Story: The “Day Off”

They were fast coming up on twenty years together, and the road had been long and winding, but the balance was good. Rachel and Khalil knew each other. 

She ambled into the kitchen and poured coffee. The rest of the family was already in gear. Rachel observed Khalil, as he juggled the kids. He seemed to register her appearance but was in the middle of feeding Theo.

The pair of them had long ago figured out that theirs was, in many ways, a relationship of opposites attracting, with some definitive (and very crucial) overlap. There were still surprises though, now and then, especially since the children had changed everything, in good if also sometimes challenging ways. Mostly, after all the years, and amidst the very real busyness of their lives together, there was the balance. She cherished it, to be honest.

They were always tired, but they always had been. He didn’t show it as much, at least not outwardly, though she saw the exhaustion on his face, sometimes, in his eyes and in how he carried himself -- despite that ever-present smile. 

And then there were the bow-ties. 

The bow ties did much to energize people, including Khalil himself. But she knew him more closely. The steady energy, and the kindness he frequently exhibited, were of course very real, but if twin careers in medicine had taught them anything, it was that even doctors had limits. 

She embraced this truth perhaps more nimbly than he, which wasn’t a judgement. Her externalization of the problem was just different. She worked harder to socialize, for instance, to offset her introvertedness, and she turned to planning to create space for rest and revitalization.

Today was allegedly such a day, for her. The entire family was in the kitchen, now, all of them together on a “day off.”

And here she was lost in reflection.

Rachel hung back from the rest of them, by the door, watching the day ramp up quickly while sipping her coffee. She had worked the night before, and so Khalil was taking the lead with the kids (with some supervision).

She wondered, idly, if she’d work out later. 

Probably, despite the tiredness, she would. There would always be a reason to fall behind, and beside the normal benefits of exercise and the slight spark she got from the competition enabled by the bike, it was almost like a form of meditation.

It had never really been an issue for her, to get her thinking done on the go. Her life at home and at work demanded this, especially now. But when she was cycling, a sort of contradictory, wandering focus settled over her thoughts. It was clarifying.

At the moment, though, she reveled in the last vestiges of her morning haze, as the coffee began the much slower work of waking her fully, that the children had jumpstarted with their own waking.

Khalil joked with Theo as he cleaned him up, after breakfast. Amira ran around them both, chattering. 

“Do you need help?” she called out to her husband.

“I think I’m good,” he said.

“Yes, we need help!” Amira shouted, just to have something to shout.

“I wasn’t asking you!”

Rachel also made a face at her, when delivering this reply, which the girl quickly reciprocated in kind, before continuing her revolutions around her brother.

It was funny but fitting, that the older one was more the handful. Theo still very much needed constant attention, but in general he was more patient, a little zen, an all-around smiler. They were both perfect in their own way, of course, and watching them grow up had been and continued to be the single greatest joy of her life.

Yes, every day, for the past seventeen years, including the hard days, had been worth it. They had it good, if not easy.

Her coffee was getting a little cold by then, so she drifted back into the kitchen to top it off. Mostly cleaned up, Theo ambled off to play, and Khalil followed him. Amira stayed behind.

“Can I have coffee?”

“No. You don’t need coffee.”

“How do you know?”

“Moms know these things.”

That elicited a fake grimace. Amira ran off. 

“Fine!” she sang.

“She’s coming your way,” Rachel called out to Khalil.

“I noticed.”

Rachel poured the fresh coffee on top of what remained in her mug, and looked out the window. The sun was bright outside, though it was a chill day. The house in Montclair had been such a gift to them, after all the years apart in school, and all the hard work building up to this point. 

Was it a sort of standard picture of suburban bliss? Two kids and a house outside the city, commuting in for work? Perhaps. Did she care? Not especially. There was much to be grateful for, and so much more to come, with the kids and with Khalil. 

A crash suddenly echoed through the house, and then there was a brief, tense silence. She knew enough by then not to panic yet.

“Everyone okay?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Theo laughed, and the sound of it, especially after the brief moment of wondering if someone had gotten hurt, warmed her further. 

Amira shouted something again. Khalil shouted back, goofing around with her in kind.

Dads and daughters. Maybe another cliche, but not one without a great deal of truth to it. She was fine with their connection. There was no displacing mom.

With a deep breath and a last lingering look out the window, she took her cup and wandered in the direction of the ongoing commotion. Days off weren’t really days off, but at the end of them, again in contradiction to logic, she felt energized, if more in spirit than in body.

“Mom’s coming!”

“Yeah! You better look out!”

Khalil, smiling down at Theo when she entered the family room, glanced up at her. She just had time to meet his gaze before Amira was upon her.

“Hey babe,” her husband said.

“Hi.”

__

This story was commissioned by Khalil, for Rachel. It was written by Michael DiBiasio-Ornelas, via Last Site Press. To order your own Custom Short Story, click here.