The Best Intentions
The sun had just risen above the crest of the mountains, but it already appeared that it was going to be a beautiful day. The first golden beams caressed the earth below, causing the leftover dew to sparkle upon the blades of grass like a thousand, imperfect diamonds. The wildflowers danced lazily in the early morning breeze as the fog receded from the valleys. The blanket of night was thrown back completely now as a few clouds slowly floated across the silky blue expanse of the sky. All was beauty and all was peace.
The day seemed to be even more beautiful when it was compared to the weather of the preceding day. The day before, the sky had become prematurely dark as ebony clouds blocked the sun's rays. An occasional bolt of lightening would cut jaggedly through the onyx sky as a chilling wind brought forth icy waves of rain and even a brief hailstorm.
That's the way the weather had been for weeks now. Each day seemed more beautiful or more treacherous when juxtaposed to the ones before and after. It was as if Nature herself was trying to display the full extent of her capricious disposition. Local meteorologists had thrown up their hands in defeat as the weather became harder and harder to predict. Each night on the news, they would stand in front of the camera attempting to smile and retain face as they gave the best predictions they could, considering the circumstances. Yet many nightly news watchers were unforgiving and had become to grumble that the meteorologists had no clue as to how to do their job.
The meteorologists' dilemma wasn't the only negative side effect of the rapidly changing weather. Head colds were at an all time high in the area. Stores couldn't keep decongestants and tissues in stock for these items were in such high demand. Even Goku had managed to become infected.
He was sitting in his living room, feeling absolutely miserable. It felt as if his head had been filled up to beyond capacity with cement and any moment he was just going to topple over from being so top-heavy. He grabbed a tissue from a nearby box and attempted to blow his nose, but he had no luck. Just yesterday, he had been complaining that he couldn't stop his nose from running, but right now he would have welcomed the runny nose if it had meant relief from the tightness in his sinuses. Breathing heavily through his mouth, he balled the tissue up and tossed it into a nearby wastebasket.
Luckily, neither Chichi nor Gohan had become sick, yet. Gohan was away at something called "Study Camp". Chichi had seen an ad in the paper for it a few weeks earlier and had decided to enroll Gohan. Lately, however, she was complaining that she was afraid the place was more camp than study, but she was allowing Gohan to stay. His last few letters revealed that he was having a good time and that he was still healthy.
Chichi walked into the room and looked down at her ill husband. "I don't think I'll go," she announced, "Dad will understand. After all, you look terrible."
Goku tried to smile, but winced from the pain in his face. "Go on," he said, "I'll be fine. Besides you're already dressed." Just after sending Gohan to Study Camp, Chichi's father had announced he was planning on having a large dinner for a friend of his who was going to get married. Ox-King had asked Chichi to come up with a menu and supervise the cooking because she excelled in these areas, and she had agreed. At that time, she had thought Goku would be able to come along with her to the wedding.
Chichi didn't want to let her father down, but she hated leaving Goku at home when he felt so bad. She adjusted the belt on her dress as she considered the dilemma. The dress she was wearing was a new one - an impulse buy a couple of years back and today would be her first opportunity to wear it. It was a pretty dress, made of white silk. The belt and trim were vivid red and a delicate trellis of red roses decorated the right side from the hem to the collar. Her black hair was down, spilling across her shoulders and contrasted nicely with the white of the dress. She had never looked prettier, and Goku told her so.
Chichi smiled. "Thanks," she said. A car horn suddenly honked outside, causing Chichi to jump. "That's Dad," she stated. "Are you sure you are going to be all right?"
"Positive," Goku replied.
"Okay. I'll get you some more tissues while I'm out. Do you need anything else?"
"No. I'm fine."
She leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead. She would have preferred to kiss him on the lips, but he might still be contagious. Noticing the television remote nearby, she picked it up and handed it to him. "If you get bored, you can watch the TV," she said. "Now take care!" She ran out the door.
"Love you!" he yelled as the door shut behind her.
He listened to the muffled voices of her and her father outside before they left. Then, it was completely quiet, just as it always is when you are alone. He looked down at the remote control in his hand as he gently fingered the buttons. He had never been one for watching much television: he much preferred to be out doing something physical. Sneezing, he thought he didn't feel like doing anything physical right now, however. Wiping his nose on a tissue, he pushed the on button and watched as the TV came to life.
