Mountain Top(11)

MIKE ENJOYED THE DRIVE HOME AT THE END OF THE DAY. HE lowered the window of the car and let the breeze blow across his face. He glanced at the ridges running alongside the road. With the arrival of spring, the hills no longer looked like gray-backed porcupines. Budding trees raised green fingers toward the sky. Soon, the gently rising slopes would be thick with summer foliage.

Mike and Peg lived at the end of a dead-end street. He parked on the street in front of the house. For the past hour, his stomach had been growling in protest at the decision to skip lunch. When he got out of the car, he could hear Judge barking inside the house.

A side door opened into the kitchen, a sunny room with a breakfast nook where Mike and Peg ate unless they were entertaining guests. Peg kept the house spotless. Her efforts to train Mike in perpetual neatness had been less successful.

Throughout the house were paintings by Peg. Like many artists, Peg’s creativity had gone through phases. The first years after their marriage were filled with Appalachian mountain scenes, perhaps a response to the dramatic change from the upper-class suburb of Philadelphia where Peg grew up. She then entered a long stretch devoted to children. Mike particularly liked a series of watercolors depicting boys playing baseball. The slightly blurred images captured the idyllic world of summer much better than a crisp photograph. Peg then began painting older people sitting in chairs or in front of windows with their eyes closed as the world’s activity passed by. This past winter, she’d returned to landscapes and completed several oils of barren trees shaped like giant candelabras. Mike never criticized Peg’s work. Unless crafting questions on cross-examination or organizing a sermon could be considered an art form, the creative world wasn’t a place he visited.

No smells of supper greeted Mike when he entered the kitchen. The cook-top was bare and the oven cold. A few leftover hors d’oeuvres not eaten by Peg’s monthly book club were on the counter. Peg wasn’t in sight. Judge wagged his tail, and Mike reached over to rub the dog’s slightly wrinkled forehead.

“Did the ladies in the book club tell you how cute you looked?” he asked then raised his voice. “Peg! I’m home and hungry!”

Eating a carrot stick, he went through the great room with its large picture windows and looked up the stairs. Judge pattered after him.

“What’s for supper?” he called out.

Peg, fit and trim, appeared at the top of the stairs. Dressed in jeans and a cotton shirt, she had a tissue in her right hand and something Mike couldn’t see in the left. Her short blond hair bobbed up and down as she rapidly descended the stairs. Her blue eyes were rimmed in red, but there was a smile on her face, revealing the dimple in her left cheek.

“What’s wrong?” Mike asked.

Peg reached the bottom of the stairs and threw herself into his arms. She sniffled then burst out laughing. Mike held her. After fifteen years of marriage, he knew it was wise to let a woman unpack her feelings on her own terms. Peg pulled away and wiped her eyes with the tissue. Mike waited. She held up a thin strip of paper in her right hand. It contained a blue circle.

“Don’t you think this would make a beautiful painting?” she asked.

“It’s a bit abstract.”

“Wrong. It’s the most real thing I could ever do.”

Mike gave her a perplexed look.

“Do you know what this filled-in circle means?” she asked in a giddy voice.

“Uh, no.”

“I’m pregnant!” Peg screamed.

Judge barked. Mike took a step backward.

“Are you sure?”

Peg reached into her pocket and pulled out the instructions from a pregnancy test and held the slip of paper next to a photo on the sheet.

“What does that tell you?”

Mike stared at the images. There was no question about the similarity between the test results and the guidelines provided by the manufacturer.

“Yeah, it looks the same. But don’t you think you should go to the doctor?”

“Of course.” Peg grabbed him again. “But I know I’m pregnant! I can feel it!” “You can’t feel a baby this early.”

“I know that,” she said, grabbing his hand and placing it over her heart. “It’s a knowing inside here. That’s why I bought the test. I’d been feeling odd and wondering if something was wrong. This afternoon while I was out running with Judge it hit me that I should pick up a pregnancy test at the drugstore.” She held up the slip in triumph. “And it was positive!”

Peg sat down on the steps and began to laugh. Still in shock, Mike didn’t move. Judge nuzzled Peg’s leg. Peg reached out, took Mike’s hand, and looked up into his face.