9/11/01

Character Background Exercise

“What a wonderful country,” his father used to remark every morning like clockwork before leaving for work. Edward Galich was a first generation American and his father never let him forget the struggles and troubles his family had gone through for him to live as well as he did.

But for Eddy, trekking to school every morning, sitting through boring lessons, forgetting assignments, and nibbling on bland PB&J’s at lunch, the country was not as wonderful as his father made it seem. They lived seven to a single apartment (mother, father, one set of grandparents, and three children) cramped and confined but his father called it cozy. They lived in the bad part of the district, run-down and rough, but his father called it rustic. They were poor and penniless, but his father called it privileged. Growing up, he didn’t have many friends and none he would risk the shame of inviting over to his home. As he got older, it only got worse. He had to walk to school when others biked or drove. He stayed home from social activities for he didn’t have the money when others took limousines to the dances. He took jobs as night janitors and bag boys during the year when others were summer temps or fast food managers. And while Eddy would never admit to feeling sorry for himself, especially when it came to his father, he always wondered what sort of a life he would have had if his family had not left Poland. From day to day, he was silently miserable.

But everything changed the summer after high school graduation. School had been hard enough to struggle through alive, and while his father had been most proud of his passing, there were no announcements, invitations or parties for him. There, too, were no hopes of his going on further in education. Eddy took a job where his father worked, taking tickets for White House tours. First, there were weeks of training, covering everything from simple routines to learning to use a weapon to dealing with all sorts of people. It was what his father had done for twenty-eight years, and now what Eddy would do. It was a fine, decent job, yes, one that he found interesting and amusing at times. He got to meet people from around the world, who had such immensely more exciting lives than he had lived. And he got to feel important every so often when people would ask for help, or when little children would hand him a ticket and point to his shiny badge. Still, it was a plan job, without much changing or much to combat. And every night when he went home with his father, he was glad to leave it, but a little saddened to be going back to it the next day. There was no challenge, no excitement. So the real change was not the job, but the women he met there.

Lilly was straight out of high school herself, though she had gone to a better school in northern Virginia. She took tours around in the white house, and Eddy first caught a look at her standing in the great wing doorway waiting to do this. And immediately, Edward fell in love. She was gorgeous, with a suit and skirt and a scarf. She was tall, skinny, with lush brown hair and deep brown eyes. She was a sweet, kind young woman who always looked happy. In fact, she even wore a smile the day Eddy’s father died and he sought comfort in her arms. But that day it was a soft, sympathetic smile. And a warm, loving embrace. Lilly guided the tours at the white house, so she knew all the ins and outs very well, practically everything there was to know about it… she simply wasn’t allowed to tell it all. She also worked down the block at the White House Museum setting up displays and answering questions. She had an immense amount of creativity, surpassed only by her beauty and intelligence. And it was impossible for Eddy not to fall madly in love with her.

For the first time in his life, he was happy. Not just struggling through, not just passing by, but living a truly pleasurable life. And Lilly, though he had little to offer in the way of money and book smarts, was more than happy to take him for his loyalty, kindness, devotion, and for his just being him. And together, they lived as happily ever after as two blue-collar workers could in the slums of D.C.

* * *

“We’ll have to find a house, then,” Edward remarked, his eyes trained on Lilly’s belly. His hand followed his gaze, caressing the warm, normal bulge there.

“Mmmm,” she remarked, her fingers strolling down from his shoulder to his hand, covering it with slender, soft fingers. “Boy or girl?”

He shook his head, leaning in to kiss her cheek and wrap his arm around her shoulders from behind. He brought her against his body, wrapping his other arm around her waist from the front. “Doesn’t matter so long as it’s healthy and ours. A baby, Lilly!”

She giggled, nuzzling him. “I’m so excited. I think we’ll make good parents, Eddy.”

“Of course we will, Love.” Tightly, he gave her a squeeze.

She sighed. “But will we be able to—“

He nodded, hushing her with a finger to her mouth. “I’ll work a second job. Or we’ll move in with my mother for half a year to save up some. Cut back on luxuries… oh, but we’ll give the baby everything it could ever want.”

Smiling, closing her eyes, tracing the cleft in his chin with a finger. “I think you want a boy,” she speculated with her trademark happy Lilly smile.

“Well… “ he blushed a little. “Possibly.”

“Possibly?!” she exclaimed with a laugh. “I’m certain you do! So you can give him everything your father never gave you.”

Beaming, “He’ll be a doctor or a physicist or a writer or—“

“Or whatever he wants to be?” she answered, this time quieting Eddy.

“Whatever he wants to be,” Eddy agreed, holding his wife tightly. “So long as he knows he’s loved.”

There was silence a moment, as they both contemplated the possibilities. Their lives, simple and lovely, were to be changed forever by the greatest sacrifice and the greatest gift. And while they knew it would be difficult… they also knew they would be the sort of parents who could handle difficulties.

Finally, Lilly spoke, softly, opening her chestnut brown eyes. “If it is a boy, I want to call him Michael, after your father.”

Eddy answered with the sweetest and most passionate of kisses. For him life, country, and world had finally grown as wonderful as his father had always insisted they were.