Chapter two

~How does one become a butterfly? They have to want to learn to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar- Trina Paulus

 

 

 

Kaylie?” Cadence called as she slapped peanut butter on a freshly toasted bagel, “we need to leave soon amoureux.” She wiped her hands on a dishtowel that hung over the handle of the stove after setting the bagel on a plate for Jaydon. “Sweetheart?” She asked again before she heard a stampede of footsteps pad their way across the parquet floor.

 

          “Jaydon, eat your breakfast quickly so we can get going.” Cadence grabbed the juice jug from the fridge and poured half a glass of orange for her son, “did you want some juice too Kaylie?” She asked reaching for a second glass.

 

“No thanks.” She said as she spun through the kitchen with her sweater half on her torso.

“Don’t run in the house.” She called after her, putting the juice back in the fridge.

 

“Are you really going on a date tonight?” Jaydon asked, picking little pieces off of his bagel.

Cadence stopped flustering around and leaned on the counter top to face her son, “it’s not a date, but yes I am going out tonight.” Jaydon kept his eyes on his plate. “Do you not want me to go?” She asked genuinely, “I can stay here if you prefer.” A part of her wanted an excuse to bail on dinner with Quil and she felt ashamed at the thought.

 

Kaylie came scooting back around the corner, her sweater completely absent now, “no you cannot stay.” She said as she sat down beside her brother, “and it is a date, he likes mom, you can tell.” Jaydon stuck his tongue out at Kaylie.

“Honey, if you don’t want me to go I won’t.” She said gently, ignoring Kaylie’s comment.

He shrugged his arms weakly, “no I want you to but...”

“But he’s afraid you’re going to replace him.” Kaylie finished for him.

“I am not!”

“Are too! You told me-“

Cadence grabbed Jaydon’s hand before their argument could escalate, “No matter what happens, in the many, many years to come, you will always be my only boy; mon garcon.” He looked up from his plate and she smiled.

“You may always be her boy Jaydon, but at some point she’s going to need a man.”

Cadence rolled her eyes, “Kaylie, that’s enough. Go get your shoes on.”

 

           ***

 

The doctor’s office was crowded when they got there after walking Jaydon to school, crying babies squirmed in their shushing mother’s arms, older children played with the toys over in the corner and everyone else either flipped mechanically through severely outdated Reader’s Digest magazines or did what she did, sat and waited patiently until the nurse finally called out their name.

 

They followed the nurse into the room, after fifteen minutes of waiting, where her doctor was already prepared- a first occurrence at this office. His hair was a fluffy tuft of white atop his round head, his eyebrows wild and untamed, caterpillars was what Kaylie had said they looked like. He was a slender man just shy of six feet and had grey eyes that held more evidence of life in them then his many laugh lines did. Kaylie skipped across the room and sat up on the tissue paper covered bed and Cadence took a chair across from her.

 

The doctor pulled out his stethoscope, “so, how have we been feeling lately Kaylie?” He asked in his most pleasant tone.

“Fine.” She said simply, pulling up the back of her shirt in anticipation of the doctor’s next move.

“Well, you can certainly tell you’ve been here before.” He joked as he put the cold instrument on either side of her back, listening while she breathed in and out.

“I think I’m fixed now.” Kaylie stated, as if that’s all the doctor needed to know to make it true.

He chuckled softly, “well that’s good that you’re feeling that way, but let’s just be extra certain shall we?” Kaylie frowned but agreed. “Have you been dizzy at all? Nauseas?” Kaylie shook her head, “have you had any pains in your chest? Maybe when you move a lot, let’s say when you’re out walking or running around?” Once again she shook her head.

 

“Honey you have to be honest okay? Tell the doctor what you told me the other day.”

Kaylie shot her mother an angry stare, as if she had betrayed her, “fine. It’s not like a big deal or anything.”

“I’d like to hear about it anyway, if you would?” The doctor prompted gently.

Kaylie sighed, pulling at a loose string on her sleeve. “I don’t know. I just got a little dizzy. The other day at school.”

The doctor listened closely, “what were you doing when you felt dizzy?”

She looked to her mom then back at the doctor, “I was writing on the chalkboard. My chest went funny again, it felt really light then I got dizzy.” She paused, “it went away super quick though, I’m sure it was nothing.”

 

The doctor turned to Cadence, “Is she still taking Captopril? On a regular basis?”

She nodded, “An hour before every meal.”

“Okay, I want to switch her onto a different medication; this one will increase the strength and efficiency of the heart and it should help control the rhythm of the heart beat. She’s to take this twice a day, once when she wakes up and once when she goes to sleep. It’s called Digoxin.” He scribbled onto a pad of paper and tore it from the stack. “And if you feel dizzy like that again I want you to lie down okay Kaylie?”

 

“Why does she have to lie down?” Cadence asked puzzled.

“She’s getting dizzy because the heart isn’t getting enough oxygen to the brain which makes the body instantly lay down- faint. When you’re lying down the heart doesn’t need to work as hard to pump the blood against gravity. Lying down is always the best bet when you feel dizzy or lightheaded.”

 

          Cadence looked to Kaylie who had gotten distracted by a plaster model of a heart on the counter beside her. “Kaylie? Did you hear what Dr. Osmand said?”

          She nodded, “Lay down.” She looked at the model for a moment before turning back to the doctor curiously, “Does my heart look like that?”

