Chapter 12
The next morning, Willow was in her workshop working on a new design.
She was in the zone and totally oblivious to what was going on around her.
Her parents were out exploring the town and said they’d be back in the afternoon.
This gave Willow plenty of time to work on her new design.
Unbeknownst to her, she had an audience.
Christopher watched the woman as she reached down beside her and scooped up a massive glob of gray clay and slapped it on what looked like a turntable in front of her.
He actually winced when he saw watery sludge shoot out in several directions.
“Chaos,” he whispered, and his parents, who he had called several days ago looked at each other and grinned.
They knew how their son was with order and his ever-present lists.
When he’d called them frustrated beyond all reason, they had made the decision to come and see if they could help.
Christina walked around and looked at the stuff and sucked in her breath when she saw a vase matching the one currently in her home, taking up residence in the middle of her dining room table.
She turned and stared in shock at the blonde woman seated before the pottery wheel.
Transfixed she watched the glob of clay transform right before her eyes.
She glanced at her husband and son and saw they were looking as well.
Forty-five minutes later, the woman turned off the wheel, spun around and screamed when she saw the three of them standing there.
Before anyone could do anything, she reached back, picked up the item she’d just completed and threw it at Christopher.
He didn’t catch it in time, and it hit him square in the chest and let it fall to the floor.
“What the hell, woman!” he demanded as he stalked toward her, but she’d scraped up the sludge and threw that at him also. Christopher quickly dodged it, but it still landed on his face and in his hair. Christina and Chris were laughing so hard at their son that they were no help to him.
“What are you doing here?” Willow demanded as she stood and tried to back away from the advancing, angry man.
“Why are you here?” Willow demanded, and stopped short when her ass hit the table behind her.
“I came to see if you’ve contacted a lawyer yet and to get the clothes I left in your washer.”
“They’re upstairs, and no, I haven’t found a lawyer yet. You expect me to jump through hoops after only a couple of days? What the hell?”
“If you had a list of all your important contacts maybe you’d have a lawyer by now.” He continued to advance, but stopped about three feet away. “It’s important and a grown-up thing to do to have a lawyer only a phone call away.”
“List?” Willow was confused and saw that he looked dangerous.
“Yes, a list. Lists keep your life organized. If you don’t have a list, then your life is full of chaos and messy.” He actually curled his lip as he looked around her workshop.
Willow couldn’t help it. She started to giggle. “Let me guess, you have a list for everything?”
“Absolutely, that’s the only way to keep organized.”
“Even sex?” She grinned at the older couple behind Christopher and saw they were trying to hold in their mirth by covering their mouths with their hands.
“Of course.”
“Oh my god, are you one of those guys that only has sex once a week. Let me guess.” She giggled.
“Undressed by nine, in bed by nine oh one, two minutes of foreplay, don condom, insert cock, move for two and a half minutes, roll over, remove the condom, fall asleep and everything is done by nine fifteen.”
Christopher growled, “It takes a little longer than two and a half minutes.”
“Oh my god.” Willow leaned over and laughed so hard she had to wipe her tears and didn’t realize that she’d left a streak of clay behind. “What would you do if the woman wanted it in the morning?”
“If it’s on the list, then you plan for it.”
“Holy hell.” She laughed and stood tall.
“What if someone did this?” And without giving him a chance to reply, she advanced, gripped the front of his shirt and yanked him toward her.
She wrapped one hand in his hair and pulled his head down, slammed her lips to his and kissed him.
Inserting her tongue when he gasped. She thought she had control of the situation and started to giggle, but it only took five seconds for him to take control of the kiss.
She suddenly felt his hands on her hips and was walked backward, when her ass hit the table again, she was lifted and as soon as she sat her legs were raised and wrapped around his hips.
He leaned in, and she felt his erection and moaned.
Neither of them saw the older couple leave or hear them laughing when they were outside. They went around the building and had to hold each other up in their laughter. They looked up when they saw another couple approach.
“Can we help you?” Randall asked as he and Angie approached the couple.
“Oh my god, Randall and Angie Perkins?” Christina asked as she wiped her tears. “It’s Chris and Christina Evans. We came as soon as Christopher called us. He’s in there with Wanda now.” She pointed to the back of the building and giggled.
“Why don’t I like that giggle?” Angie asked as she hugged them, but she had a smile on her face.
“I love my son with all my heart, but he’s too anal at times.
” Chris chuckled. “He started spouting off something about lists, and it seemed your daughter decided to mock him. Asked him if he had a list for sex and gave a blow by blow of how he must perform. We left them shortly after she asked what he would do if someone kissed him without it being on a list. They were locked in a lip lock, and we stepped out. It’s either going to blow up in his face or something good might happen out of it. ”
Randall laughed. “Yeah, we were told about his lists. What I don’t think he knows is that Wanda isn’t like that.
She’s a by the minute, take life by the seat of the pants kind of girl.
Hell, the only thing I think she plans out is her work.
” They slowly made their way to the back of the building, and after they entered and let their eyes adjust to the darkness, they saw the couple locked in a passionate kiss on the other side of the room.
“We can always turn the hose on them.” Angie giggled.
“Naw, watch this.” Randall looked at them and grinned. He stood tall, planted his hand on his hips and in a loud firm voice demanded. “What’s going on here?” The older couples giggled as Christopher practically threw Wanda across the room as he broke the kiss. He turned and stared at them in shock.
Wanda giggled and looked at her parents.
