First Things First

Short stories: Babies

by Donald Hancock

First things first
It was not the most beautiful house on the block. Nor was the block the most fabulous section of the small town of Hanson, Iowa. But the little house was theirs and it had the little white picket fence that she had always dreamed of.
Mark had come home from Iraq and was now reduced to reserve status. They could finally live the sort of normal life that they had both talked about when they were dating in college.
He had gone into the Military partly because of his patriotism and partly because he had been an officer in R.O.T.C. in college and the offer of an officer's commission and the chance for graduate school later on seemed too good to turn down. So, he and "Sugar", as he called his wife, Marty, decided to get married on the same day that they graduated from college. They had just one month to be together before he had to report for duty.
When Mark returned, he decided against graduate school. He had already lived too many days away from his Sugar - too many days in temporary circumstances. He was ready to truly settle down and live life like normal people do.
He got a job with his uncle at a little automobile repair shop. He had always been good with his hands and had always worked on cars. The job came easy to him.
So, Mark and Marty were living in their little house with a picket fence. Nothing could be finer than this. Then it happened. One day Mark was in the gas station. He saw a bunch of lottery tickets and he remembered the guys in Iraq who used to talk about winning the lottery - $100, $500, $1000. He jokingly said to the cashier lady, "How does this work?"
She said, "You're kidding, right?"
"No," said Mark, "I don't have a clue." She showed him how the different tickets worked. Some you might be an instant winner when you scratched the back and some you had to wait for numbers to be announced later.
Mark thought to himself, "I don't guess $2 is going to break me," so he took a scratch ticket. To his surprise he won $10,000. He was beside himself. He rushed home and decided to have a little fun with Sugar. When she came up to hug him he said, "Sugar, I've got a question for you! What would you want to get if you had a whole $10,000 in your hand right now?"
"Oh, you Old Silly! We won't have any money like that for a long time, if ever!"
"Well, just play with me, Babe. What would you buy if you did have $10,000 in your hand this very minute. He figured she would say get a newer car or go back to school so she could get a better job.
Marty thought for only ten seconds and said, "I got it!"
"What is it Sugar? That red Ford convertible like Jamie's?"
"No."
"Move to a better house?"
"No."
"Get certified to be a C.P.A.?" Now he was joking.
""No! No! No!"
"What then?"
"I would want our baby."
Mark and Marty had always wanted to have at least three kids but had agreed that they would have to wait until they had saved up some money so that their children would not have to see the kind of hard times that they had experienced when their parents had started out with very little.
Mark felt like kicking himself. Her answer shamed him. How could he have thought of a car or anything like that? The money had just made him sort of temporarily crazy, he figured. "Wow, Sugar, you sure got that right! You gave exactly the right answer! So, Mrs. Mark Albright, tonight you are the winner of our $10,000 jackpot prize on the 'Make Your Wish Program!' " With that he presented Marty with the certificate that guaranteed their winnings.
Marty began to cry. "Is this for real, Honey? You're not joking me?"
"I'm not just joking you, Babe, No. I'm not. It's real!"
"So, we really can have our baby right away?"
"Right away? Well, we'll have to wait about nine months if we put in our order right away!"
"Oh. You mess! You know what I mean." With tears in her eyes she said, "But, right away we can start to fix up the extra room and start looking for a baby bed, and..."
Mark hugged Marty and kissed her wet cheek. "Yes, Sugar, we can start looking for those things tomorrow morning. But first, we've got to put in our order!"
 "Yes!" beamed Marty.

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