Lindsey woke up and glanced at her clock. The red numbers glared 2:45 at her. Then she heard what had awakened her. Her mom and Gil were at it again. Sounds of their love making had become a familiar part of her bedtime ritual but lately it seemed more intense. She wished that her room was farther away from them, she really was learning more about her parents than she wanted to know. Then she heard another sound...from the hall. Slipping out of her bed, she walked toward the sound.
"Mattie, what are you doing?" she whispered.
Little Mattie Grissom was standing in the hall whimpering. "Had a bad dream," he stammered through his tears.
"Oh...okay," his sister answered. Holding out her hand, she told him to come to her room. "You can stay with me," she said.
"Bu...but, I want Daddy."
"I know. And Daddy really is good at scaring away bad things. But you'll be safe in here with me." Of course, Catherine chose that moment to let out a loud moan and squeal her husband's name. Mattie looked up and toward his parent's room.
"That was Mommy. Is she having a bad dream too?"
Lindsey was stuck for a minute. How was she supposed to answer that? "Well, actually I think Mommy's dream's are coming true. Daddy seems to do that for her. Pretty good, huh? He makes your bad dreams go away and he makes Mommy's come true."
Mattie seemed satisfied and curled up next to his sister. "What kind of dreams does Daddy make for you?"
"Good ones," Lindsey whispered as she thought back over Gil's presence in her life. "When I was little, like you...a bad man was in my dreams. He would come in at night and hurt Mommy. We didn't live with Dad yet; we were still with my real father. Anyway, the dreams would be so bad, that Mommy would take me over to Gil's and he would make the bad go away. He was always so gentle and I knew I was safe with him. The bad man wouldn't hurt me as long as Gil was around."
"Daddy did that?"
"Yes, and he wasn't even my Daddy yet. Pretty cool, huh?"
"Yeah." Lindsey could see the hero worship in the little bug's eyes. That had been her nickname for him since he was tiny...the little bug.
Anyway, once I got bigger the bad man went away. Although once he tried to get Mommy at work. Dad took care of him though and he left Mom alone after that. After my father died, I hoped that Gil would be my new Dad. And you know what? He is. He made a really good dream come true. And he's a great Dad too."
"Yeah," yawned Mattie. He was almost asleep.
"Awhhhh, Cath...Oh...comeon baby..." Lindsey rolled her eyes. Enough already, she thought. Don't those two ever sleep...just sleep?
Mattie had heard it too. Sitting up he looked terrified. "Daddy sounded like he was hurt."
"No, buggie..." Okay now what do I say? "Ah, Mom and Dad are...practicing."
"Practicing?"
"Yeah, they did a lot of it before they made you. I guess maybe they are practicing to make another baby." Let them explain that to him, she thought. Serves them right for keeping us up all night. Lindsey was smiling to herself.
"Another baby? We're getting another baby? " Mattie was clearly excited.
"Well, if they keep practicing, maybe."
"Wow, Some of my friends at school have babies. They are kind of icky but they are funny too."
"Yeah," chuckled Lindsey. "Babies can be pretty icky. But they grow into buggie little brothers or sisters. Just like you did. But I'm not sure that that's what Mom and Dad are doing. It just sounds like it. You'll have to ask them to be sure." There, thought Lindsey. Trap is set.
Finally Mattie managed to drift back to sleep/ Lindsey did too after a few more exclaimations from the other room.
The next morning Mattie bounded down the steps finally landing at the table for breakfast. Gil was the chef and Catherine had gotten Mattie dressed. She followed her son to the table, where Lindsey was waiting. "Alright," smiled the chef. "Eggs with bacon and toast. Who's ready?"
"Give it to Mommy first," exclaimed Mattie. "She needs her strength."
Gil's eyebrow shot up as he looked at his wife. "You sure, Mattie? Usually you want the first plate."
"Yeah...Mommy must be tired form all that practice last night. You too Daddy." Mattie grinned at his parents.
Lindsey sat quietly, waiting for what she knew would follow.
"Practice?" asked Catherine.
