Caroline in Richard's Mother's Womb

Chapter 16

During the day, Caroline continued to work at Cassidy Greeting Cards. At night, at the halfway house, she applied herself more than ever to breaking her alcohol habit, and learning from her mistakes. Her biggest mistake had been her pride. When things were going well, she thought she could handle things herself, without help from anyone. It had taken this incident to demonstrate to her how quickly, given the wrong conditions, a little thing could trigger her to start drinking again. Caroline was grimly resolved to beat her problem, and determined to let others in, let them know when she was feeling weak and vulnerable, and when she did something that added to her risk.

******

A month later, Annie came to pick up Caroline at the halfway house, and bring her back to her apartment to stay. Richard had convinced Annie to give Caroline yet another chance. During the cab ride back, Caroline apologized to Annie.

"Annie, thank you for taking me back. I'm so, so sorry, not just for drinking, but for making you put up with this. You're the best, best friend anyone's ever had. I swear to you I've learned my lesson. I swear I'll never take another drink again."

"Oh hun... 'never' is a long time. Just swear to me that you won't drink today... and swear it every day."

"I will, Annie" Caroline sobbed, as she buried her head into Annie's side.

......

Her good cry over, Caroline was in better spirits by the time they reached Annie's building.

"You know, Annie, I hate to keep on imposing, it just that the only place I can afford on my own would be in Richard's neighborhood" Caroline shuddered.

"Don't mention it, hun. Anyway, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy... well, I take that back, maybe I would wish it on Richie, but since he already lives there, I don't need to. Besides, it's fun havin' you around. That is, when you're not..."

"I know, I know..." responded Caroline. "Maybe some day I'll get my own place again... But right now, even though I'm doing a little better financially, I'm still only making a third of what I used to."

The reached her apartment, Annie unlocked the door, and as she opened it, they both were greeted by a chorus of "SURPRISE!!!"

"Wha...?" was all a stunned Caroline could get out.

"You didn't think we'd forget your 34th birthday, did ya?" Annie said, as she ushered Caroline inside.

The apartment was gaily decorated with balloons and banners. Food and drink (non-alcoholic) were spread out on the table. Del, Charlie, Richard, Angie, Remo, Mark, her AA sponsor, and Audrey and Trevor, fellow cartoonists from the office, were there, all wearing silly party hats. Even Salty got into the act, wearing a silly hat.

"Oh you guys! I don't deserve this!" Caroline started bawling.

"Hey! No crying! This is a first for me, a party with no booze. If you ruin it, I won't have any more" Annie said as she winked at Caroline.

After Caroline had greeted everyone, and they had congratulated her, Charlie declared "Alright, let's have the birthday girl blow out the candles on the cake, so we can eat, and then get on to presents!"

Angie got a strawberry cream sheet cake, decorated with "Happy Birthday Caroline" out of the refrigerator, put it on the table, and placed and lit some candles. Everybody started singing

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday dear Caroline

Happy birthday to you

Caroline drew a deep breath, and blew out the candles. Everybody applauded.

"What did you wish for?" Charlie asked.

"If I tell you, it's not supposed to come true. But actually, it's already come true" Caroline said, as she almost started to cry again.

Annie came up to her, and wrapped her arms around her. "Hey, none of that, sweetie. Let's open the gifts, huh?"

"Okay" Caroline sniffed, as Annie led her to the table with gifts.

She opened the first gift, from Angie. Inside the box she found a metal pan covered in aluminum foil. "It's my lasagna" explained Angie. "I know they only feed you garbage at that place."

The next gift she opened was from Remo. As Caroline removed the wrapping, she could hear a clinking sound inside. She opened the box, and saw several bottles. "I was thinking of an appropriate vino to go along with Angie's lasagna... but under the circumstances, I just got you some sparkling cider instead."

Caroline opened Audrey and Trevor's gift next. It was a set of artist's pencils. She thanked them "Thank you guys. I promise I'll make good use of these."

Her curiosity piqued, Caroline opened Charlie's gift next. It was a very small package. When she took off the wrapping paper, she saw a matchbox inside. She gingerly pushed it opened a quarter inch, and instinctively tossed it in the air when she saw insect antennae waving about inside. "EWW!!!!" she screeched.

Charlie picked up the matchbox and checked inside.

"What is it?!" asked Angie.

"It's 'Caroline', my pet cockroach. I named her after the birthday girl!" Charlie replied.

