Thanks to my Beta Reader Americanchick, I could not do it without her help.
I do not own almost nothing here, and I do this only for fun.
It all started in Greece
This chapter is inspired (more or less) by one of most famous plays of the Spanish Golden Age (XVIIth century), "La vida es sueño" (Life is a dream), by Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
I repeat some of the lines in Prince Segismund's monologue, one of the most famous Spanish verses.
Chapter 13
And the dreams... Are they dreams?
...And in all the world, I see,
Man dreams whatever he be,
And his own dream no man knows...
What is life? A tale that is told;
What is life? A frenzy extreme,
A shadow of things that seem;
And the greatest good is but small,
That all life is a dream to all,
And that dreams themselves are a dream.
Segismund's monologue in "Life Is a Dream" by Calderon de la Barca.
A sharp noise woke Stella. She was on the couch, she must have fallen asleep while reading the newspaper, which was at her feet, with scattered pages. It seemed as if something heavy had fallen, a painting or something.
She felt very strange, as if suddenly she was seing herself from outside. But at the time, she also was inside, she knew she was her.
Her outside being part observed the room. It was not her home. But at the same time she knew it was. She recognized some things but not others. She looked around. It definitely was not her apartment. But then, why she felt she was at home?
Surely the noise had been in the twins' room, Stella thought. But what twins and what room...? That's what the Stella who was seeing everything from outside herself immediately wondered... She decided to leave this woman act, wait and see. The silence after the coup was very suspicious. Stella stood up, reaching down to pick up the pages of the newspaper. The other Stella was feeling now that her body had changed something. Fatter? No, it was not that. At least not in general, although she saw herself more... opulent? Two more bra sizes? ...Maybe that was it. God! Had she put silicone, had she gone mad or what had passed through her head?
She headed to the end of the corridor, with the steady pace of one who knows what to do, but at the same time without her "other I" had the slightest idea about what to expect. By opening the door she saw that indeed, a large painting with drawings of animals which presided the room since the owners were babies had unhooked from the wall, and now was on the floor.
"Alexander and MacCanna Taylor... How many times must I say that is not allowed to play with balls inside the house?"
The two children were sitting, very quiet and innocent face, in one of the beds.
The Stella that did not knew what was the case was stunned at what she saw. Two identical kids, about five years, with a round face and blue eyes, white skin and very short blond hair... One of them, with a bat in his hand and the other with the ball recovered...
Both denied completely their guilt.
"We have not done anything..." began Alexander.
"I remind you that you have the evidence of the crime on your hands" said his mother.
"I told you... We can not cheat mom, she is a cop"
"She is not a cop, she is a CSI"
"But the CSI are cops"
"But not all the cops are CSI"
"But all the CSI are cops..."
That was turning into the eternal dialectic discussion between the twins.
"Shut up!" A cry was heard in another room now. "You will stay here quietly until dinner time. You can take books, but not watching TV. And I want not hear the slightest sound". Stella hung again the painting on the wall, making sure it was securely fastened. Luckily, there was not broken glass. "I will see what happens to your sister, she probably wants to eat"
"She only eats..."
"And cries... and sleeps"
"And gets diapers dirty... She's the champion doing that!"
"Yes, what annoying!"
"Shut up!" Stella left the room, hiding her smile.
The nursery was an explosion of pink. "It is too much" Stella often thought. But she could not say anything, daddy was the one who had been commissioned to paint the walls and the decorations... and he could not find a shade of pink more... pink for his little princess. The Stella who watched the story from outside could not help but wonder.
"What happens to this young lady?" The voice of her mother, reassured the baby who lowered the cry level until a whine fuss. When Stella came to the crib, the child had been completely silent, and waved his hands toward her, now smiling and making funny noises.
God she was so lovely... Her brothers were two complete mini-Mac. His own mother, Millie, was amazed every time she saw them, because she said that the twins made her go back in time and she saw a double Mac in his childhood, but the baby girl was a miniature of Stella. Green large and expressive eyes, and a smile that captivated everyone. The little fuzz that covered her head predicted golden curls that perhaps were darkening later.
The Stella surprised by what she was seeing became moved. In a weird way... She was watching her future life, was she? And what she was seeing could not make her happier, to the point that she felt a tenderness out of control.
For now, as his brothers had said, the plan in the quiet baby's life, entailed to eat and to sleep (she did not cry often, only to attract attention when she was hungry, wet or lonely and bored), and it had made her a chubby beauty, quiet and happy. Mac taught her bad habits, and carried her all the time he spent at home. He could not stop kissing, fondling and talking to his baby girl, to the point that the twins had felt a little displaced in the first weeks. Stella made him notice and Mac then tried to devote also a special attention to the kids, take them to the park, run and play with them and share with the two that they started calling "guy things".
The strange Stella knew all thoughts and memories of the Stella who acted at home, as soon as they passed through her mind. She took the baby girl in her arms and sat with her in the rocking chair.
"This little one seems very hungry..." She laughed, taking her little hand to her mothers's mouth. Stella took a soft towel to put over her shoulder while moving the straps of her clothes, leaving one breast exposed. The baby sought the nipple with her mouth without hesitation, sucking greedily. His eyes never left those of her mother. Stella caressed her little head with her free hand. "Calm, you're going to choke..." She reminded her brothers, always hungry and anxious too. Stella remembered how she had felt depressed when she stopped nursing them, already preparing the return to work. That intimate connection with each of their children was something she could not erase from her heart or her mind...