Great Mom, you stepped right into it. Lindsey was trying to hide a smile
"For a baby," drawled Mattie.
Catherine shot a look at Gil, who shrugged his shoulders. He obviously didn't know what was going on either.
"What makes you think we are practicing for a baby? And what exactly made you think we were practicing?"
"Oh, you know Mommy...you and Daddy make all those funny noises in the night. Kinda like when you are working out but different 'cause you say funny things...and you yell at Daddy. Are you yelling at him to make him practice better?" Mattie had a genuinely perplexed look on his face. Lindsey was having to keep her head down to contain her laughter.
"You heard funny noises last night, Mattie?" asked his father.
"Yeah...and you too Daddy...you were telling Mommy to come on and you were talking about a baby. Were you trying to get Mommy to go with you to get the baby?"
Gil sat down, flabbergasted. What had he heard? HIs mouth was slightly agape as he looked at his wife, who had a similiar expression.
"Mattie, honey...we're not expecting another baby," said Catherine.
"Then why do you practice so much? What do you have to do to practice, anyway?" Innocent blue eyes questioned his mother.
Lindsey couldn't hold it in any longer. Laughing, she stumbled away from the table to her room where she fell on the bed, rolling with laughter.
Catherine looked at Gil who seemed terrified by the question. "He's your son...how you going to explain it to him?"
Oh no..." replied Catherine. "This is man talk here. I've done my duty with Lindsey...you get to do the man talking."
"But Cath..." he whined.
His effort was lost on her, however. She was already headed to Lindsey's room. If her hunch was right, Lindsey had something to do with all the questions.
"So Daddy...is this like the magic balloons?"
"Kind of, Mattie. I can't tell you all the special secrets until you are old enough. But we're not practicing to have a baby. That takes very little practice actually. It's just that Mommy and Daddy really like each other...a lot...and sometimes when we are playing, I suppose we are too loud. I'm sorry that we woke you up. We'll try to be more quiet."
"It didn't sound like you were playing. It sounded like Mommy was having a dream and it sounded like you were hurt."
"Well, that was part of the playing. It's called role playing. You'll learn to do it sometime too, I'm sure." Gil was very proud of himself. This was going very well.
"But Daddy, you still didn't say what you have to do to practice to get a baby."
Well, maybe not as well as I thought. "Well, like I said, it doesn't take much practice. But you have to...ah..." then an idea struck. "Well, you have to learn about feeding a baby and changing diapers, and burping a baby...all those things. Can't have a baby until you learn all about those things."
"Since you already learned that with me, then getting a new baby will be easy...won't it Daddy?"
Gil was befuddled. They'd already told Mattie that they weren't trying but the little guy wouldn't hear them. "Mattie...like I said, we're not ..." He looked at the saddened face of his son. Having a baby seemed important to him suddenly. What's that all about? "Okay, well...I'll talk to your mom and we'll see."
Mattie's face lit up."Really? Can we get a brother? I love Lindsey but I don't think I want a sister. Can we please?"
Gil couldn't help but smile a the child's eagerness. Realistically, a new baby was the last thing either he or Catherine wanted. Mattie was all they could handle and they weren't getting any younger. But he wanted out of this conversation. "Well, Mattie...Mommy and Daddy will have to talk. But please don't expect a baby. When you were born, we agreed that you were more than enough for us. "
Okay, but I still want a baby." He finished his breakfast and scooted out of his chair. After brushing his teeth he collected his Mattie sized backpac and waited for his Daddy to take him to school. On the drive, Gil talked to his son about everything, except babies. As he walked his son to his classroom, Gil told him to have fun. At the door, Gil kneeled and hugged Mattie. "Mommy will be here at noon, Mattie. You have a good day, okay. I'll see you later."
"Bye Daddy. And you'll talk to Mommy, right."
"Sure...love you, son."
After returning home, he found Catherine in their bedroom. "Lindsey got off to school okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, and we have a problem. Seems the walls in this house aren't very thick. She's been hearing us at night."
