Christy felt sick. Her body ached, and she wanted sour cucumbers. If muscle aches were not a harbinger of illness, then pickles were. It was the first sign that her temperature was rising. The girl wasn’t feeling well. She felt nauseous and had a terrible craving for cucumbers. The illness was coming; it was impossible to avoid.
She opened the fridge and took out a jar of cucumbers, but alas, the cucumbers weren’t there. There was only brine and spices in the jar. Stanley’s bad habit of putting empty jars in the fridge irritated Christy. She slammed the fridge door violently, sat down helplessly on a chair, picked up the phone, and dialed Stanley.
“The subscriber is temporarily unavailable,” the answering machine announced. Pickles wanted more and more. Christy dialed her husband’s number several times but to no avail. “Where is he disappearing to? Why isn’t he available?” said Christy aloud. “Not only has he eaten all the pickles, but now he can’t be reached to buy them.”
Stanley worked in the same company as Christy’s sister, and Christy dialed her sister’s number to send her fiery greetings to her husband. The girl wanted to ask Stanley to buy some sour cucumbers on his way home and pick up the children from kindergarten.
Christy felt so bad that she could neither go to the shop nor to the kindergarten. Her sister’s phone had the same answer as her husband’s. “Where did everyone go?” Christy said to herself. “No, she wasn’t nervous; she was just angry. In all likelihood, Christy herself would have to pick up her aching body, go to the nursery, and buy some pickles. But she had no strength, so she laid down for a while. There was still time before the nursery closed.”
Christy thought that after a short rest, she would get up and go about her business. But the longer she lay there, the more her muscles ached. Her head and throat also began to hurt. She could tell by the way she was shaking that her temperature had risen. Christy dialed her husband’s and sister’s phone again, but again there was no answer.
“Hello, Allison! Thank God at least your number’s available. Otherwise, I’m at a loss,” Christy called her friend Allison. “Save me, I can’t get up. Buy me some sour cucumbers. They sell them in the barrels in the supermarket. Do you hear me? And pick up the girls from the nursery. I don’t feel well.”
“Hi,” replied Allison. “Are you pregnant again?”
“What makes you think that?” wondered Christy.
“You have a craving for salt, and besides, your Stanley still wants a son. It’s the angina coming on. Have you forgotten? When I’m sick, I always want sour pickles.”
“Well, Allison, can you fulfill my request? I can’t get hold of Stanley, and Jane Stanley expects me to pick up the children from the kindergarten, and I can’t even get out of bed.”
“Christy, I’ll do anything. I’m on my way home from work. I’ll go to the supermarket and then pick up the girls from kindergarten. Maybe you need to buy something. Do you need medicine?”
“The medicine you need is there. You don’t need it yet. Please buy some bread. Stanley will have to be fed anyway.”
“What would I do without you, my friend?” Christy greeted Allison.
“With the children. Come in, come in,” Christy quickly undressed the children. “That’s it, go wash your hands,” she said to her daughters. “Allison, go to the kitchen, just remember to stay away from me. It would be reasonable. And I’m even trembling. I want these cucumbers so badly.”
Christy opened the jar and began to eat cucumbers, closing her eyes with pleasure. She ate three cucumbers, sat down helplessly on a chair, looked to her astonished friend, and said with a smile, “This is my first cure for all kinds of viruses. Why are you looking at me like that, Allison? I’m usually indifferent to cucumbers, but when I’m sick, I crave them terribly.”
Allison continued to look at Christy. She did not like the look on her friend’s face. It was so pitiful, as if she wanted to say goodbye to her for the last time. What was Christy unable to bear Allison’s gaze? “Why are you looking at me like that? It’s just a sore throat or some kind of virus. I’ll live,” Christy said sharply.
“No, nothing like that happened. I heard the news myself today. How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t need any gossip. I don’t like it,” Christy said angrily. “Every stuff makes me mad. I don’t understand how you can try someone else’s life for yourself and judge something about it.”
“Allison, don’t we have anything to talk about?” Allison was silent and shocked. “All information is gossip to you. I don’t understand. Don’t you want to know what’s going on around you? Okay, TV, politics, you don’t want to know about that. But do you know anything about your nearest and dearest? Don’t you care about them?”
“No, not at all,” Christy replied sharply. “Imagine, I don’t care. What I know is enough for me. I don’t want to worry about every little bit of gossip. What for? It only confuses my nervous system. I only know what I want to know. The rest is of no interest to me. That’s all. You are like an ostrich, burying its head in the sand, and you, like him, see nothing and hear nothing.”
“Then you realize that you have been completely deceived,” Jane said, her voice full of sarcasm. “By the level of the buried head.”
“Allison, don’t exaggerate or dramatize,” Christy said sharply.
“No, thanks to the ignorance of unnecessary information, I live peacefully, not nervously like you,” Christy continued. “You see, Allison, I don’t want the bitter truth. I just want to live peacefully and happily.”
“And do you live like that?” persisted Allison. “Or do you live in illusions?”
“Well, do you want to argue with me today?” Christy became angry and threw the vase of cookies on the table to the floor with a swing. “And you call that calm?” wondered Allison.
“You know, dear, you need to get your calm treated,” Christy sat in her chair with her hands on her head and cried softly.
“Do you have anything to calm your nervous system?” asked Allison. “Let me give you some medicine.”
“The children ran screaming into the kitchen, ‘Mom, what was that bang? What’s an explosion? What exploded?'” It was a broken vase,” Christy answered the children calmly through her tears. “Now I’ll clean up the pieces, and we’ll have dinner and daddy?” asked Christy’s youngest daughter, Anita. “Aren’t we going to wait for him?”
“No, we won’t,” Daddy’s working late,” Christy replied. “Will you eat with us?” she asked Allison.
