Boxes of Emotions

Rick was rushing to make the appointment on time. His fiancé was already there and she was texting him, "Where are you?", "You are late again.", "This is important. We find out the baby's gender today.", "I need you here." He would normally respond to the texts even while driving but he had made her a promise that as soon as they were a family then he would not text and drive anymore. It had always been a bad habit that he had. He had been lucky multiple times in his life having barely avoided hitting other cars or people.

He pulled into the hospital parking lot and responded, "I just parked I am hurrying.", "I love you both.", "Sorry." He ran to the front door and eventually made it to the receptionist. "Hello, I am Rick, my fiancé is in for our ultrasound." The receptionist pointed him towards room eight.

"Oh, finally. There you are!" Samantha was mad. "The technician has been in to start this four times already. We can't make them late."

"Samantha I am so sorry, I had to get gas, and then I got stuck in traffic. I also missed the turn and you know how I hate driving through the city. I got lost." Rick tried to put forth his own panic at the moment for his voice. He really had tried to avoid being late this day.

"Rick, I don't want to hear it. You need to get your stuff together. The baby will be here in a few more months. You will need to be on time for the appointments and show me that we can count on you." Her frustration permeated her voice. Just then the door to the ultrasound room opened up.

"Hello, so we need to get going, oh hi Rick. Let's see what this baby is."

The appointment went well and they were having a boy. He followed Samantha home and helped her up the steps. When the front door swung open and she saw the state of the living room her shoulders slumped. "What were you doing today to be late?"

"Well you see I was cleaning the house. I started laundry and got the dishes going. Then I began putting away the baby's things."

"Andrew's. His name is Andrew. He isn't 'the baby'."

Stumbling over his words, "Yes, Andrew, sorry. I was putting his stuff away so I began organizing his stuff."

"You always get distracted Rick. I told you yesterday that we don't need to put away the baby's stuff yet because the two of us still need to clean out our closets. We were going to do the baby organizing in the living room today after we got back." She sighed and started to pick up.

"No honey I have this, you go lie down." Rick tried to take an empty box from her. She pulled it back. "Hey! I am trying to be nice. Why are you being like this? I made a mistake and I am trying to fix it."

"No, I am going to make sure this gets done." She pointed to the other side of the room. "You go over there and work on that end. Beth and Tony are coming over later to hear the news."

He sighed deeply, "Really? Can't we have a little time just to ourselves? Every day it's been someone else coming over to visit or bring us more stuff."

Her tone turned venomous, "Rick, don't you raise your voice to me. They are our friends. They are excited to find out about their godchild. Your downtime is going to be limited when Andrew gets here. You can spend some time with Beth and Tony today and my parents are coming over Friday. Perhaps you should invite your mom over as well. I am sure she wants to see us." She returned to picking things up and held her hand stopping his protests when he started.

The two of them worked like that in silence for about an hour before the house was clean and Beth and Tony arrived arms full of boxes and bags. Soon the living room was a mess again. When they left Samantha said she was going to nap.

Rick was carrying out a pile of boxes when he stepped on a rock and fell to the ground hitting his head. Vision swimming a moment before everything went dark.

His eyes opened seeing it was dark out. Checking his head he felt dried blood. Boxes are strewn everywhere. Picking them up before putting them into the recycling bin. Entering the house there were the decorative lights Samantha had bought which she had asked him to assemble. They looked awesome. She must have been working on it while he was passed out.

"Hey honey, sorry I tripped." There was no response. He checked the house, she wasn't there. So he looked for something to tidy up. There was nothing to do. Everything was in the place where she said she wanted it.

Checking on Andrew's clothes he noticed the clothes were out of their storage tubs and hanging in his section. Underneath was a box, unmarked the lid was slightly open. Inside he found his clothing.

Samantha had packed up his stuff to make room for the baby's? Digging through the clothes until he found a small box within. This box felt empty but when he opened it he found a packet of pictures that showed a time where he had told Samantha that he would do something and then a corresponding picture with the activity left undone. Taking the box of pictures to the kitchen to spread them out on the table. He flipped through the images he became dismayed so he grabbed a beer from the fridge. The table was empty, the box was gone.

Closing the fridge door he walked around down the hall. In the nursery, he saw that it was painted and decorated exactly like some of those Pinterest articles that Samantha had sent him. In the bassinet, there was another non-descript box.

