CINDIES SHORT STORIES: The storm before the calm

 
Chapter 1
 
Meredith and Sam were sitting on the sofa laughing at the antics of Jenny, their five
month old baby. They’d bought her a bouncy chair last week and she was jiggling herself
up and down and chuckling.
It was nearly seven-thirty. Meredith yawned. It would soon be time for bed. 

She was a weather presenter with Channel 7 news on their breakfast show so she started work
at five. Having only been back at work for a week and a half after six months maternity
leave, she was finding it difficult to get into a routine, not to mention tiring looking after
Jenny and the house too, but she loved her job and had never even considered giving it up
to stay home with her daughter.
“Do you still want to go to the gym on Saturday morning?” Sam asked, breaking
through her thoughts.
“Mmmm, yes,” Meredith said, preoccupied with watching Jenny.
“I just thought that now you’re back at work, you might want to spend more time
with Jenny for the first week or two.”
She reflected upon what Sam said and decided that as much as she loved spending
time with her daughter, she really needed some time with her friends too. She’d barely
seen her friends since Christmas, apart from them visiting in February when Jenny was
born and the odd flying visit from some of them from time to time. No, she thought, I
really need some time away from home, family and work for a change.
“As lovely as it would be to spend time with this little darling,” Meredith said as she
leaned over and tickled under Jenny’s chin, “I still need some time with my friends and to
do my own thing. After all, I do have her all to myself every afternoon. Besides, I’m
meeting Alice there. It’s all arranged and then we’re going shopping. I’m so looking
forward to having a good old gossip with her. There’s never enough time when we’re at
work to chat.”
“Oh, I just wondered,” Sam said disappointedly. “The guys from work are having a
five-a side tournament on Saturday; a team building thing and I said I’d try to be there.
Would you swap weeks with me and you could go the following two weeks; or maybe meet
Alice in the afternoon instead?”
“Aaah, so you have ulterior motives,” Meredith smiled and turned to look at Sam as
she spoke. “The answer’s still no I’m afraid. It’s all arranged and you know Alice; she’ll
have something else planned with her boys later in the day. How about asking Chloe if she
wants some overtime?”
Chloe was their child minder and house keeper. She was studying for her post
graduate degree and the job fitted in perfectly with her university commitments, allowing
her to study part of the time she was at work. She was the daughter of Meredith’s mum’s
friend so Meredith had known her for a long time and was happy to trust her with Jenny.
I asked Chloe this morning but she has a night out on Friday so she’s not able to
help,” Sam replied.
“Mmm, it’s a pity our parents are so far away. They’d jump at the chance to look
after her. Looks like you’ll just have to miss out.”
“Please, Meredith, it would mean a lot to me,” Sam pleaded
“It means a lot to me too. You’re forgetting I haven’t been out much since Jenny
was born and I’ve hardly seen my friends.”
Sam looked dejectedly at Meredith but she wasn’t about to change her mind.
“I just thought you might want more time with Jenny,” Sam replied, hoping
Meredith might feel a little guilty but he should have known better.
“I would have thought you would want more time with her too.” Meredith was
starting to get annoyed. They’d agreed that they would have alternate weekends to spend
time with their friends and do their own thing once she was back to work but Sam seemed
to be struggling with his side of the bargain already. She sat there fuming in silence and
would have become really annoyed if he had tried to persuade her to change her mind
again but Sam decided to leave it for the moment, thinking Meredith was clearly tired and
grumpy and he might have more luck if he spoke to her again earlier in the evening
tomorrow.
Sam’s mobile phone rang breaking, the silence that had settled after their brief
conversation. Meredith could hear Sam’s side of the conversation and realised it was John,
Sam’s best mate. Sam seemed to be making arrangements to meet him. He ended the call
after telling John he would meet him there and turned to Meredith.
“That was John. He’s down the pub just now and looking for some company. Noone
else is in. I said I’d go down there. You don’t mind, do you?” Sam enquired, getting up
from the sofa and heading for the hallway to collect his jacket.
“You’ll need to put Jenny to bed first. Won’t it be a little late by then?”
