Don't Own AHS
A/N: So I haven't watched the ending to Hotel! Lol (or the last 2 episodes before that) so I need to catch up. Anyway, as most of you know, Dear Johnny will end where Dear Father begins. Johnny is two now and in the beginning of DF he is seven so we have quite the way to go. Hang in there, everyone!
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CH 51- Go, Johnny, Go
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JUNE 1968
Their new home seemed heaven sent and Lana couldn't be any more pleased. However, she did wish that the moving company would bring the rest of their furniture. Alas, that first night they would spend sleeping in a lone mattress in the living room. It almost reminded Lana of their time spent in San Francisco with Margo but she tried not think about that.
Johnny ran up and down the hall, completely ecstatic about their new home. He loved the extra space and would be even more excited to know that there was a park just around the corner. His shrills filled the mostly empty house and bounced off the walls in every direction.
Lana brought in another box from the car filled with a bunch of his toys. She was rather annoyed and had a pounding headache, regretting have given Johnny a piece of candy earlier that day so he'd let her get the last bit of packing done.
Lana set the box of toys down on top of a bigger box where she had a lot of her work papers in; one of the toys inside the box squeaked as she did. She then wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and sighed, "For the love of all that is good, I hope this is our last move in a long time."
Johnny ran down the hall and into the living room, tripping and falling down. Lana panicked for a moment but relaxed when Johnny looked up and giggled. She sighed and went to pick him up, "You'll bust your lip if you keep running like a heathen." She dusted off his overalls.
Johnny just giggled, "We home?"
"Yeah, home." She told him, "We're home." She watched him roam around the living room and then place his little hands on the glass sliding door that lead out into the backyard. Johnny had a tiny little smile on his face and the more Lana looked at him the more he looked like a kid and less like a baby. He was so close to being potty trained that Lana could feel it but she knew once that was accomplished, Johnny would have pretty much transitioned himself from baby to full on toddler.
She wasn't going to lie that the idea of raising a growing boy made her nervous. As of yet, she was raising a baby. A baby who didn't much care for gender norms or the role he would need to take as a man later on in life. He wasn't shaving yet or learning how to tie a tie; things fathers usually taught their sons. He was learning how to put his clothes off and how to use the potty without accidents. Things Lana could easily teach him just the same as if he were a girl. Still, she wasn't looking forward to puberty for she knew not much of men and shoved the thought aside.
Lana sighed, suddenly longing for his wobbly, unsure steps and his gummy smile. What had happened?
"Hey, you." She called to him.
Johnny looked at her.
"Since you look so grown up today, come help me unload the rest of the car."
"Help?" Johnny perked up, "I help!" He then ran past Lana towards the door.
Outside, Lana handed Johnny a little box with the last bit of his favorite toys stored inside including the stuffed dog and the moose. Johnny reached up impatiently, "I do it! I do it!"
"Johnny, you need to be patient." Lana told him and then handed him the small box and watched him trot his way back inside. Before he went through the threshold of the quaint suburban home, he stopped and looked back at Lana, "C'mon, Mama, c'mon!"
Lana smiled sheepishly, "I'm coming." And followed after him.
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Lana stored all of Johnny's boxes in his new room. It was just down the hall from her own and Lana knew that she had to get him to finally sleep in his own room too. It was on the list after getting him potty trained.
Luckily for them, the electric company had gone the day before to set everything up so the house would have electricity. The water and gas was running as well. All that was needed was the furniture and the rest of their belongings that would soon follow.
Lana was in the kitchen putting away some of the plates in the cupboards when Johnny wandered into the kitchen in his pajamas and a big picture book in his hands.
"Mama, I wanna yead." He reached up and tugged on her shirt, "Peas? Peas?"
Lana reached up to put a few glasses away as well. "Not now, Johnny. I'm busy. Later."
Johnny backed away, holding the book to his chest. He glanced up at his mother with that serious brow he had inherited from his father and pouted slightly, "Yead!" he lifted the book up in the air.
Lana turned around, almost bumping into him. She sighed, "Johnny, careful."
He whined, continuing to raise the book up for her to grab. It was past eight and Lana still had so many things to put away. She wanted to clear some of the houses before the moving company brought the bigger furniture. Lana took the book and placed it on the counter.
"You need to get to bed already."
Johnny leaned out of Lana's arms and reached for the book. "I wanna yead!" He cried.
"It's late. I'll read to you tomorrow night. I promise."
Johnny whined and squirmed in Lana's arms.
"Please don't make this difficult." She told him as she laid him down on the mattress they would both share that night.
Johnny kicked about and made angry little growls. Lana sighed, "Oh, Wendy. How I need your help." She said to herself and tucked Johnny back in. "Hey, you want me to read to you?"
Johnny stopped his whining and nodded. "Mhm."
"Okay." Lana stood and went to the kitchen to retrieve Johnny's book from the counter. When she grabbed the book, Lana noticed her typewriter at the end of the counter. It was one of the first things she had brought to the new house and it just sat her patiently waiting for her.
