by Cee, DW
“Not much. I had lunch with Sarah then went to the farmer’s market.”
“More salted caramel ice cream?”
“Yup. I can’t get enough of that stuff. I have no desire to eat anything else so…” Her eyebrows arched and shoulders shrugged. “Guess what? I have exciting news!”
“Sarah’s staying in town?”
“How’d you know already?”
“I ran into Max at the hospital, and he told me. Did you know Max and Jane have been spending a lot of time together?”
“Uh-huh. I talked to Jane today when she got home. They seem to like each other very much. Do you think it’s serious?”
“It may be headed that way. Are you OK with it?”
“Of course. Anyhow, back to Sarah…Her staying in town is part of the excitement. But there’s more.” My wife’s face filled with color for the first time since we got back from our honeymoon.
“Are you going to tell me?”
“Sarah’s pregnant!”
“What? Already? What happened? I thought she didn’t want a child till she was thirty. It’s five years too early.”
“I know. She was bawling at lunch because life wasn’t going the way she planned, then she pulled herself together and got excited by the end of lunch.”
“How far along is she?”
“Not far. She’s only about six weeks. She’s due in early April. Isn’t that exciting?”
By the excitement in her voice, I wondered if Emily wanted the same thing. I was about to ask when we got interrupted by Gram.
“Hi, Gram. Did you have a nice day?” Hugging and kissing my grandmother simultaneously she looked pleased.
“I had a good day. I went and met some friends for brunch and a garden tour, then Bobby, Sandy, and I had a wonderful dinner prepared by your wife while she sat and ate ice cream. Emily, dear, are you sure you don’t want to go see a doctor? Your face is pale all the time and you’ve lost too much weight from lack of food.”
“I’ll be fine, Gram. Since leaving Japan, my body hasn’t had a chance to catch up to my life. From Japan to Paris, to London, then back here to a wedding, then back to Asia. I’m exhausted.”
“If you say so…I want to talk to you two about something.”
We both looked at her, as Gram had a serious but smiling face.
“Your parents told me you wanted to live on this street to be near them.”
Emily said yes with her head but she stayed quiet, waiting for Gram to finish her thought.
“When your grandfather passed away,” Gram said to me, “his will stated that this house was to be left to you after I died. Since I don’t live here anymore, I thought it was time to let you have this house, since you’ve started your own family. Would you two want to live there?”
I was in shock with the news. In my mind, the house I most wanted to live in was my grandparents’. I’d spent much of my childhood in that house. That house to me was part of my happy childhood. Before I could say yes, Emily surprisingly answered, “No.” Gram and I couldn’t believe her answer.
“Gram, I don’t want to live there unless you live there with us.”
“But Emily, my home is in London.”
“Gram, I know you were born in London, and I understand that Grandpa is buried there, but you have no family there. While you’re still here, why don’t you spend the rest of your days with us?”
“But what about my husband? I go see him often. I won’t be able to do that if I live here.”
“We can go visit him together. Many years from now, you will be back together with him forever. Let’s us have you until then. Please, Gram? Will you live with us? I want to share as many days with you as possible and I want our kids to grow up loving their great-grandmother.”
As much as I loved my Gram, never once did I think of asking her to live with us. I only envisioned Emi and our kids living together. My wife’s love for my grandmother put Gram at a loss for words. Never could I catch up to my wife’s kindness. Touched, Gram told us she’d think about Emi’s offer or demand.
“In the meanwhile, I want you to start redoing the house,” Gram told Emily. “Let’s go there tomorrow morning and you can keep what you like and discard what’s not to your taste. There’s a lot of furniture stored in the basement that you can look through.”
“Does that mean you will live with us?” Emi asked, holding Gram’s hand.
“I will seriously think about it. You can redo a room for me on the first floor if you like.” Gram answered with a smile.
