Well, what does one do when they have a baby on the way and money in the pocket? Pay off debts, I said! But Oliver responded, “Yes, Love, that, too!” and set about building the most beautiful nursery I had ever seen. He took everything out of the room we used for storage and put it up in the loft one Sunday. I watched him from my perch on the sofa without asking any questions until he began to pour hot water he had boiled into a bucket.
“What are you up to, Sweetheart?” I peered at him over my book.
“Alexander and Nigel should be here any time now,” He replied as he poured in dish soap into the water and swished it around with his arm. “Gor blimey! That’s hot!”
“That's nice, but I asked 'What are you up to', not ‘When will Alexander and Nigel arrive’,” I had to smile at him. He was so cute with his arm stuck in that red bucket.
He returned the grin, “I’m clearing out the office. Making a proper room for our baby, Love. Did you think I’d wait until spring?”
“Actually, I thought we would.”
The front door flew open with a bang before he could respond. Alexander and a bundle of blankets that was Nigel stumbled in and forced it closed against the wind. “It’s bloody insane, that wind!” Alex leaned against the door before he took off his hat and shook it at Duncan, who rushed straight over to play, “Silvia!” He looked up at me with a huge smile, “You’re round as all those apples you eat! You look absolutely beautiful! Give me a hug!”
“Give me that baby!” I waddled into the room and took Nigel from his father, “Hello, My Little Muffin!” Nigel peered up at me and smiled, sucking on his tiny fingers. “Oh, how I love you, Nigel Jacob Dickinson!” I peeled away the blankets and kissed his squishy face.
“I’m getting water all over the floor,” Alex apologized, tugging off a boot with Duncan attached to it, “Sorry, Sil. I know you’re keeping a clean house these days.”
“No worries,” I shooed the dog, “Where’s your wife, Alexander? Off having another botched series of collagen lip injections?”
“She’s working,” He shook his head, “You just can’t stop, can you?”
“Not when it’s so easy and so much bloody fun!”
“Well, that’s her real mouth. I’ve seen pictures when she was a child.”
“That’s a tragedy!”
“Ah, I still love you, Sil,” He unbuttoned his coat, “There’s nothing you could ever do to make me stop, either, so please quit trying.”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha!” I kissed Alexander on his frozen cheek “You’re the one who taught me how to be evil! I was so sweet before I met you!”
He paused for a second, “Well, yes. That may be true.”
“It is true,” Oliver confirmed it, “Remember that innocent little girl we once knew? Now she’s self-proclaimed evil! You corrupted her!”
Alexander gave me a smile, “Well, at least I taught you well.”
I sat with Nigel in the front room and played with him while the twins cleaned the walls in what was to be the nursery. “Do you know the Muffin Man? I do! I do!” The baby squealed in delight as I tickled him. “I know the Muffin Man! His name is Nigel and he’s the most handsome bloke in Wales! He is! Oh, yes, he is!”
After a while Alexander came out and put his coat and boots back on. He went off into the garden and came back with four buckets of paint and a large black bag strapped to his back.
“You’re painting in this?” I asked seriously. “It’s a bit cold, isn’t it?”
“I am and you’ll stay out of there if you know what’s good for you. The window will be cracked, Sil,” He walked past me with the coat still on, “Take care of my boy!”
“I am!” I called after him and returned to Nigel, who was my most favourite pastime. “We don’t need them, do we? No, we don’t! We have each other and jars of smashed bananas!”
I was not allowed in that nursery until the following evening after a furniture delivery truck came and left several large boxes, “Oliver!”
“A changing table and a wardrobe,” He wrapped me in his arms, too excited to let me find out for myself, “And a wee little cradle, all for the baby,” He was so proud of himself his chest puffed, “And a rocking chair that glides for my beautiful wee little mummy.”
“I love you so much!”
“I love you both so much! Come and see the new room, yeah?”
“I’d love it!”
He led me back by the hand through the doorway. My free one immediately flew up over my mouth. It was gorgeous. My husband and his twin brother were both artists in their own right, but they had outdone themselves. On the first wall as you entered was a mural of little boys and girls and fuzzy white lambs playing about on a rolling green pasture beneath a cloud scattered sky. Another wall was a rainbow with birds of all colours and sizes soaring all around it. Beneath the rainbow, they had added an eagle that was being chased by a dragon above a small cabin in a wood. I was relieved that the eagle was not yet clamped the dragon’s jaws. The third wall was painted with scenes from a child’s nursery rhymes. Lines from different stories were heading in all directions around the people and animals from the tales. And on the final wall, surrounding the door, were creatures from the sea, friendly looking dolphins and whales and colourful fishes, splashing after each other in a playful game of chase.
Tears were rolling down my cheeks.
“Do you like it, Love?” He asked quietly.
“It’s more than beautiful! It’s…there are not words, Oliver!” I looked up into his face, “This was all your idea, wasn’t it?”
“I couldn’t have done all this without Alexander. He’s really the one with the talent.” He looked around proudly. “But, yeah, the idea was mine.”
“I honestly do not think that I can be happier than I am right now,” I wiped away my tears before I put my arms around my husband and more spilled out, “I think if I was any happier than this I would just die!”
“Then don’t get any happier,” Oliver told me seriously. “Because we have a baby to be born and I need you to help me raise it. I can’t have you dying. I couldn’t stand it.”
“Marry me, Oliver?”
He looked down at my bulging belly, “You should have thought of that before you seduced me, Silvia! We’re a little late in the game for marrying! Everyone knows I got you pregnant!” He could always make me laugh. “But, yeah, OK, I’ll marry you. It’ll be scandalous, but I’ll do it.”
“Good.”
Oliver didn’t stop spoiling me with the nursery. Over the next few months, he did a few practical things as well, like purchase an ice box so we had a place to store milk and got me a washer-dryer so I didn’t need to take the baby to the laundry with me.
“I don’t want my child in that filthy place!” He ranted as he struggled to install it by himself. “Blast it! My thumb!”
He even had the good sense to have solar panels installed to store energy in a generator so we could work all our new possessions since we were too far from civilization to have electric lines run. My Oliver was certainly Johnny on the Spot. And then he did the best thing ever. He hooked us up with a satellite dish and got us new laptop computers and a brand new television. “You can use the computer to ring me when I’m at work,” He told me, “This little gizmo works just like a phone, so I’ll always be able to come right home to you if you need ever me.”
I used the phone first to call on my father, whom I had not spoken to since I’d told him we were expecting. For some reason I had a very deep need to talk to him right then.
“Silvia!” There was a hint of relief in Dad’s voice, “I’m so glad you rang! How is everything?”
“It's fine, Daddy! It's really, really good!”
I talked to my father longer than I had ever before in my life. I told him all about the pregnancy, about the nursery and the appliances. I told him about Nigel. I talked to my father like he was an old friend who needed catching up, like he was someone with whom I held no secrets. He asked questions and laughed with me and then told me all about the work he was doing and the travels his research was taking him on. And he told me all about Lucy, who was off at uni. He gave me her new phone number and told me to call her after seven. “She’s back to her flat by then,” He explained, “She asks about you all the time, Silvia. She’s very concerned about you and the baby. I think she said she spoke to Oliver the other day, but you really should ring her yourself.”