          Dr. Osmand locked eyes with Cadence, a pinched look in his face before answering her curious daughter, “No Kaylie, it doesn’t.” He moved so he was eye level with her, “yours is much bigger, do you know why that is?” she shook her head so he continued, “because it is filled with so much love, a normal heart wouldn’t be able to hold all of it.”

 

 

                     ***

 

          “I’m sorry I’m late Lorna.” Cadence apologized as she hurried through the front door of Lorna Eve’s, the artwork store where she had worked for the past two years. “Kaylie had an appointment and by the time I ran her to my sisters I was already running late...” She let her words trail off as she took note of Lorna’s sour expression. Her lips were pursed into a thin line, her dark eyes narrowed to slits and her chubby arms folded across her barrel chest.

 

          “I may have lost an important sale because of you.” She hissed. Cadence moved carefully around the front desk to tuck her keys away in the locked drawer, “the St. Anne Cadence, St. Anne.” Her words oozed with longing, she had bought the hardly delectable art piece just after she had opened the store two years prior and had yet to receive even a lowball offer on the low quality piece.

“I was busy educating a customer on a dozen or so of the prints here when I spotted this elderly man eyeing the St. Anne, he wandered the store for a bit but always went back to it.”

          “Why didn’t you excuse yourself and make the sale then?” Cadence asked hardly interested.

         

Lorna scoffed at the idea, “because you were supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago.” She paused, “besides, by the time I escaped the other customer the man was on his way out the door. You see, Cadence, if you had been here on time I would have made two sales, instead I lost them both.” A slight grin played at the corners of her mouth just then, “I just don’t know if I can rely on you as one of my employees.” Cadence bit her tongue- hard. Lorna always threatened her job, knowing it was her only source of income. She used it as leverage over her and, frustratingly, it always worked.

          “I’m sorry Lorna.” She said in a phoney, pleasant tone reserved only for her, “I assure you I won’t be late again.”

          She eyed her satisfied, “I hope not, for your sake, not mine.” She waddled away into the back room and Cadence let her shoulders relax.

 

          If it weren’t for her children she would have quit this horrid place long ago, but alas, bills needed to be paid, mouths fed and God awful jobs attended to.

 

Cadence wandered the room, not a single person was browsing the display of various artworks. She enjoyed admiring the talent, being a critic if only in her own mind. There was no real organization to the layout; the pieces weren’t set alongside other works by the same artist, by the same style or even by value. Instead eccentric abstract pieces found their selves mixed in with elegant landscapes, bold, bright colours in contrast to simple black and whites.  One day, she thought, she would reorganize them in their proper places, against what Lorna wanted. She always had said she liked the random layout because then people would have to look through the whole store if they were looking for something in particular and possibly spot another piece they liked as well, rather then head straight to a defined section, ignoring the others. She always put the most expensive pieces at the front of the store. It’s merely good business Cadence, she had said.

 

She wandered through the store until she found herself looking at the delicate brush strokes of her favourite piece of art in the place; she always ended up here at least once in a shift.

 

The painting was of a little girl sitting behind a grey window, rain drops on the glass blurred your vision of the girl as you were looking in at her from the outside world. The whole picture was composed with various shades of grey, black, white and browns, the only splash of colour being a vibrant red petaled flower which the little girl held gingerly to her pale nose and lips. Her eyes were gently shut, smooth, soft skin free of flaws showed the child’s young innocence and she looked almost sad. There was something in the way she held that single flower, as if it were the most important thing in the world to her that captivated Cadence. That one bright thing amongst the sea of dull shades.

 

“Why don’t you just buy it.” Lorna spoke from behind her, she sighed turning away from the painting, she always had to ruin it for her.

“I can’t afford it Lorna.” She said simply, making her way back to the front of the store.

Lorna followed behind her heels, “well you’re always staring at it. If you’re not going to buy it then sell it to someone else.” Cadence looked at her puzzled, not in the mood for her underlying meanings and she soon elaborated. “I saw you talking to someone about it last week.” She began, “they looked interested in it until you decided to offer your opinion of pricing. If I didn’t know any better I’d say you’re trying to keep the painting here.”

She rolled her eyes, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Am I being so ridiculous?” She had an eyebrow arched smugly.

“Yes. I know I could never afford it, and even if I somehow managed to come up with the money, I couldn’t justify spending that much on a piece of art.” She stepped around the desk and took a seat in front of the computer, logging into the store’s database.

 

Lorna snorted, “You just don’t appreciate fine art.”

She scrolled through the inventory list, searching out the names whose cheques had bounced and printing them off, “I do.” She corrected, “I just appreciate food in my kid’s stomachs a little more.”

 

Cadence set the list of names and numbers beside her on the desk as Lorna examined her unmanicured fingernails, “See that’s why I’ll never have children.” She decided to inform her, as if she cared, “their whole lives all they do is demand. Money, attention, time. Then they turn eighteen, you pay for their schooling, they get married, have a family of their own and suddenly you become sole baby sitter, going through the exact same thing you already had with them. It’s an endless cycle of greed if you ask me.”

She looked up from the computer screen, “See, Lorna. That’s what makes us very different people; you think of it as greed on their part while I think of it as selflessness on ours.”

Lorna scowled, “We are widely different in more ways than one.” She spat, trying to offend her before she stomped off, taking the list of names with her.

“Thank God for that.” She muttered under her breath.