Finding Carrie (2 page)

“Bye,” he said.

He put the phone down and made a search for his clothes. He found them, picked them up, and went to find her in the bathroom. She was standing there, in front of the mirror, trying to fix her hair. She was wearing her underwear and bra. He threw his clothes in the hamper and went up behind her, sliding his hands around her waist. She looked up at him in the mirror. She smiled and reached up to circle his neck from behind. “Who was on the phone?” she asked.

“Amy,” he said, nuzzling her neck.

“What did she want?” she asked, leaning more into him, still reaching her arms back around his neck.

“She wanted to know what we were doing tonight,” he said with a kiss to her neck.

She turned around in his arms and asked, “What did you say? That we’re going to make wild love all night?”

“No, I said we didn’t know yet. Oh, and would you like to go to Henry’s for dinner tonight?” he asked, looking down at her.

“I like the making wild love all night better, don’t you?” she said and kissed his neck.

Laughing at her suggestion, he said, “Well, you know I do, but all of our wild lovemaking made me quite hungry. What about you?”

“Yeah, I’m hungry too I guess, but I have to shower first,” she said, stroking his ear with her thumb and forefinger.

“Yeah, me too,” he said, looking down at himself.

Carrie and Isaac walked into Henry’s, giggling together. Before she knew it, Amy was running up to her and hugging her.

“Happy anniversary,” she said after letting go. “Sorry, Isaac, but I couldn’t wait.” She winked at him. Carrie looked around, puzzled.

“Its okay, Carrie. This is a surprise party for our two-year anniversary,” he said, disappointed.

She turned to look up at him with a big smile on her face. “Oh,” she said then leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.” Amy pulled her by the hand to sweep her away. Isaac smiled as he watched her being directed to the table where all their friends were waiting. “Where’s Chrissie?” Carrie asked. She looked around at her friends.

“She was called into the hospital,” Amy supplied.

He marveled at how Carrie was so warm and loving to everyone. He watched as she hugged and kissed each one as she took her jacket off and laid it on the back on one of the chairs. They had a great time laughing and talking with everyone, remembering how they met, in that very place as she pointed to where she was sitting at the bar; they cried at the happy memories. Amy took a picture for them with the cake that had two sparklers in it.

Isaac had cued up a song on the jukebox and swept Carrie up from the table just as she realized what the song was. They had danced to this song at their wedding, and it was the song that played the first time they danced. She snuggled her head under his chin, and he held her hand over his heart. All of their friends just loved seeing them together. They never hid their love from anyone. As the song finished, they were still swaying in one another’s arms. Carrie lifted her head as she always did after they danced to that song and said, “It’s such a beautiful song.” He nodded, waiting for her next comment. “But how do you catch the deluge in a paper cup?” she asked, looking at him with amusement. They both broke out laughing as they went back to the table.

At the end of the night, they said their good-byes. Carrie swung her body around so she could hug Isaac by surprise. He bent his head down to kiss her on her cheek. “Thank you for this, Isaac. I really enjoyed my surprise.”

“Aw, there is just one more thing,” he said. He took a black velvet box out of his coat and handed it to her.

“What is this?” she asked. Watching him, she took the box.

“This is your real gift. I must say that I really love my new watch you gave me,” he said, looking at his wrist with the shiny silver watch around it. On the back, she had engraved
forever
, just like her wedding ring said in the band.

She opened the box, and it revealed a necklace. It was a beautiful sapphire that matched her ring. She gasped and put her hand over her mouth. “Oh, it is so beautiful,” she said as she looked at her hand that had the ring on it. “It matches,” she said as she showed him the set. He grabbed the box and took the necklace out. She turned around so he could put it around her neck. Then she turned around, swung her arms around his neck, and kissed him. “Thank you so much.” Then they walked hand in hand back toward their home; all the while she held the sapphire necklace in her free hand.

He walked into the bathroom. She was bent over the sink, brushing her teeth. He stood in front of the other sink to look at himself in the mirror, stroking his face over the shadow that was forming around his chin. He suddenly became aware that he was being watched. He looked over in the mirror. She was watching him with amusement, the toothbrush sliding in and out of her mouth.

“Yes?” he asked her.

“Oh nothing, I was just thinking about our life together and thinking that I have never been so happy,” she said with the toothbrush out of her mouth and toothpaste dribbling down her chin. She then sucked in what she could and bent back over the sink to spit.

Turning toward her, he said, “It has been a blessing to find the kind of love we have, hasn’t it?”

