JACKSON
"Are you almost ready to go, babe?" I called down the hallway.
"Just a minute!" April's voice chirped back.
Adjusting the watch on my wrist, I glanced down at the time. It's about time for us to get going if we don't want to have to walk for too long from the parking lot to the church. It's not a far drive to the church, but the parking lot was always a nightmare for the later service, a combination of people leaving from the prior one and others trying to squeeze in at the last minute and get in a good word with the man upstairs. That didn't matter much to me, really. I just wanted to be with my family.
Another minute ticked by on my watch and I let out a slight sigh before heading down the hallway to see what the hold up was. I knew that she was already dressed and working on Harriet. I'd gotten her fed, but April always insisted on dressing her for church. I didn't get in the way of that.
"Hey, you sure you don't need another hand?" I questioned as I peeked my head into Harriet's nursery, not wanting to push too much but not wanting to have to be late, either.
"I've got it!" April insisted. Harriet was kicking her feet around as my wife tried to get her little Mary Jane's on. She gets it clasped after a moment, fixing her sock. "See? Totally under control. I wonder if these are starting to get a little small and maybe she doesn't like them anymore." She explained while poking at her covered toes, no doubt checking for herself.
I looked over my daughter to see what she'd been dressed up in today, a dress with a white top and frilly sleeves, the bottom half an appearance of a jean skirt. It's a cute outfit that I haven't seen before – she must have bought it recently.
"Uh huh." I hummed. "Well, if we don't leave now, we're going to be late." I reminded her.
"We're ready, aren't we ladybug?" April scooped up our daughter with a quick kiss on her forehead, carrying her on her hip. She moved past me out of Harriet's room and to the front door proving her point, where I get the door for them both.
Once they were both out the door, I locked the door and got in the car, waiting on April to get Harriet tucked away securely inside of her car seat. Turning on the engine, I backed out of the driveway and began the familiar drive to church.
Even if I still don't believe in the whole God and Bible concept, I believe in April and she believed in all of it wholeheartedly, so I would support that decision. I'd go even if I would tune out most of what the preacher had to say, and I'd remain seated whenever they did the wine and bread thing. I'd encourage Harriet to keep an open mind to both sides of the spectrum, but I wouldn't intrude on her if she wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a woman of God. It was her right to be one just as much as it was her right to not be one.
The parking lot isn't terribly crowded when we get there, but I still drop off April and Harriet by the front doors and go around to park. I knew she liked getting a good seat near the front and didn't mind being quite so close, even if it made it a little more awkward to scroll through my phone during the service.
Spotting the vibrant curls of her red hair never takes long once I'm inside. I keep my hands tucked into my pockets and head down, always keeping to myself. Even if everyone here is pretty nice, I'm pretty sure none of them are quite as accepting of my choices as April is.
"Right on time," April greeted me as I sat down next to her, arm slung over her shoulders with Harriet sat between us.
"Just for you." I placed a quick kiss on her temple before falling quiet for the service to begin.
As the preacher began to speak, I find myself tuning out of the testimony occurring on the stage. It's one of the few situations in life where I feel more like a bored teenager than the man I had grown into. I don't need the application of Bible verses to get the same life lessons from what he was going on – to me, really, it cheapened the whole thing. But that's one thought better left to myself than getting into a fight with April. It wouldn't have done anything other than hurt the both of us. That's not something I'm interested in doing.
An hour came and went by with me tuning out the sound of what was being praised. I keep up appearances enough to shake hands with neighbors and stand when the others do, out of respect, even if I don't participate in it otherwise.
"You ready?" I questioned as people around us began to get up and leave.
"Mmhm." She leaned over and pressed a quick kiss on my lips before scooping up Harriet and holding her on her hip as she stood up. Our little one was walking, but when it's this crowded and there's a parking lot to get through, better safe than sorry. It also happened to be quite a bit quicker.
"We getting waffles?" I ask the question as if I don't already know that the answer is yes. We have the same routine every Sunday, waking up at a timely hour to get ready for church, attend, and then, have waffles and brunch after. It was something that we'd first talked about when she was pregnant with Samuel, seemingly a lifetime ago, and we had chosen to reincorporate it into our life after Harriet was born.
"Yup," her hand gave mine a small squeeze as we continued walking.
It doesn't take too long to get to our car because I had gotten a decent parking spot earlier, and I help her get Harriet sorted in her car seat before we take off toward our usual brunch spot.
We go to pretty much the same place every week after church unless it was exceptionally crowded. It's a little local place that we both love, as did many others, given that there is usually a bit of a crowd after any given church service of people coming in for brunch. If there's a wait, though, it's pretty much always worth it.
This particular morning, fortunately, there isn't one.
I hold the door open so that they can walk in before me, April holding onto one of Harriet's hands as she walked herself in. She waited to scoop her up in her arms again when the hostess got us seated at a table by the window, getting her in the high chair.
Once all of us were settled in, the waitress came over and took our order for drinks. It's a little bit noisy but not too over the top, convenient enough that it keeps Harriet's occasionally inappropriate noise level from being easily noticed.
"So, what did you think about the service?" I ask for her sake more than my own.
"I liked it," April beamed at me, clearly pleased that I was asking. "I liked what he said about believing when it's not convenient. I think that's important and it's something that my parents always taught me, but I don't think people talk about it enough. It's easy to believe when there's a miracle right in front of you, but it's hard when there's nothing." She rambled on excitedly.
"Yeah, I get that." The concept of it, at least. "You've always been good at believing no matter what else is going on." How she'd managed to find God on the day that our son had been born and subsequently died, I'd never understood. I was still unable to find peace with any of that.
