Chapter 14 - CLAIRE RECOVERS
Claire’s physical recovery took longer than she wanted.
Pain improved.
Energy returned slowly.
The twins still needed:
meals,
baths,
stories,
diapers,
comfort.
Daniel learned how much Margaret had actually been doing.
Not in theory.
At two in the morning.
At six fifteen.
During two simultaneous tantrums.
He became irritated.
Then competent.
One evening Ethan screamed for twenty minutes because the blue cup was in the dishwasher.
Daniel almost shouted.
Then sat on the floor.
“The green cup is what we have.”
Ethan screamed.
Daniel waited.
Eventually Ethan took the green cup.
Daniel texted Claire from the kitchen:
THIS TOOK 23 MINUTES.
Claire replied:
WELCOME TO TWO.
For the first time in weeks, she laughed.
Daniel’s first full Saturday alone with the twins changed more than counseling had.
Breakfast took forty minutes.
Ethan threw banana slices.
Emma demanded the wrong spoon.
Both cried when Daniel turned off music.
Then both wanted to be held while he was trying to clean yogurt off the floor.
At 9:12 a.m., he texted Claire:
HOW IS IT ONLY NINE?
Claire stared at the message.
Then laughed until her abdomen hurt.
May you like
Experience did not excuse him.
But it made abstraction impossible.
