Chapter 4

“Okay, Elizabeth honey, now that you have a new wardrobe, it’s time to work on you. We are going to lunch and then it’s off to the beauty salon!”

“The beauty salon? I’ve never been in a real beauty salon!” Elizabeth had a mixture of excitement and uncertainty in her voice.

“Your mother never took you to the beauty salon? Even with her?”

“No. My mother never went to the beauty salon. For one we couldn’t afford it, raising me by herself. And then when my stepfather came along, he drank most of our spare money away. So Mom just did what she could at home. It wasn’t like we went anywhere anyway.”

“Well then, I have just the place for you! I know a couple girls at this one beauty salon that will take very good care of you, Beth.”

“And I want to look extra special for you, Daddy.” Beth leaned over and kissed my cheek. As we drove to the beauty salon I could see she was nervous. Excited to see what all the fuss was about, but nervous because she’d never been in one before. I smiled and reached over to hold her hand.

“Just relax hon, and enjoy the experience. I won’t be far away if you need me.”

“Thank you.” she smiled weakly at my assurance.

A few minutes later we arrived at the salon. When we went inside we were met by a bouncy bleached blonde about the same age as Elizabeth but way too perky for my tastes! “Hi! Welcome to Ultimate Hair Salon! How can I help you look your ultimate?”

Yeah it was a canned line, but I didn’t mind. “Is Charlotte in today?”

“Yes she is. Why don’t you have a seat, and I will go get her.” And quick as a rabbit she was gone. Beth and I took a seat in the waiting area and a moment or two later Charlotte came in.

“Hi, Charlotte!”

“Well hello, William! What brings you to my little shop?”

“Well, Charlotte my daughter Beth is in need of a makeover. She has never been to a beauty parlor before, so I figured I would start her off right by taking her to the best. She needs the full makeover thing – whatever you girls do to glam up for us guys. So I will leave her in your very capable hands.”

“Sounds like we are going to have a lot of fun, Beth. William, you wait right here – no peeking until I give you the finished product!” She winked at me and took Beth in the back to get to work.

I guess Beth was in the back room of the beauty salon for a little over three hours before she came out. I was in the front watching television and being catered to by a couple of the girls who came by every so often to ask if I needed anything. The chairs were very comfortable and there was hardly anyone in the place at that time so I didn’t mind the long wait. Besides, I knew Charlotte knew her stuff and wouldn’t be satisfied until both Beth and I approved.

Suddenly Charlotte appeared from back room. “Okay William, your daughter is ready. I want you to turn around and no peeking until I say so. I’m bringing her out in a moment!” Charlotte was all about “the big reveal” and she loved this stuff!

I turned around and then I heard footsteps behind me. “Okay William, you can turn around.”

I turned to look at Beth. Or at least what they said was Beth. “Okay, very funny Charlotte. Now where’s my daughter? What have you done with Elizabeth?”

“Very funny, Daddy. It’s me ... do you like it?”

I looked in utter amazement at the transformation in front of me. Gone was that ratty haired ragamuffin that I had picked up the other day and took home to feed like a lost puppy. In her place stood a drop dead gorgeous young woman with her hair, makeup, and nails all immaculately cared for. She was ... stunning.

“Oh my God!” was all I could think to say. I walked around her looking at her from all angles in complete and total bewilderment. “Elizabeth, you are ... you are beautiful baby. Holy shit, Charlotte you are a miracle worker! I can’t get over the change!”

Elizabeth blushed at my remarks which only made her more beautiful. “Thank you, Daddy I’m glad you like it. I feel ... like Cinderella!”

“Well, you look amazing sweetheart. Charlotte I tip my hat to you my dear, I brought Beth here because you are the best in the business and you outdid even yourself today!”

“Thank you William. We had a great time. I showed Beth how to do all this herself, how to apply the makeup and how to take care of her hair so she will be beautiful for you for a long time. But feel free to bring her by anytime so we can visit!”

The three of us went to the counter and Charlotte rang up the bill. It was kind of steep – I’m used to paying $20.00 for a regular haircut at the barbershop, but all I had to do is look at Beth and I knew it was more than worth it. I gave Charlotte a healthy tip as well for her amazing work and we left the salon.

I noticed that Beth stood a little straighter and held her head up higher now. She was proud of how she looked and proud to be seen with me.

“Daddy, I know that we’ve eaten out twice today, and I know you have already spent an outrageous amount of money on me, but could we please go out for a nice dinner tonight? I feel so pretty I just want to show off how I look and I want to be seen with you. Please?”

“Honey I was thinking the same thing. Of course we can.” And with that I used the hands-free feature of my phone to call and make a reservation for dinner at a really top quality steakhouse I had gone to before several times.

“Hello this is William Clark. I’d like to make a reservation for say, 8:00 p.m. for two. Give me the best table in the house, too – the one by the bay window. I have a very special guest I want to impress!” I told the reservation desk. I looked over at Elizabeth and she was blushing with her head down, but smiling. It was obvious she wasn’t used to all this attention.

“We have a couple hours before dinner. There no real sense in going home – we’d only be there for a few minutes before we’d have to leave again. I have an idea...” I turned the car at the next intersection and began driving with a destination in mind.

“Where are we going, Daddy?”

“I know a little park with lovely trails that lead to a nice pond. There is a place to buy some grain to feed the ducks. It’s a really pretty spot that I’m sure you will like.”

We arrived and I got out of the car. I helped Beth out and we walked holding hands along the paved trail to the small lake. Along the way I got a small bag of grain and we found a park bench close to the pond to sit on. We fed the ducks and a couple geese that came over when we sat down.

“William?”

“Yes honey,”

“William, this has been an absolutely magical day for me. It seems almost like a dream ... like it couldn’t possibly be real. Yet it is. I don’t know what I did to deserve someone like you, but I am so very, very grateful to have found you. Thank you isn’t nearly enough to say for what you have done for me. You have literally changed my life.”

“Elizabeth honey, I could say the same for you. Before I met you, my life was pretty drab and dull. I would come home after work to a cold, lonely, empty house. I would eat dinner by myself, watch TV alone, and then when I was so sick of being alone I couldn’t stand it anymore, I would go to bed – where I could at least dream of having a family again.

“But now that dream has become reality and I don’t have to go to sleep to have someone. I can come home now to a warm, happy house. A home. You have made my house – OUR house – house a home and for that, I am grateful. So thank you, Elizabeth, for what you have done for me. You have changed my life as well.”

Elizabeth sat there listening to my words. She didn’t say anything but her eyes got moist and a tear ran slowly down both cheeks. Finally she spoke with a broken voice, trying very hard not to cry. “William, those were the nicest sweetest, most beautiful words anyone has ever said to me.”

I stood up and pulled her up into a long, passionate, and very heartfelt kiss. Elizabeth melted into my arms and mine wrapped around her firmly, letting her know I wasn’t about to let her go. She moaned softly as she enjoyed my embrace and her arms went up around my neck. We kissed like that for several wonderful moments, neither of us wanting to be the first to break the spell.

But eventually we had to. We had dinner reservations and I wanted to show my beauty off as much as she wanted to be shown off. So we gave the ducks and geese the last of our grain and tossed the bag into a handy trash can as we left our idyllic scene. Walking down the path towards the car, Elizabeth put her arm in mine and laid her head on my shoulder. At that point I thought life couldn’t get any better. I would be proven wrong, however.

It had been about three weeks since Elizabeth’s “magical day” when one morning I got up and went to the bathroom as I usually do for my morning piss. But something was very different and very wrong. When I went to urinate, it wasn’t my familar yellow liquid that came out. Instead it was a thicker, yellowish-white pus like discharge. I knew immediately this wasn’t right and so I told Elizabeth to call the Urgent Care clinic and they said to come right in and they would have a look.

I told the doctor there about Elizabeth and how we met. He listened to our story and he examined me and ran some tests. then he came in to tell me the results. “Well Mr. Clark, I think I know what the problem is. It seems that you have contracted a case of chlamydia. It is a very common sexually transmitted bacterial infection. In fact it is the most common STI in America today. It is estimated that nearly one and a half million cases of chlamydia are reported to the CDC each year. And those are only the cases they know about! Since this infection oftentimes shows no symptoms at all, many many cases go undiagnosed. The CDC estimates that one in fifteen teenage girls has a chlamydia infection.*

“Considering what you have told me about your girl, you can consider yourself lucky it was just chlamydia. It could have been much, much worse. Chlamydia is easily treatable. I will give you both an antibiotic called azithromycin. It is a single dose medicine that will get rid of your infections. Just don’t go picking any more strange women, okay?”

“Okay Doc, I promise. This was my last stray!”

He wrote out the prescription and left me to get dressed. I went out into the waiting room and Elizabeth was right there to meet me.

“What is it, William? What’s wrong?”

“I’ll tell you in the car. Right now, we need to go down to the pharmacy and get this prescription filled.”

We walked down the hall to the pharmacy and I knew it was eating her up inside not knowing what was wrong with me, but chlamydia is not a conversation you want to have in the general public! Once the prescription was filled (and the pharmacist was very discrete in explaining it) we went out to the car to head home.

“Okay William, now tell me what’s wrong. I am scared, please what is it?”

“It’s nothing too terrible, hon. I just have a case of chlamydia is all. We both have it.”

“Chlamydia?”

“Yeah it’s a sexually transmitted bacterial infection. But the doctor and pharmacist said these pills will clear it right up. He gave us both a prescription – it wouldn’t make sense to just treat one of us.”

She down at her feet, unable to look me in the face. “And I gave it to you ... Oh God, William, I’m so sorry!” I could see she was tearing up at this news. She felt just terrible over it.