Future Shot

First Day of School

I woke to two little eyes staring me me right in my face.

"Get up, Daddy! Mommy says it's time to get up! I can't be late for my first day of school, you know."

I groaned and sat up while my daughter yanked on my arm in an attempt to pull me from the bed. I was not looking forward to today. Today I would send my little baby girl off into the cold, cruel world to fend for herself. Alright, maybe I was being a little dramatic. It was only kindergarten but still, I was not ready for this. This little girl had been by my side practically her whole life. I started taking her to work with me at the books store when she was only a few months old. Although it was rare these days for her to come spend the whole day the whole day with me at the store since Mom moved in with us. But, knowing that now she was in school at all day those days were over saddened me.

I sat up, turned on the TV to her favorite channel, and left her watching cartoons in my room while I went to take a shower. When I came back out, she was gone so I figured that Bella had come to get her for breakfast. I was still grumbling about babies and society forcing kids to grow up too fast when I walked into the kitchen. My mom was standing at the counter finishing plates for the kids when she looked at me and started to laugh.

"Really, dear, you have to learn to let go sometime." I just glared at her and she laughed even harder, handed me a cup of coffee and a plate, and told me to go feed my child. I would have loved to make a rude comment back to her about that but we had long since moved past our issues and that was ancient history. Allyssa had been a huge surprise but the next pregnancy, well-we planned on the pregnancy, but not the extra child. Nor did we plan on the complications.

It had been the single most terrifying thing that I had ever experienced in my life. Benjamin had been born; perfectly fine, but just minutes after he emerged, alarms started going off and Bella started panicking. The doctor quickly determined that our second daughter had the cord wrapped around her neck. They quickly rushed Bella out of the room for an emergency C-section while I stood helpless and alone in the delivery room. Bethany had been deprived of oxygen for an extended amount of time and had to stay in the NICU for awhile.

She had slight developmental issues, but nothing that would hold her back completely. Our Bethany was a complete angel and a perfect mix of Bella and me while Benjamin was a miniature me. Even at three years old, he liked to follow me everywhere and mimic everything that I did. Allyssa, however, was a replica of her mother in every way. All in all, I was a very lucky man with an extraordinary family.

I sat down at the table and gave my son his plate then turned to see my wife soothing our Bethie, as I called her. She always reminded me of Bethie from Little Women. She was always so warm, loving, and patient . Except for times like this. She had been trying to get her eggs on her fork. Her failure to do so made her so frustrated she threw her fork across the room. At this point, she would try to give up and start to eat with her fingers but we would always have to stop her. Things like this were difficult for her but they were not impossible. The doctor didn't want us to let her get away with taking the easy way out and giving up. We had to keep pushing her achieve her goals and not accept any limitations.

I reminded Bella that we had book club at the store tonight. I had implemented that a couple of years ago. Then I realized that many of the adults that came to the book club were parents that needed something to do with the kids. So I started a few children's book clubs. They were set in various ranges. The three to six year old group just had a volunteer read a book to them. The six to nine year olds read a book there at the store and then drew pictures about the story while they talked about it. . Then we had the nine to twelve and the thirteen to eighteen groups that ran just like the adult groups, but they were held on a separate night. It was a great success, especially here is such a small town. The schools here loved the book clubs and encouraged the kids to participate. We were probably the most literate town in the country.

As soon as the breakfast was done, Mom reminded us that if we wanted to get pictures of Allyssa, we needed to get to it or she would be late for school. So Bella and I grabbed the camera and took our little baby girl outside and damn near filled up the whole memory card with pictures of her. They had gone up to Boston last week to buy a new dress and new shoes and a back pack with a ton of new school supplies. Allyssa had talked Bella into buying herself a new outfit as well, seeing as it was her first day of school too. Because of all the time that Bella had needed to take off, she still had another two years to go to get her teaching degree. It was such a beautiful morning that we had decided to walk to the school. Bella was behind me with Bethie, and Mom right behind her with Ben, but I had my Lyssa. She was my baby girl and always would be.

After quite a few tears from all of us, we left Allyssa behind at school and made our way back home. That is where; I guess you could say life went back to normal again. I kissed my wife, kids, and my mother goodbye before heading to my car to go open the bookstore. I watched as Bella got into her car and leave for school and Mom went back into the house with the twins before I finally pulled out of the drive. I still drove the Journey. I flat out refused to trade it in at all. I handled the upkeep meticulously to keep it safe and reliable. It just held too many memories for me to abandon it.

When I got to the bookstore, Mary, my one and only employee, had beaten me to the store and already had it open. I found her writing on the new release board before she focused my attention to a new addition to the coming soon display on the wall next to her.

It was the release date of my newest book. It was only the second that I had been able to get published. The first had been the memoirs of my journey with Bella and it had moderate success, even if it hadn't made any national best seller lists. It had been released when Allyssa was only six months old and Bella and I once again climbed into the Journey for a road trip to do the book tour. But this time, we had our daughter with us.

I smiled at Mary, sat down at the table in the corner of the room, and started to do some ordering of supplies and reviewing other paperwork.

"Is Esme still coming to book club tonight?"

"I think so." She had missed the last one insisting that she would be the one to stay with Bethie, who was having one of her bad days. Mary was the mayor's wife and had been a homemaker since the day that she got married. It was right after the twins were born that her last child had left home to go to college in the big city and she decided that she didn't want to sit around home anymore, so I offered her a part time job. She had a business degree and helped me out a lot with that end of the store. And it left me more time to be with my family. She was also very close friends with my mother, seeing as they were about the same age. About every month or two, they would take a shopping trip up to New York together, just the two of them. It was also an excuse for Mom to see Alice too. Not to mention, they always drove through Boston so she could see Emmett too. It was wonderful to see my mother so happy again. Those first couple of years after Dad died was very hard on her.

We had a moderately busy morning with mothers coming in to grab some books and enjoy a chat among friends now that the kids were back in school and they could hold conversations without interruptions. I had a corner of the store set up with easy chairs for this reason.

I was quite surprised when Mom and Bella showed up with the twins at noon for lunch. Bella only had a couple of morning classes and Mom had spent the morning making arts and crafts and they twins had each made me a card just to say that they loved me.

After a quick lunch at the café across the street from the bookstore Bella took the twins home. Mom took off with Mary for a quiet afternoon of whatever trouble those two could find to get into. This was our life together. We had come to terms with everything that had happened in the past, and that is where it all stayed, in the past. My relationship with my mother was stronger than ever since she moved in. Who would have thought that we'd be this close just a few years ago? It just goes to show you that people can change and people can forgive. We just can't forget the past, it makes us who we are.

Tonight, there would be an excited five-year-old waiting on the porch for me to get home from work so she could tell me all about her first day of school. She would go on and on about her teacher, her desk, and all of her friends. In a couple of years, I would have to go through the same thing with the twins and all too soon, I would have to let them go on their own into the world. I just prayed that they would find the love and happiness that I did with their mother.

A/N:

There are a few changes to this outtake from what I submitted to the compilations but nothing major. I am working on the first epilogue and hope to post in the next week or two. Then there will be a second epi set further into the future.