“I’m going to take that as a yes, and I’ll start tomorrow. Maybe we’ll stay here while you’re getting your affairs in order in London then we’ll come pick you up.” My wife went off making her own plans without Gram having agreed to anything. Gram only laughed at all of Emi’s suggestions.
“Love, let’s let Gram get some rest.” I meant this for my grandmother’s well-being but I also wanted to get upstairs with my wife for our own well-being.”
“Good night, Gram. We love you.” Emily and I kissed her good night, and as soon as Gram was out of sight, I picked up my wife and took her to bed.
“Oh, my phone is ringing.” Emily hopped out of my arms to reach for her phone.
“Hi, Sarah…No, not yet. I’ll get to it soon, I promise.”
The two friends were having some cryptic conversation, which I couldn’t decipher.
“No, I’ll do it…I don’t think that’s necessary. I promise. I’ll get to it. I’ve got to go, Sarah. Jake is waiting for me. Bye.”
“What was that all about?” I asked with much curiosity.
“Um…” Emily couldn’t answer me. Now I had no choice but to pursue this conversation.
“Emi, you know I don’t like it when you don’t give me a straight answer.”
“Sarah was just checking up on me since I haven’t been feeling well. She wants me to…um…go see a doctor.”
Emily said this with enough hesitation to make me question her honesty but since there’d be no reason for her to lie to me about any of this, I let it go.
“Do you want me to make an appointment for you at the hospital?”
“No, I’ll go see my regular doctor. I’m fine. Everyone is making a bigger deal than necessary.”
“If you say so, Love. Let’s get ready for bed.”
The next week was a busy week at the hospital and Emily appeared back to her normal self—actually, she was happier than usual. I couldn’t tell whether her joy came from remodeling our new home or the fact that she said she felt better. Her face was still pale and she still ate nothing but ice cream but she was in high spirits.
“Jake, I have a surprise for you.” Emily exclaimed after I finished dinner tonight. “Let’s go.”
She led me out to our future home and walked me up the stairs.
“I want you to close your eyes and I’m going to hold your hands and walk you into your surprise.”
“What is it? Are you showing me our new bedroom? Did you get it fixed up already?”
“You’ll see. Are your eyes closed?”
“Yes, Love. They are closed. Is it much farther?” I asked, as she stopped walking.
“You can open your eyes, Honey.”
I opened my eyes to see a room painted in a soft yellow. In this dainty room I saw my old crib on one side of the room with an animal circus mobile hanging above it. Next to the crib sat a rocking chair and an ottoman. On the other side of the room was a huge dresser with a changing table on top of the dresser. In the armoire next to the dresser, there hung baby clothes and booties. I still didn’t get it.
“You set up a nursery now for whenever we might have kids? Isn’t this a bit premature? Also, where’d you find my old crib?”
She just looked at me and smiled. “Look over by the dresser.”
I walked over and saw nothing but a bunch of diapers in a box and a framed picture. I opened up all the drawers and there
was nothing in them. Looking at Emily to ask what was going on, I slowly turned back to the framed picture. Something stood out. I picked up the frame and saw an ultrasound picture with a little dot inside it. The picture was titled “Baby Reid.”
I yelled, “You’re pregnant?”
Emily beamed. “We’re having a baby, Jake. You’re going to be a daddy.”
With a sudden rush of joy, I went over to hug my wife. Something about this revelation made me even happier than our wedding day. Could this be considered blasphemy?
“When…How…I don’t get it. What happened?”
“Are you bummed out it happened so quickly?” She totally misread my comments. Ecstatic would be an understatement.
“Are you kidding me? This is more exciting than our wedding day.” Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that. I looked at Emily to make sure I wasn’t in trouble.
“Weird, but I thought the same thing. Your baby is inside me.” She marveled, rubbing her stomach. “If I’m this happy now, what a mess I will be when the baby arrives.”
I picked up my wife, and she read my intention correctly.
“Our bedroom is next door. It’s all fixed up already.”
