Marriage and Family

Chapter Five

"Where is he?" Claire asked, nervously shuffling her feet as she stood next to her mother at the baggage claim area. They were waiting for Nikolas to come to the baggage claim area. His flight was late and it was taking longer for them to get clearance to land. "I'm not sure how much longer I can wait."

"I know." Sam laughed at her daughter's excitement. To get Claire's mind off of her excitement, she decided to change the subject. "This brings back memories."

"What does?" Claire asked, looking at her mother strangely.

"Being at a baggage claim area waiting for a man to get off a plane." Sam smiled.

Claire smiled widely as she remembered what her mother was talking about.

"Mommy? Why are we at the airport tonight?" Claire asked as they walked into the airport.

"Because we're here to pick up your daddy." Sam replied, grabbing a hold of Claire's hand as they made their way through the crowds of people. She was looking for the monitor that would tell her when Martin's plane was getting in and smiled when she spotted it about ten feet away from where they were right now.

"But I thought he wasn't coming until tomorrow." Claire was confused. Maybe her mommy got confused too.

"Well he's supposed to be coming tomorrow." Sam explained, kneeling down to Claire's level. "But your daddy has this habit of coming early to surprise us."

"So he's coming tonight?" Claire asked, not wanting to get her hopes up until her mommy told her that.

"Yes he is." Sam told her daughter. "You see, he thinks he's going to surprise us by arriving one day earlier. But I'm not falling for that again. So I called the airline and found out that he's coming in tonight on Flight 5497."

"And we're surprising him?" Claire smiled, finally understanding what was going on.

"Exactly." Sam smiled. "He's not going to expect us here."

Claire giggled. "I like this plan."

"That was a lot of fun surprising dad like that." Claire laughed. "The look on his face was priceless."

"Yeah." Sam laughed. "It was, wasn't it?"

Claire put her arm around her mother. "You know I have really enjoyed your visit and having you around."

"I did too." Sam smiled and ran her hand through her daughter's long, blonde hair.

"Thanks for your help. I'm not sure what I would have done without you."

"Well that's what mom's are for." Sam told her. "We're here to help."

"Now it's time for me to help you." The smile on Claire's face left. "I'm not going to pretend to know what problems you and dad are having. I don't know and I probably shouldn't know. But I can't sit back and watch you two self-destruct without trying to offer some piece of advice, even if you don't take it."

She saw that her mother wasn't going to interrupt her and continued. "Dad loves you and you love dad. I know you said that these new problems aren't as bad as the old ones, but I'm not sure I entirely believe you."

"You calling me a liar?" Sam laughed.

"No. I think you're trying to shield me from the truth." Claire replied. "And I appreciate it but it's not necessary. I'm a grown up and I can deal with the truth. I'm no longer the five year-old that you need to hide the truth from."

"I know." Sam replied, lamenting the fact that her little girl was no longer little or a girl.

"I know that you guys started having problems when Grandpa Victor moved in." She could see that her mother was wondering how she knew about that. "Rachel and Sean noticed it and would tell me about the way grandpa treated you. Not to mention the first hand experiences I got when I came home to visit."

"I'd hate for you and dad to continue having problems because of an old, cantankerous fuddy-duddy that isn't even alive anymore. Grandpa Victor is gone. Maybe it's time that all issues surrounding him die too."

Sam tried to contain her laughter but soon found it impossible.

"What?" Claire asked, looking at her mother like she was crazy. She was offering her serious advice and now her mother was laughing at her? Why?

"I'm sorry." Sam laughed. "I like your advice and it's good advice. It's just that you called your grandfather a fuddy-duddy!"

"Well he was!" Claire laughed.

"I am not disputing that." Sam smiled. "I just don't hear that word often."

"I'm trying to re-introduce it into the English language." Claire explained.

"Maybe you should just let it die." Sam laughed as she pulled Claire into a hug.

"We've known each other for…eighteen years, right?" Martin asked Kevin as they sat on the porch, each of them drinking a beer.

"Yeah. That's how long we've lived next to each other." Kevin replied, staring at the sun that was setting.

"And during that time, we've become pretty good friends. You know me pretty well, right?" Martin questioned.

