Betty's First Trip to Rome The Prequel - Chapter 2 – Making a grocery list
The ball descended from the sky right above where Betty was standing holding her baseball glove up to meet it. "I got it!" yelled Betty just as Gio and Henry collided with her knocking her to the ground. Gio and Henry looked on as Betty lay still surrounded by a circle made of the other concerned ball players. After a moment she opened her eyes. She said cryptically "I know what to do." Then she was led off the field so the game could resume.
Gio and Henry eyed each other warily and returned to their positions in the field.
Gio was nervous. He did not like it that Henry had reappeared. After months of watching from the sidelines he was finally in the game and then there he was again. His girlfriend's former boyfriend. It was unexpected. It was nerve-wracking. He was upset that Betty was acting strangely today. He was angry that she had not let him know of Henry's proposal earlier.
Henry had offered her marriage. He was pretty sure Betty would be the kind of girl that would like that kind of thing. It was romantic. Maybe it was even more romantic than a trip to Rome. What was he thinking? Of course it was more romantic than a trip to Rome. Gio wondered what Betty would decide. He was worried and he had a hard time concentrating on the game. And he was concerned about Betty. Was she okay?
He mentally kicked himself for running into her. After all the effort he made to talk her in to doing things for herself. He wanted her to feel the satisfaction of doing things for herself. Then he went and blew it. When it came to a crisis he had rushed in and tried to help her. This was not what he was supposed to be doing. He wanted her to be independent. He was mad at himself for not acting the way he thought he should have. He was sure that he had made a huge mistake to run into her. He puzzled over what she meant by her words when she got up from the ground.
After the game Henry and Gio went to where Betty was resting. Betty was sitting on a secluded bench in the shade. Betty told Henry to stay and sent Gio a short distance away to wait.
"How are you Betty?" asked Henry. "How's your little noggin?" he smiled at her sweetly. Henry sat down beside her on the bench.
"I'm okay. I'm going to be fine." answered Betty "How are you? How's your son?"
"Fine, kind of. No, not really. Hey, I have pictures of Nate. Let me get them out."
"Sure. I want to see the little fellow. I want to see who he looks like." said Betty brightly.
Henry pulled out a thick envelope of pictures. He took the pictures out and showed Betty two or three of them. Nate was two months old and he looked exactly the same in each picture.
"Wow, Henry. He is so cute! What a beautiful baby!" exclaimed Betty "It looks like you've got hundreds of photos. Maybe you can give me one. Can I have one?"
Henry sifted through the pictures. Henry described to her how each picture was different and how it was important that he find for the perfect picture for her. Betty thought Nate looked the same in all the pictures. Eventually he held up a picture that showed Nate in a hospital crib.
"Was Nate in the hospital recently Henry?" asked Betty with a look of concern. "Babies that age aren't usually in the hospital are they?"
"No. They aren't. Nate has been having some problems Betty. We just found out last week that he has cystic fibrosis." said Henry sadly.
"What does that mean? What is that?" asked Betty anxiously.
Henry described how Nate had never been quite right since he was born. At first they just thought that as new parents they didn't know what to expect. Recently they had him checked more thoroughly and discovered his illness. Henry explained that cystic fibrosis was a genetic disease that only occurred when both parents were carriers of a defective gene. Only twenty-five percent of babies from parents that were carriers would express the disease. Potential parents were only checked to see if they were carriers if it was in their family. But this case was unexpected. Neither Charlie nor Henry had known they were carriers. The chance they would be carriers was very remote. He talked about the odds and how unlucky they had been. He was bitter when he told her how the statistics and numbers had gone against them. The things that he loved, statistics and numbers, the very things that were crucial to his livelihood had conspired to permanently damage his much loved son.
Henry explained that cystic fibrosis was a life-long illness. There would be no cure for Nate. Some children might live to adulthood but some died younger. It affected each individual differently. There was no way to know yet how Nate would do in the future. But he would always be in and out of hospitals and he would always need to take special care of his health. One blessing was that it would not affect his personality. Another was the treatments were always improving. When he reached his twenties, if he did, he might need a lung transplant to survive. It was a cruel disease and Nate would need special parents to support him. Henry was committed to caring for Nate.
"Betty, when you are a parent you feel the baby's pain when he cries. You feel the baby's fear when he is scared. You can't help it. I realize now that all parents feel this way. Anyone that doesn't have a child can not know what it feels like to be a parent. There is the worry, and the concern, and the fear of losing them. That's true for any parent, a healthy child or not."
Henry went on to explain the dark time he went through waiting to hear what was wrong with Nate. He explained how he hated spending so much time with Charlie because he didn't love her or trust her anymore. But he had to. They had to work together to support Nate. He would need a lot of care in his lifetime. Unfortunately Nate would die, and he would probably die of cystic fibrosis, but everyone dies. Henry had to carry on and make the best of the life they had. It was his duty to do so. But the duty was easy because he loved Nate.
"I've done a lot of soul-searching in the last week Betty. And I came to a conclusion. No one should be a parent alone. It isn't right. I love you. I want you by my side. I need you. I need you so much. Betty, please, please say you will marry me." Henry took Betty's hand and stroked it. "I know you are the one for me. I love you. You love me. Please say yes."
Betty thought about everything that Henry had said. It made her sad that Henry's beautiful son was sick and that he would never recover. Her heart ached to see Henry's tender concern for his son and the obvious effort he made to research and understand his illness. And she was touched that he wanted her to be his helpmate.
She made a decision.
"No Henry. I am sorry for you and I truly did love you before but I don't want to marry you." Betty handed Henry's ring back to him. "I hope we can stay friends."
"Oh." said Henry sadly and put the ring in his pocket. He stroked Betty's face, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear gently. He said softly "Bettykins, why do you say no? You know we are so good together." Henry smiled at her and shifted closer on the bench. He put his arm around her but she pulled away from him. She took her hand out of his grasp.
Henry tried one last effort to remind Betty of what they had shared together. Henry took off his glasses and hat. He mussed his hair. His eyes twinkled as he said in a sexy growl "Come on Betty. I know you want to be my spreadsheet so I can be your formula."
"Henry! No. Stop that!" Betty jumped up and ordered Henry to leave immediately.
Henry stood up. He was visibly shaken. He sadly pushed the picture of Nate in the hospital crib into her hand. "Betty, don't ever get tangled up with someone who isn't honest. Don't choose someone that you can't trust completely. Please don't make the same mistake as I did. Never do that." Henry glanced suspiciously over to Gio who was waiting just out of earshot. Then he said his goodbyes and left.
Betty was profoundly upset and she thought she needed some time to absorb what Henry had said and to sort out all her feelings but Gio was anxiously waiting nearby.
Gio could tell that Henry had been dismissed and he was feeling buoyant. Since he could see them he saw the exact moment when it was clear that Henry was gone for good.
At that moment he started to mentally undress Betty. He marveled that baseball uniforms provided such easy access because of the buttons in the front. He imagined gently unbuttoning Betty's buttons one by one and peeling off the layers. He noticed that baseball uniforms had fewer layers than the clothes that Betty normally wore. So this part went a little quicker than he usually imagined. Gio was eager to go to Betty so he could kiss her and hug her and celebrate and be happy.
Gio walked up to Betty as soon as he saw Henry take his leave.