“Nothing much. Just showing this stick in the mud that lists aren’t that important.
Life happens, go with the flow.” She jumped down and walked over to the vase she’d thrown at him and sighed in relief when she realized she would be able to fix it.
After several minutes she looked over her shoulder and saw five people staring at her intently.
“You guys can leave now. I'm not rude, much, but I work alone.”
“Where are my clothes?” Christopher demanded.
“Upstairs in the green bedroom. Mom, Dad, why don’t you take him up?
I shouldn’t be long.” She hoped her parents would do her bidding and after several minutes she looked over her shoulder and sighed in relief as she saw the door to the upstairs slowly close behind the last person.
She sat back down at her pottery wheel and began fixing the slight damage to the vase.
It took only seconds before she was lost to everything around her and got into the work.
Upstairs, Christopher removed his shoes and made his way to the bedroom he’d used only a couple days before.
As he reached for the clothes folded on the bed and frowned when he got a good look at himself in the mirror.
“Shit.” He saw Wanda’s handprint on his white button-up shirt, and when he reached up to run his hand through his hair, he swore again when he felt goo in it.
He immediately began to strip and went into the bathroom attached.
After a hot shower, he came out and dressed in the clothes from before.
Once dressed, he went out to the kitchen and saw that his parents were talking with Wanda’s.
He immediately went to the washer and threw his clothes in and started it.
Back out in the kitchen, he took the bottle of water Randall handed him.
“Thanks.” He sighed and ran his hand through his damp hair. “I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but do you think Wanda will get a lawyer?”
“I think so,” Angie said. “We’ve been here for a few days, we told her everything that had happened, and I believe she’s going to contact one. I know she’s made several calls and was waiting for a callback.”
“Oh.”
“Wait.” Christine frowned. “That beautiful blonde downstairs is your daughter Wanda? The one that was so sick when she and Christopher married?” She used air quotes over the last word.
“But I thought she was a brunette? I remember this beautiful little girl with long jet-black hair and gorgeous blue eyes that would make mud pies then throw them at Christopher and his friends.”
“That’s Wanda.” Angie smiled. “As you know, she lost all her hair after the chemo and radiation. After the wedding and the article in the local paper was picked up by a national paper, there was an influx of people coming forward to see if they were a match for a bone marrow donor. It took another few weeks to get a match. After the operation, and on the mend when her hair grew back, it came in blonde.”
“Figured as long as she had her hair back, we didn’t care what color it was,” Randall said and blew his nose.
“She was healthy or on her way. We stayed in California until she’d been in remission for two whole years, then I had an opportunity to take a buyout for my company, and we moved to Oregon.
Getting away from the rat race, back to a simpler way of life.
Everything was great until Wanda was thirteen. ”
“Oh, my. What happened?” Christina asked. “But if you don’t want to tell us, that’s okay.”
“No, it’s fine. Wanda was playing sports, but started complaining of lower back pain.” Angie said. “This might be considered TMI, too much information, but I thought it was something to do with her period. You know how you get cramps in the lower back?”
“I do,” Christina said and winced. “Those are the worst, feels like someone is kicking you in your kidneys.”
“Exactly. That’s how Wanda explained the pain.
I took her to get checked, but they couldn’t find anything, but after I explained about her Leukemia, they started running more tests, different tests than they normally would.
It took three weeks and several other doctor visits, but her kidneys were failing.
She was admitted to the hospital and put on dialysis immediately.
It was so bad that she couldn’t leave the hospital.
As soon as she was hooked up to dialysis, her name went on a list. We had to get tutors to go to the hospital for her schoolwork.
It was a harrowing eighteen months. When we’d exhausted everything we could, a donor came through.
She had the operation with a new kidney.
Her fifteenth birthday was spent in the operating room.
Eighteen hours of surgery and she came out with a new kidney.
She had to stay two more months in the hospital, but she came out healthy. ”
“Did the Leukemia cause her kidney to fail?” Christopher frowned at them.
“We don’t know. You know those papers you’re given when you get medication?
” Randall asked, and when everyone nodded, he continued, “One night, Wanda had a bad reaction to the chemo, and I was at the hospital with her. Between her bouts of sickness, when she rested, I read one of them. It said that the chemo could cause multi-organ failure as one of the side effects. But because it was eleven years between the incidents, we don’t know if it was because of the chemo, or if the donor bone marrow had something in their DNA, or if it was just Wanda. ”
“She’s healthy now, the only side effect I see is that she has to be on medication for the rest of her life so that her body doesn’t reject the donor's kidney. It’s been eight years since that surgery, twenty since the chemo and radiation,” Angie said.
“As long as she stays alive, I don’t care how much medication she has to take. ”
“And the lemon water?” Christopher asked, and at his parents’ frowns he opened the refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of ice water and lemon slices. “This is what she says she drinks to calm nausea from the medications.”
“Yes, it is. It looks like lemonade, but there is no sugar in that pitcher,” Randall said, and gave a shudder. “She says it’s the only thing natural that calms her stomach.”
“And I imagine she’s on a lot of meds and doesn’t want to add anything more,” Chris said. “An old Marine buddy of mine’s father had a double lung transplant and had the same reaction to his meds. Never thought about lemon.”
They watched as Christopher began opening a cupboard door, muttering about disorganization and when he finally found what he wanted, withdrew a glass, filled it from the pitcher of lemon water and returned it to the refrigerator, and said that he would take the drink down to Wanda.
On his way down to the first floor, the older adults were talking about dinner.