For the Love of Lisa

by Callie Norse

  Greg took Lisa’s suggestion, to work on the construction plans, while she and Maggie unpacked things. It was difficult to know where she wanted everything, until she herself saw how things were fitting into the allotted spaces.

  Greg returned to the empty room to ponder over the plans for the new bath. He wanted this to be a very special room—a room that would encourage romance. He decided to have the Jacuzzi partially sunken, with a ledge to set candles and fresh rose petals on occasionally. There would be a dimmer on the light switch and a mirror on the wall across from the Jacuzzi. They were including a shower in this room, even though the bath down the hall had a shower. Many times they would want a quick shower—therefore, it would be much more convenient to have one off the bedroom, than to walk down the hall to the other bath. They had ordered a Jacuzzi with a pearly luster, which they had fallen in love with the moment they saw it. The shower they found had gold trim to match the gold plated fixtures. The final touch of elegance was a lavatory with a pink marble top.

  Greg finished measuring and planning. The carpenter would be there in the morning to begin the work. He had, also, agreed to do the work on the office. Greg needed the time to get his workshop together, and he couldn’t see prolonging the mess in the house. He took the back stairs down to the kitchen. Lisa was arranging and rearranging, to make room for the rest of the items. They must all be perfectly arranged.

  “Lisa, sweetie, I have called the carpenter. There is nothing more I can do here. I need to run downtown and order some materials for him to get started in the morning. Then I will run to the office supply store to order the furniture for my office.”

  “Okay, honey. Suppose you could pick up something for supper on your way home? There is so much to do here, yet.”

  “Sure, hon, anything in mind?”

  “Pizza or lasagna from that new little place would be nice.”

  “I’ll surprise you then,” he winked.

  His wink told Lisa it would be lasagna for sure. After all, it was his favorite. She would order pizza to be delivered someday soon, as she was definitely craving it.

  On his way out the door, he peeked in on Maggie in the sewing room arranging her little books to her own liking. She was every bit as particular as her mommy. Her doll buggy had now made its way downstairs, and two babies were fast asleep in it. Lisa knew Maggie had conned Daddy into bringing it down for her, although she hadn’t seen him carry it in.

  Greg couldn’t leave without first going into the tack room to take another look at what would soon be his workshop. Something urged him to go into the old stable. Strange—a red substance was on the floor, below the trap door. He squatted down and touched it. It was a sticky substance, resembling blood. He climbed the ladder and looked into the loft above. It looked perfectly normal—that is, normal for an old loft, which hadn’t been used in years. Greg remained puzzled. There were some old rags in the corner, which he used to clean up the substance. He tossed the rags into an old burning barrel, behind the carriage house, and drove off in his metallic gray Tahoe, still puzzled over what he had seen.

  It took only a few minutes for him to reach the office supply store. He was able to put the incident in the stable out of his mind, until he had completed his order for the office furniture with the sales lady. As soon as he got back into his Tahoe, he became so engrossed with the incident he almost forgot to pick up the lasagna, which he had ordered from his cell phone, earlier.

  When he returned, Lisa and Maggie were sitting in the old wooden rocker in the sewing room, reading Snow White.

  “I’m hungry, Daddy,” Maggie whined. Greg noticed Lisa was somewhat pale. She was quite tired and ate very little. He cleaned up the dishes and told her to rest. He was afraid she had overdone.

  After he had the dishes back in the cupboard, he returned to the stable. The red, sticky substance was back. “What in the hell!” Greg normally didn’t swear. Again, he cleaned it up and climbed the ladder to check the loft. Still, there was nothing unusual. He would keep this to himself; Lisa didn’t need the added stress. Maybe later he would confide in Steve, Lisa’s sister’s husband.

  When he got back in the house, Lisa was sound asleep on the sofa in the parlor. Maggie was in a large chair in the corner quietly reading to one of her babies. He was aware she was partially reading the pictures, but that she knew many of the words. He started a fire in the fireplace and turned on some low romantic music—later he wondered if this was the best choice. He longed for Lisa’s closeness.

