One Life to Live

 

He had but one life to live. So he decided to become indestructible.

It all began a while ago, when his wife Susan had decided to decorate their house with french furnishing. He had no objection, except that he lacked opinion on that subject and some was demanded from his wife quite frequently. He had decided to let her superfluous rages take their course and diminish over time while he concentrated most of all on his work as a lawyer.

At court he was quite convincing and had many arguments to raise with each issue. Alas at home he would find himself quite out of sorts and often even speechless. The work was going fine, which was good, because the new furniture was quite expensive. He had never seen the use of sticking to one specific genre when there was so many varieties that could be chosen from, but as he had no ability to argue well on that subject with his wife, he left it to her decision.

Then she had begun covering all the windows with curtains and all the walls too. It seemed quite odd to him and he began thinking that she was nesting, a symptom of pregnancy in which you cover everything like birds do when they build their nest. He asked her whether they are expecting some new addition to their family. She said that she hadn't checked yet but she was definitely late this month. So she had taken the test and it came out positive.

He didn't know how to feel about that. He thought that when the right time came he'd feel joy but none came. Although he was quite ambivalent about the new unravelling of their life, he decided to become stronger and healthier for the sake of his kid. Over the next months they did all the tests needed and found out the uterus was healthy, and they were very happy over it. His wife's pregnancy was quite difficult at first, with a rough morning sickness. She was mostly tired and depressed.

But, as by the book, at the fourth month she began to feel better and felt the stirring in her stomach which very much excited her. Then the rest of the pregnancy was going well and they were excited for the birth of their son, for it was a boy. Soon his wife was in labour and in very much pain, it was quite long but after some hours the baby was born. They checked all his signs by the Apgar scale and he got 7 points, which was a good sign.

They gave him to the mother at first, and then she passed the baby to him. He very gently took him, afraid suddenly that he might break something so tiny and fragile. The soft skin he felt against his fingers, the quite relatively big head, the tiny body, the eyes when they opened and stared curiously at him, he felt it. That lucid joy. And he knew everything was going to be ok as long as his son was healthy and happy, and he'd do all in his might and power so his cute and mesmerising smile will never fade. He had all the arguments he needed.

 

This story is by Avital, the first writer we have had from Israel. Avital is currently studying Psychology at the Open University in Israel and is about to publish a book with a collection of  poems called "The Never Ending After".