Laying her on our bed I asked her again when this all happened.
“From what it seems, I think I got pregnant on our wedding night or some time right after. I’m about six weeks right now.”
“I thought we were going to wait. Didn’t you want some time alone before you got pregnant? Did you not go see Carole at the hospital and get on the pill?”
“I saw Carole but decided not to get on anything.”
“Why? Not that I’m complaining.”
“After much thought, I figured if I wanted to have a lot of kids, I needed to start sooner rather than later. I also thought about Gram and how I wanted our kids to get to know her before she passed away. Do you think she’ll be happy?”
“Sweetheart, this news is going to turn this whole family upside down. When should we tell everyone?”
“How about this weekend at Gram’s birthday party? No one knows yet. I went to a doctor just to confirm that I was pregnant, but I’d like to go see Carole at the hospital with you, and you can see our baby.”
“I can’t wait. Thank you, Emily. You’ve added even more joy to my already amazing life. I love you so much.”
“I love you too.”
Walking on air, it was hard to contain our excitement in front of our family. Mom kept asking about all the smiles, and we couldn’t keep it from her any longer.
“Mom,” Emily started, “we’re having a baby!” I ended the sentence.
“What?”
Emily nodded her head yes as affirmation to my statement. “You’re going to be a grandma.”
Crying, Mom went over to hug Emily. “When did this happen?”
“I’ve known for about a week but kept it from everyone, so I could surprise Jake. I set up a nursery in Gram’s house and showed Jake yesterday. Then, we went together to see the doctor today, and here are the ultrasound pictures. We were going to keep it a secret till this weekend’s birthday party but I couldn’t keep it from you any longer.”
“This was why you were so pale and tired…the salted caramel ice cream?”
“I think so.” Still in my mom’s arms, my wife turned to me. “Jake?”
“Yes, Love?”
“Would you mind if I stopped working? My mom was really sick when she was pregnant with me, and I have a feeling I’m headed that way myself. The doctor says it’s unusual to be experiencing all these symptoms so early in the pregnancy.”
“Of course I don’t mind. Emily, you do what’s best for you and the baby.”
“What shall we do about Dad and Gram? Should we tell them before the party?”
“Tell us what?” Dad and Gram walked in right as Mom finished asking this question.
“Well…Dad…Gram…Emily’s pregnant!”
Nine months and many pints of ice cream later, my beautiful girlfriend, turned radiant wife, became a proud mother of twins. Elizabeth Logan Reid and James Logan Reid, named after their maternal grandparents, became the center of our universe. After a quick trip to London to pick up all of Gram’s essentials, Mom, Dad, and Gram came back home to be with Emily during her difficult pregnancy, and they have become the most doting grandparents. Uncle Henry and Aunt Barbara also spoiled our children to a point where their own children complained about the lack of attention in their own lives.
“Hello, Beautiful!” I called out to my girls, rushing through the front door to see my kids before bedtime.
“Which one of us are you addressing?” Emily chuckled as my baby squealed once she saw me.
“Hello, Ellie. How was your day today?”
She responded with the most dazzling smile. I picked her up to more squealing and delight.
“Where’s James?”
“Upstairs, asleep—where this little one should be right now. You were a naughty little one today. You are so lucky your daddy is home early,” Emily warned with a smile and kisses to our daughter.
“Were you naughty today? How could a cute little three-month-old like you misbehave? What did you do today?” I couldn’t stop kissing my daughter. She and James had my hair, my eyes, and my coloring but looked exactly like their mother. In all honesty, Ellie was even more beautiful than my Emily. Though, I’d take this information to the grave with me.
“Are you talking to me?”
“Uh-huh. What did you and the kids do today?”
“Let’s head upstairs and put this little one down, and I’ll tell you. You mind if we have dinner after Ellie falls asleep?”
“Not at all. Let’s go, Cutie. I’ll rock you to sleep.”
