East of the River

"This isn't turning out to be one of our best anniversaries, is it," he said with a worried look on his face and his words barely audible over the sound of the heavy motor of the ambulance taking off.

"Don't worry. Everything is going to be fine." I tried to be as upbeat and encouraging as I could be, but I was worried for him, too. A sizable chunk of him was missing and I was worried that they might have to take it all once they got him into the hospital. I worried that he would never be able to pee like a normal man, again. The selfish side of me was more concerned about my sex life and the fact that we wanted to have more children. This was it! Our life as husband and wife would begin and end on August 15th. I thought, how ironic, as the siren wailed above our heads and Carl went in and out of consciousness.

In the next few days, the word spread down at the mill that there had been some kind of an accident down by the river. Carl and I were the only ones who knew all the details. He didn't want it known that we had been skinny dipping in the river. He was always trying to protect me and I didn't want the workers in the mill to know that one of their supervisors was off doing naughty things in the woods behind the building. Every day, more flowers would arrive and every day, Carl grew stronger.

They had inserted a catheter in him, given him a transfusion of blood, and he met with all kinds of doctors during the next few days to figure out how to make him whole, again. His penis wasn't totally gone, just the tip of it had been taken by the swan that day. The urologist and the plastic surgeon had come up with a plan for reconstructive surgery. They met with both of us to explain the delicate procedure that could begin within the next few days.

"Our goal is to get you back to as-normal-a-life as we can make for you, and the first thing we need to do is to get your bladder to excrete urine through your penis again," the urologist began with plain and simple talk so we might both understand. Carl was sitting up in the bed shaking his head affirmatively.

"Because you've never been circumcised, we are going to treat this as an emergency radical circumcision, so to speak," interrupted the plastic surgeon. Everybody who talked to us about Carl's condition seemed to have a slight smirk on their face. They all wondered how the accident happened and they always glanced over at me. I know everyone of them thought that I had done it to him in a cruel act of oral love making, but Carl and I had promised each other not to reveal the sequence of events that took place that day.

"We'd like to knock you out for a little while in the OR, Carl, just to peel back a little more skin on the tip and make it a little more symmetrical. You'll be looking at only a couple of days of recovery time, maybe a week," he continued with his consult.

"And, Barbara," he looked toward me next. "If you've never been with a man who has been circumcised, you will be quite pleased with the outcome of this surgery," he said with another grin sliding across his face. "Carl seems to have enough there for any woman to be satisfied and just missing an inch of it won't matter too much, plus this little enhancement we have planned, will really make everything work very well for both of you," he said, but this time, it was with a little wink and a raised eyebrow added.

"We've scheduled the surgery for tomorrow morning, if you both agree to it," the urologist started to rise from his chair and we both shook our heads up and down.

"Good. Then, we'll see you in the morning," the two doctors in their long white coats left Carl's hospital room.

"Barbara, did you pick up my pants from the edge of the river when we left in such a hurry?"

"Yes. Everything was put into the ambulance with us. Why?"

"Reach in my right-hand pocket and pull out that piece of paper. It's our anniversary gift that I was going to give you that afternoon."

"LAND TRANSFER, 100 Ridgetop Lane," I read the words aloud, but didn't quite understand what it was all about. I looked at Carl over the top edge of the document. He was smiling in spite of all that he had gone through during the last few days.

"Happy anniversary, sweetheart. I bought a piece of land at the top of the hill that looks down over the river. You can see for miles in any direction up there. The builders want to start the groundbreaking next week and we can be in our new house by next spring."

"Carl, this is all very exciting, but we need to get you better first."

"The doctor said that I would be better than new in just a week or so," Carl's eyes dropped down to the sandbag that lay heavy in his lap. "Besides, we have to move, so you can watch the swans from our deck off the master bedroom. We aren't ever going back to the river, again, Barbara."

The following spring, there was a flood and it took our old mill house and carried it down the river just a week after we had moved out. There was damage to the mill and a lot of us were out of work for quite some time. It was time enough for me to relax, get pregnant, and welcome our new daughter into our new house on the top of the hill, away from the flood waters and the swans.

Carl doesn't know that I sneak off with a bag of bread every once in awhile to feed the swans. It's my little way to thank them for what they had done to him, because he never would have had a surgically enhanced penis without that attack. Life is very good, east of the river.

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This is my entry into the 2010 Earth Day Contest. Please take a moment to vote. Your public comments and feedback are always welcome.

Yours SINSerely,

Babs