Chapter 1
"C'mon, honey! You can do it! Just keep --- just…keep…"
Feeling light-headed, Emmett Jackson collapsed onto the floor. The long, arduous hours in the delivery room finally got the best of him.
"Don't worry about him, Erica. You're almost there!" said the obstetrician. A nurse tended to Emmett. She raised his feet, turned his head to the right side, and added a cold compress to his head. He'll be all right, she thought. But will Erica? What am I saying? Of course she'll be all right. The nurse quickly snapped out of her thoughts as she whipped around to the sound of the mother's screams.
"One more. Only one more!" the obstetrician encouraged.
"I…can't," Erica panted.
"That girl needs her sister. Look at her!"
Erica glanced over by the two other nurses who were cleaning up the first twin. The child was unusually peaceful. The most traumatizing experience a newborn endures, and the child was quietly sucking on her gums. A tear rolled down the mother's cheek, but Erica's competitiveness soon took over. "Let's go."
Five hours. On the 14th minute, the sister plopped out and wailed her head off. Emmett, now in a wheelchair, had the honors of cutting the umbilical cord. The second twin wailed even louder.
"That girl has some pipes on her," the nurse joked to the new parents.
"She gets it from her mother," Emmett replied. "OW!"
"With all these hormones, I still can pack a punch," Erica reminded him.
"What about the names?" the nurse asked.
Ever since they found out that they were having twins, the couple decided that one would name one child and one would name the other. That agreement was far gone in the wind.
"What are you gonna name them, hon'?" Emmett asked.
"But…I thought we decided –"
Emmett stroked his wife's tangled hair. His hazel eyes looked into hers and he smiled for the first time in the delivery room. He brought his lips to her head and asked reassuringly, "What are you gonna name them?"
Erica chuckled. "Well, I did have two names in mind."
She paused as one of the nurses brought the first twin to the couple. Erica passed her to the father as she continued, "This little one shall be Lia." As she, her husband, and the nurse who tended to Emmett all gazed at little Lia, they flinched at an ear-piercing outburst. Two nurses were bringing the second twin toward other side of the delivery room, arguing quietly about which one was improperly handling the baby. They straightened up when they approached Erica's bed.
"It wasn't my fault, Mrs. Jackson. Honest!" said one nurse, handing the baby to the mother. "I guess this one's a fussy little thing."
The other nurse jabbed the first one with her elbow. "What she meant was that the baby sounds as healthy as ever," the second nurse replied quietly.
The second twin cried louder and louder and the two nurses scurried out of the room. Erica cradled the child and grinned. "And this one shall be Lorelai." Lorelai looked up at her mother, and quieted down. Erica went to kiss her new daughter and Lorelai screamed right in her ear.
"Melia, I think these two need their rest," Erica said to the nurse. Rubbing her ringing ears, Amelia agreed and took Lia and Lorelai to the nursery.
After giving both some formula, Amelia rested both down: Lia falling fast asleep and Lorelai crying her infant opera. She sighed and picked up Lorelai once again, resting the newborn's head on her shoulder.
"Come on, mama. Not tonight. Not…tonight," she begged the red-faced child. She began to pace with the child but stopped, as she didn't want to wake the other babies. On the other side of the glass viewing the nursery, an older man stared at little Lorelai. He raised his hand to the glass, and the baby ceased her wails. Amelia gave a sigh of relief as she laid Lorelai to sleep. "¡Gracias, Señor! Thank you, Lord," she whispered to herself, then exited the room.
The older man still stood there watching Lorelai in her slumber. Not once did his eyes blink at the child's sight. Calm. Serene. Still.
"She's the one."
- - - - - - - - - -
"Ma! Ma! Guess what?"
14-year-old Lorelai ran into the house looking for her mother. "MA! Where are you?" she yelled.
"I'm in the kitchen!" her mother yelled back.
As Erica was preparing the potatoes for boiling, Lorelai ran into the kitchen and almost knocked her mother over.
"And what did I tell you about shoes in the house!"
"Sorry, sorry. But I got the hottest news to tell ya!" Lorelai replied, jumping around to take off her sneakers. "You are looking at the newest lead dancer of Manhattan High's dance team! Tell me that ain't hot!"
"Lori…"
"The last girl broke her ankle in two places. Feel sorry for her, but hey, can't feel sorry forever!"
"Lori."
"And do you know what this means?" Lorelai asked as she paced back and forth in the kitchen. "I'm the first freshman ever to dance the lead. Me!" She does a high kick, landing in a tiger stance. "That's off da hook!"
"Lori!"
Lorelai, startled by her mother's response, asked "Wa? What happened?"
Erica sighed. She didn't want to give her daughter the news. Not right before her favorite meal, she thought. "Look, honey! I'm making your favorite meal: Mashed potatoes and barbequed lamb chops with a side of corn-on-the-cob. And for dessert—"
"Wait. My favorite meal AND dessert too!" Lorelai paused. "Who died?"
Erica chuckled. "No one died, sweetheart."
"Mom, what's going on?"
Why did she have to call me 'Mom?' Erica sighed and said, "You can't take the role."
Lorelai laughed. "Maybe I'm not hearing right, but I thought you said I can't take the role. That ain't what you said, right?"
The mother looked at her daughter as Lorelai was laughing so hard; she was on the verge of tears. Erica dug her feet as far deep into the ground as she could.
"I didn't want to tell you this before dinner, but I guess I have no choice." Erica took a deep breath and exhaled. "We're moving."
"To another borough?"
Erica was silent.
"Upstate? White Plains? Yonkers?"
Erica was silent.
Lorelai grunted. "Jersey?" she said sarcastically.
"California."
Lorelai's jaw fell. The place where the ground moves, she thought. The place where they die without driving. The place where…the valley-girls live. New York City was her beloved. She breathed the air that the empanadas left lingering, and the fresh fish of Chinatown. In Times Square, her and her friends would play "Point out the Tourists," and bonus points for the one who can spot a family reunion by their matching t-shirts.
She often boasted about her diverse friends. "I have my own UN up in here," she always said. But that's long gone now. Long gone.
She looked at her mother, tears welling up. "Why?"
"Well, I finally found a job, honey! Nothing was popping up here, and Angel Grove Hospital is giving me the position of Head RN."
"Angel what?"
Erica went into the closet beside the refrigerator and took out the brochures of Angel Grove. "See how beautiful the place is?" Erica flipped out the Angel Grove Housing brochure. "And that's our new home. An actual house, sweety!"
Lorelai wasn't impressed. Living in a house instead of an apartment meant more crap to clean, and what about transportation? There are no subways in California. What kinda place is that!
"I'll finish up these potatoes. You sit down and take a look at those brochures," Erica said. She looked at her daughter at the dining table, defeated as ever. Erica sighed.
"I'm really sorry about all this, especially right in the middle of your first year. But there's nothing –"
"You don't have to explain. I understand," Lorelai replied with her head hung low. Erica stared at her sullen daughter. With her stomach in knots and a gigantic lump in her throat, she could hardly focus on preparing dinner. New York was her home as well. It wasn't going to be easy for the both of them. Not easy at all.
The disheartened teen glanced at one of the brochures. Two, gleeful blondes were swimming in a lake. She rolled her eyes. Cali-foney-a.