“Please don’t do that. Both kids—this one in particular,” Emily said, pointing to Elizabeth, “gave me a hard time today because they’ve been so spoiled. Gram, Mom, Dad, and all your aunts and uncles went to some function all day today so I thought it would be a perfect time to start training them to sleep on their own.”
It drove Emily crazy that neither Ellie nor Jimmy had ever slept in their bassinets or cribs during nap time. Mom, Dad, and Gram, along with the other four aunts and uncles who dropped by on a regular basis, fought over who got to hold either child during nap time. There weren’t enough babies for the arms waiting to hold them. Neither child had been on the floor to practice tummy time, and we were sure they’d never crawl since they were always lying comfortably in someone’s arms.
“After everyone left, I fed and changed the twins then put them down in their bassinets for their naps. They both hollered! So I held them at the same time, rocked them a bit, and placed them separately, Ellie in our room in the bassinet, and James in his room in his crib. They both hollered again but James eventually got tired and napped. This little one refused to sleep. I would pick her up and she’d quickly fall asleep; I’d put her down, she’d wake up, and scream. We battled for a couple of hours until it was time for James to wake up and for both of them to be fed again.”
“After another round of feeding and changing I needed a change of scenery, so I strolled them to the park.”
“You walked all the way over there with the kids?”
“Yup. I hoped Ellie would sleep. She didn’t! She stared at the scenery, stared at me, then stared at her brother, who fell asleep again after a bit of crying.”
“So what did you do with our Elizabeth?”
“I told her about our entire courtship and all the drama it entailed. The funny thing—I think this girl understands English already.”
“Do you understand what I’m saying, Elizabeth Logan Reid? Do you understand Daddy when I tell you I’m madly in love with you?” My daughter squealed in delight again.
“You see what I mean? Hand her to me. Let me feed her one more time.” Though our little ones had worn out their mother today, Emily couldn’t help her continual embraces to our daughter. She hug
ged and kissed this little one, who demanded attention from anyone within a smile of her.
While Emily nursed Ellie, she went on with the story. “When I got to the part where you left me at the Grand Canyon, Ellie cried. And this cry wasn’t an—I need something—kind of cry, it was a sad sob. I think she felt my pain. Her cry woke up James, and I picked him up while pushing Ellie and finished our story up until Japan. Once we got to the park, I put them both in the infant swing and I pushed them for a long time.”
“Did you love the swing?” I reached over and held my baby’s hand.
“They both loved it. Maybe we should get one of those play structures in our backyard and add a couple of infant swings.”
“Sure. I’ll look into one tonight. So did this little one nap at all?”
“Nope, she listened intently to the rest of our indelible memories of love while walking back home, then hollered some more while I made your dinner, and here she is dozing off again in my arms. I’m going to change her one last time and you can put her down. Oh, I hear James whimpering. Can you get him? He’s probably hungry. He didn’t eat before going down for the night.”
Ellie’s eyes opened the minute Emily put her on the changing table. “Mommy loves you so much, Elizabeth Reid. Now please, go to sleep!”
I walked over to pick up my son, the calmer and more reserved child. Emily had compared James to her father since the day he came out of her womb, and Ellie was the spitting image of her maternal grandmother. In a strange but happy way, the children have filled Emily’s void of losing her parents. Many times I’d watch her staring at the babies with tears in her eyes. But now all traces of sadness disappeared when she thought about her parents. Elizabeth and James reminded her of the parents she missed, and for that she loved them doubly.
“Hello, Son. I missed you today.” When I picked up my son, he welcomed me with a smile almost as bewitching as his sister’s. “Shall we change your diaper?”
James didn’t squeal and coo like his sister. Instead, he liked to watch the room and the people in it. His smile was no less dazzling. Both kids seized my heart in a way I couldn’t explain with words. When together with my family, nothing mattered but them. The love and protection I wanted to give Emily while we were dating seemed trivial compared to the love and protection I felt for my family now.