Lana sighed and glanced down at the book suddenly feeling lonely. Lana studied the cover of the book. It was green, orange and white and the title was Go, Dog, Go! Below it a funny cartoon of a little brown dog in a racing car. Lana didn't quite recall buying Johnny that book. It must have been a gift from Barb. She was constantly buying Johnny books. Lana then thought about what she had said in the other room and that strange feeling of sadness crept over her.
Children's loud laughter covered the air of the playground. Their shrills almost gave Lana a headache and she wondered how Wendy could stand it all. Lana opened the door that lead from the playground to Wendy's classroom.
She spotted her lover inside, sitting at her desk looking through a stack of colorful papers.
"Excuse me, Ms. Peyser."
Wendy quickly looked up and gasped in surprise, "Lana!" She stood from her desk and went to the reporter, "What are you doing here?"
Lana lifted a brown paper bag, "I brought you lunch." She leaned in to kiss Wendy but Wendy pulled away.
"Someone could see."
Lana chortled. "Who? There's no one around."
"Still." Wendy took the bag from Lana, "Thank you." She smiled.
Lana nodded and roamed around the classroom as Wendy took the lunch to her desk. "I am so sick of cafeteria food. I swear." She then stopped and glanced at Lana, "You didn't make this, did you?"
Lana stood in front of a shelf filled with many picture books. She didn't bother to look at Wendy and laughed, "No, are you kidding? I picked it up along the way."
"Thank goodness." Wendy joked.
Lana skimmed through the books and picked one up from the shelf. She studied the cover of a little dog in a racing car and tossed it back on the shelf without giving it much importance.
"Excuse you, one day I'm going to meet someone that actually likes my cooking."
Wendy laughed, "I'd love to meet this someone."
Lana only shook her head and meandered around the desks. Each single desk had a little colorful label with the student's name on it. Lana read the names of Eli, Shirley, Mary Sue, Jonathan, Nathaniel, and Michael. She then glanced at Wendy and smiled, "You have all the patience in the world, don't you?" She asked Wendy.
Wendy glanced up from her lunch not sure what Lana meant. "Hmm?"
Lana pushed herself from the desk that said Jonathan and joined Wendy, "Nothing, don't worry about it."
When Lana returned to the living room with Johnny's book the boy was already asleep. Lana sighed trying to muster up the patience but in the end, she hugged the book to her and went to tuck her son back in.
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The next June days were probably some of the hottest Lana had experienced in Boston and wanted nothing more than to stay in where it was cool. However, the boy had other plans and wanted to be outside the majority of the day. On the third day in their new home, while Johnny played out in the front yard with the sprinkler that attached to the water hoes, he made a very pleasant discovery for the neighbors had a pet Labrador Retriever named Mable. She was an older dog that lazily came out onto the porch of her home and laid down in the shade.
When Johnny spotted her, he stopped and gazed at her with wide stricken eyes of awe and gasped.
Mable's owner, an older woman went outside with a tray of muffins. She made her way over to the front porch of the Winters' residence where Lana was seated on the porch looking through some notes on a story she had her eyes set on. The dog stood up and lazily followed after her owner.
The old woman introduced herself as Sally Montgomery and handed Lana the plate of muffins, welcoming them to the neighborhood. Lana was awfully moved by the woman's kind welcoming. Mrs. Montgomery seemed like a very kind and gentle older woman. As so was her dog that let Johnny pet her without worry.
"Hi, dog-dog." He said, petting her head gently.
"Be gentle, Johnny." Lana reminded him.
"Oh, Old Mable doesn't mind one bit. She's great with all my grandkids. All eight of them."
Johnny continued to quietly admire Mable and sat next to her in the shade of the walkway with a piece of muffin in his hands as Mable laid down and stuck her tongue out, gently surveying the neighborhood. Once in a while she would notice Johnny munching on his muffin and would sniff his face, licking his cheek for any trace of crumbs.
Johnny would pull the muffin away, "No, May-bul, s'my muffin."
Lana and Mrs. Montgomery continued to chat throughout the afternoon. Mrs. Montgomery told her that she had five children that lead throughout the city and that her husband had died about five years ago. In return, Lana told her that she had just moved from the city, that it was just Johnny and herself and she worked in the city as a reporter. Then, when Mrs. Montgomery got ready to say goodbye, she pinched Johnny's cheek softly and once again welcomed them to the neighborhood. Mable followed after her back to their house.
Lana then turned to Johnny and extended her hand to him. She needed to get him bathed and into some dry and clean clothes. His hair was still wet from the sprinklers and he had bits of grass stuck to his feet and bare legs. "C'mon, little boy. Let's go inside."
"I wan' dog-dog." He said as he took Lana's hand.
"You want a dog?" She asked, acting a bit surprised.
"Yeah!"
Lana was rather amused, "Maybe one day."