"Now I'm cheating just a little bit, though." She reached over toward Harriet as she spoke, fixing one of the clips in her hair that had come lose in the past hour.
I raised an eyebrow at her. "What do you mean?" I asked.
"I have my little miracle right here." Her words made me smile. Everything about Harriet, from her timing to the fact that April had been able to survive such a brutal c-section without any major deficits, was hard to explain scientifically. I knew that miracles happened, one way or another, regardless of putting the explanation on a higher power or the mere fact that science didn't have a complete understanding of the world. "Makes everything just that much easier."
"Yeah, she definitely does that." I couldn't help but reach over toward our daughter myself, smiling when Harriet wrapped one of her tiny hand around my finger and pulled at it.
"Were you listening to the sermon?" April returned the question to me, and I'm not surprised.
"A little," I shrugged as I gave an honest answer. I couldn't tune it out completely even if I didn't absorb most of it. "I was mostly just people watching, though." Something to do that wasn't at least giving the appearance of complete disrespect while everything that was going on.
"See anything interesting?" The smile on her lips was light and friendly, not offended by my lack of interest.
"Today was pretty mild," I admitted. "Some kid was pretty into the Angry Birds app that he was playing on his phone. The mom kept trying to get him to put away but he ignored her every time."
April made a face, her nose scrunching up adorably. "I never want our kids to be like that. Not even just because it's church – but addicted to technology and disrespecting their parents like that, especially in public. I don't want to spoil her with all that kind of stuff. She should love playing outside and make pretend, not silly video games." She spoke emphatically.
"I agree." I nodded. Even if I had been a bit spoiled growing up, it'd been a different generation then. Not one that was riddled with technology everywhere. "Hanging out with my friends are some of my best childhood memories. I don't want her's to be staring at a screen."
"Good," she smiled. "I'm glad we're on the same page."
Before that particular conversation could go any further, the waitress returned with our drinks and took our orders. We both ordered waffles, hers with a fruit cup as a side and mine comes with bacon. I know that waffles aren't her favorite breakfast food – she preferred pancakes but on any other occasion when we went out to brunch, usually got an omelet or something else egg based. But Waffle Sunday had been the tradition that we'd said we would have after church, and she had gone along with it seamlessly. Plus, Harriet would end up eating off both our plates, and she loved waffles. Definitely my little girl.
We continue to make idle conversation about plans for the rest of the day, a little bit of grocery shopping and the likes, moving forward from the church service a bit to my own relief. I like to ask only for her, so she can express her thoughts and be somewhat more involved even if I don't believe in it. I think it was something that she appreciated.
Our food is brought out in a timely manner and we don't hesitate to get the waffles covered in syrup and dig in, both of us alternating in getting Harriet fed as usual.
"I know we need to run to the grocery store today, but do you think that we can swing by the mall this afternoon, too? I want to get her feet measured and see if these shoes are getting too small for her. She might need to go up half a size." April asked, though she certainly needn't my permission for it. It's conversational more than anything else.
"Sure," I nodded. "Do you want me to go with you, or is this a girl's only adventure?" I asked, a smile breaking across my face once more.
"I suppose you can come," she laughed before taking another bite.
I reached over to Harriet, feeding her one of April's strawberries. "I think she could use a new pair of Nike's. Maybe we could get a matching pair for all three of us, instead of just Hattie and Daddy. How do you feel about that, pumpkin?" My voice was soft and a little high like I was just talking to Harriet, even though the question is just as much for April.
"Of course you want new Nike's." Even though her eyes rolled, when they settled on me again, there's nothing but absolute fondness to be found in her gaze. "Only if we can find a pair that I like. Some of those shoes are not attractive and people just buy them for the brand alone." She concluded.
I scoffed in fake offense. "First of all, I would never. Also, that's overall incorrect."
"If that's what you need to think, darling." April grinned teasingly with her words, clearing off another piece of her waffle from her work.
"Maybe your wardrobe is the one that we need to work on," I teased her.
"Uh-huh. Sure. If you had your way, it'd be… leggings and bralettes anywhere and everywhere." Man, my wife definitely does know me well.
"Is there something wrong with that?" I posed with a raise of my eyebrows.
April laughed again. "I guess that depends on how uncomfortable you are with other people staring at your wife." She shrugged, a knowing smirk pulled across her lips, just a little shiny with syrup.
"You know that? You're right. It's going to have to be sweats for days. You're too hot and we can't let anyone else know that." I beamed as I responded to her.
"I think I'll just stick to what I've already got." She was still beaming at me, rivaling the sun.
"Guess I won't argue with that." I softened, gaze dropping below her face for a moment. "I didn't get a chance to tell you in the rush this morning, but you look beautiful today, April." She was wearing a soft pink dress, simple and classy. I wouldn't have thought anything of it on a hanger, but on her, it was perfect.
"Thank you, Jackson." April smiled at me.
We finished up our meal and made sure that Harriet had gotten enough to eat before requesting the check and paying for everything, as always leaving a generous tip for the waitress. Even though we've got a few more things that we want to get done for the day, we drive home so that we can at least change into some more casual clothes. Harriet would stay in her little outfit, though. She looked too adorable to mess with it.
Harriet gets put down for a brief nap before we get anything else done, not wanting to risk her getting too grumpy or fussy when we have to go out with her. She's pretty good about being in public, but a sleepy toddler was still a sleepy toddler.
"Thanks for going to church with me today, Jackson," April snuggled up against me with her arms around my waist, her chin on my chest as she looked up at me. "You know how much I appreciate it."
"I do," I dropped down my chin, kissing her softly on the lips. "Just like I appreciate my waffles and my family."