At work, River was in the wardrobe along with other women of the theatre on a break, before they would return to their next act of the play. River was using her smartphone and looking at pictures, that were posted on Simstargram by her oldest daughter Ruby, where she was hanging at the beach with a few friends of hers. River had smiled at seeing the group having fun and pressed on the kudo button, then scrolled further to pass by other accounts.
Into the room entered Zelda Mae, the aunt of her husband Parker Langerak and she held her hand out at a raven-haired woman to fist bump her, then made her way across the wardrobe to approach the Irish woman and grabbed her by the shoulders shrieking her.
„Hey!," Greeted Zelda upon making the woman jump. „Good to see you here,"
„You scared me," Mentioned River looking up at the blonde, which chuckled afterward both greeted each other with a cheek kiss and Zelda sat down beside the brunette.
„Can I talk to you for a minute?" Questioned Zelda making River nod.
„ Sure. What's on your mind?"
„ It's about Parker. You know, you're more often around him and I don't know. I noticed, that he seemed pretty down lately. Did something happen?"
„Uh no, not that I know," Responded River. „How do you mean, he does look down to you? Is he moping around at work or anything?"
„ He acts pretty introvertedly to me. He doesn't pick up any conversation with other people. He's somewhat absent-minded the entire day. It's as if something seems to be bothering him and he doesn't do anything toward it,"
„Hmm... .I need to see for myself. I know he seems to get earlier to bed, than usual. I was used to, that he would stay up late, sometimes even later than me. I don't remember when exactly he began to lie back a bit earlier....Perhaps after the holiday, he due to the jetlag has begun to go to bed every time he would be exhausted and eventually it got leveled in,"
„ Okay, but will you still talk with him? I don't want to think it's something worse, than that,"
„ Sure, at least because of the fact he barely talks to people sounds not like our Parker. Thanks for telling me that, Zelda,"
„ No problem. I just want to make sure everything is okay," Commented the blonde, then patted the woman on the shoulder. „I better get going. You gotta appreciate every single minute of your break for the spectacle," Commented Zelda making River smile at her statement.
At home, River had arrived to spot on the couch her teenage daughter Ruby sit watching TV, while her younger brother Robert lied on the couch as well seeing the movie on the screen. River noticed, that their father wasn't around and approached the couch from behind to greet her children.
„You're watching Sim+?" Questioned the brunette earning a nod from Ruby, while Robert waved at his mother. „Hey Robert," Greeted River afterward Ruby got up on the couch on her knees to peck her mother on the cheek.
„Welcome home, mom," Greeted the raven-haired girl.
„Hi sweetie. Have you seen your father?" Questioned River making Ruby nod.
„He went to bed," Responded Ruby making River furrow her eyebrows. „What? It's ten past ten,"
„It's Saturday, he barely goes to bed so early," Commented River making Ruby shrug her shoulders.
„Are you angry with daddy?" Asked Robert sitting up on the couch, earning the attention of the mother.
„No, Aunt Zelda came to me and asked, if your father was okay. He seemed pretty down lately according to her,"
„I don't know, but he seems less overprotective towards me when Rouven's around. He's now very cool with him," Stated Ruby making River nod.
„ Anything else?" Questioned River making Ruby shrug her shoulders and look at Robert.
„ He didn't have dinner with us before, not the other days," Robert mentioned making River wide her eyes confused.
„How did you eat?" Questioned River watching Ruby soothe her mother down to not overreact.
„Don't worry, we still had dinner. He made it for us, just he didn't eat. He said he's not hungry,"
„ I will talk with him and see, what's going on," Commented River earning a nod from the kids, then she patted the two on their heads. „Stay up as long as you desire," River allowed making her way across the living room to enter the bedroom to see her husband had already got dressed for bed and lied uncovered on the bed facing the night table, where the alarm clock stood along with a prom picture of the two, which was taken over 15 years ago. River walked past the bed and got on top of it to crawl slowly towards her husband to spot the man with his eyes closed, while the light on her side was turned on. The brunette leaned her chin over his shoulder, then tickled him under his chin making him open up his eyes revealing to not be asleep yet.
„Again going so early to bed?" Questioned River earning a nod from her husband. „That's very unusual from you. Is everything okay?"
„Yes," Responded Parker looking away from his wife, then felt her lie her cheek against his shoulder, while looking in the same direction as him. „You know, Zelda spoke to me before at the work and was worried about you. I heard her story and asked our kids as well. Is there something bothering you?" Questioned River seeing Parker not responding to her. „ You know you can trust me. We have been telling us everything in the past 15 years. No matter how dark your issue is, I want to help you,"
„ I don't really know, what the problem is either. I feel like...... everything around me, my life is........so repetitive," Parker mentioned, followed by seeing River sit up to listen to him.
„How do you mean repetitive?" Questioned River watching Parker lie on his back to face the woman.
„ I do the same things over and over again. It's the same routine. I wake up, I go to work, I eat, watch TV, go back to bed. I wake up again, I go to work again......you know this,"
„ You thought about doing something with our kids?"