  Greg watched Maggie as she read her book. Her eyes were starting to close. It had been a long day, and she hadn’t taken a nap. She was still dressed in the clothes she had worn for the day. Greg decided to wait until she fell asleep and then carry her upstairs and put her to bed, instead of waking her to get her jammies on. That would wake her up and wind her up again. He loved all Maggie’s little stories, her smiles, and her giggles—but tonight he had other things on his mind. His thoughts went to the stable. The reappearance of the red substance was very much on his mind. It was such a puzzle. He first thought it had been dripping from the trap door. Now he wondered if it had come up from the floor.

  After putting Maggie to bed and covering Lisa, he rummaged through some boxes, found the flashlight he was looking for, and headed out to the stable. As he opened the door into the back hallway, he stepped into something sticky. He shined the flashlight on it. This could not be. It appeared to be the same substance he had found earlier in the stable—a bit too eerie. The soles of his shoes were covered. Lisa must not see this. He opened the back servants’ door and proceeded to walk across the lawn to the carriage house. There was a streak of light, somewhat like he had seen previously, which disappeared into the night. An uneasy feeling came over him. He quickly cleaned off his shoes, grabbed some more rags, and headed back to the house where he wiped up the sticky substance. He wet some paper towels in the kitchen and returned to finish cleaning the floor—fighting the urge to check the carriage house again.

  A gentle kiss on the forehead and Lisa was awake. “What time is it?” she asked.

  “10 o’clock.”

  “Oh, no, where did the evening go?” Lisa yawned.

  “You were extremely tired, so I let you sleep. Maggie read until she fell asleep in the chair. I carried her up to bed. Let’s go up to bed ourselves.” He folded the throw and placed it on the arm of the sofa, then took Lisa’s hand to help her off the sofa. Greg had to admit the bed felt awfully good. Lisa was soon asleep. He lay there trying to block out the bad events of the day, and then fell asleep picturing how the new furniture would look in his office.

  *****

  The next morning, Greg was downstairs brewing coffee, when there was a knock at the back servants’ entrance. He opened the door to see a man, possibly in his fifties, carrying an old, dented toolbox in one hand. His salt and pepper hair looked as if it hadn’t been combed in days. He had at least a three-day whisker stubble and was shabbily dressed in jeans worn thin, with holes in the knees. His shirt was tattered, with buttons missing.

  “Mornin’,” he said with a smile. It was then, Greg noticed he had several front teeth missing. “I’m Hank Star. You called me about some remodelin’?”

  “Yes, come in please. I’ll show you what I have in mind.” Greg led him up the back stairway and down the hall, all the time thinking how he must not judge Hank for his appearance. For, he too, had buttons missing off a shirt. With this thought, he gave a muffled chuckle. He showed Hank what he wanted done with the room adjacent to the master bedroom. He could hear Lisa stirring, so he stopped to warn her that the carpenter had arrived—lest she run down to the shower half naked. He escorted her and went back to get Maggie. Maggie was awake and dressed, dressing her dollies. The two went downstairs to fix breakfast. Later, Lisa came down the back stairs. She would meet Hank in a while. This old house was too large to be meeting strange men, alone; especially a man looking like Greg had described him. She chuckled as she thought of his
missing buttons, which Greg had mentioned. She doubted very much his buttons had suffered the same ill effects as Greg’s had.

  Once breakfast was over, Greg went back upstairs, where Hank was preparing to tear out the back wall of the bedroom closet. Greg hung a sheet to help keep the dust from filtering into the master bedroom. He was beginning to regret not remodeling this room before moving in. He felt it was going to be a dusty mess, besides being unsure of how trustworthy Hank was. He decided to go downstairs and make a phone call to Mr. Peterson who had recommended him. He explained his concerns to Mr. Peterson.

  “Ole Hank? Naw, he wouldn’t hurt a soul. He is a good person. He just doesn’t happen to live in the world of fashion. He doesn’t care how he dresses or what others think of the way he dresses. He has done odds and ends carpenter jobs in the area for years. Don’t worry about Ole Hank. He will do a swell job for you, and he won’t cause any trouble.”

