Gordon, being less practical but still a gold solid guy, was recruited by the local military force from his ROTC work in high school and college - a pleasure since he wants to be a 4 star general one day. He declined enlisting as a civilian as he wouldn't be able to be with Cass and start the family he knows she wants. Luckily, since he's already got his degree, they took him in as an officer and all of his work takes place not a far drive from his hometown.
He and Cass found a cheap piece of land with a large house on it and had a quiet ceremony that basically included exchanging rings, kissing, and starting on that family.
The house had a swingset pre-existing, which Cass loved. There was also 4 immature apple trees and two plots for gardening near the back of the lot.
We both were eager to have a pet, so Cass went to the local pound and picked 0ut Toffee, a male kitten. [Toffee is the name of my cat, an orange and white boy.]
Cass also picked up some new threads. Much more suitable.
She and I liked to play chess, but she always got mad when I cheated.
But I was always working anyhow. Secret projects. It was a shame not to be able to talk about work with my wife upon returning home each day, but classified is classified.
[In case you watch for these things like I do, note the plumbob above the stripes and EA on each lapel.]
Cass became fast friends with dad. He plays beautiful piano and Cass, being pregnant and losing all self consciousness, loves to dance - poorly.
They also enjoy fishing. Cass is much better than me, but not nearly as good as dad.
"Gordon, I'm sorry. I know you just got home, but I'm so tired all the time. I feel like I'm carrying a little of babies!"It was possible she was carrying a little of babies. Multiples run in her family. She mentioned someone in her family that had triplets and whose daughter also had triplets! I hope we're not in for that kind of drama.
Dad was visiting when Cass went into labor. You'd think with 10 kids, he'd be more useful than a first time father.
He even made us a nice meal and made sure we were all settled before he went home.
Dad was great with the babies. Yes, babies. We had twin boys.
Cory and Josh.
Having an artist sister is wonderful. Moora has taken to interior design and made all these wonderful things for the kids' rooms. She even painted the walls. She's fantastic. This will be the boys' room when they're a little bigger.
A girls' room.
And one more.
Our room is decidedly plain by comparison.Toffee grew up. [Looks nothing like my cat.]
What the hey? High on catnip?
He got attacked by the neighborhood demon dog.
Cass and I reconnect with a pillow fight.
Twins are twice the work. She's not pregnant again, just a little chunky. Its all those cravings for fattening cheesecake she had while pregnant. I swear, it was like she ate nothing else.
Cory says, "I can fit my whole fist in my mouth.""Isn't it past his bedtime, hon?"
I was quite satisfied with two kids, pecially at the same time, but Cass, ahem, convinced me to have more.
It wasn't long before my fertile wife was showing again. She had the hardest time keeping up with our boys and incubating the life/lives in her belly.
So hard, in fact, that death came for her one evening.
But I bested him!
Josh (short hair) and Cory (long hair) are cheaters like me at chess. Its a bad habit I've passed along.
What's this? An evil snowman? Who built this? A snowman off until I see who made this! Everyone outside and make a snowman.
Josh is clear.
Cory!
Ahem, okay, and me too.
But not Cass. She's sweet.[Cory and Gordon both have only 1 nice point! Yikes. How'd Cass fall for that?]
Looks like someone cleaned your clock, broken snowman.
Cass did have twins again, girls named Miranda
and Giselle.
I thought you'd like to see Cass with her figure, just like she looked shortly after we got this house. She worked hard for that figure so I wanted to share that with you.
Cory is always oversleeping and Cass will have to drive them to school, the girls in carseats, everyone squashed into our little Focus.
A shot of the boys in their bedroom.
And it wasn't long before Josh was oversleeping and Cory would drive him to school, big as they were.
Cass wanted another child and knew she could easily convince me in the hot tub. It sits out back on our deck and is so romantic especially after a full day's work. However, nothing came of our together time.
The girls grew up and immediately demanded new jammies. They were princesses, they stated, and needed to look the part. We played along.
Cass nurtured our cat, Toffee, our boys, Cory and Josh, and our girls Miranda and Giselle. But since she couldn't seem to get pregnant again, she started nurturing vegetables in the little plots out back.
Toffee has reached the top of the security field.[I just thought this was kind of funny.]
Double the twins is actually not double the work for the parents, if properly spaced.
Giselle is a handful. All the children are a bit bratty although Cory has the least nice points.
Sometimes we have to get away from it all, even if its just to slip out to the car for a little, mm, romance.
While out stargazing one night, I thought I saw something on the horizon. "Cass, did you see that?" But she'd already one inside.She passed the kitchen and stuck her head out. "Did you say something, Gordon?"
"Did you see a little streak in the sky?"
"Oh, a shooting star? Let me see."
"Not a shooting star. Something big and fast. Too big..."
"Gordon, all that time down at work has made you prone to conspiracy theories. It wasn't a Russian satellite or something. Come to bed, its getting late and you know how early you have to get up in the mornings."
