Alice. A Short Story.

She heard the pitter-patter of an unbalanced toddler coming down the hallway. She looked up just as his feet made contact with the cold linoleum kitchen floor.

“Mommy!” Jayden shrieked.

His wide grin was always followed by that happy little giggle. His beautiful blue eyes searched for a smiling approval from his mother as he tilted his head upwards still gurgling. Alice smile down at him and rinsed her last dish. She wiped her hands on her apron. His arms were outstretched as she reached down to pick him up. She kissed his cheek. Her wet mark left one clean spot on his face.

Jayden had played outside earlier that morning as Alice sipped her coffee on the porch. When Jayden wasn’t playing with their chocolate labrador, he loved to be chased around the wraparound porch. He’d often lose his footing and fall. A glimpse of pain would fill his face, but before he could cry, Alice would scoop him up and spin him around in the air. Once his gurgling laugh returned, she’d pull him close to her heart and give a quick squeeze before putting him down.

Jayden sat comfortably on her hip as she walked out the front door. The sun finally began slipping from the sky. There was farmland as far as Alice could see. She loved her country home. The cool air was refreshing. Jayden laid his head down on her shoulder. Soon he'd go to sleep. She moved towards the porch swing sitting down slowly. Jayden had already put his thumb in his mouth as she began to swing back and forth. She loved this time of the day. Or at least she had. Until recently.

He hadn't left a note. Alice thought that it was strange that he had woken up before her. When she went to the kitchen there were no signs that he had even made coffee yet. She peered through the kitchen window. The Chevy was gone. Did he have somewhere to go this morning? She wondered. He would have told her though. Wouldn't he? Granted, she had to admit that things had not been particularly good lately.

Since Jayden was born, things hadn't been the same. It was somewhere between post-pardum and breast feeding that it all became blurry. Alice felt that Greg looked at her differently. But he had to understand. She was a mother now but she wasn't sure that she wanted to be one. Alice spend all of her early adulthood telling her parents that it was lucky for them that they had other children because they would not be getting any grandchildren out of her. But Greg was the perfect man and now she hoped he'd be the perfect father. Yet, somehow, after the pregnancy, they had fallen out of touch. She was not interested in sex and he had waited months now. She didn't know how to explain that from the bottom of her heart she loved this child and her husband but still there was a deep, inexplicable sadness.

But Greg had been gone for a week now.