„Robert and I played soccer sometimes on the outside, but you know he's got his club he's practicing with, so he barely plays anymore, so we just end up sitting on the couch together. Somehow I still feel empty,"
„And Ruby's most of the times busy with her friends,"
„Exactly....." Commented Parker making River nod and lie back on the mattress to gaze at her husband to assist with help.
„ Do you think the current state of your life is a little monotous? By the way you described it?"
„ I think so. The same deeds, the same people, same chats everyday," Responded Parker slightly unsure. „I have nothing against our people. It's just......I feel like things used to be better before,"
„How... ..many years ago?" Questioned River a little perplexed about, what he really meant.
„When we could be more often together with our children, visiting our parents and hang out alltogether. We've been now deepened into ours jobs, that we haven't been often out together somewhere, neither us two only or with the kids,"
„ Well, I got to admit, I didn't think upon becoming a componist, things at work would get complicated. I feel like it gets harder to be productive," River mentioned. „Are you disappointed, that you couldn't follow your dream of an ice hockey player, because of mine?"
„ No, no. I gave up, because I wanted to see you suceed as your plan of becoming a famous artist didn't really work out, how you wished," Mentioned Parker making River nod.
„Honestly, that was more of an unrealistic wish. I did have the talent, but did you see how the other artists are doing? They have major difficulty in obtaining money with their artworks. Others would suffer a artblock, upon working too much on the canvas. Perhaps, avoiding my first wish was the best thing I have done,"
„ I think it really was good," Confessed Parker, then River moved aside to place her hand over Parker's, which he had crossed over his belly.
„ Sorry, if I wasn't supposed to move topic," The brunette apologized sensing her husband grip her hand with his making her smile, knowing that the conversation was going just fine. „ Do you think you need to look for a new job or an additional, different hobby ? Something, that isn't lying or sitting on the couch for example?"
„Would it improve my state?" Questioned Parker. „Even a little bit?"
„I would try it on your place. If you'd like, why don't we two look for the avaible hobbies and try them out together?"
„Sounds okay. Never tried that sort of sport out,"
"Well, that was the first random thing, that got into my head, otherwise.....do you think you can or.......well.....what about planning something to do over the day or even a weekend? Something unusual,"
"What's not so usual for us?" Questioned Parker sitting up on the mattress. "Going on something like a road trip?"
"That's one example. Or a sort of amusement park, a zoo, anything we dont do so often. Our kids can make part of it as well, if they are interested.
"We have never been in an amusement park before. With our kids mostly. That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Mentioned Parker. "Is this really going to make me feel fullfilled?"
"I'm not a doctor, but from what you told me, you might be going through a midlife crisis eventually. If it's that, you've got nothing to worry about. Many of people around our age have it, we just need to find out, what we could do in order to get to feel good again. Our kids have as you remember turned our world upside down and now that were in a balanced situation we have a regular routine, which makes things seem....uh.....repetetive,"
"That's exactly what I believe to have noticed. I meant to ask about it a few weeks after the vacation. I just didn't feel like it would matter and left it like that,"
"How did you think that?" Questioned the woman sitting up to have eyecontact with the husband, which shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know. I don't really talk about those things. I just hoped that it would improve," Commented Parker making River cackle and place her arm behind his back.
"You feel like its not manly to talk about mental health, but yet when your head hurts, you're the first one complaining?" Questioned River a little amused while Parker though about her point and shrugged.
"Hmm okay I admit to do that.....I know that it sounds kinda stupid but we or most guys dont really talk about how we feel. We talk about anything else.....literally anything,"
"Anything, but that," Added River making Parker nod. "You know about this guy thing, no matter if it sounds slightly feminine to you. You can talk to me how you feel always. If you feel down, just like this, you can come to me and I talk with you. I wont judge you and you know that,"
"Yeah I know you do. I just felt like I could manage it in the.....well, the most unfitting way," Phrased the man then River leaned her cheek next to Parker's shoulder and embraced the arm with her free arm.
"It's alright. We're working on it,"
"I still have time to get to look for anything that we all could do as a family tomorrow or next week if it doesn't work. I think there's a leisure center somewhere for families in Bridgeport,"
"Isn't it with reservation?" Questioned River getting her arms off her husband to look for her smartphone and noticed its absence.
"I don't know but there sure is anything else like the roller skating rink in Twinbrook. I don't think any of us has the talent, but we can learn it and if we enjoyed it we could go in private or return again,"
"See? You already have a new idea for a hobby," Mentioned the brunette proud, making Parker nod and embrace his wife, while holding his head down next to her neck.
"Thanks to who, of course," Responded Parker sensing River place her hand over his head, afterward he moved his head down, making River unattentive lie back against the mattress with Parker's head lying over her breast.
"Woah!" Shrieked the brunette, then beamed as her husband lay over her chest with his ear against it. "Honestly what's with you and my heartbeat? You started all this back, when Robert was born,"
"Something about this makes me perceive comfort. I don't know if it's because of being just you or not,"
"I'm glad to hear that," Stated River beginning to caress the man on his head, while she felt her husband shove his arms under her back to hug her.