Chapter 6
Two days later, Carol got a phone call from Mrs. Garrett. Somehow she panicked, but picked up nevertheless.
"Hello?"
"Carol? Is that you?"
"Yeah, hello Mrs. Garrett!"
"Hello! I've got a question. There are now four families, you including, who are interested in Travis."
"Four?"
"Yes. So, I heard he's getting better every day. That's way we wanted to check on all the families. Are you available on Tuesday afternoon?"
Carol looked at her organizer. "I don't have to work, but Doug has a shift!"
"That's no problem. I'll come around 2pm then, okay?"
"That's fine. Bye Mrs. Garrett!"
"Bye!"
Carol hung up and took a deep breath. She only had one day to prepare for Mrs. Garrett's visit and on Tuesday Sandra was in school. Well great. "Who was that?" Doug called from the living room and Carol almost jumped. "Mrs. Garrett will visit me on Tuesday", she told him. "On Tuesday? I have to work on Tuesday", Doug answered. "I know. She said it's okay." "I can change my shift, if you want", Doug said but Carol shook her head. "No need. I'll manage it", she said and Doug smiled at her. "Will you?" he asked. Carol just rolled her eyes. Only seconds later Tess and Kate came downstairs from their afternoon nap. "Good morning ladies!" Doug called but didn't get an answer from the girls. They still were tired, so Tess crawled on Doug's lap and Kate crawled on Carol's lap. Doug and Carol looked at each other and smiled. "Well then let's just cuddle a little bit longer…" Carol said and the twins closed their eyes again.
It was Tuesday. The day before, after she came home from work, Carol cleaned the free room upstairs where Travis' bedroom should be. Sandra helped to clean the twins' room. The living room was tidied up, as was the kitchen. Tess and Kate were currently playing in the living room and Carol was sitting nervous on the couch, her feet whipping on the couch table. The twins were cranky all day long and didn't want to take their afternoon naps. "Please kids, be good girls, when Mrs. Garrett visits us, okay?" Tess looked at her. "Yes." "Who is Mrs. Gawett?" Kate asked. "Garrett, her name is Mrs. Garrett honey! She's the boss from the children's home", Carol answered and then the doorbell rang. Tess and Kate looked up to their mum. "Let the games begin", she said and went to open the door.
"Good afternoon", Mrs. Garrett said. "Good Afternoon! Please come in", Carol answered and let her in. "Your home is beautiful!" Mrs. Garrett said. "Thanks! Do you want to have coffee or tea or something else?" Carol asked. "Coffee would be great, thanks!" So they went into the kitchen. "Please take a seat", Carol said while she turned on the coffee machine. "I was wondering…you're working full time, right?" Mrs. Garrett asked. "Yes", Carol answered shortly. Suddenly a crying Kate came into the kitchen. "Tess won't give me my space cowboy!" Carol looked to Mrs. Garrett. "Excuse me for a moment, please!" So she picked up Kate and went to the living room. She didn't notice that Mrs. Garrett followed her. "Tess, please stop fighting with your sister and give her back the space cowboy. You can play with the space cowgirl instead!" Carol let Kate down again, but Kate didn't go away from her. "The cowgirl is stupid", Tess answered and crossed her arms. "Then play with something else!" Carol said and turned around. "I didn't know you already have kids!" Mrs. Garrett said. Carol smiled a little bit. "Twin girls. This is Kate, and this is Tess." Tess waved at her but Kate started to cry even more. "What's up, honey?" Carol couldn't believe that this was happening now. Kate put her hand up to Carol. Carol picked her up again. "It's alright hun. I think we'll take a nap now, don't we?" Carol said and Kate nodded. "Be right back", Carol whispered to Mrs. Garrett and went upstairs with Kate.
"Tess? Do you fight a lot with your sister?" Mrs. Garrett now asked the girl who was still sitting on the floor. "Nope", Tess answered. "Okay…and do you two share a room?" "Yep." "Are you in kindergarten already?" "Yep." Very amusing, Mrs. Garrett thought, but not like three year olds. "Do you like it?" "Yep." Tess wasn't very interested in talking right now. Right then, Carol came back down. "I'm so sorry…they're cranky since the morning!" Mrs. Garrett smiled. "No problem. So, how will you manage it?" she asked. "Manage what?" Carol asked. "A full time job, twins and a little baby?" "Oh", Carol said, "I'll stop working until he's old enough for kindergarten. And I have an au-pair, Sandra. She's in school on Tuesdays." Mrs. Garrett nodded and took notes on her paper. "Okay. How old are the twins?" "They're three. Do you want me to show you around?" Carol asked and Mrs. Garrett nodded.
