Leave a Trace: Book Two

Chapter Twenty One: Three Weeks

Chapter Twenty One: Three Weeks

Alexander

I look down at the grocery list.

My wife has beautiful handwriting.

My wife. How strange.

This is all so strange, and I feel guilty. She's an excellent woman, definitely not the same woman I remember, but she's great. I can tell she really cares about me and the fact that she hasn't told me to screw off and taken our sons and left says a lot about her character. She's a strong, devoted woman and when I finally remember every single detail about her, I'm going to make sure she knows it.

I see tampons on the list and my eyes widen.

Tampons? I purchase those?

This is a regular thing for us?

I stop the cart in the middle of the aisle and stare at the list.

Tampons.

Okay, this can't be that hard. I do this all the time. I can do this.

I wander over to the tampon aisle .

Holy shit. How many boxes does one woman need? There's...there's twenty different brands, forty different sizes...

I don't know how big her vagina is! Do I get super? Is that insulting to assume she has a large vagina? I bet she doesn't, I should get regular.

But what brand? How many? Scented or unscented?

I look at the list and see her beautiful writing, hoping for some sort of description of what she needs, but all it says it the simple word. Tampons.

Why are they so expensive?

Okay, alright Alex, calm down. You can purchase tampons for your wife.

This is all so surreal and overwhelming.

Shaking my head, I grab two boxes super from Always and Kotex, three boxes of regular just in case she gets insulted by the amount of super I bought, and four boxes of small just in case she's little down there.

I look at the eight boxes and see none of them are scented, so I grab the same amount scented.

I'm a football player for the NFL and she's an Olympian. Our house is large so I'm assuming our bank balance is.

I throw my jacket in the shopping cart to cover the eighteen boxes of tampons and scurry through the store.

Diapers. What kind of diapers? What size?

I remember the two on the back of their diapers, so I grab a very large box of diapers that are size two and scribble them off the list.

I specifically remember Rose telling me to mark things off so I didn't forget anything.

As I roll into checkout I realize that everyone is going to see my massive supply of tampons.

I begged her to trust me to do the shopping. I can't disappoint her.

Feeling overwhelmed, I put all of my things on the conveyor belt and try to act like I don't know that people are staring at me. I hear somebody snicker near me and I feel my heart pounding.

I write down on the list to tell Rose to please explain to me how to properly grocery shop.

The cashier looks dumbfounded as to why I have so many tampons in my shopping cart.

Quick, think of a lie!

"My wife and I run a girls orphanage." I blurt.

"It's not my business." She says. Her eyes are wet like she's trying not to bust out laughing.