EIGHTY-FIVE

Junior had been running around naked for several seconds after Lucy and Luis had tried to change his diapers.

He ended up littering the floors with a glowing green ooze which served as a death trap for passers by, not at all deadly because of the slips it caused, but because of the inhumanely putrid radiation emanating from it.

The child's dongle dangled as he ran through the hallways till Lucille caught him and he began to scream and bawl till she began singing him a sweet lullaby and rocking him, then he began to play with her hair, with no visible intention of falling asleep.

A group of teen girls, who were probably visiting their collective boyfriend in the hospital from a police shootout, passed by Lucille and her siblings then squealed as their eyeballs expanded by fifteen percent of their previous average volume.

They began squeezing the poor triplets cheeks, while touching Junior's... everything and playing with the already annoyed Lucille's silky hair and little Thomasina looked ready to kill, till Luis came and shooed them away, despite some of them rethinking their dating choices as they were gaining interest in older men, he then said,"Don't worry kids, daddy's got your back."

Lucille arched a brow at him, right before Junior coughed up some vomit on the floor, then she smiled and said,"Well, daddy, it's your turn."

She then walked off, and the triplets fled before he could ask for their help, leaving him with a deep frown on his face, he had to punch somebody in their face at that moment.

We each had to leave one by one as daylight burst, each to our own activities, starting from Luis, who had to settle accounts at his company which I knew was untrue, then Lucille and the triplets who had to go to school, taken by Lucy, it was left with Rose and me, just as before.

We went to visit Mack and Ruby one more time, who hadn't taken a single step out of the incubator, watching their little daughter.

Rose went to speak with Ruby as I spoke with Mack, I tried telling him things would be better, according to God's will, and he didn't hesitate to hear that, I knew he wasn't in anyway Christian, but at least he didn't despise my beliefs.

Ruby was slightly more hostile, not much more though, her's was only the momentary criticism, questioning, eye rolling or groan, but she never actually actively shunned us, she still hugged Rose before we had to leave.

I took Rose for a short drive to get her mind off of all that was happening, but she remained silent through most of it.

I tried to break the ice by asking,"Are you okay?"

"Hm? Yeah, everything's fine, why did you ask?"

"I don't know, maybe because your twin sister almost had a miscarriage and had to literally cut her belly open to get the baby out before it died within her so, who knows?"

She smiled then said,"This due shall pass, I know God knows what he's doing, I just pray that they would too, soon."

I smiled then turned back to the road, and saw her slightly tense up then looked to my side.

I had realized she didn't talk very much anymore, she still said the occasional ' I love you ' and ' Good night ', but she didn't spend much time in conversation...with me, at least, she was now mostly reading the Bible or praying, I had no problem with that, it was just, I kind of missed my girlfriend...

I knew she wanted to stop by the park, so pulled over, then asked,"Why don't we go and get a carb break?"

She looked at me with a flustering smile then said,"I'd love to."

We bought desserts of all kinds, cup cakes, donuts, you name it, of every imaginable flavour, of which chocolate was the emphasized, we both loved chocolate, or at least, she did, I actually loved strawberry more but stuck to chocolate to get closer to her.

I knew that the wife was supposed to submit to the husband in which case, she totally would have done, if I asked, but I also wanted to show my love for her, all that I could give, which was the reason I married her in the first place.

We ended up talking, a lot, much more than we ever did even before getting married.

We cloud gazed, climbed trees, fed the ducks, played frisbee and I even carried her on my back, which I had never had the strength to do, literally and figuratively.

At the end of the day, which we spent totally in the park, I had learned so much about her that I had never known before, for instance, I never knew she was ambidextrous, had a perfect pitch, and burped six times a week on average, which was all good, right?

Well I also didn't know she was presently nyctophobic, arachnophobic, had a great craving for and collection of ancient artifacts: dolls, she went crazy for them, especially the porcelain dolls and marionettes, also, she was a bit of a perfectionistic hypochondriac... and dyslexic...and no one had had a clue.

This made me begin to requestion Mr Welshe's reason for abandoning Ruby again, but I kept silent.

She also had a few more things in common with me, occasionally she heard, saw or felt things and emotions that basically didn't exist...in our environs, it was also much more difficult for her to forget the things she so easily remembered, unlike me, still I thought it was cute how she was going to remember forever how attractive I was in highschool 😁.

Naming constellations in the night sky, we both got a call on our phones at roughly the same time.

I checked and it was Mack, Rose answered and saw Ruby looking pale.

She took a deep breath as Ruby spoke to her, then we both looked at each other and rushed back to the car.

We brought every possible gift we could buy then burst into the room with the rest of the family and yelled,"Congratulations!!!"

The baby had survived the most dangerous time of her life, the first twenty four hours.

The doctor was still in the room, speaking with them as we barged in and spoke of the wonderful shape the child was in and I proposed that we went out together, Ruby was indignant, but I insisted, they had stressed themselves out for too long.

We went to a familiar place...the very restaurant Mark took us when I was placed third in the spelling bee, and looking back, I couldn't stop regretting not savouring the moment with my brother enough, but raised a toast to the two.

The slow dance began and Luis took Lucy to the dance floor, then I stood up with Rose then asked Mack,"Aren't you coming?"

"Nah, we'll just sit and watch."He said.

"Why? You're chicken because you can't dance?"

"I can dance! I totally showed you when I...ooooh, smooth."

He looked at Ruby and asked,"Shall we?"

"Fine, but no switching dance partners."She said.

"You're my one and only, Ruby."He spoke and kissed her hand.

She smiled and stood up with him as we made our way to the dancefloor, then Lucille looked at Junior, who was busily making a mess with his dinner, while Lucinda, the only still awake triplet, while she was busily criticizing her food.

Lucille dragged her sister and brother along as they definitely weren't in the mood for eating anyways.