Gil felt his face flush. "Hearing us...when we're..."
"Yeah. And last night Mattie heard us. That's where all this baby stuff came from. Lindsey told him we were practicing to make a baby."
"Why did she tell him that?" Gil was stunned.
"He was frightened; he thought you were hurt. She said that's all she could think of to say."
Closing his eyes, Gil tried to understand. "So what do we do?"
"Well, we have to be quieter. And we have to find a way to get him off this baby thing."
"Yeah, no kidding. A baby is the last thing we need." He was looking at his wife. She had a wistful expression. Oh no, she's actually thinking about it. "Cath?"
"Gil?"
"You have a funny look on your face...one that says I might be in trouble."
Smiling she answered, "no, not in trouble. It's just...I don't know..." her expression was changing as she tried to formulate her feelings into words. "Lindsey is great and she was my first and special, but carrying your baby, Gil...that was the most ...god, I just felt so..." she was struggling for words.
"Beautiful," he added softly. "You are the most beautiful woman I've ever known. But all those months, knowing you were growing our baby inside; you've never been more beautiful. You glowed." He walked to her and pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. "Seeing you like that, knowing that you loved me that much...it...humbled me," he whispered.
They stood quietly like that for a minute and then she mumbled, "If we were younger, Gil, I'd say let's have a dozen kids. I loved having your baby...well, maybe not everything about it, but Mattie was from our love."
"A dozen, eh? " he was smirking. "Well, I don't know...I mean, I like how you get all curvy when you are pregnant. And it gives the girls there," his eyes indicating her breasts, " more to tease me with. But that's about ten years worth of pregnant. I don't know if there's enough chocolate mocha mint ice cream to support that."
She swatted his arm and giggled. "Well, we can practice like we're working on a dozen, can't we?"
"Practice...like now?" His eyes were sparkling now.
"As in yeah, you'd better be thinking right now," she said as she pushed him toward the bed.
At noon, Catherine stood by Mattie's classroom. Mrs. Troy, his teacher, spotted her and walked into the hall smiling. "Congratulations, Mrs. Grissom. Mattie tells me that you are expecting a new addition."
Catherine stood, dumbfounded. "Ah...thank you, but no. Mattie wants a little brother, but I really don't think that's going to happen."
"Oh, well..I misunderstood. He was just so excited. He's been telling eveyone."
"Okay, well, I suppose we'll have to talk to him again about it. Thank you, Mrs. Troy. I knew he wanted it, but I didn't realize how big it is for him."
Back at home, Catherine sat her son down for a chat. "Honey, please don't tell everyone that we're having a baby.I really don't think its going to happen."
Mattie's blue eyes teared up. "But I thought...Daddy said it is easy to get a baby. He said he would ask you."
"Well, we did talk about it. But sweetie, Mommy and Daddy...well, you know, we're already older than the parents of all your friends. We're just getting a little too old for anymore babies."
"Oh," said the very sad little boy. "You have to young to get a baby?"
"Well...younger. Yes, it's better that way."
"Oh. Like Lindsey?" His face brightened.
"Well, Lindsey is still a little too young. But I'm sure that when it is time for her to have a baby, she'll want you to be a big part of it all. You'll be an uncle to her babies. Uncles are really special."
"Like Uncle Jim and Uncle Nick and Uncle Warrick. And Uncle Greg?"
"Yeah, but even better. They are your adopted uncles. You'll be a blood uncle."
"Wow." He looked so much like Gil when he got excited. Her heart always melted at the sight of his clear blue eyes, so much like Gil's.
"Now, we need to be quiet. Daddy is sleeping. He was really tired. Can you do that, be quiet, I mean?"
"Yeah.I know he's tired. He was up all night making your dreams come true." Those little eyes were sparkling, just as his father's had done just a few hours before. She hugged her son and then walked him to the kitchen to feed him lunch; naptime would soon follow. Maybe one more wouldn't be so bad, she thought. But Gil would just die if I suggested it, she smiled to herself. But maybe if we keep practicing...
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