  This was a big relief to Greg. Now he could relax; after all, he had two females to take care of. In fact, maybe it was a good idea to have another man around, after what he had seen yesterday. This blood-like substance was a real concern.

  Greg looked in on the girls, as he headed out to the carriage house. They were in the sewing room checking to see if everything was where they wanted it. It looked to Greg as if they were still undecided about a few things. So was he.

  Everything looked quite normal in the carriage house. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought the red substance had been a dream. He could find no trace of it, or any possible reason for it. He knew only that he was uncomfortable in this part of the carriage house.

  Two

  It was now June. The new master bath and walk-in closet have been completed. Hank has also finished Greg’s office, and the furniture has arrived. Greg is now spending many hours in his office. This room has become his favorite hide-a-way. He loves the peacefulness of it; although at times he wishes it were a little closer to the sewing room where Lisa and Maggie spend much of their time. There have been no reoccurrence of the red, sticky substance. Greg has kept these incidents to himself, but he definitely has not forgotten them.

  Lately, Lisa has been extremely tired. Greg was concerned she was overdoing with such a large house to take care of. She napped almost every afternoon and was still dragging by bedtime. She had her own thoughts on this, which she hadn’t shared with Greg. He was unaware that she was nauseous at times. She had an appointment with her gynecologist, as she was sure she was in the early stages of pregnancy. She wanted to surprise Greg with the official word.

  Lisa’s appointment was with Dr. Rhonda Fontell, the obstetrician who delivered Maggie and had been her gynecologist since then. Lisa had always loved her and felt at ease with her. Dr. Fontell had two children of her own. Being female, she understood the concerns of a pregnant woman. Lisa hadn’t told Greg she had an 11:00 AM appointment. She had led him to believe she was going for an early lunch, and some shopping with her close friend, Marta. She and Marta had been best friends since high school. They were a lot alike and both were interior decorators. Marta kept quite busy working from her home for some of the wealthiest people in town. She and Lisa met often for lunch and shopping. They had a special relationship. Lisa confided in Marta about most things.

  While Lisa was in town, Maggie would help Greg with some late planting. It had been a wet spring, making it difficult to do much gardening earlier. Before the spring rains started, Greg managed to rototill the garden area, but he had been unable to do any planting. The potatoes were far beyond Good Friday planting. They would definitely be a late crop.

  Lisa cleaned up the breakfast dishes and was on her way to Dr. Fontell’s office at the physicians’ office building, attached to Galena-Stauss Hospital. She felt fortunate there was a hospital in this small town. As she turned onto Summit Street, she could see the parking lot was full, as usual. Lisa had often felt the clinic needed more parking spaces. After all, many who visit the clinic are ill and don’t feel like searching for ten minutes for a parking space. Maybe they needed valet parking. A car backed out of a parking stall, and Lisa was able to pull in before the car behind her was able to get to it. She felt guilty for taking the spot, but why should she? She had as much right to it as the other lady. Just the same, she could feel the disgust the lady in the other car was feeling toward her—the same disgust she had often felt when someone had taken a spot before she could get to it. It was getting close to eleven. Lisa hated being late for appointments; even though she knew once she got inside it would mean waiting for Dr. Fontell, as it was with most other doctors.

  As usual, the waiting room was full. Many were flipping through magazines. Others were waiting impatiently, as they sat waiting for their names to be called. There were still many sitting in the waiting room when the nurse came to the door and called, “Lisa Carrington.”

  “The other ladies must be waiting for another doctor,” Lisa thought to herself.

  After stepping off the scale, she was escorted to what she called a little room, where the nurse took her blood pressure and asked a few questions—when was her last period, had she had any spotting between periods, etc? Lisa answered all the questions except the one about when her last period was. She had been so consumed with the move that she had forgotten to mark it on the calendar. The date had escaped her.