"...mmm. In a few, hon."
I don't remember going to bed, but that's not unusual when I'm that tired. I did wake up to my alarm and head off to work the next morning. A few weeks later, though,"Cass, I think I have the flu. Can you make me some soup? I need to lay down." I called into work for several days. A visit to my doctor showed nothing viral. They gave me antibiotics but I'm skeptical of medication based on the nature of my job, so I just poured them in the toilet.
I didn't have a fever but I burned up and was clammy. It made no sense.
After 3 months, I was still sick like I had the flu, despite the fact that two doctors had stated I seemed fine. Maybe I had a parasite. They were running bloodwork to find out. I hadn't been out of the country, so none of it made any sense.
Cass teased me that I was getting chunky for a military man. "Thanks, hon. I've only had the flu for 4 months!""Aw, sorry, Gordon. I'm just teasing you. But it is unusual. If I didn't know better," she giggled, "I'd say you were pregnant."
"Have you seen how dad has let himself go, Cory? I'm not going that route. I need to lose this baby fat!"
Josh teased his brother, "Cory, get off that piano and onto the treadmill. You're much too heavy and you'll get sick. Besides, your piano playing is awful!"
"Sheesh, dad, maybe you should, uh, skip on cookies tonight.""Not you too!"
As she laughed hysterically, Gordon stated, "Cass, look what the guys at work gave me! Horrible. They're so mean. They said I must be carrying an alien baby since I was having morning sickness, gaining weight, and reported that sighting right around the same time. I said I'd been sleeping with my wife in my car the same week, didn't that count? They just laughed. Just like you're laughing." Sigh.
"Aw, I think its cute. Lemme rub your baby tummy.""Cass!"
"C'mere, Gordon. I'll show you I still love you, the hard way."
"Cass! Cass, some thing's wrong. I think I wet my pants. Oh, Cass, I'm so embarrassed, but I don't know how, or what's happening.""I'll call an ambulance."
And she did, but before she finished the call and got back to the bathroom where I was..."What the..How the...I...What is this?"
"It has my eyes. Oh my gods."
"You gave me a fright, Gordon. I can't believe you worked all this time on that prank!""Prank? Cass, I just gave birth to this...um...alien baby? Look at the eyes."
"But how...?"
"I'm not exactly sure. I am exhausted though. I need to lay down."
"Well, whatever it is, I guess we'll have to take care of it for now. Huh. You do have your daddy's eyes, don't you?" Cass tried hard to keep the alien baby from the other kids. It turned out to look biologically similar to humans and is a female - or so we believe, based on the external anatomy. We named her Yingwe - after a musician.
"Mom, I thought I heard crying. What is that?""Um, Josh, this, um, this is, well, it seems that your father, uh, well, he had, rather, this is. Oh, I don't know. This is Yingwe. Its a girl. And for now she's staying here in the nursery. Keep this to yourself. Your dad's job requires silence."
Josh went to the little pond in the back of the property and fished with Miranda and Giselle. It seemed to be the only thing that calmed their near-constant tantrums.
Josh tried to keep it to himself, but he just couldn't wrap his head around the whole thing. "Did you know we have an alien in the nursery?""And alien, like from outer space? Right!"
The nanny came, as scheduled to help out with the housecleaning and the girls, but we'd forgotten about her coming. She couldn't see Yingwe!
Cass apprehended her in the hallway. "Uh, Maddie, we've decided not to have any more kids and the girls are big and in school now. So, uh, we just don't require your services anymore. Sorry for the short notice. We should have phoned the agency. I'm sorry. I'll give you a little severance bonus though. But, yeah, we're, uh, we're through. Sorry."
"What are we going to do with you? I hope the military doesn't want to experiment on you. But whatever Gordon determines is final. He's the authority in this house and if his job requires things of him, then he'll do what's right. He is your father after all. So strange. Look at those eyes, there's no mistaking it."[Yingwe got the custom eyes that Jordy has. One of their girls and one of their boys do as well.]
That evening I announced that the kids would be switching schools, going to a military private school on the campus of his work's government campus. No one was thrilled about the change, but Cass understood why. We had to keep Yingwe quiet and this was the only way without having to move. We all loved this house and wanted to minimize stress on the kids.
Besides, the kids could use more structure. Maybe it would help their attitudes.
If word of this got out...well, who knows.
Yingwe is just a few months old, but all sorts of strange things have been happening ever since she was...born. I'm still not sure how I pulled that one off. The sink cleans itself after Yingwe's bath. You can literally see the bubbles come up. No one can explain it. We had a plumber out but everything is clear.
Cass' apple trees even produced a crop of white apples. I mean, who's ever heard of white apples. Its all weird. What can we do? For now, we sit tight until instructed to do otherwise.
2 comments:
Cooool! :) Loved it, of course :)
I really like how you worked in the alien child. The story you devised to go along with it was very well thought out. Great job!
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