The first thing he saw was an overweight fellow struggling on a strange contraption and Goku wasn't sure if was exercising or being tortured. A tall blonde, with a surprisingly muscular build for a woman stepped into view. "Are you tried of using exercise equipment that only allow you wallet to become thinner but does nothing to help you?" she asked. The man in the background was nodding and grunting agreement when Goku changed the channel.
He flipped through several channels before pausing. This looked interesting enough, he though as he watched a tall, gray-haired man addressing an audience. It was a talk show, but unfortunately Goku had missed the beginning so he had no clue what the subject was.
"Please welcome Veruku to our show," the host announced. A small door slid open toward the rear of the set and a woman stepped forward. She was a short, slightly chubby woman with dark hair that was cut short and she was wearing a yellow sundress that seemed to be made for someone much younger. Pretty in an innocent, almost child-like way, she nervously made her to a chair and sat down. Her hands, perhaps her loveliest feature, were small and delicate, but she had her fingers clenched tightly together in her lap. The fingernails had been bitten or tore off of her tiny fingers and her soft blue eyes stayed focused on her hands.
"Hello, Veruku," he host said, softly, "and welcome."
"Thank you," she replied, raising her eyes hesitantly to look at the host. In contrast to her appearance her voice was rough and raspy, as if she had been screaming for a long period of time.
"Everyone," the host addressed the audience, "Veruku is here because of the trouble she has been having with her husband of 3 years, Arcai."
At the sound of her husband's name, Veruku burst into tears. "What's wrong?" the host asked, handing her a tissue.
"It's Arcai," Veruku said between her tears. "I love him. I really do! But, I just can't take much more of this. If he doesn't change, I swear I'll leave him!"
"Won't you tell everybody what your husband has been doing that's so bad," the host prodded gently.
"We got married three years ago," Veruku began. "Right out of school. He wasn't working, but he promised me he'd get a job. But he hasn't! He hasn't worked for more than 3 weeks since we've been married. He goes out with his buddies all day and then comes home and expects me to wait on him hand and foot. I've worked on the house all day and I'm tired, but as soon as he comes in the door he's demanding food. I tell you, I just can't take it anymore!"
"When you say Arcai has never worked for more than 3 weeks, does this mean he did have a job once?"
"He's had seven or eight!" Veruku yelled.
The audience gasped in surprised and a small murmur rippled though the crowd.
"Seven or eight?" the host repeated questioningly.
"Yeah. He acted like he was going to work about a month after we were married. He go somewhere, work for a day or two and just quit. He'd always have some sort of excuse like they didn't like him or something. Then he just quit. He's goes out with his buddies all the time and leaves me at home to be some sort of slave!"
"And, don't you have a child?" the host asked.
"Yeah, my baby, Elad, was born just two months ago." The screen behind Veruku showed an image of Elad. The audience respectively oohhed and aahhed at the child. "I'm at home with Elad all day plus I have to keep the place clean. Then there are his meals. He eats about like a horse and he always seems to expect for me to have food on the table when he comes home."
"Let's meet your husband, Aracai," the host announced. Another door slid open and a tall, lanky man stepped forward. The audience booed as he made his way to a seat by his wife. He ignored their boos as he readjusted his red cap over a tangle of red-orange hair. Freckles adorned his face in clusters.
"Hello, Arcai," the host greeted. "We've been talking to your wife here."
"I know," Arcai replied slowly. "I heard it all from backstage."
"So, what do you have to say about it?" asked the host.
Arcai turned towards Veruku. "Dang, baby!" he exclaimed, sounding truly surprised. "If you felt that way, why didn't you tell me?"
"I did," Veruku shot back. She seemed to have gathered courage from the audience's presence. "I told you over and over. You just didn't want to listen. But, if you don't listen now, I'm going to take Elad and leave! You hear m-"
Goku turned off the television, but the vision of Veruku and Arcai seemed to have burned into his eyes. His hand was trembling as he set the remote aside and looked about his small tidy home. Could Chichi feel this way? he wondered. She did work on the house and the meals a lot and he didn't help much. What if she decided to leave him? Just take Gohan and leave. He shook his head and started to cough. He wasn't going to allow that, he decided. He was going to make sure she stayed and he was going to start first thing in the morning.