  Lisa was handed a paper gown—one of those wonderful inventions. She was asked to remove all her clothes and put the paper gown on with the opening in the front. The so-called gown was more of a jacket. A paper sheet would serve as the bottom portion. Lisa felt this was degrading—one wrong move and a large rip could leave her exposed.

  Dr.Fontell opened the door. “Hi, Lisa, what seems to be the problem?”

  Lisa told her of her fatigue and nausea. Dr. Fontell then wanted to do a pelvic exam. Lisa scooted forward and Dr. Fontell placed Lisa’s feet in the stirrups. She was glad she had a female doctor. This was embarrassing enough without the doctor being male.

  When the exam was completed, Dr. Fontell helped her scoot back and sit up. “Lisa, I see no signs of pregnancy. Your uterus is normal size. Of course, you could be in a very early stage of pregnancy. I would like for you to go to the lab. They will draw blood for a serum pregnancy test. This will be more accurate than a urine test at this stage.”

  Lisa dressed and found her way to the lab, where two vials of blood were drawn. Her doctor would notify her when the results were in. She returned to the parking lot, giving someone else a place to park as she pulled away, in such deep thought that she vaguely noticed the car waiting to pull into her parking stall. She had hoped to be giving Greg the exciting news of a pregnancy today. This wouldn’t discourage her, as Dr. Fontell had mentioned this could be an early stage of pregnancy. After all, she had been nauseous with Maggie quite early in that pregnancy.

  As she drove into the driveway, she saw Greg and Maggie behind the house working in the garden. Maggie was dropping seed potatoes in the furrows Greg had made.

  Greg came over to the car. “Short lunch date wasn’t it?”

  “We decided to skip shopping. Marta had something come up with a client at the last minute,” Lisa fibbed. She hated not telling Greg the truth, but she must, in order to surprise him with the news later.

  “Maybe you can get together again soon. I know how the two of you love to shop. Maggie and I went in for lunch a bit ago. I made us sandwiches and heated a can of tomato soup. Maggie is having such fun helping plant the garden—guess I’d better check and see how she’s doing with the potatoes. We wouldn’t want them all growing in one clump,” he chuckled.

  Lisa got out of the car and walked toward the servants’ entrance, thinking how wonderful it would be to have a new little one in the house. Greg would be pleased, too—although she knew he had wanted to wait a while longer, until they were more settled and she was more rested. He had also hoped she could take on a few interior decorating jobs before she became too busy with a new little one.
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  Lisa made herself a salad and sat to relax a few minutes before changing clothes. She ate in the sewing room, so if Greg walked in he wouldn’t see her eating. He would be curious as to why she was eating, when he thought she had just come from a lunch date. Looking at her mom’s rocker in the sewing room made her think of when Maggie was a baby. Everything reminded her of babies these days. She was continuing to dream of a baby crying. It must be because of her desire to have another baby, she had decided. The dreams increased her desire. She was puzzled as to why the baby’s cry sounded troubled. She hoped this didn’t mean there would be something wrong with her baby. She would be glad when Dr. Fontell called confirming her pregnancy.

  After lunch, Lisa went upstairs to change clothes, exhausted from her trip to the doctor. The bed looked inviting. She stretched across the queen-size canopy bed and was fast asleep within minutes.

  She awoke with Greg’s kiss on the lips. “Sleepy gal, again today, I see.” Lisa stirred enough to return his kiss. “Amy and her mom came by and asked to take Maggie to the afternoon matinee. I thought it would be good for her to spend some time with Amy. She hasn’t been with anyone her age for a few weeks. And you know how much she has wanted to see Shrek 2. I knew you would agree, so I let her go. I had her wash up and change into some clean clothes. She put on her purple shorts and the little lavender shirt. I called the shirt purple. She was quick to correct me that it’s lavender! You girls are so particular about such things.”

  Lisa looked up at him and smiled. “Are you finished with your gardening for the day?”

  “I could be if you would like me to be,” he grinned.

  “I was thinking maybe we could spend some quality time in the Jacuzzi while Maggie is away.”