Free

It had been an entire week already and Joel and I couldn’t have been any happier with our new home. We never figured out what caused the power to go out that one night, but I figured it was best to just forget about it since he only claimed it to be nothing more than of a short circuit. Since then things have been pretty normal around the house.

I spent the last few hours in bed going through a list of jobs; marking possible and ruling out certain jobs for me. I had recently quit my dead end job and took a year off from school.

“Caylee!” I heard Joel call out my name from another room in the house. I set aside the job listing and followed his voice then found him in the room where all his recording equipment was set up. He was on the phone and sitting on a stool with his acoustic guitar on his lap. He covered the end of the phone with his hand. “It’s for you.” He whispered.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“Your mom.” As soon as he said that, I shook my head and trying to ask him to make up an excuse. “Uh…yeah, she’s here. Hang on.” He ignored me and handed me the phone. I sighed and glared at him. I snatched the phone from his hands and walked out of the room back into the bedroom.

“Hello mother.” I said trying to be cheerful.

“Caylee, how are you sweetheart?” She asked.

“I’m fine. How are you?”

“Great, why haven’t you called us? It’s been over a week since you and Joel moved. I would have liked to know how you both are holding up with a place of your own.” She spoke like a true mom.

“I’m sorry, mom. We were busy, with Joel and his music and me on the job hunt.” I half lied. I hadn’t started searching for a job until today.

“You can always work for us you know that.” My mom reminded me. I didn’t want their job. I didn’t want to be a secretary.

“I know, but no thanks. I appreciate the offer though.”

“Well, alright. So, when are you going to start planning for the wedding?” She asked changing the subject.

I rolled my eyes and was glad she couldn’t see me do so. “I don’t know, mom.”

“You’ve got to start planning soon, Caylee. It doesn’t matter if you are getting married years from now. It’s best to plan ahead.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah; I’ll talk to Joel about it. I promise.” I said hoping that would persuade her to drop the subject. As much as she hated the idea before, she soon became happier than I was about planning my wedding.

My mom began feeding me many guidelines for my life and I was just relieved when she finally had to hang up. I appreciated it, but with her I rarely had a say on anything. I clicked the end button on the phone and tossed it across the bed, missing Cooper who was lying on the end of Joel’s side of the bed.

I sighed and rested my head in my hands. My mind was overwhelmed with all the things my mom mentioned about for the things to plan for the wedding. Joel and I would have to do so much and we just barely got settled in. In that moment all I wanted to do was just say ‘I do’ and finally be Mrs. Joel Kanitz; none of all that finding the right dress, bachelorette/bachelor party, rehearsal dinner, cake testing, and all that junk.

A sudden loud shatter broke my thoughts. My head snapped up and I jumped out of bed quickly. Skylar sat up from her spot on the floor and walked around my feet. I tried my bed not to trip over her as I rushed to where the crash came from.

I noticed pieces of white glass sprawled in the floor. I picked up Skylar and walked closer carefully, hoping not to step on any of it. I also didn’t want any glass getting stuck on her paws. When I got into the kitchen, I discovered that one of my dishes had fallen from the cabinet. I examined it a bit more and found it strange as to how this happened. There was no screw missing from the shelf or an uneven shelf for that matter. What knocked my dish down?

“Whoa, what happened here?” I turned around and saw Joel at the other end of the kitchen. He was staring at the glass on the floor and used his shoe covered foot to shove aside some of the shredded glass so he could walk over safely. “What did you do?” He asked as he stood next to me.

“I didn’t do anything. I was in the room on the phone with my mom.” I emphasized the last part because he had me speak to her. It wasn’t that I didn’t love my mom; she just liked to shove her views on me whenever she had the chance. “I just heard a crash and saw this.” I pointed to the broken plate. I only realized it was one of my favorite too.

“Oh man, that looks like your favorite." He said trying hard to make out the pieces.

"It was my favorite." I said then gave out a big sigh. I handed Joel Skylar and began looking for the broom to sweep up the mess.

"That's weird." He spoke up. I looked over at him and he was observing the cabinet. "I don't see anything wrong with this shelf. I mean there aren't any screws missing or seems to be uneven." Joel observed.

"Well maybe it's not secure." That was dumb; he just said that there weren't any screws missing.

"Then why didn't the other dishes fall?" He asked.

"I don't know. Maybe this house just hates me.” I snickered and finished picking up the pieces.

Later that day, I had given up on looking for a job. Joel and I were in bed just talking about random topics.

“So what did your mom want?” He asked running his hand through my hair.

“She just wondered why I haven’t called and blah blah blah.”

“That’s it?”

“No. She also asked if we have started preparing for the wedding.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, I told her we were busy with moving in and what not to think about that, but being my mom she kept on nagging on me to start planning. Maybe we should start.” I contemplated the idea.