“Absolutely,” she said, wiping off her mouth. She turned to bury her face in his warm chest. “I never want this feeling to end. I get so excited to see you every day. You’re my first thought in the morning when I wake up and my last before I go to sleep,” she said, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

“I don’t either,” he said as they held each other in the bathroom for just a few more seconds more. “Let’s go to bed,” Isaac suggested.

“Good idea,” she said, turning to walk to the bedroom.

Chapter 2

I
saac was in the middle of rehearsal when he heard a scuffle in the back of the house. Everyone on the stage stopped what they were doing and stepped forward to see what was going on. “Isaac!” He heard Carrie call him. “It is important. I have to talk to my husband, Isaac!” she called again. Isaac got off the stage and ran up to where his wife was being held back.

“It’s okay, Joe. Let her go,” he said to the security guard. “What is it, Carrie?” he asked as she ran up to him and grabbed his arms.

“Isaac, Sam called,” she said, trying to catch her breath.

“Well, that could have waited till I got home,” he said.

Shaking her head and coughing, she said “No,” then took a deep breath. “It’s your mother. She’s had a stroke. I tried to call, but they wouldn’t let me talk to you.” He was very close to his mother, just as close as she was with hers. “We have to go Isaac, now.”

He didn’t say a word; he just stood there for a few seconds and then looked around at the director. “Go, we can wait till you get back,” he said, knowing full well that Isaac belonged by his mother’s bedside.

“I got airplane tickets. We leave in two hours. I’ve asked my mom to keep the girls a little longer. I have the bags packed. We need to go now. Sam doesn’t think she has much time,” she said, almost shaking him to say something, anything.

He grasped her wrist and said, “You thought of everything. Let’s go.” Then, taking her by the hand, they left the hall, got in the waiting car, and went straight to the airport.

To Isaac, his mother was the earth that he walked on. He worshiped his mother, and she was his best friend, besides his wife, of course. She was Japanese and very traditional. She taught him Japanese and Japanese culture religiously. He talked to her just about every day. Carrie loved it when he spoke Japanese on the phone with her.

To Carrie, she was a wonderful mother. She called her just about every day too. She was teaching her Japanese and the culture as well. She loved her mother-in-law and wanted to spend as much time as possible listening to her stories and hearing her speak the language. Carrie would be lost if she wasn’t there on the other end of the phone.

On the plane, it sunk in. They wept in one another’s arms. They remembered all the good times: the visits back and forth and the funny things she would say to Isaac as if she was lecturing him as a child. She would do that quite often when they visited. Although she spoke in Japanese and Carrie didn’t have the slightest idea what she was saying, but she laughed anyway. “We can’t give up hope yet, Isaac. She might be fine, you know,” she said, trying to give him some hope.

“I know, but I just can’t think that she might be going,” he said, wiping at his face. It was red and sore. He had been crying ever since they got on the plane. “Thank you for trying to make it better.”

“I just can’t stand the sadness on your face. I love your happy face, but this is a sad time,” she said as he settled on her shoulder. “Rest now, sweetheart. I’ll wake you when we land,” she said as he closed his eyes.

She sat there with his weight on her shoulder for a long while. Not wanting to wake him, she called for the flight attendant to help her get her laptop from the compartment above her head.

“Oh sure,” she said, grabbing the bag and handing it to Carrie. Then she bent down to whisper in her ear. “You two look so sad. Is there something I can do for you?”

“No, his mother had a stroke, and she was the world to him, if you know what I mean,” Carrie said to the attendant.

“Oh, I see. I’m so sorry,” she said, straightening up to walk away. Carrie just nodded her thanks as the attendant disappeared through the curtain.

She opened the laptop, hoping that this plane had WiFi. To her surprise it did, and she went to a site to order flowers for her mother-in-law. She ordered a big arrangement with all the flowers she remembered were in her mother-in-law’s garden. Carrie thought that she would love it a lot. She had put down the hospital that she was in, which was Sierra View District hospital in Porterville, California. Then, she entered her mother-in-law’s name, Hana Walsch. She got the Walsch name from Isaac’s father, who was an American. Isaac had his father’s eyes, so he didn’t look Japanese at all sometimes. His father called her Hannah because, when they met, he didn’t know how to pronounce it, and he thought it was Hannah. She was fine with that.

Carrie then put in the room number, which was 4058, and then she wrote a note that said: To our wonderful mother. Love always, Isaac and Carrie. Then she submitted the request, shut the computer down, and laid her head against Isaac’s.

She sighed and made a little prayer. “Dear Lord, please watch over our mother and see that she comes through this. Amen,” she whispered under her breath, and then she closed her tired eyes and took a small nap.