Sam stopped mid-stride. He’d just assumed Meredith would agree. He had been
doing Jenny’s bed times for over a week now since she’d gone back to work. Surely she
could do just one night, he thought.
“Couldn’t you do the bed time routine tonight? I’d really like to get out of the
house for a while.” Sam’s tone was cajoling again.
“Sam, we agreed our routine. You know I’m up at half three in the morning. I’m
already yawning so much that I’m in danger of breaking my jaw and it’s only just left half
seven. By the time I get Jenny fed and asleep it will be after nine. Five or six hours sleep
isn’t enough. You’ll just have to call him back and cancel.”
“Just this once, Meredith, that’s all I’m asking,” Sam pleaded.
“Sorry, Sam, but it’s just not on. I need my sleep. I’m finding it difficult as it is
getting into the routine of work and family without ending up exhausted all day. In fact,
I’m just about to go and get organised for bed. I’ll be down to say goodnight to Jenny in
five minutes.” Meredith stood as she spoke and passed Sam on her way to the door. That
should sort him out, she was thinking as she headed upstairs. She knew he’d just taken it
for granted she would say yes but she really needed her sleep and wasn’t about to back
down. ‘Just this once’ could quickly turn into once a week and before I knew it I’d be
doing all the bath times, she fumed as she brushed her teeth and put on her pyjamas.
Five minutes later Meredith was down stairs again. Picking Jenny up to have a last
cuddle before she turned in for the night, she turned to Sam and asked, “Any ideas what
you’d like for dinner tomorrow?”
“No,” was all Sam said.
Meredith glanced round at him and saw the sullen look on his face.
“You’re not sulking because you can’t go and meet John, are you?”
“No, of course not,” retorted Sam, even though he knew he was. Meredith could
have had one late night, surely, he thought, but knew that if he said it out loud he would
sound like the unreasonable one. He had helped Meredith work out their rota after all. He
just hadn’t realised at the time that Meredith would stick to it so rigidly.
Meredith finished the game of peek-a-boo she’d been playing with Jenny, and then
placed her back in her chair.
“I’m off to bed then,” she announced, leaning over to give Sam a goodnight kiss.
Sam gave her a little peck and Meredith picked up on his reluctance even to do that much.
“You are in a huff, aren’t you?” Meredith said as she stood back up and put her
hands on her hips.
“No, honestly, I’m not. It’s just a bit frustrating is all,” Sam replied, hoping the
statement would cover up his annoyance with Meredith.
“Yeah, it is a bit,” Meredith agreed, “but we both knew that having a family would
mean giving up some of our freedom. Anyway, I’m off to bed. Goodnight.”
“Night,” Sam called after her as she disappeared out the door.
As he sat there griping to himself about how unreasonable Meredith was being an
idea sprung to his mind. He phoned John, hoping he would hear his mobile over the noise
in the pub. John answered after a couple of rings.
“Hi mate, it’s me” Sam said quietly into the phone. “Listen, something’s come up
and I won’t make it for an hour or so. Will you still be there?”
“Sure, Sam; I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. I’ll see you in an hour or so
then.”
“No worries.” Sam hung up.
Now all he had to do was get Jenny bathed, fed and sleeping by nine and he could
get out for a few pints after all. He picked Jenny up and headed for the main bathroom.
Half an hour later, Jenny was washed and dressed for bed. Sam was trying to feed her but
Jenny was playing up, spitting out the milk and chewing on the teat of the bottle. It was
about an hour before her normal feeding time and she was making it clear she wasn’t
hungry yet. Sam put her on the floor to play with the toys she had thrown around earlier,
deciding to wait another fifteen minutes or so before trying again. That would still give
him plenty of time.
The second time he tried feeding her, Jenny was much more obliging and even fell
asleep when she still had about a quarter of the milk left in the bottle. Sam carried her
gently upstairs and made sure she was settled before heading down again, grabbing his
jacket and quietly leaving the house.

