Ruby gave birth to a baby girl. As she held the newborn in her arms and she gazed from her little face to the face of her husband she told Jack about a beautiful Mother-Of-Pearl necklace she'd seen in a shop window when she was a little girl, and how it paled in comparison to how beautiful their daughter was. Jack said then that's what they'd call her - Pearl.
For the first time Jack realized just how much he had rushed into marrying Ruby. How much did he really know about her? She certainly seemed to love to party... something that caught him completely off guard. She did take good care of Pearl while he was at work and even helped him tend their garden.
Despite a few quirks she was a good wife and Jack loved her. It wasn't long before they were expecting again.
Rather than spend money on a birthday party for Pearl, they instead invested in building a nursery. Certainly their daughter deserved to grow up with a roof over her head, and with another baby on the way they certainly couldn't afford any extravagance.
Pearl was a happy toddler, though. She was too young to realize there was anything odd about the fact that in order to go watch TV she had to go outdoors, crawl across the lawn, and go back indoors again.
Later that night, Ruby went into labor. Jack was really hoping that she would make it another day so that he could earn more money to buy a crib, but he had to accept the fact that things don't always go according to our perfect plans. They had not one baby that night, but two!
Jack placed both of his newborn sons on the floor of the nursery while Ruby crawled back into bed, exhausted. He really felt bad that he had no soft comfortable crib for his sons to lay down in, but there was nothing he could do about it until he got paid again. Jack slipped back into bed, hoping this was the only time he would disappoint his family.
The next morning Jack got Pearl up and placed her on the floor with a toy he somehow managed to scrape together enough money to buy for her. He gobbled down a quick breakfast before heading off to work. Later that day when he came home he found Ruby hosting another party, celebrating the birth of their twin boys Chace and Chris.
Ruby's extended family, some of his teammates, and Ruby's friends were scattered all throughout their humble home, including a huge crowd of people clogging up the nursery. He heard a few people arguing from the other room, but was thankful that Ruby was at least attempting to care for their children amidst the chaos.
He was attempting to go and help her when he was stopped by Ruby's brother. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but Jack really didn't know him very well.
Due to another promotion at work, Jack was able to finish connecting the nursery to the living room, making a second nursery out of the wide hallway for the boys, and building a proper master bedroom for himself and Ruby. It was a great stress reliever for Jack to buy cribs for his boys to sleep in. Having to put them to sleep on the floor their first night made Jack feel like a failure.
Chace and Chris didn't seem to notice anything wrong. Their baby days seemed to zoom by and they were crawling all over the house before long.
Ruby bought her a pretty pink dress as a birthday present, Chace and Chris got a toy box full of inexpensive toys for theirs.
Jack really started doing well at work and he had enough to expand their house even more by building a proper nursery for Chace and Chris. He wanted his kids to have plenty of space to play and learn in.
With things going so well at work and their home finally taking shape, Jack finally managed to convince Ruby to try for another child.
They were hoping for only a single child this time so that things would be a little less chaotic when the time came.
The thing that frustrated Ruby the most about Chace and Chris is that she could rarely get them both to sleep at the same time.
If one was awake the other asleep and vice versa.
They both had very distinct personalities, even at so young an age. Chris enjoyed being around his mother and was either following her around the house or being carried by her as she took a rare free moment to chat on the phone with one of her extended family.
Chace on the other hand preferred to play by himself with his horsies.
There were rare incidents when they were both awake at the same time, however, and they really enjoyed playing house with the huge dollhouse Jack bought for them. They were too little to realize that it was considered "girly" to play games like that.
Ruby was just attempting to clean up the hallway when she realized that she and Jack were successful in getting pregnant again. She had mixed feelings about it. Part of her was happy, but at the same time she dreaded the idea of having twins again.
Pearl sometimes went to the playground across from the school to play. She was going down the slide one day when she about knocked over Don Lothario who was just at the bottom walking by.
He told her all about his little boy Karim and said he hoped that she'd meet him some day.
Before long it was time for another host of birthdays.
Chace, Chris, and Pearl all grew up on the same day.
The house was filled with wall to wall cake, and neighbors reportedly said that the sound from all the party noise makers was enough to wake the dead...almost.
The house was a huge mess afterward, but the children were all happy so Jack didn't mind Ruby putting him on cleanup duty.
The next day Ruby went into labor! She was both delighted and relived when a single boy was born. They named him Jeremy.
Pearl did indeed meet Don Lothario's son, Karim. He came home from school with her the day Jeremy was born. Ruby wasted no time in introducing herself to the stranger.
Karim seemed really taken with Pearl. His dad had evidently told him all about meeting her at the park and he had wanted to meet Pearl ever since.
As he sat with his sons, Jack thought about his only daughter. He had heard a thing or two about this fellow, Don Lothario. None of it was good. That didn't necessarily mean that his son was the same way, though. Jack would give the boy the benefit of the doubt.
Of course with another birth came another one of Ruby's celebratory parties. The family was relieved, however, that this one was much less chaotic than her usual parties. Jack took some time to chat with one of his teammates during the party and had a pretty good time himself.
One day Jack suggested to Ruby that they hire a babysitter for a few hours and go see a movie together. Ruby was surprised, but very happy to oblige the request. They rarely had the chance to do anything alone like that with so many kids in the house.
Little Jeremy watched as the babysitter distractedly picked some toys up off the floor. Lost in thoughts about the hot date he was earning money to take his girlfriend on, the babysitter didn't notice Jeremy climb into the toy box. Chace and Chris did, however.
They laughed as Jeremy kept peeking out of the toy box when the babysitter wasn't looking.
The next big investment for Jack was to sink some money into playground equipment for the kids. He knew they had plenty of space for it, and he wanted to provide his children with the best that he could so that they could have the things he dreamed of when he was a child. He did encourage them to take an interest in things that would be useful to them later in life, however. Chace and Chris sometimes enjoyed playing a game of chess with each other. Pearl and Jack stood by and watched the match, making the boys nervous.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment