Chapter 8

The alarm clock ringing brought me to a fuzzy awareness.

"Good morning sweetheart."

Argh, bad breath.

"'Morning Taff, don't want to be rude but ... morning breath love."

"Sorry, got a bit of a tooth ache and my mouth tastes like the bottom of a bird cage."

"Hope it's not too painful."

"Nah, I'll take a few Panadol with breakfast, should do the trick."

Later in the day I could see the tooth was giving her problems and suggested she see a dentist.

"It's getting worse Tony, I'll see if I can get an appointment."

When Taff came back from seeing the dentist, she had a packet of antibiotics with her.

"The dentist told me I had an abscess and wouldn't touch the tooth until it was resolved. I went to the clinic, my regular man was off sick but he had a Loco filling in."

"I think that's 'locum' Taff."

"Not this one Tony, I reckon he's been sampling his wares. I got a penicillin injection and he gave me a script for two courses of antibiotics. I have to take both full courses, he said I might feel good part way through but to complete both course to get the full treatment. He also gave me some pain killers as well ... use with care."

"Why don't you go home and rest up love?"

"No way, we've got too much to do here, anyhow I'd feel better doing something to keep my mind off of it. Promise not to breathe on anyone."

The project moved on nicely, Taff arranged with Joey's wife, who was interested in model making to make a plaster layout of the village site. Jack's crew had a prototype donga made up and everyone made comment on how it was set out. Suggestions taken on board, changes were made, we had a sample to show Vic when he next visited.

The antibiotics were doing their job, a visit back to the dentist found that the tooth didn't need attention. Our sex life was back to normal, at least normal with the pressure we were under planning the village.

...

The project was going well, materials were ordered, we were just waiting for the final go ahead from Vic. The presentation went well, Vic was impressed with the sample donga and liked the module designs for the admin and associated buildings. With Vic's approval we were ready to roll.

Taff had been looking a bit on the seedy side for the last few days, she just put it down to the stress of the project. When it didn't improve she visited the clinic, she had a worried look on her face when she came back.

"We need to talk in private Tony." My blood ran cold. When she spoke.

"There's no easy way to put this Tony, just that I'm sorry. I've religiously taken my birth control pills, I'm preggers. The doc said the antibiotics conflicted with the birth control."

"Sorry! Good lord Taff I'm ecstatic, we're going to be parents, terrific, wow I'm on top of the world."