WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Chapter 4: Ace & Amy Jackson

Action Emerald & Darling Amethyst Jackson, really Vala? What the…hell? What drugs did they give Vala for her to think those were good names? They're 6 year old boy/girl twins. And again I wasn't there to name them. I was off-world yet again. I begged Jack to get me out of the negotiations on a dreadfully dull planet full of more dreadfully dull people, but the President showed up and ordered me to go. Brilliant. I blame the President of the United States for the horrible names which my wife, as wonko as she is, decided to name our children.

It really doesn't help she gave them precious gems as middle names. I mean, come on. And I was only gone for 3 days, I come back and the base personnel were laughing hysterically and I could only imagine what she'd named our children. As if Jack naming Indy wasn't bad enough. Sam told me that Vala originally wanted Daniel and Danielle but was warned off those terrible choices (because they were too similar and we already had a son called Daniel). In retrospect I'd have taken two Daniel's and a Daniel over Action and Darling Jackson.

For several weeks after I came back from the negotiations on the planet of the dreadfully dull, I couldn't bare to call the twins by those names. Jack, Sam and Mitchell came up with several ideas for nicknames. Action's were; Tony, Emery, Ace and AJ. Well Jack picked Ace because it was cool. No surprise there. And Darling's were; DJ, Lin and Amy. After Sam decided Amy was a good nickname we all started calling her that.

Ace is very much like his mother, he has her fearlessness and sometimes her irritating habit of being immensely irritating, jet black hair, grey blue eyes but somehow my bad eyesight transferred to him, just like our other 2 sons. Vala was disappointed that he looked like her. Apparently I should have an army of sons who look like me so they can add 'attractiveness' to the gene pool, that's creepy.

Darling is the image of Vala but with my eyes (and yes I mean she wears glasses too). Her temperament is more like mine, although she can be just as mean-spirited as her mother when she's annoyed, usually with Ace. She can wriggle or charm her wait out of anything and I'm almost ashamed to say she's just as cunning as her mother, she has me wrapped around her finger and she knows it. Just like her mother.

We had another argument, about the twin's names, only this time, after they were already named. Vala refused to budge on the issue, despite my hate of both names. I wasn't there for their births and even though it wasn't my fault she blamed me so either way I lost.

Vala really didn't think about the name Darling. That's what she calls me. Has always called me in fact, I imagine that it would've been confusing now if we still called Amy 'Darling'.

The twins think their names are Ace and Amy. Explaining the twin's real names to their teacher on the day we enrolled them was…fun, NOT!