Making It Work 1
Electric Bill - $153
Phone Bill - $74.50
Cable Bill - $149.99
Gas Bill - $87.34
Rent - $1150
Misc - $257
The bills were stocking up. Sasha hunched ocer at her desk, trying to figure out where they could save some money. Every little bit counted, right? Paying the bare minimum so that their lights wouldn't get cut off. The pantry only had a few old boxes of cereal, pasta and sauce. The freezer was as bare as the pantry, save for the abundance of ice pops for Evie.
"What are we going to do...?" she asked herself.
Being an army wife was hard enough. Add a child and one on the way... It made things so much more difficult. Sasha's husband was recently deployed to Iraq. As a new recruit he was required to serve two years, and though the family lived on McGuire AFB, Sasha was having a hard time making ends meet. The rise of gas, food, and daycare was hard enough with two incomes. Now with a baby on the way and only one income, it was too much. They thought that if Mason enlisted, their family would be all right. If only he knew...
"Hanna, can you read to me?" a small voice called to her from the bed. Sasha's daughter, Evie, was home sick from school. The little girl had a temperature of 101 and and the poops. Even then she couldn't sit still and watch some television.
Sasha closed her check book and stowed it and the rest of the bills in her desk drawer. She took off her glasses for a moment, trying to rub the unease from her eyes. Tucking them away inside the desk with the rest of the stuff, she turned to her daughter," Give me a minute, please Evie?"
Standing, she walked out of the room. Her world felt heavy. So much was coming at her, she didn't know where to turn.
After wiping her eyes, she looked on the wall. There was a photo of she and her husband on their wedding day. They were so happy and in love. Evie was already two years old by this time. Next to the wedding photo, there was Sasha, Mason, and Evie. The parents in their caps and gowns. They had just graduated from Pemberton High. Evie was three.
Now at twenty, Sasha had her life mapped out. She was a stay at home mom and a soldiers wife. If she was asked if she was happy, she would instantly reply 'yes'. Would she truly mean it? A part of her did. She often found herself rubbing her pregnant belly and wonder if this was everything she wanted.
She returned to the bedroom with Evie waited. Sasha sat back down at the desk and clicked on the computer. The brief nostalgia made Sasha write to her husband and tell him everything. She wanted him to know that she was trying so hard, and that she loved him dearly.
"Han-na!" Evie screeched, that five year old voice of hers cutting through to the core. "You said you would read to me!" Evie tapped her mother on her shoulder. Sasha couldn't help but quiver. She wondered where her little girl learned to be so demanding.
"All right Evie, all right!" Instead of typing the letter to Mason, she closed the program and sighed.
"Whatever I have to do, I'll make this work Mason. Just come home to us safe..." she said quietly, reaching over for a children's book.