“No, I think I’ll go,” replied Allison. “Well, thank you for your help,” Christy said. “You’re welcome. If you need anything, call me,” Allison replied angrily and slammed the door behind her.
“Hi, sis,” her older sister always called Christy affectionately. “Did you call me?”
“Yes, I did. What’s wrong with you? I couldn’t reach you or Stanley. I was sick, and I wanted Stanley or you to pick up the girls from kindergarten.”
“Okay, Allison has already helped me, and I just turned on the phone. Stanley probably did as well. We had a meeting, so the phones were off. Our boss likes discipline. What happened to you, sister? What’s hurting you?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. It’s probably a sore throat. Do you need some medicine? Let me get it for you.”
“No, I have everything. I don’t need anything. How’s Rick doing? What will happen to him?”
“All children grow up, and how can you not be afraid to leave such a small child with a nanny?” Christy was always astonished.
“What can happen? There are such horrible nannies nowadays. And do I have a choice?” Jane replied as sharply as ever. “You have a husband; you can be so reasonable, hiding behind his broad back. And I, dear sister, have no one to rely on.”
“But Rick is a father, alright?” your relationship with him didn’t work out, but can’t he help you?”
“That’s enough, I’m fed up with it. You know that Rick’s father doesn’t even know that he exists. How many times must I tell you? He is married. I gave birth to a child for myself. I’m not young anymore. Do you remember, sister, how old I am?”
“I remember,” Christy nodded. “That’s right, call your Stanley. He’s probably already online. Well, bye. If you need anything, call me,” the electronic clock read 21:15.
Christy put the children to bed and continued to call her husband. His phone was online, but Stanley didn’t answer. “Jane, you don’t know, well, in short, I called Stanley, and he doesn’t answer me,” Christy called her sister again.
“Maybe he went somewhere after work, maybe he just forgot to turn on his cell phone,” her sister replied. “His number is online, but Stanley doesn’t answer. I can’t tell you about that, sis. Maybe he’s hanging out somewhere with his friends.”
“No, when Stanley wants to meet his friends, he tells me a few days in advance. He meets them rarely and on weekends, and today is Tuesday. I don’t even know what to think.”
“Think good thoughts, sister. If you think bad things, they will come,” Jane replied. “I feel so bad. My temperature is almost 40 degrees, and Stanley doesn’t answer. To be honest, I’m nervous.”
“Calm down, maybe he had an emergency, but then he would have called or answered my call,” Jane tried to reassure her.
“I can’t. It’s nauseating to the point of fainting. Do you have your rescue pickles for nausea?”
“Yes, I do. Eat them and take a fever pill. I’m sure Stanley will be home soon.”
“Oh, Jane,” Stanley’s calling. Bye,” Christy hung up.
“Are you out of your mind? I’m worried, and you…” Christy started to say quickly into the phone.
“Hello?” A woman’s voice interrupted her. “What is this?”
Christy’s heart jumped with excitement. “Who are you? Where’s Stanley?”
“I’m an emergency doctor at the trauma center. Stanley is your husband, isn’t he?”
“Yes, Stanley is my husband. What happened to him?” screamed Christy into the phone.
“He was brought to us after a traffic accident with multiple injuries. How is he? What’s wrong with him?”
“Stanley is unconscious. He’s in intensive care,” the doctor replied.
Christy was silent. She was in shock. “Can you hear me?” the doctor asked.
“Yes,” Christy replied, confused. “You can find out all the details in the Intensive Care Unit. Goodbye.”
Christy began to feel sick. She felt so sick that she ran to the bathroom and felt as if her stomach was turning inside out. She drank the medicine and snacked on cucumbers. The nausea stopped briefly. With trembling fingers, she dialed her sister’s phone.
“The subscriber is temporarily unavailable,” she heard the answer. “Right now, how could she forget that Jane turns off her phone at night? She doesn’t want her and Rick’s sleep to be disturbed at night.”
“What happened again?” replied Allison, annoyed. “I think we parted on an optimistic note.”
“Stanley had an accident. He’s in serious condition, intensive care. Come over. I’m not feeling well at all.”
“No, no, and no, the ICU is not a passageway,” the doctor replied sharply. “I’ll take a look at him and come right out.”
Christy asked the doctor. “Why are you coughing? Are you ill?” and she looked at Christy with concern.
“I am a little ill,” Christy lied.
“All the more, get out of the ward and don’t come back until you are well. Find out about your husband’s condition by telephone,” the doctor said.
“As of today, I can tell you that your husband is in very poor condition,” the doctor said.
“Christy, my sister, how come?” cried Jane.
“I went to the Intensive Care Unit, and they told me that information about the patient’s condition is given only to the closest relatives. And what am I, not a close relative?” Christy asked.
Jane was silent. She didn’t want to remember what she and Christy had shared. Now they were on opposite sides of barricades, being mysterious.
“Christy’s side, how can I help you? Shall I go to Rick’s father and tell him he has a son? Maybe he’ll care. Rick could use a father’s care.”
“Oh, if I gave Stanley a son, he’d be walking on air,” Christy said.
“Don’t talk about Stanley like that. Otherwise, he’d really be in heaven,” Jane replied.
“But we don’t know which one,” said Jane. “And Rick’s father knew about the son. We just didn’t want to tell anyone.”
“What do you mean? Notify?” he wanted to divorce his wife, and then we would start a family. Did he change his mind?” Christy asked.
“Why are you talking in the past tense? Tell me, Jane. It’ll make you feel better.”
Jane looked at her sister strangely. “I don’t want to talk about it now. I’ll tell you about it later, sis. The time will come, and you will know everything. Take care of yourself, sister. You can’t help Stanley, only God can help him.”
“Do you know what condition he is in? Let me know what’s going on with Stanley because I’m