After she finished her coffee, they started with the first floor. Carol showed her the bathroom, the spare room, the playing room for the kids. Then they went upstairs. Carol opened the door to the twin's room silently. Somehow she was really proud of this room, because it was Doug who decorated it, while she still was in Chicago. Some furniture changed in the meantime, but still it was Doug's work. The room had a big window on one side and Carol remembered loving sitting in the rocking chair early in the morning, waiting for the sun to come in. Carol smiled and closed the door again. "So, this would be Travis' room", she now said when she opened the next door. It was exactly the same room as the twins' room, same size, same window. Carol already imagined how to decorate it. "We still have everything left from the twins. Right now it's only a spare room, but it should be a bedroom someday." "So you plan to have more kids?" Mrs. Garrett asked and Carol nodded. "We planned, yes, but I don't know if I can have more kids. I almost had a hysterectomy when I Kate was born. It was pretty close, y'know", Carol told her and they went on to the upper bathroom, which was bigger than the one downstairs. Then Carol showed her the last room which could be a room for one of the twins once, now it was Sandra's room. "You have a beautiful house", Mrs. Garrett said. "Wait until you see the garden!" Carol smiled.
So they went downstairs again. Carol grabbed Tess and they went outside through the living room door, which lead directly to the lake. "Beautiful", Mrs. Garrett said when she looked around. Everything was perfect here. There was a fence so the twins couldn't go into the water on their own. Trees spent shadows on hot days. Out on the doc were two chilling chairs, where Doug and Carol sometimes fed the ducks. There was a place with a garden table and chairs, where they often had breakfast in summer, or having barbecues. They sat down on the chairs and Mrs. Garrett looked at her notes again. "So, you once planned to adopt a little girl, right? Why didn't it work back then?" Carol sighed. "It was nine years ago. Tatiana was from Russia, had AIDS and she didn't know the English language. I knew a little bit in Russian, so she trusted me. I wanted to give her a steady family. I was engaged at that time…not with Doug, but with another doctor. Everything was great, but then they found out that I tried to kill myself." Carol paused and looked to Mrs. Garrett. "It was some months earlier. I didn't get along with my life anymore. I was pushed into a relationship I didn't want and in this relationship I felt like in prison. I had no air to breath. It was like being checked on everything you do. You might think why I didn't end it, but I couldn't. It was the first thing I did that made my mother happy. All she ever wanted me to was to have enough money, to have a good husband. She wasn't interested in my feelings, she never was. And I didn't find a way out. It was like I had to carry everything on my shoulders. My family, my work, my fiancé, Doug. I was depressed. The only thing I could do was end everything. So I took a bunch of pills together with alcohol. I wasn't even scared. But my roommate at that time found me and brought me to the hospital where I worked. They saved my life."
It was still hard for her to go through this story. She didn't think about it very often and the last she told someone about it was her psychologist. "What had Doug to do with this?" Mrs. Garrett now asked. "We had been together two years before this happened. The relationship ended because he wasn't ready to make a commitment." She didn't mention the cheating, the late night visits from a drunken Doug or he going home in the middle of the night. "I've always been in love with him. We got together about it three years later again, we moved in together and three years ago we moved to Seattle. And as you can see, everything is okay. We got married, we have two beautiful daughters and we're happy. We love this house, we love each other and we'd love to give Travis a lot of this love!" Carol stopped now because that was all she could tell and she told the truth. "Wow, that's quite a story", Mrs. Garrett said smiling. "Yeah, we could write a book", Carol laughed. "But I can see that you're a really happy, steady family! That's good", Mrs. Garrett said. Carol took a deep breath. "Can you be a little bit more specific?" she asked. Mrs. Garrett smiled. "Okay, but only because you're all really, really sympathetic. As I told you, there are four families, including you, who want to have Travis. Two families are out, IMO. You and the other family are still in. I'll visit them tomorrow. I can't say more yet", Mrs. Garrett told her. Carol's heart started to beat faster. "And, who is this other family? They're not Sue and Peter, right?" Carol asked. "No. The other family is living downtown, married and have one son. He's working in a bank, she's a lawyer", Mrs. Garrett said and Carol nodded. "Don't give up your hopes. I have seen you with Travis and I liked what I saw." "Thank you, Mrs. Garrett", Carol answered, holding Tess tight. "Call me Julia and you're welcome! I think I have seen enough now…" she got up from her seat, as did Carol and Tess. "What now?" Carol asked. "Well, I'll call you in some days. It still takes some time…" Julia answered. Carol nodded. "Okay then, thanks", she answered, accompanied her to her car. "Talk soon! Bye Tess!" Julia waved to the girl and Tess waved back, sleepy already. Carol stayed there until Julia was out of sight. "C'mon sweetie, let's take a nap!" she whispered to her daughter who didn't complain.