"Yeah." Kevin nodded.

"And you also know Sam pretty well too?" Martin questioned.

"Martin, where are you going with this?"

"Do you think that Sam would ever just leave me?"

"Leave you?" Kevin asked. "What, you mean as in leave you for good? Like a divorce?"

"Yeah." Martin nodded. He used to think that there was no way that Sam would ever leave him, especially after they worked through their problems before Sean and Rachel were born. But lately, and especially after reading part of Sam's journal, he had come to the realization that Sam could wake up tomorrow and walk out of his life for good.

Kevin laughed. "How many beers have you had tonight?"

"I've only had this one." Martin chuckled, pointing to the one in his hand.

"Then why are you thinking about that?" Kevin asked, confused. "I know that you guys have been experiencing some problems but Sam's only staying with Claire right now to help her."

"That's what she said." Martin nodded. "But I think Claire was just a good excuse for Sam to get away from me for a while."

"Are your problems really that serious?" Kevin didn't realize that. He knew that Martin and Sam were having some problems concerning Martin's father and the fact that their children had all moved out of the house. The empty nest syndrome was something that he had to battle with Julia a few years ago too and he knew that it was hard.

"I didn't think so." Martin sighed. "But I found some of Sam's journals and I've learned some things that I never…"

"Whoa!" Kevin stopped his friend. "Are you reading her journals?"

"Well…yeah." Martin sheepishly admitted. "But you can't tell anyone, not even Julia. You have to promise me that you won't tell another living soul."

"I promise." Kevin reluctantly replied. "But you should stop that right now. You're invading her privacy and if she finds out, you're in really big trouble."

"I know that." Martin stated. "But I can't seem to stop reading them. She writes things in there that I wish I had known at the time…things that I wish I had noticed…things that I wish I could change. I realize that she'll be monumentally angry with me if she finds out I'm reading them, but I have to continue. I have to finish them."

"Good luck with not letting her find out." Kevin chuckled. "You'll need it."

"Well I have a few more days before she's coming home. I'll be done reading them by then and she'll never need to know that I read them." Martin reasoned.

"Whatever you say." Kevin shook his head. "So by reading these journals you really think that Sam might want to leave you?"

"I think it's a possibility." Martin replied. "We haven't been talking to each other a lot lately and then when we do, it usually ends in an argument."

"Ah," Kevin sighed, "the empty nest syndrome strikes again."

"What's the empty nest syndrome?" Martin had never heard of that.

"I can't believe you've never heard about it." Kevin marveled. "Anyway, it's just a term used for what happens to married people once their kids grow up and leave home. When the nest is empty, problems can occur."

"Once the children are out of the house, there's usually a period of time where you're not sure what to talk about with your spouse anymore. Your lives had revolved around the children for so long that when they're gone, it's like all topics of conversation are gone. Does that sound familiar at all?"

"It's exactly what's going on with us." Martin nodded. "But that's not the only problem we have. It's just one of them."

"Well Julia and I had the empty nest problem a while back. Want to know how we solved it?"

"Of course." Martin looked over at Kevin, hoping for some kind of help. He was willing to try anything.

"We started out by finding a hobby that we could both get involved in. We chose getting back in shape and started exercising together. It provided us with a common goal and enabled us to spend some time together. That really helped us out a lot because once we got talking we couldn't stop. Once we broke down the wall everything started to get better."

"So what you're saying is that Sam and I need to find some kind of activity that we can do together?" Martin wanted to make sure that he completely understood what Kevin was trying to tell him.

"Exactly." Kevin nodded.

"It might help." He replied as he thought about it some more. "But then again it might not."

Kevin looked at his watch and saw that he had been over at Martin's for almost an hour. "I better get back to Julia. It's movie night." He stood up. "Thanks for the beer."

"No problem." Martin gave his friend a smile. "Thanks for the advice."

"Anytime." Kevin smiled back. "Really. If you want to talk again, you know where I live."

Martin laughed. "See ya."

"Bye." Kevin walked off the porch and traveled the short distance back to his house.

As Martin looked to the darkening sky, he thought about what Sam was doing right now. He couldn't help but wonder if she was as miserable as he was. From Claire's reports, she didn't seem like she was.