The Memory Playlist

Asleep

"Thank you for agreeing on today," the nurse in front of me says. "I know it can be a struggle and all since today is Thanksgiving..."

"Oh, it's no problem," I say, entering the room after she does. "I wasn't expecting the office to be open today."

"Well, it is for some of us," she sighs, sanitizing her hands before pulling on gloves.

As I lay back on the paper-covered bed and pull my tank top up, I ask, "You don't have any plans tonight?"

"No," she sighs, walking towards me with a sad smile. "Most of my family is in the east, and I'm not healthy enough for flights. Normally, they come over here, but I told them to save the money. One person isn't worth the expense of thirteen."

"I'm sure they didn't mind," I say as she starts rubbing my stitches down with rubbing alcohol. After a moment, I say, "If you want, you could come to my house for Thanksgiving. I'm sure no one would mind." I know her well enough to know she isn't a murderer, and she's done so much after the birth of the kids, I'm sure she'd be fine.

"Oh, that's alright," she says, starting to pull the stitches away from my skin. "I'm going to meet one of my friends down at our favourite little restaurant, so it's okay. Thank you for the invitation, though."

"Well, after everything you've done to help," I say as she tugs.

She smiles patiently and starts pulling further and further, and finally the stitches are out. "There you go, sweetheart," she says, pulling her gloves off.

"Thanks," I say, pulling my tank top back down. I stretch a little and rub over the scar, which I'll need to put medicine over.

"How's Andy doing?" she asks, having already asked about the kids before. She starts looking for the medicine she brought in with her.

"He's doing alright," I say. "He gets less sleep than I do these days. He always tells me to sleep while he makes sure the kids are okay."

"He always seemed so sweet," she says, finding her bottle. "These are capsules, more or less meant for ingestion, but if you prick one open with a safety pin and rub the contents over your scar it'll help it heal healthier and for the marks to go away."

"Awesome," I say, taking it from her. "Thank you."

We start walking out together. The hallways are long in this office. She brings up another subject, "Has Andy been a little impatient?"

"Impatient?" I question. "He's impatient about everything," I laugh. "What do you specifically mean?"

"Well, I meant more or less has he been bothering you about having sex," she says plainly. "Sometimes, guys can get to be a hassle after a little while."

I hide my blushing as I start to sign myself out at the desk. "No," I answer. "He's been pretty good about all of that. Usually both of us are too tired to even think about it, so it's not like either of us are missing out. The only time he got a little whiny about it was our anniversary, but he still stopped when he knew his limits. Besides, we kinda' have a full house right now."

"What do you mean?" she asks.

"Well, his parents are staying until after Christmas," I say. "They flew out on an invitation from us to stay that long. The kids were born last month, so they wanted to see them, and then we'd have to work something out for Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, and since the kids would be too little for the plane it would have to be his parents making the trips, so they're just staying with us for a few months."

"Is that becoming stressful?" she asks.

I shake my head. "No. They're really nice and help out all the time. We don't mind having them here."