"The Experiment" Part II

I do apologize for the delay in my story continuation. I had surgery last Thursday, and happy to report the days of pain and medications that numb the brain and has had me sleeping most of my days away has pretty much come to an end. WAA WHOO! I have the music cranked up and I have found my words that have me writing once again, and so without further delay - let the story continue.

"The Experiment" Part II

By Stacey L. Bolin

You would have thought that Bill was about to audition for some great police drama or better yet, Hollywood wanted him to be their next, off the charts, reality personality. The hours to Friday night would not tick by fast enough to accommodate his growing excitement. All week long he plotted and planned as he gathered his best uncover garb and attained a look that would render him unidentifiable. Now he was only hours away. He decided to take on the best  - I’m a tourist look - from the Mandel's on his feet, that he wore with socks, to going as far as having his sexy salt and pepper colored hair cut and dyed in some crazy I colored it myself brown.

“So what do you think?” Bill exclaimed as he came from around the corner into the kitchen where his wife and daughters were closing out another day working on organizing new recipes into their cookbook notebook that they wanted to have published one day.

The room instantly filled with the type of laughter that would have a person rolling on the floor holding their stomach as their eyes filled with uncontrollable tears.  

“Bill…what…” Lori tried to get the words out but the laughter had consumed her.

“What? What’s wrong with my look?” Said Bill, very serious about what he had done and rather proud of it too.

“Dad, please tell me this is an idea for Halloween or your applying for a new job with the Circus?” Carmen interjected and intensified the laughter in the room.

“No. I’m going undercover with your mother to see how your friends behave when they are working.”

"You're what!" Both girls shouted out simultaneously.

An immediate silence strangled the laughter of the room as Lori felt the intensity of glaring eyes, from her daughters, upon her back.

“Mom? Please tell me my friends will not see this! I will be a laughing stock of the whole school!” Nancy cried out in horror.

Lori still wanting to laugh, replied in her best serious mother tone, “Maybe he’ll wear a hat. It’s really not that bad.”

“Nobody will recognize me, I’m sure of that.” Bill replied with a smile and then sauntered off to the garage to locate an old AC/DC rock shirt that he had stowed away with the rest of his single life.

“Girls, your dad had an idea the other night and he is really excited about it. I know it seems a bit extreme, but I’m sure he means well and is not doing this just to embarrass the both of you. He just needs to validate some feelings he is struggling with.”

“Can’t he struggle in private Mom?” replied Nancy.

“Yeah, I mean really mom he looks like some crazy person, they’ll never let him in the doors to any place.” Carmen remarked, with the predictable roll of her eyes when she disliked a topic of conversation.

“Then Carmen, I guess you’ll have nothing to worry about, do you.” Lori snapped back as she was becoming very agitated by Carmen’s once again negative attitude, and understood why Bill was so set on getting answers to his experiment.

“Whatever!” Carmen shouted and went to her room.

“There she goes again,” said Nancy as she turned to her mom, “So when is this experiment supposed to happen?”

“Friday Night.”

“You mean Friday night as in tomorrow night?”

“Wow, tomorrow is Friday already?” she thought to herself and then sighed, “To answer your question Nancy…yes tomorrow night.”

“Good luck mom…you’re going to need it.”

 ***

That night as Bill and Lori lay side by side in their bed; Lori couldn’t help but hear her daughters concerns running through her mind, while at the same time, she tried to find the right words to ask her husband what the real reason was behind his experiment. She wondered if he was experiencing the beginnings of some sort of middle life crisis and was feeling that maybe he had not done everything he had sought out too one time or another in his life.

“You still awake?” bill asked in a soft spoken voice.

“Yes, are you?”

He laughed, “Yep. Can’t sleep.”

“Why not?”

“I heard what the girls said about me when I left the room.”

“A bit harsh, hua?”

“I guess, but I was a bit shocking with my attire.”

“More like the new hair style. Maybe you should have shared your idea with them first to give them time to accept what it is your trying to accomplish.” She stopped for a moment, and then proceeded to ask, “Bill, why are you really doing this?”

He lay there silent staring up at the ceiling. He wanted to tell her everything he was dealing with, but just couldn't find the words that made him feel he was safe to share his true feelings, for fear of being looked at with different eyes and honestly he really wasn't the type to really open up. At a very young and impressionable age, his father began to instill a set of guidelines to becoming a man. He believed his job was to provide for his family, and do all the manly things his dad taught him, but the one thing that his dad did teach him and was wrong – never let a woman see you cry and never tell her what you’re feeling as she will never see you as a real man once you do. It was this statement that had stayed permanently imprinted  like a tattoo in his thoughts and steering his life, and his choices,  since he was a young man at the age of ten.

“Come on hon, it’s just you and I now. Something has its grips on you and I’d like to help if I can.”

“I know you would. It’s really nothing, it’s like I said before, and I just want to know how the other kids in the world are doing in the work force.” He replied followed by a yawn.

“Bill, I’m feeling there is much more to this, and if I am wrong, then I apologize now for thinking anything more, but if there is more, always know that you can talk to me and if you still decided tomorrow that you want to follow through with your experiment I support you 100%,” and with that, she sat up, leaned over and gave him a soft kiss on his lips and then snuggled down beside him.

"You think the girls were shocked tonight they haven't see anything yet, wait until they see what my experiment reveals. I've decided to have you do the video footage - this house is really going to light up." he grinned and then turned his head towards his wife and said in a serious tone of voice, "I love you Lori.”

“I love you more.”

“Not a chance.” He said before they both drifted off to sleep.

To be continued.....
Join me tomorrow for the conclusion of Bill and Lori's crazy adventure and their shocking discovery. Until then - Blog ya later.