Inside the box was a tablet. Swiping it open there was a video playing. Scene after scene of times that he became frustrated and raised his voice to Samantha. In each clip was a close-up on her face after he yelled. At first, there was pain, shock, and hurt in her eyes. As the video progressed her expression shifted to irritation, agitation, then eventually settling on worry.

The final clip was her talking with Rachel and Beth. "He is just so angry all the time at little things. I asked him to assemble the bassinet and he yelled at me because he was tired and wanted to relax." She began to cry. "I don't know what to do, I love him but I hate how he acts sometimes."

The audio cut out there with Rachel and Beth consoling Samantha. Setting the tablet down he left the room. Returning to the bedroom he lay on the bed pressing palms against his forehead. This caused the bleeding to start up again. So he carefully got up as to not bleed on the bedding and went into the bathroom.

There he dressed his injury with some rubbing alcohol and a bandage. Closing the medicine cabinet he saw another small box on the back of the toilet. Afraid of what this one might have inside he walked away, returning to the living room and out the front door where this ridiculous scenario started.

Sitting on the front porch was another box, this one small and buzzing. Resigning himself with opening this one he sat down on the steps. Inside was a cell phone. It was on vibrate and ringing. The screen showed Samantha calling. He answered the call and said, "Honey I am so glad you called. I am so sorry for everything. The house looks amazing."

But she didn't respond to him. Instead, it seemed as if she was leaving a message. "Rick? Typical, you never answer your phone when I need you. Listen, I have been thinking and this isn't easy but I think we need a break from each other. It's too hard for me to organize you and stuff for Andrew. I have packed up your clothes and maybe after a while, we can make things work. But for now, I need space. It's hard being pregnant and having to make sure you are actually helping without being asked is unbearable. I will text you the schedule for the next appointments."

"Sam! Samantha! Answer me I am right here." The phone call went dead. He tried calling her back but there was no return number. When he looked up from the phone there were three boxes sitting at the bottom of the steps in front of him. One marked, 'Rick's clothes.', the other, 'Rick's games.' And the last, 'Baby things for Rick's place.'

Sorrow overwhelmed him as he stared at three boxes that were his contribution to this wonderful home that she had created. That was it. Everything else was her. He collected the boxes one by one and put them in his truck, saving the baby box for last. By the time he picked that up, tears were streaming down his face. This caused him to miss the rock on the sidewalk. He tripped over it and fell to the ground again.

When he woke up it was early evening and the streetlights were just coming on. He felt the fresh blood on his forehead and saw the boxes he was hauling out from Beth and Tony's gifts. He cleaned up the mess and put them in the recycling. When he entered the house everything looked like he remembered from when Beth and Tony were there. He quietly checked on Samantha who was sleeping still.

Rick went to the garage and grabbed the decorative lights Samantha had picked out. He put them up exactly as he remembered from his dream. When he was done he assembled the bassinet. By the time he finished, she woke up. "Hey, sweetheart. Oh my!" Her eyes shined with joy and surprise. "You put together the bassinet. Thank you so much."

Rick stood up, "That isn't all." She saw the bandage on his forehead.

"Rick you are hurt. What happened?"

He shook his head. "It's no big deal. Just a bump. Go look at the living room." He followed her down the hall. The lights cast the living room in a homey inviting light. On the table was a brown box.

She smiled as she sat down, "What is it?"

"You are going to need to just open it." He sat next to her.

Inside he had her tablet. He had taken photos of everything she had put together and done to get their lives ready for little Andrew. She smiled as she flipped through them. The final thing in the folder was a video that he had taken of himself.

"Samantha, thank you for everything you do for us. I know that I am not always the best partner in life but I promise I will continue striving to improve. I am very excited for when we become a complete family and I know that with patience and guidance you can help me to become everything you want in a partner and Andrew deserves in a father. I realized that everything we do as people impacts others. Our lives are like packages and what we put in those packages is a story for others to experience. I haven't looked at myself in a long time and because of that my box has become dusty and in need of care. Because of that, I have spread that dust to your box and Andrew's by proxy. I will work hard to keep myself presentable in that regard and improve as a person. I love you and I love Andrew more than I thought I could ever love anything."