calamari I had last month? Food poisoning didn’t run this long.

Unless.

Fuck.

Apprehensively, I went to the medicine cabinet and brought out the pregnancy test strips I’d casually bought one day while shopping at Walmart. Will and I hadn’t been using protection since we’d gotten married. Some subconscious part of me had prompted me to buy the pregnancy tests.

And now, that same subconscious part was speaking to me, telling me to take out the strip and pee on it to see if I was pregnant or not.

I took out one strip and went to work on it, feeling very afraid suddenly.

***

Ten minutes later, I walked out of the bathroom with my legs shaking and the wet test strip in my hand. It had two black lines on it. Well, that explained the morning sickness. I’d been getting nauseous for a month now. Could I have been pregnant for a month and not known it?

Holy shit.

I went over to Will and shook his shoulder.

“Honey, wake up.”

I expected him to protest, seeing as it was just six in the morning. Will hadn’t said it out loud, but I felt that his work at the marina drained him physically, especially in light of the injuries that he had sustained in his fight with Blair. Many of those injuries hadn’t healed fully, causing Will to exert himself harder.

Will did not stir.

“Baby, look,” I said, now shoving his shoulder a little forcibly. I needed him. I wanted him to reassure me that things were going to be fine, that we were ready to have a baby, and that we’d take care of the baby and never leave its side. But Will did not move.

“Will, get up,” I said, pushing him so that he’d shift to his side instead of lying flat on his stomach.

But as I pushed him, I saw a huge patch of dried blood under him. It sent shivers down my spine, seeing all that blood. What froze me in terror was how Will was not moving at all. His skin was blue, and his eyes were open.

“Oh, God,” I gasped as I threw the pregnancy test and got on the bed, checking for Will’s pulse. I could not feel it. And then, it blipped just a little. It was the feeblest pulse I’d ever seen in my life.

I took off his shirt to try to ascertain what had happened to him. We’d gone to bed very normally last night. We’d stayed up to talk about how Will might get a promotion at the marina and how I’d finally open a book-themed café in the bookstore to boost business. The last thing he had said to me was how much he loved me. And then he’d gone to sleep.

As I took off his shirt, I saw that the wounds on his chest were all fresh and bleeding. They were in the shape of claw marks. I remembered how he got there. Blair had slashed at his chest during the fight, after which I had to intercede and join the fight.

“Fuck, Will, get up. You cannot scare me like this,” I said, shaking him but getting no response from him. “Will!”

Will’s face only grew bluer with each passing second. I put my finger below his nose to see if he was breathing. It was so faint that I could not detect it.

Fishing out my phone from under the pillow, I dialed 911.

“911, what’s your emergency?” a calm operator spoke on the phone.

“Help, it’s my husband. He’s not breathing, and his pulse is barely there.”

“Ma’am, I can see that your address is 912 Arroyo Lane. Please confirm your husband’s condition to me one more time before I send the paramedics.”

“He’s bleeding from an old wound. He’s not breathing, and his pulse is dangerously low. His skin has turned blue!” I gasped.

“If the blood is fresh and if you can feel his pulse, your husband is alive, ma’am. Please administer CPR to him while I send the paramedics. Do you know how to give CPR?”

“Yes.”

“The paramedics will be there in five minutes, ma’am.”

I put the phone down as I began giving Will chest compressions. Then I breathed down his mouth and resumed giving him chest compressions.

“Please don’t be dead, Will. Please,” I whispered frantically, pushing my hands against his chest. “I need you.”

But he remained unmoving, his skin turning even more blue and his pulse becoming completely still.

As the paramedics came with their stretcher and took Will’s limp body out of the bedroom, all I could wonder wildly was why this was happening.

Why now?

Thank you reading Alexis and Will’s story, hope you enjoyed!