The sun had been trying to coax Chichi out of bed for some time, but the gold rays did not cause her to stir at first. Finally, she decided she had slept long enough for there was plenty to do the day ahead. She rolled over to look at Goku. Goku generally slept longer than she did and she had gotten into the habit of watching him sleep a moment before he awoke. She loved looking at him every time she got the chance. She rolled over - but the other side of the bed was empty. She immediately set up and examined his spot. He had been sleeping there. She saw the indentation his head had made into the pillow, but where was he now? Worried that she was sick, she called out. "Goku?" she called, "Goku, where are you?"
"I'm right here," he answered from the other room. He appeared in the doorway. "Don't move," he said, "I'll be right back."
Chichi was genuinely confused, but did as he requested. A few minutes later, he reappeared carrying a tray of food. Chichi's confusion turned to delight when she realized what he had done. "Breakfast in bed? You shouldn't have."
Concern briefly washed over his handsome face. "Yes, I should," he said in a soft tone. He smiled, the concern disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. "I hope you like it. I'm not a good cook like you are."
"That's okay," Chichi responded. It was true that Goku's culinary talents were, well non-existent. But it was true that it was the thought that counts.
Goku started towards Chichi with the tray of food. Now there are a lot of things in life that happen that if everything surrounding these events hadn't fallen exactly into place, the events in question may have never occurred. That was how it was now. If Goku had not been still a bit dizzy as a result of both his cold and the medication and if that one small corner of the rug hadn't gotten turned up, everything might have been okay. Unfortunately, all these factors were in place. Goku tripped on the upturned corner of the rug and tripped, the tray of food flying from his hands. Chichi saw the food flying towards her, but had no time to react. The tray landed just in front of her and food splattered all over the front of her blue nightgown.
"Oh, Chichi," Goku began, getting up from the floor, "I'm so sorry!"
For a second, Chichi felt the anger rising up with her. It wasn't a pleasant experience to have food dumped on you first thing in the morning. Yet, the moment she saw Goku's face, she felt her anger melt away. He truly looked sorry and he was apologizing non-stop. Besides, his intentions had been good. She smiled at him and he seemed to relax. "That's okay," she said, "I'll just get cleaned up and I'll be as good as new."
Goku smiled in return. "Wait a sec!" he yelled, running from the room. Chichi was almost scared of what he was going to do next. He returned, carrying a pan of warm water. "I knew you'd want to clean up this morning," he said. "So I heated some water for you." He set the pan down on the stand near the bed.
"How sweet of you!" Chichi exclaimed.
"Now, I need to get back to the kitchen," Goku said. "I sorta made a mess in there." He left the room.
Chichi was a bit worried about what sort of mess that Goku was talking about, but decided not to concern herself with that just yet. She opened the closet and began searching for something to wear. To her surprise, her closet was nearly empty. There were only a few of her old clothes in the back. "Goku!" she yelled. "Have you seen my clothes?"
"Yeah," he answered, "I washed them for you. I'll bring you some in." A few minutes later, he returned with a large bag of laundry and a big smile on his face.
Chichi opened the back and examined the clothes. "Uh, Goku, did you bleach on these?"
"Sure did. I didn't want to forget."
She wished he had forgotten, at least when it came to her colors. Everything besides a few pairs of panties and tee shirts were ruined. Then, she found the white silk dress she had worn the night before and held it up. The bleach had burned holes right through the delicate material. She moaned softly. "Next time, just leave the laundry for me, okay?" Chichi said, pleadingly.
"Didn't I do it right?" Goku asked, somewhat sad.
"I just like to do the laundry myself," Chichi said, quickly.
"Oh. Okay then." Goku seemed satisfied and left the room.
Chichi finally found some clothes to wear and washed up a bit. The water had cooled off a bit, but it was still comfortably warm. Once finished, she carried the pan outside to dump the water. As she was walking back inside, she noticed something peculiar about her new flowerbed. "Do you know what happened to my flowerbed?" she asked.
"I weeded it," Goku replied from the kitchen.
"Yeah right," Chichi mumbled to herself. "Usually weeding means removing the weeds, not leaving the weeds and pulling up most of the flowers." She sighed again. She just couldn't figure out what had gotten in Goku this morning. He was trying so hard to be helpful - too hard and it was backfiring horribly. Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash.
She hurried back into the house only to see Goku standing next to a large pile of broken dishes. "What happened?" she demanded.
"I was trying to clean up all the dishes," Goku said. "I was stacking them here on the counter, but they fell."