Chapter 2
 
Sam had only been gone about half an hour when Meredith woke up to the sound
of Jenny crying. She lay there waiting for the sound of Sam’s footsteps coming up the
stairs. A few minutes passed with no sound other than Jenny’s crying so Meredith pulled
herself out of bed and headed for Jenny’s room, thinking that Sam had probably fallen
asleep on the sofa. She picked Jenny up and tried to shush her as she carried her
downstairs.
Sam wasn’t in the lounge so she tried the kitchen but it was empty too. Meredith
went back to the bottom of the stairs and called out his name, thinking he’d maybe just
gone to the bathroom but she was met with silence. Jenny had quietened down but was
now wide awake and making gurgling noises. Putting Jenny on the floor in the lounge and
fetching her mobile phone from her bag in the hall, she hit the speed dial for Sam and
listened as the phone rang out then went to voice mail. She knew she sounded irritated as
she left a message to let him know Jenny was awake and that she assumed he’d gone to the
pub after all before hitting the end call button with an annoyed stab of her finger.
“Well, that will be that then. I guess I’m going to have to do bedtime after all,” she
muttered to herself, vowing to have serious words with Sam about this tomorrow. She
spent the next half hour playing with Jenny until she finally began to yawn and rub her
eyes with her chubby little fists. Meredith fixed her another half bottle which Jenny gulped
down hungrily. Spending another ten minutes or so singing to Jenny until she relaxed fully
and closed her eyes, Meredith took her to her room and laid her gently in the cot, not
wanting to wake her again and end up having to stay up for another hour.
When Meredith finally climbed back into her own bed she felt wide awake. Picking
up her laptop, she checked out her face book and twitter accounts and ended up wishing
she hadn’t bothered. There were a few not very pleasant comments about her appearance
from some of her followers. One said her hair was always untidy, another commented that
her clothes always looked a size too small and yet another mentioned that her tummy
wasn’t as flat as it used to be. Worst of all was the one who said she looked as though
someone had just dragged her into the broom cupboard for a quickie before she went on
air.
She closed the laptop with a sigh. Her tummy was a little more pronounced than it
had been before having Jenny but she knew she wasn’t any heavier. As for her hair, it was
so thick that it was very difficult to manage. Using massive amounts of hair gel to flatten it
down simply meant it moved in clumps rather than strands. She was also very careful
about the clothes she wore, making sure she was always smart, or so she’d thought.
Clearly her dress sense left little to be desired according to at least one person.
Meredith sighed again and turned onto her side, closing her eyes and hoping sleep
would banish all thoughts of negative comments from her mind, but it wasn’t to be. She
tossed and turned for another hour or so, thoughts of how she would approach Sam about
his absence running through her mind as well as trying to figure out if she had any larger
clothes in her wardrobe and if there was some way to tame her unruly hair. She finally fell
asleep sometime after eleven when sheer exhaustion took over.
Meredith woke to the sound of the alarm, its insistent beeping annoying her awake.
She hit the snooze button and rolled over. Sam was lying beside her on his back and she
caught a waft of stale beer and toothpaste. Quickly turning to face the other way again, she
closed her eyes for what seemed like a second but when the alarm broke through her
consciousness again it was four o’clock. She groaned, knowing she would have to rush and
that she would feel out of sorts for the rest of the day. Pulling herself out of bed, she
headed for the en-suite. All I need is to be late, she chided herself. Deciding not to wash
her hair to save time, she was showered and dressed by four-fifteen, choosing a black skirt
that had always felt a bit loose on her and a black and white striped blouse. Spending
several minutes in the bathroom overdoing the hair gel and brushing her hair furiously in
an effort to tame it, she finally checked her overall look in the mirrored wardrobe door.
Satisfying herself that her hair was flat and she didn’t look untidy, she quietly left the room
and headed downstairs. If I leave now instead of making coffee, she considered, I should
make it to work in plenty of time to go to the canteen instead and maybe even have time
for a spot of breakfast. Decision made, she took her coat from its hook and headed out to
her car a little more relaxed for knowing that she wasn’t going to be late after all.
