Elixir
Page 4
Magically, some amount of natural body chemicals called pheromones were released in the air. The effects of these airborne pheromones caused the complete obliteration of all the restraints to which they had previously adhered.
The evening turned into a very special and memorable night for the two of them.
CHAPTER 11
THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD TO BECOMING A NURSE
While enjoying the transcendental bliss of finally having found that special someone, Jerry was unable to submit himself wholeheartedly to the warm, beckoning embrace of this euphoric emotion, for gnawing and incessantly tormenting his anguished soul was this seething anger about Mary’s demeaning job.
He hated intensely the notion of his inamorata toiling away at that Vietnamese noodle house, coming home bone-tired from the daylong repetitive and backbreaking task of artfully balancing a huge tray of six or seven steaming bowls of hot pho noodles. Worse, she had to tactfully deal with irate customers who were either furious about the turtle-paced arrival of their chow (which happened during the peak lunch and dinner hours) or that the wrong order of noodles was delivered.
The use of her appealing charm and deft diplomatic skills were always necessary to deal with complaints such as the soup of the noodles were too spicy, or the soup wasn’t hot enough, or not tasting like the authentic nutriment sold in their native Vietnam, or simply disliking the quality of the ingredients in their broth. But what drove Jerry batty was the innumerable frequency of the bold, indecent propositions directed at his lover.
So he came up with what he believed was a workable plan. He waited patiently until his Mary got off work. When she arrived at 9:25 p.m., he seated her in one of the chairs at the dining table and discussed a strategy for getting out of her menial occupation. She initially resisted, objecting to the central theme of his proposed course of action. She cut him off abruptly in midsentence. Being a patient, persuasive, and logical man that he was, Jerry was able, in due course, to bring his darling around and warmed to his idea.
The overall objective was to get Mary into a respectable occupation that paid a decent salary. Because she had a tender, caring, and compassionate nature, studying to become a nurse was the logical choice. So here was the nitty-gritty of the game plan:
1) She needed to work at the pho place for another three weeks. It was necessary in order to give the Vietnamese owners sufficient time to find and train her replacement.
2) They had to meet with financial aid counselors to explore the resources available for aiding low-income school dropouts who were trying to get back to school.
3) She needed to get enrolled at Pasadena City College and start taking the prerequisite courses for her intended program of study.
4) She had to be admitted to a nursing program and begin the process of acquiring the knowledge and skills to become a competent nurse.
5) She had to successfully complete the undergraduate nursing program with either a bachelor of science or associate of arts degree.
6) She had to pass the California nursing licensure exam.
7) She had to be employed as a registered nurse.
Jerry, being his usual generous self, volunteered to unconditionally support his amour financially during this whole process. This commitment would, in most probability, deplete the modest savings he had stashed away at the Bank of America: The promised $1,000 monthly allowance, additional money for gas and medicine (not money for food, water, utilities, or shelter, since he had already been shouldering all the financial necessities associated with their sharing the apartment); payment for her health insurance; all the costs associated with her schooling (tuition if no grant/aid was possible, expenses for books, and the like); and many more incidental items that needed to be listed down for this enumeration to be complete.
The strategy looked great on paper; it helped a lot that Mary was very eager and willing to follow the game plan. But she knew that this wasn’t going to be easy, since it had been seven long years since she even opened a textbook to read.
And from Jerry’s estimation, even if all aspects of the plan were to flawlessly come together, in the best-case scenario, the amount of time required was at least four and a half years. But, in retrospect, the estimation of the time aspect of the plan was way too optimistic.
The road to becoming a licensed nurse ended up needing an additional three years.
Why?
An unforeseen arrival had laid waste to the timetable of the well-laid plan.
CHAPTER 12
AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL
Libido is believed to be either prompted, aroused, restrained, or impelled by various influences, such as biological, psychological, and social factors. In addition, health condition and/or medical circumstance; use of miraculous, libido-enhancing drugs; age of the person; state of personal relationships and lifestyle preferences—all of these, in one way or another, play important roles in shaping the sex drive of a person. In biological terms, it is the sex hormones and the array of neurotransmitters that is working on the nucleus accumbens to stimulate or control the libido in homo sapiens.
Work, family, personal situations, peer pressures, cultural dictums and beliefs, and societal norms are some of the diverse social factors affecting the libido. Psychological interpretation and causality of this drive have been extensively and publicly elucidated.
The eminent Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, described libido as that inexplicable energy that is created by survival and sexual instincts. It is part of the id and postulated to be the driving force of all behaviors. Carl Gustav Jung, the scholarly Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, in contrast, put forth a different interpretation of libido. Whereas Freud’s definition has a more sexual flavor to it, Jung theorized that libido as that psychic energy that can only be released from the grip of the unconscious by bringing up the corresponding fantasy-images.
During her now-much-regretted phase (from age twenty to twenty-two), her inexplicable actions and bewildering behavior were very atypical of Mary’s personality. But these were not due to chemical imbalances or propensities, nor some nonexistent childhood event triggering this uncharacteristic behavior. Rather, it was an act of abject surrender to the hopelessness of her miserable fate.
