Love Letters From the Grave(25)

During the two months in which Muriel was recovering and struggling with breast-feeding the twins, Charlie did little else but work at the factory and help out at home. After that, however, he started going fishing with Johnny again, to incredibly good effect. On one trip alone he brought home three large bass, the largest over two and a half pounds; two channel catfish, weighing a total of four pounds; a yellow catfish, weighing nearly eight pounds; and seven nice sized Bluegills. Whenever he cast his baited hook into the water, he had a fish on it in less than a minute.

Never before had he had so much fun fishing, especially when Amos was able to join him for the odd trip. Over the next four or so months, the fishing remained incredibly good, and the family had fish for supper four to five times a week. His fishing experiences during these months put the hook into him so solidly that his main hobby for the rest of his life would be fishing.

As the doctor ordered, Muriel and Charlie avoided making love for a full six months, but when they finally returned to it, it was clear to Charlie that Muriel was holding back, in pain, and clearly not enjoying herself. It was totally unlike their earlier experiences. It was discovered that her uterus was still not completely healed, and that she had an infection. She began a three-week-long antibiotic program, and had to avoid love-making for several more weeks. It was months before they resumed anything like their previous pattern, and Charlie often held back for fear he might hurt Muriel.

Eventually, though, Muriel and Charlie got back to the routine of working and taking care of their three children. Detty was two-years old, and getting into everything. The twins were nearly a year old, and showing signs that they would soon be walking around like their big sister. Charlie was working hard at his new job, having learned most of the ins and outs of the operation of being a salaried assistant manager rather than a piece-worker, and was enjoying it immensely. He liked his immediate supervisor, the tool and supply rooms manager.

It was the manager’s primary job to keep the inventory of all tools and supplies; to dispose of all damaged tools; to be constantly on the lookout for better, more efficient tools, and to do the purchasing of supplies and tools. Part of Charlie's responsibilities on Mondays, in addition to managing and scheduling of the tool/supply rooms staff, was to assist the manager and learn his job, in case he was needed to take over the manager’s job, because of sickness or anything else which might result in the manager’s temporary absence. With regular sightings of Amos, despite his being squirreled away at the top of the stairs in the payroll office, Charlie’s working life had become a true reflection of everything he’d learned in prison, and the innate qualities he had always developed within himself.

Things were humming along, as Charlie and Muriel settled into becoming old hands at married life and in raising a family. Charlie doted on his children, spending as many precious hours with them after work as he could. At weekends he spent considerable amounts of time taking them on outdoor excursions, usually to a playground or park, with Muriel and sometimes her mother tagging along too as they pushed the children along in strollers or pulled them behind in wagons. Charlie loved being outdoors, feeling especially free and liberated after spending over half of his life in prison confinement. This special love for the outdoors undoubtedly contributed strongly to his love for fishing. During these exceptionally harmonious times with his family and in his work at the factory, Charlie managed to get in one or two fishing excursions each month, and continued to have success in catching supplies.

Charlie had never been happier. He very much enjoyed his work at the factory; he loved and very much appreciated his little family; their savings account was growing, giving promise that they would soon be able to purchase their own home, and his marriage was still enjoyably passionate.

Then, a few months after their third wedding anniversary, Muriel announced that she thought that she was pregnant again. He was raised as a Catholic, and had come from a large family, so it was natural for him to want to have a large family himself.

Muriel, however, did not seem to share his happiness.

‘Maybe this should be my last pregnancy,’ she said suddenly one evening. ‘We’ll have four children before the end of our fourth year of marriage. That’s twice the number of the family I come from.’

‘But … you said there was time for plenty more.’

Muriel scowled. ‘Maybe I hadn’t thought about what that would actually mean. More breast-feeding, more painful pregnancies, more difficult births.’

‘I hadn’t really given it much thought,’ said Charlie, ‘but when you put it like that, I can see what you mean.’

‘And I keep losing my figure, Charlie. Do you know what that’s like when I’m only in my early twenties? I don’t want to keep losing my figure!’

Charlie slid his arms across her rounded belly. ‘Your figure looks wonderful, when you’re pregnant and when you’re not.’

To his surprise, she pushed his hands away and flounced toward the door. ‘Oh, you don’t get it. How can you possibly get it?’

And Charlie had to admit that he probably couldn’t.

He couldn’t help thinking, though, that there was something more to it than just the fact of having more babies and a thickening waistline. Occasionally, Muriel seemed distracted, glancing out of the window as cars passed, and urging her mother to take her out to bingo more often. Charlie even wondered if she would prefer to go back to work rather than stay at home with the babies, although she’d never said as much.