It was raining quite heavily so she had to put the windscreen wipers on full speed
but otherwise the drive to work was uneventful with hardly any traffic on the roads. She
made good time, arriving at work with twenty minutes to spare. Reaching into her glove
compartment to retrieve the spare umbrella she kept there, she was annoyed to find it
wasn’t where she usually left it before remembering that last time she’d used it was to go
from the car to the house and she’d forgotten to put it back. Opening the car door, she
stepped out and hurriedly slammed the door shut, locking it with the button on her key as
she ran across the car park trying to shield her head with her handbag. Once inside the
building, she headed for the canteen, grateful to be inside and warm. The weather outside
was cold for July and not helped by the high winds that had been around the last few days.
The canteen was quiet so she was served quickly and found a seat near the door,
thinking it would give her an extra minute to sit and gather herself together. Taking a sip of
coffee and then another, she willed it to make her feel human again but she continued to
feel tired and washed out. Savouring the bitter fluid in her mouth all the same, she thought
about Sam ducking out like that last night, feeling her annoyance with him rise again. She
would have to talk to him tonight. If this happened on a regular basis she wasn’t sure how
she would cope. She checked her watch and realised she had just five minutes left. Picking
up her bag and gulping down the last of her coffee, she headed to her office to pick up her
charts and maps before going to her dressing room. Anna, the stylist, would be along
shortly to do her hair and make-up. She liked Anna. She was an older woman (Meredith
guessed her age at late fifties) with a soft, gentle voice that always soothed Meredith in the
morning as she told tales of the latest exploits of her grandchildren.
Anna arrived at five-fifteen. She did Meredith’s make-up and then started on her
hair but as she lifted the first strand to clamp between the straighteners she hurriedly
dropped it again shook her hand in the air and then rubbed her fingers on the apron she
always wore.
“What have you put in your hair this morning?” Anna exclaimed, screwing up her
face to show her displeasure. She was used to Meredith using copious amounts of hair gel
and had tried to dissuade her from doing so on many occasions but, today was just too
much.
“I overslept this morning so didn’t have time to wash it. I just had to gel it down.
You know what it’s like,” Meredith explained.
“I’ll have to scrape it off the straighteners by the time I’m finished. No time for
washing and drying it now. We’ll just have to hope for the best,” Anna said with a sigh as
she picked up some hair and began the morning ritual of getting Meredith’s hair into
shape.
By the time Anna had finished Meredith still had fifteen minutes before she needed
to be on set. She ran over the weather forecast once more and then stood in front of the
full length mirror to check that she was at least ‘tidy’. She felt frazzled as she surveyed
herself; as though she had been on the go for twenty four hours straight. Sam’s
disappearing act last night hadn’t helped. His reneging on their agreement really had her
rattled because she felt fearful. If Sam was determined to start behaving like a single man
again there wasn’t a lot Meredith would be able to do about it. She could hardly lock him
in the house.
There had been more arguments between Meredith and Sam since Jenny came
along, particularly when she’d given them a few sleepless nights but, they both knew the
problem and had talked it through. Sam had been attentive at first and wanted to do as
much as he could for both Meredith and Jenny, which Meredith had been very grateful for
but, it seemed the novelty was wearing off for him now.
Taking a deep breath in and exhaling sharply, she pushed thoughts of Sam from her
mind. She needed to focus all her attention on work right now. There were a couple of
million viewers depending on her to make a good job of explaining the weather patterns
for the next few days and she would be on air in five minutes.
Anna had made a good job of flattening down Meredith’s unruly hair, just as she
always did, but Meredith still pulled at it a few times trying to make it sit perfectly. After a
few seconds of hair tweaking, she started pulling at her skirt. Normally she wore skirts with
no waistbands to try and hide the little tummy she’d gained after having Jenny but, the
skirt she’d chosen this morning had a high waist band. Meredith thought that, if anything,
it accentuated her tummy rather than hid it. The skirt moved easily around her waist as
she twisted it from side to side, trying to make it sit neatly. Not too small at all, she
thought. Looking back at herself in the mirror she sighed. I’ll just have to do; she decided
and headed out the door toward the studio.
To be continued......