Holding Hands Won't Be Enough

Oscar was out cold, laying between Ape and Missy on the bed as they watched some old movie together whilst Phil did some work at his laptop. Bam had met with Jussi and Jyrki in the hotel bar, the only topic of conversation being Milly and Ville. Jyrki explained to Bam why he told Ville that she was here. He considered himself a disciple of Cupid and them his fairy tail romance, he knew they were meant to be, ’come hell or high water’. He was close with Milly’s sister, Sonja, who of course spilled the beans to Jyrki, as they were also close, before Oscar had even been born. He insisted devoutly, that it wasn’t at all his place to notify Ville. He respected her decision and wish for privacy, having faith that all would come good when it was supposed to. Bam scoffed at his almost holy notion, but Jussi backed up his friend, stating, ”You just didn’t know them like we did when they were ’them’, even before they were ’them’, when they were ’Ville and Milly’.. Shit’s written in the stars man.” he had laughed, toasting his bottle with Jyrki’s.

Bam walked down the hall way, Milly’s door in his sights, he hoped to hell she was okay. He loved his friends, but he didn’t know how to deal with crying women. He always feared he came across as patronising, or not sincere enough, or too sincere.. He often and openly admitted he would never wrap his head around the complexities of the female emotion scale. As he stood before the door, he heard her heaving sobs echoing from inside. He knew he wasn’t enough for this, he knew the only person could fix this was Ville, and even though he didn’t agree with Jyrki’s methods for getting them in the same room, he knew this was a desperate time and it called for a different measure.



Friday, September 9th, 2008
5:00pm

Milly loved the down time of travelling; she saw it as time one is forced to relax and enjoy their own company. She loved that she could immerse herself in a book or loose herself to her thoughts as she listened to music without worrying about the phone ringing or someone knocking on the door. Truth be told there had been times where she had found herself needlessly annoyed when the captain had announced imminent landings, but this time was different,never had she watched the in flight route charter before, but her eyes hadn’t strayed from it for the past hour and a half. It was only a flight from London to Helsinki, it took no time at all, yet however seemed like eons. When she had first boarded, she had opened and looked inside her handbag every other minute for fear that something might change, though, how it could after professional confirmation she couldn’t argue. Finally the words she had been waiting since take off to hear echoed throughout the cabin. Not long after Helsinki was finally glowing beneath her, welcoming her back home. The landing gear lowered and the plane landed shortly after, though no-one was at the airport to meet her, she walked with haste through the terminal to collect her baggage, her excitement almost in-containable.

6:45pm

As the taxi driver trundled off down the street Milly studied her home and smiled, for so long it had been ’her’ home, now it would be ’their’ home, a family home... Checking that she wasn’t just crazy and imagining things, she opened her handbag and made sure, one last time that it still confirmed it. She took a deep breath, picked up her bags and headed inside. Ville has obviously been in, a wine bottle sat emptied on the kitchen bench, an ashtray and his notebook not far away. She hovered her hand over the tattered leather bound book, desperately wanting to read Ville’s lyrics, but as always she respected that it was very personal to him and that if he wanted to share with her, as he often did, he would. She smiled fondly and ran her thumb along the cover, not moving it an inch from where he had left it.

It was a long standing tradition that if one of them travelled without the other, the travelling party would bring home a single rose from the country they had come from. This time was no different. Milly unwrapped the large English rose and trimmed the thorns carefully; not wanting it to spoil, she began to search for a vase. Just as she found one a noise startled her, having thought she was home alone, she realised that Ville must have been upstairs and her stomach fluttered. Setting the vase down, she opened her bag and picked up one of the ten pregnancy tests she had in a paper bag - all positive – and slid it into her coat pocket.

All the different way he might react raced through her mind, her heart was beating fast but she was serenely calm; they may have fought, but they loved each other deeply, that’s all a child can wish for, two devoted, loving parents.. She could hear movements from her bedroom and walked purposefully towards the closed door, ”Olly, Olly, oxen free..” she beamed as she curled her hand around the door knob to then push it open.