The Stella outside Stella understood now the "opulence". It was not silicone, thank heaven, but something much more natural. And it did not last, surely, when breast-feeding was finished, as it had happened with the twins, when everything, everything, returned to its measure. Pity, she liked herself like that, and she knew that Mac adored her present size... but she had to admit that Mac would find her desirable and sexy, before, after... even during each pregnancy, it was no problem with him.
The noise of the front door closing was heard, followed almost immediately by Mac's voice in the hallway.
"Is there anyone at home?"
Stella heard the twins go on whirlwind to meet his father.
"Daddy, you're back!"
The three appeared at the door of the nursery. Mac carried each child under one arm.
"Look what I found in the hallway. Who will have left there a sack of flour (moving one arm) and another one of potatoes?" (and gave a wiggle to the other)
"Daddy, we are us!"
"I will bring them to the basement, here they only serve to clog. He was a move to leave, as they kicked. Suddenly he rose the two, to kiss their faces. Stella wanted to be serious, but it was hard. She loved to see Mac with their children.
"Best carry the sacks to their room, they are punished until dinner time" Mac raised his eyebrows, looking and exaggerating a straight face, on either of his sons.
"Daddy, it was an accident... really"
"We forgot about the rule of not ball inside the house... And the painting fell"
"But it did not break or anything..."
"And Mom got angry and punished us" They used to half tell the stories, they were really funny.
"Well, you must obey your mother. He left them on the floor. Go to your room..."
"Until dinner time" Stella completed. The children left, resigned. Mac went to his women. He kissed Stella and stood behind her, leaning on her shoulder. The little girl looked at him now, with smiling eyes. She had spent the first impetus and now was sucking with more leisurely pace. Stella stepped back a little to change her to the other breast. She chattered looking at them, and did a considerable burp. Immediately, she grabbed the other nipple and went to her business. Mac kissed Stella's neck.
"Thank you"
Stella turned her face towards him
"For what?"
"For being you, for being here, for giving me the cutest kids in the world, and also... for feeding them so well. Stella gave him with the towel in the face.
"You know I never thought you were so mocking?"
"There is no hint of mockery in what I say, Stella ... I promise you there is none"
Stella looked at the pictures on the shelf in front of her, placed in frames. A wedding photo of the beautiful and smiling couple, another photo in which a smiling Mac noted "two" with the fingers of one hand while the other stroking a really big Stella's belly... one more showed the two embraced with a bit smaller belly between them and finally the most recent image, the whole family, Mac and Stella Taylor with her three children. A beautiful family. The two Stellas converged at that time in the same sense of emotion and tenderness, and tears came about through her eyes, gliding smoothly down her cheeks. Mac was frightened.
"What? I did not mean anything..." Stella did not let him go, she reached over and pulled her face to kiss him.
"Nothing happens, nothing happens. Just thought I'm too happy. If I ever lose all this..."
"We are not losing anything. And you deserve to be happy, my love. We already paid the bitterness fee in advance... Now we deserve to enjoy our family, our life, our love..." Mac kissed her again, this time with more passion. The baby was over, satisfied, and let out another big burp. That gave them back to reality and made them laugh, looking at their little greedy.
"She resembles her daddy in everything..." Mac said as he caught her from Stella's arms, to let her wife go to wash herself and put back her clothes. The little one still gave another softer burp, and a trickle of milk accompanied it. Mac wiped her with a towel.
"What happened, Melina...? Did you exceed the maximum capacity, my chubby little princess?" Melina laughed heartily, his father's voice was the most funny thing for her, and if he rubbed his nose on her neck, chest or stomach, then she overflowed with laughter. Mac went to the changing table and proceeded to change her daughter's diaper. He could not avoid blowing in her navel, kissing her tummy, and finally, doing all the dumb things adults do with babies. Melina could not be a happier child.
Stella watched them from the door, back from the bathroom. She remembered when Mac proposed her, the day he showed up at her apartment, with a bouquet of violets and the engagement ring that his father had offered to his mother in a small box in the bulged pocket of his shirt. It was only a couple of weeks since they had returned from their trip to Greece, and she does not know she was pregnant yet. She knew in that moment she was going to be happy, happier than ever in her life. But she did not know she was going to be so much.
When she went to bed that night, after checking that all the children were asleep and she lay down next to Mac, his arm embraced immediately her waist. She thought it was normal to be afraid, sometimes, that such happiness could be gone.
A sharp noise woke Stella. She realized it was a framed picture that had fallen. It must have slipped from her hand, when she fell asleep.
She looked around, surprised. She was on the couch. And she was... at her apartment. Her heart was beating a hundred miles an hour. There were no children playing with a ball, and her figure was the same as always, no baby to breast-feed. She picked the photo that had slipped. She and Mac were in Greece, with the Parthenon behind. It was one of the pictures of the wonderful and revealing trip from they had recently returned. Some tears rolled by Stella's face... Everything she had felt in the previous moments was so real, so wonderful... and yet none of that had happened.
The doorbell rang. She looked out the peephole and saw Mac's face. She did not await him until the following day, but she opened immediately. Opposite of her was the man of her life. In the pocket of his shirt, the bulge of a little box. In his hands... a bunch of violets.
To be continued...