Chapter 5: Mira's Counsel

Sidney got home very tired. She felt elated at her progress at the hospital that day.

She knew that she had always wanted to take care of those who were not feeling well

The failed health of her father and his subsequent death had strengthened that resolve.

She knew it was her life's calling because she so enjoyed doing it that she knew that she could never allow anyone stop her from doing it.

'What if your husband asks you to quit your job and stay home to take care of him and your kids?' her mother once asked her.

'I would rather remain unmarried than marry such a man. He should know that it is what makes me happy and would not take it away from me if he really wants me to be happy and if he really loves me'. She had answered seriously.

She was not going to be like her mother who had given up her job because her husband had been wealthy and had ordered her to do that.

She knew that her parents had loved each other so much and she was jealous of that love and wish it for herself but she knew that no matter how much or well she loved a man, she was never ever going to quit her job or him.

'You have never been in love, that is why you are saying this. If you really loved the man and your job would be the only thing that would keep you away from him you will gladly sacrifice your job, I assure you but please, I don't want to ever hear you say that you would rather remain unmarried. Marriage is a very sweet institution, you know. I am saying this from experience'. Her mother said.

'No, I won't.Give up my job for any man, that is. If his love for me would not make him allow me to continue with my work,then he doesn't really love me and how can the marriage be sweet if what would make me appreciate him is taken from me? Because you see, I will appreciate him better if he were open minded enough to allow me continue practising. ' she said adamantly.

Her mother smiled knowingly but she loved her daughter's achievements and hoped that she would find a man who would love her so much that he would give her the freedom to practice her profession.

Sidney went on, had her bath and came down for dinner.

Her brother Stark had gone to London to practice his engineering profession but he kept in touch. They were always speaking on the phone.

They had their dinner, mother and daughter in companionship.

'We were talking about love and marriage today, is there anyone special in your life?' Mira asked her daughter.

'None yet though I am not really looking. I love my job too much to have time for that. And she proceeded to tell her mother s out the progress she made at work that day.

'That is very good. I am proud of you, my daughter but now that you are through with school, with your brilliance, I know that you will be retained and given a job or get a better one immediately. So that is not a source of concern. However, something else is bothering me'

'And what is that mother? I don't like you getting worked up over nothing'.

'This is nothing. I have watched you grow into adulthood and found to my joy that you are not wayward. It has always made me proud of you and trust you.

You were always reading while others were out on a date. Even when we asked you to go out on dates, you would go just to please us and you are always back before anyone can say anything. That is all good but it is different now. You are grown and should start having interest in men and having relationships.'

'Mum, not again. I shall have relationships when the time is right and when I have found the right person. I couldn't possibly go out with just anybody because I want to rove to you or anyone that I am normal and can be in a relationship surely?'

'In your line of work and ad you go put, you meet with people, dies it mean no one had indicated interest? With your kind of beauty, I doubt that because if it is so, then there is a problem but if some have indicated interest, then you should go out on a few dates with them and see who has some things in c'mon with you and you could possibly fall in love with them'.

Sidney was tired of all this and had no strength for argument, so, she agreed to do as her mother had asked her.

'Alright mother. I'll try. Are you okay now?'

'Yes, I am but I shall feel much better when I see you with him'. She said touching Sidney's cheek affectionately.

Sidney cleared the dishes and after discussing a few mundane things with herother and checking her blood pressure and temperature to make sure they were as should be, she excused herself and went off to bed.

Mira remembered how she had met her husband, her reluctance at first and then her growing interest in him and how she had continued feigning disinterest until she thought she had lost him because of his silence which was more pronounced because of his initial persistence.

She smiled at her joy when he eventually broke his silence and how their steamy relationship had started afterwards because she could not continue to pretend to feel nothing for him and had accepted to bring his date to being his wife.

Their passion had been one to reckon with. A passion that had stopped them from having a family at once because they had become greedy for each other. They had wanted no one to share the other with them, that had been how strong their love and desire for each other had been, though they had been overjoyed, more than they had envisaged when they had found out that they were going to be parents and rather than pull them apart from each other, had cemented their love for each other further.

She smiled wistfully when she remembered how they had not been able to take their hands off each other and she had been afraid that such intense love and desire may not last but I had and till date, she had not regretted choosing Craig Robert as her husband and had not been able to feel any form of attraction for any other man. When her husband died, she had still been young as she still was and had had alot of men coming and proposing to her and even offering to be her financial pillar if she would accept them but she could not bring herself to accept them.

She had felt getting married to someone else would have been a betrayal of their love and it would also not have been fair on the man she married be ause she would never have been able to have feelings for him. So, she had remained unmarried.

She was so exhausted that she fell asleep immediately she retired to her room.

Sidney also felt so tired that she fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow. And dreamt. And what a dream.