Jim and I had just finished our day shift at the plant and we were driving back home together in my car. We always commuted together whenever our work shifts coincided, and this week it was my turn to use my car.
As soon as we left the plant, Jim asked me to stop at a pharmacy on our way back home so that he could have a prescription fill. His wife Sally, had a bad cold and the doctor had prescribed medication to get rid of her stubborn cold.
Since we were driving near the pharmacy where my wife Rachel was working, I decided that I was going to surprise Jim as well as my wife and stop there. During all those years that she had been working there, not once had I visited her at her place of work. As a matter of fact I had never been inside that pharmacy yet, so I figured that she was going to be very surprise to see me there today.
I had never dared to visit her at the pharmacy since I didn't want her coworkers or her boss thinking that I was checking on her. Surprisingly she also never once commented about that fact to me.
She was working today and I knew that she was going to be surprised indeed to see me. She only worked there two days per week and I figured that it was time that I finally met her boss after six years.
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Rachel and I had been married for nine years now. Even though we were not rich, I was earning good money at the plant where I was working and I preferred that my wife remained at home. But two years after we had been married she claimed that she needed to get out of the house and she wanted to go on the work market.
Since it was also her wish to have a car of her own, she was soon able to convince me to agree to let her work a year or two. At least until she had paid for the car that she wanted to buy. So a week after we had agreed about her starting to work, she found a job at a pharmacy on the other side of town.
Just over a year later she gave birth to Sandy, then for the next two years she became a stay at home mom. Later, when Sandy was older she once again begged me to let her work, even if it was only a couple of days per week. She claimed that she had already phoned at the pharmacy where she had previously worked and Mr. Clarkson was ready to take her back even if it was only two days per weeks.
I finally agreed and she set things up with her mother so that she could take care of Sandy on those days she was working.
She had now been working two days a week for Mr. Clarkson for over three years and Sandy was now almost six, and not once had I stepped inside her place of work.
******
I parked in front of the pharmacy and Jim and I both went inside. It wasn't a huge place but it had about everything one would expect to find in a pharmacy. There were four long aisles on each side of which were shelves loaded with everything from cough syrup to condoms of all brands. Then completely at the back was the space where prescriptions were being filled. Of course Jim and I immediately walked there.
But instead of seeing Rachel there as I expected, there was only a middle-age man behind the long counter. He took Jim's prescription and started working on it. I was about to introduce myself and ask him where my wife was but since Jim was standing next to me, I didn't want him to know that I was ignorant about the fact she was not there. So I didn't say anything.
While the pharmacist was busy filling the prescription, Jim slowly wandered further away looking around at the different displays.
That is when I decided to give a closer inspection to the back of the place. As soon as I looked over the counter behind the pharmacist, my eyes felt on a desk near the wall. On it rested a framed picture of a girl of about seven or eight. The thing that struck me about the picture, was the fact that the child on it looked so much like my Sandy that it was uncanny.
She had the same long blond hair and blue eyes; even her smile was the same. I just stood there in awe as I examined the picture, I was shocked and amazed by the resemblance with my daughter. It was as if I was looking at how Sandy would look in a year or so. How was that possible I asked myself?
All of a sudden, I couldn't help myself and I asked the pharmacist, who was still busy counting pills, if the child in the picture was his daughter.
" No, no! I have only two boys at home. This is Kathy; she is the daughter of Mr. Clarkson. She is a lovely child isn't she?"
"Yes she certainly is."
I was simply too shocked to say anything, so I moved away pretending to look for an item on the shelve on my left.
But deep inside I suddenly felt sick. I kept asking myself how could this Kathy look so much like my own daughter, and where was my wife? I then had a very bad feeling, deep inside I suppose that I had a hint of a clue to the answers to both questions, but I wasn't ready to admit it to myself. All of a sudden, I felt a strong needed to get out of there, I walked toward Jim and I told him I was going to wait for him in the car.