She was on a foreign soil, so far away from the glowing, caring, warm, and protective hands of her family. Here she was in El Monte, California, alone, helpless, penniless, dispirited, hungry, and besieged with indecent proposals from legions of admirers, as well as countless requests from smitten delinquents. Her earlier days of nonselective prolific debauchery was an utter acquiescence to the wretchedness of her inescapable, heartbreaking predestination.
………
Mary was quite flabbergasted and shocked when, five days after that very special night spent with Jerry, she started feeling the unambiguous symptoms of first trimester pregnancy. Those unmistakable signs were the reactions of her body to the high levels of pregnancy hormones.
Pregnancy hormones include estrogens, progesterone, human placental lactogen (hPL), and human chorionic gonadotropin hormone (hCG). Morning sickness, also called “all-day and all-night sickness,” include vomiting; wild mood swings; nausea; fatigue; headaches; constipation; food aversions or food cravings; slight bleeding, cramping; tingly, tender, and swollen breasts; faintness and dizziness; raised basal temperature (oral temperature when you first wake up in the morning); and initial weight loss followed by a fifteen- to thirty-pound increase in weight.
What a wide range of unpleasant maladies that the females of our species have to endure to bask in the ecstasy and thrills of motherhood.
An overworked waitress, Mary was now so conflicted and confused with this unexpected and puzzling development. While she was very thrilled and eagerly looking forward to thoroughly enjoying the roller-coaster ride of motherhood, she worried, rightfully so, that this new developing phase in her life would now put a kink into the well-thought-out plans that
Jerry had laid out for her. In addition to needing to fully focus and exert extraneous efforts on the difficult task of being a full-time student (it had been seven long years since she had stepped inside a classroom), she now had to deal with the trials, tribulations, and complexities of raising a child. She was distressed, worried that she might not have that inner strength required to maintain a delicate balance between the enormous task awaiting this older back-to-school student and the unenviable challenges of properly nurturing her future little angel.
But the most troubling aspect of this unexpected occurrence was the impossibility of how this came about.
She had been abstinent for the past three years, ignoring and refusing the sexual overtures of many lewd male patrons of the noodle house. She even amusingly recalled the time around two years ago when she was propositioned by a middle-aged and immaculately dressed lady. Even though she was no longer as fresh, as innocent, and as mesmerizing as when she was eighteen, she was still quite a sight to behold. Having an exquisite face and a vivacious personality helped her mitigate the unattractiveness of being slightly overweight. She could still attract an occasional moth to the flame. A more recent series of blushing recollections centered around her interactions with a kindly wealthy man.
She had to utilize every ounce of her deft diplomatic skills to vigorously but firmly fend off the amorous advances of a lonely and unhappily married older gentleman named Willy. Oh, she was very touched by the displays of affection shown by this smitten grandpa: specially delivered artistically and tastefully arranged bouquets of fragrant, ruby red roses; big boxes of Godiva chocolates; gift cards from such places as Starbucks, Benihana, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, and Din Tai Fung Dumpling restaurant.
While she was flattered by the unsolicited attention, she was terribly abashed by Willy’s very ostentatious display of his unreciprocated feelings of love. She reached a breaking point when the amusing element of this incessant material display of affections turned to daily bouts of ridicule and sarcastic taunting from her coworkers. What ingrates! This is what she got for sharing the boxes of Godiva chocolates with her fellow workers.
Wishing to put an end into this increasingly exasperating situation, she sprang to action the moment Willy walked into the noodle place. She gently pulled him aside, spoke in a hushed tone, and implored the old gentleman to stop showering her with all those thoughtful presents. Imagine the flabbergasted reaction she felt when she heard what the genial old chap told her after hearing her pleading: Willy had decided on his own to make Mary his mistress.
The gist of the offer: Mary had to quit waitressing as soon as possible. He would give her $1,800 monthly allowance for living expenses. He would provide her with a fully-furnished and fully-paid apartment unit, which would serve as their love nest. He promised weekly enjoyment of LA Lakers basketball games or LA Dodgers games or a trip to see an opera. He also mentioned biannual overseas vacations to places like Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, or Switzerland.
What gall!
Mary expressed her shock by saying, in her limited knowledge of Spanish, “Señor, tener grande cojones!” After overcoming this dose of incredulity, she profusely thanked the affable gent but firmly yet politely rejected his indecent proposal. As a way of ridding herself of all this unwanted and pesky attention, she also delicately requested Willy to stop dropping by to visit her.
………
Initially disbelieving this puzzling development, she rushed to the neighboring Walgreens to buy a pregnancy kit.
All over-the-counter kits practically work the same way, invariably testing the presence of pregnancy hormones in the urine. The dipstick contains a chemical that detects the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which is produced by the body after embryo implants (attaches) to the walls of the uterus. Its sensitivity for hCG varies, depending on the manufacturer, but generally, in the range of 10 mIU/ml (milli-International Units) to 40 mlU/ml. The more sensitive commercial kits can detect the lower end of the range. Some variations of the testing kit tests for the presence of hyperglycosylated hCG (H-hCG), a pregnancy hormone released right after fertilization, theoretically being detectable even before hCG, thereby indicating pregnancy at an even earlier stage.