“About that…”

“What?” I sighed knowing something was up.

“I was talking to Daniel earlier today over the chat with the guys and he mentioned a tour.” He said gently.

“What?” I asked, unwrapping my arms around his waist and sitting up to stare at him.

“Before you get mad, it’s just a mini-tour from California to Texas that’s it.”

“How long?”

“A month and a half.”

“When?”

“We leave next week.”

“Next week!”

“A month and a half will go by fast I promise!”

“Mmmm, for your sake it better be. I refuse to plan this wedding without you.”

“You won’t have to.” He said and opened his arms. I scooted closer to him and settled in his arms. We were back in our original position. We sat there just in silence and it was a comfortable one. “I think a fall wedding would be nice, what do you think?” He asked.

“I like that idea.”

“So it’s set then?”

“I guess so.”

“This time next year you’ll be Mrs. Joel Kanitz.” He confirmed and planted a kiss on the top of my head.

The next morning, I woke up to blaring music coming from the speakers in the living room. It happened to be on a station set for the oldies. It wasn’t garbage it was just a rude awakening. I hated being awakened so abruptly.

“Mmm…Joel, shut that off!” I groaned.

“I can’t. You won’t let go of me.” He said. When I realized I had a grip on him, I wondered who turned the stereo on if he was here.

I quickly got off of him and sat up. “Wait, you didn’t turn it on?” I asked a bit too loud because the music seemed to turn up.

“Um, no. You do see me in this bed do you?” He asked, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and stretched before getting on his feet. I got out of bed as well and trailed right behind him.

When we got to the living room, Cooper was barking repeatedly at the speakers, the music and Cooper’s barking were so loud I covered my ears. Joel quickly made his way towards the sound system and shut it off. He looked at it for a few seconds and wondered to himself.

“That was weird.” He commented still looking at it. “I didn’t think this was capable of an alarm.”

“Maybe, it’s on timer or something.”

“That’s just dumb, why would we do that?”

“I don’t know. It’s your machine not mine.”

“Whatever, it’s probably defected. I should ask one of the guys to look at it.”

“Or, it could be for the same reason the lights went out a few days ago.” I suggested.

“Will you forget about that night? I told you it was just a black out, that’s it.” He said making his way back to me.

I scoffed at him and turned to head back to the room when the sound of the speakers sparked and blew out. I jumped and squealed a little as Joel stood in the way trying to protect me. When the sparks stopped and smoke was the only thing left coming out of it, he stared at the ruined device and turned around with a somewhat spooked expression on his face.

After that incident, in the last few days Joel finally got some help around the house to check it out. It was about time. He called an electrician and he checked the circuits around the entire house. He called a friend to inspect the defective speaker and sound system. Then lastly, he himself fixed the shelf in the kitchen in front of me.

"There! You watched me re-do this shelf," he said gathering up his tools in the box and looked at me. "and test it out. It's even and durable. Do we agree?" He asked.

"Yeah, I guess. None of my plates better break unexpectedly again then."

"Don't worry, it won't." He said confidently.

"If it does maybe in return one of your other speakers will blow out again." I joked.

"That won't happen. You heard Sam explain what was wrong with the speakers, it was defected and we're getting a new one." He explained. I opened my mouth to bring up another incident, but he cut me off. "You also heard what the electrician said earlier today too. There is nothing wrong with the wiring in this house. That night was just the cause of a mere black out. Those happen quite frequently, Caylee. Everything happening is just a coincidence. Don't beat yourself over it." He said and walked out of the kitchen.

I sighed and just tried to forget about it all. Maybe he was right, maybe I was just beating myself over all this. Things like that happen to lots of people around the world. I never told him about the weird moment when I felt the room temperature drop and the power was out. He would've just thought I was losing my mind again. I shook that memory out of my head and went over to fill up Skylar and Cooper's food bowls. When they came in and I was sure they were eating, I left them alone to go find something to occupy myself with. I bumped into Joel on my way. I noticed he changed his outfit. He was heading out.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I have to go pick up the new speaker, remember? Then I have to stop by Mark's on my way back."

"You're picking up the speaker today?"

"Yeah." He said slipping his jacket on.

"Can I go?"

"I think you need your rest." He replied. "You've been acting weird lately."

"Am not!" I defended.

"Babe." He warned.

"Whatever, go then. I'll just stay here with Cooper and Skylar. They never abandon me." I joked towards the end.

He grinned and walked to me. He placed both his hands on either sides of my face and cradled my head. I looked up at him and closed my eyes. I felt Joel's lips press against my lips and kissed me deeply. He pulled away and I knew he only wanted me to stay on account of his best intentions.

"I'll be back soon okay." He promised. I only nodded and let him go. I looked over the clock and noticed it was already six in the evening. I sighed and hoped that time would go by faster so Joel would be back home and I'd be safe in his arms again.