"Oh my god!" responded Angie.

"Don't worry! Everything's cool. I checked, getting dropped on the floor didn't hurt her, 'Caroline' is okay!" Charlie declared, as he offered the closed matchbox back to Caroline.

"Uh... no thanks, Charlie. I really appreciate it, but I couldn't possibly take 'Caroline' away from you... Really" said Caroline as she pushed the offering hand away.

"Okie dokie... Her brothers and sisters were really gonna miss her. But I figured, they all gotta leave the nest sometime!"

Annie warned Charlie "Charlie, I swear to god, if 'Caroline' gets loose, only one of you is gettin' out of this apartment alive".

"Okay, okay" said Charlie, as he carefully stuffed the matchbox in his pocket.

Caroline picked up a small package. It was from Mark, her AA sponsor. "Another small package" she said as she shook the box and heard a rattle. Caroline joked "I guess it's safe, it doesn't sound like a cockroach!"

As everybody laughed, Mark said "I promise it isn't!"

Caroline opened the gift, and found a "reminder" refrigerator magnet, a plastic hobo sitting atop a sign that read "Today I Am". Attached below the magnet was a one inch chain, and attached below that, instead on the plastic flip sign that came with the magnet, was a homemade cardboard sign that read "Drinking" on one side, and "Not Drinking" on the other.

"Just a little AA humor" said Mark. "It's to remind you daily how close we all are to that next drink, and how we always have to be on guard."

"Thanks, Mark" Caroline said, as she gave him a quick hug.

Next, Caroline opened Del's gift. It was in a small 4 by 4 by 1 inch box. When she opened it, she found a calendar inside.

"Surprise, Caroline! Your the first one on your block to get the latest 'Caroline in the City' product, a 2001 'Caroline in the City' cartoon-a-day tear away calendar! I used the last panel from 365 old strips. We won't start production for another seven months, in September, but I had the boys create a prototype for you. Just a little reminder to you to take things one day at a time. We have high hopes that this baby will make a ton of money for both you and Cassidy. It'll be the perfect gift for the first Christmas of the new millennium."

"You know, Del, not that it matters, but 2001, not 2000, will actually be the first year of the new millennium. I mean, the first millennium started on the year one, not the year zero" interjected Richard.

"Oh yeah?! Well, how come everybody celebrated the start of the new millennium last month, Einstein?"

"Because everybody is ig..." Richard started to argue, but was cut off by Annie.

"Alright! Beavis... Butthead... cut it out! This is supposed to be a party!"

"Sorry, Annie" a meek Richard and Del chimed in simultaneously.

"Thanks Del, I appreciate this" Caroline said as she gave Del a quick hug.

Two gifts left - Caroline chose to open Annie's next, she wanted to save Richard's for last. She unwrapped the gift, opened the box, and found a cell phone inside.

"Happy birthday, sweetie! You know, you'll have to pay the monthly fee yourself. But now we can talk anytime during the day without paying extra money."

"Oh, wonderful" groaned Richard.

"Shut up, Vlad!" Annie rebuked Richard, then turned to Caroline. "Seriously, hun. Keep this with you night and day, and if you even think about touching booze, you give me a call."

"Thanks Annie. I will, I promise" Caroline said as she gave her best friend a long hug.

Last of all, Caroline picked up Richard's gift. It was a medium-sized flat rectangle. As she picked it up, she could feel a wooden frame around the edges. "I wonder what this could be" Caroline teased Richard. She shook it, even though she knew she would hear nothing rattle. As she unwrapped it, Caroline saw a framed painting of a beautiful luminescent angel.

"It's your guardian angel. I don't believe in them, but I know you do. She's here to protect you from... from... everything."

Caroline got misty eyed. "Oh Richard... thank you... it's beautiful. But, you know, I already have several guardian angels in this room." Caroline went over and intended to give Richard a quick peck, but once they started, the kiss kept lasting longer and longer.

After awhile, the other guests started hooting and hollering, so they broke off their kiss.

The last present opened, Charlie went to the sound system he had brought over, and said "Okay, let's get this party rockin'! Let's dance!" as he turned on the music.

......

After the last guest had left, Caroline turned to Annie and said "Oh Annie, thanks so much for throwing this party. It's just what I needed. When I got out of the halfway house, all I saw was temptation and a grim fight with alcoholism for the rest of my life. But you made me realize, that with the support of my friends, the fight needn't be so grim. Thank you Annie."