………
She carefully held the hCG-detecting stick into the free-flowing stream of her first morning pee, then she laid it gingerly on a flat surface and patiently waited. After six minutes, she checked for the results.
Two red lines.
Unbelieving, she did the test a second time. But much to her astonishment, the second test confirmed it. She was on her long and winding journey to motherhood. Undoubtedly, she would be experiencing its up and downs: joy, sadness, anxiety, sufferings, care, love, and hope. She was already experiencing the early stages of pregnancy. Due to her frequent vomiting and resulting lack of appetite, she had lost seven pounds in just the past few days. But that wasn’t what worried her the most. She was very distraught that the love of her life, her heaven-sent, adorable Jerry, would come to the incorrect conclusion that she was back to her old promiscuous ways and was sleeping around once more.
Much to her surprise and gratifying relief, Jerry had not exhibited even an iota of negative reaction. On the contrary, he was overjoyed by this unexpected bit of good news. He was basking and rejoicing in his good fortune: that he would be a first-time dad at age thirty-seven.
To celebrate, Jerry took the soon-to-be mother of his son to a fancy restaurant, stopping to pick up a bottle of Moët & Chandon champagne and a Porto’s red velvet cake along the way.
………
The last five and a half months had not been an easy time for Mary. It was a struggle trying to juggle the responsibilities of being a full-time student and having to deal with the trying and occasionally maddening moments of bearing a child. But for the couple, it was well worth it in the end.
Five months and twenty days after that very special and memorable romantic night, their nine pounds bundle of joy, the adorably cute and lovable little cherub, came rushing out to brighten up their lives.
“Hello, World. Please warmly welcome Jake Timothy S. Kirk!”
CHAPTER 13
THE UNOPENED NOTE
This chapter is the continuation of the interactions between JT and his mother in Chapter 5.
As Jake expected and much to his sheer consternation, his mom started to focus her attention on his damp neck and sticky, sweaty armpits. He was about to protest Mary’s intentions vigorously, but he sensed that something was bothering her immensely. It was a stark contrast to her usual giggly, jovial self.
So he bit his tongue and tried his best to suppress the uncontrollable bouts of giggling that invariably followed whenever the sensitive parts of his body got touched. He submitted resignedly while his doting mom, in a series of rhythmic stroking motions, delicately wiped off viscid sweats and some oily deposits from his neck, chest, back, and armpits.
Unable to hold back any longer, he asked, “What’s wrong, Mama?”
She tried to open her mouth to answer, but no words came out. The enormity of her burden created a formidable mental block. Whatever was troubling her was preventing her to fully articulate her very terrible predicament.
Jake tried to move toward the refrigerator, intending to go get his mom a glass of cold orange juice. But Mary stopped him and motioned him to sit down, alarmed at the sight of the now blood-soaked dressing on her “baby’s” left leg.
His mom hurriedly went to the medicine cabinet to get some hydrogen peroxide sterilizing solution, some sterilize gauze, Neosporin, physiological saline, several sticks of cotton swabs, and a pair of scissors. She also got a cup and filled it with semi-hot water from the bathroom faucet. She carefully cut the tape, then delicately took off the dressing and tenderly removed the gauze pads that were atop the still slightly raw wound using a water-moistened cotton swab to loosen the areas where the pads had stuck to the skin. Using a combination of the saline and hydrogen peroxide
solutions, along with some sterile pads, she expertly and soothingly cleaned the wound, carefully navigating around the stitches still holding some parts of the raw skin together.
Mary was relieved that no drainage developed around the wound. She applied a moderate amount of the antibiotic, then put moistened pieces of gauze pads over the wound, and, finally, rewrapped the lacerated areas with a new dressing. She gathered up all the old dressing, used pads, used cotton swabs, and the cut tape into a disposable plastic bag, intending to throw them away on her way out of the apartment. But she failed to notice the shiny, metallic sheen of her only son’s blood that soaked the used gauze.
Realizing the futility of her awkward attempts in sharing the bad news about her recently-diagnosed medical condition, Mary decided to proceed with plan B. She got a sealed letter that she had laboriously written the night before out of her Gucci bag (one of the few luxuries she indulged in).
The contents of the letter revealed the nature of her diagnosed medical malady, and the fact that it would, in a ninety-nine percent certainty, lead to her demise. Mary hesitantly handed him the unopened note, making her young son promise that he would not read the contents of the letter until exactly three weeks of the coming semestral break had elapsed. She then tightly embraced Jake and planted an affectionate kiss on his forehead. After a while of this, mother and son let go. Mary tried to stifle her sobs, not wanting to roil the boy’s mental and emotional state even further. Jake was fighting hard not to let the grimness of the situation affect him.
He surmised that the letter his mother just handed him had bad news written all over it. But his attempt at maintaining a stoic countenance was unsuccessful, as evidenced by the steady stream of tears trickling down his recently-cleaned face. His mom made an abrupt 180-degree turn and walked toward the door. Before leaving the apartment, Mary turned around to blow him three long, affectionate air kisses. In her haste, she forgot to dump the plastic bag containing all those medical wastes into the trash can.