"That happens," Chichi said. After all, she had broken more than a few dishes in her life. She started to grab the broom to help clean up the mess, when a one piece of dish caught her eye. It can't be, she thought, grabbing the piece from the pile. She looked up the spot above the sink and saw with something like horror that the spot was vacant. "Is this the dish that used to hang above the sink?" she asked.
"I guess. I know I took that plate down. It was awfully dusty."
"You broke my grandmother's dish," Chichi said slowly. Anger rose up within her to fast for her to stop it. "YOU BROKE MY GRANDMOTHER'S DISH, YOU MORON!" she screamed. Never would she have talked like that to Goku before, but she wasn't thinking straight just now. "THAT WAS THE ONLY THING I HAD LEFT OF MY GRANDMOTHER AND YOU BROKE IT! WHAT IS WITH YOU ANYWAY! YOU ACT LIKE YOU ARE TRYING TO HELP ME BUT YOU ARE MAKING ME MISERABLE!" She set the piece of broken dish on the table and ran for the door.
"Chichi, where are you going?" Goku asked.
"I have to leave for a bit," she responded in a flat tone. She left, slamming the door behind her.
Goku looked at the closed door for a minute before sitting down on the floor. He had tried so hard and his intentions were good, but she had left. Somewhere, he had heard someone say that the road to Hell was paved with good intentions. He had not been sure at what they had meant at the time, but now he felt like he knew exactly what they had been saying.
Chichi sat in a grassy field not to far from her house, staring out vacantly at the land that spread around her. She wasn't sure how long she had sat there thinking of that dish.
Her grandmother was already quite old by the time Chichi was born, but Chichi had loved that old woman dearly. She would have gone to visit her everyday if she could, but because she lived far away, her visits were infrequent. On the last visit, she had given Chichi a small blue plate that she claimed was already quite old. A week later, her grandmother had unexpectedly died in her sleep.
Suddenly, Chichi stood up. She had blown up at Goku, but now she realized exactly what had been wrong. It wasn't the plate, it was the fact she had never really accepted her grandmother's death. There had been problems at the time and Chichi was trying to be brave for her parents. She had never even allowed herself to cry and, although the plate hung above her sink, she had never really allowed herself to understand what it represented.
She sunk back to her knees and started to cry. The tears came slowly at first but soon she found all those tears she had buried within her heart when she was a child. Her body shook almost violently with the force of those tears. Finally, the tears ended and she felt better than she had in a long time.
Except, now she remembered how she had treated Goku. She had been annoyed with him today because all his attempts to help had gone so wrong, but she shouldn't have yelled. He meant well and she loved him. Quickly, she hurried back to her house so that she could apologize.
Goku had his back turned to her when she entered the house. "Goku," she said softly.
Goku turned around and she saw what he held in his hands. "I found the super glue and I was trying to fix you plate."
Tears welled up in Chichi's eyes. "I'm sorry I yelled at you," she apologized.
"No, I'm sorry I broke your plate."
"It's okay. Look, Goku, I want to talk to you. Will you please walk outside with me?"
He looked a little surprised, but agreed. They walked together for awhile, Chichi studying his face in the sun's fading light. She loved his profile, but now with the sun setting, the light seemed to create a halo about his head. She felt her breath catch in her throat as she looked at him, curious that a woman could be as lucky as she was. Still, there was something she had to know.
"I need to ask you something and I want you to be 100% honest with me: why were you trying to do so much stuff today?"
He looked a bit embarrassed. "Well," he admitted, "after you left, I started watching TV and I saw this guy who wasn't very good to his wife..."
Chichi listened to the entire story and suddenly everything made perfect sense. "You were afraid I would leave you?" she asked.
He nodded, and she could see the fear in his dark irises.
Chichi wrapped her arms about his muscular neck. "I would never leave you," she whispered. Her eyes began to sparkle.
He noticed the sparkled and leaned forward to kiss her. His lips were warm and strong. So familiar yet they were so intriguing. She returned the kiss with more passion than she knew she possessed. His fingertips traced her spine as the palms of his hands pressed her closer. Strangely, a line from a silly poem entered Chichi's head, "...Don't make love by the garden gate, love is blind but your neighbors ain't." She laughed silently as she thought, let them see. If they are around, let them see. All they will see is a woman deeply in love.
The sun set on the day, but not on their love. Their love would last for their entire lives and beyond.
The End