Chapter 19
Umm…Alan?
The twins, Christine Rose (Chrissy) and Shannon Chloe (Shay), brought madness along with pleasure to their parents' lives. Caring for a set of baby girls along with an ever-energetic Will wasn't easy, but with people like Coach's help, J and Alan managed.
Chrissy, the elder by 3 minutes, soon produced a head of curly blond hair that complemented her sparkling blue-grey eyes nicely. As soon as she was old enough, Chrissy showed signs of inheriting her father's artistic talent. Chrissy's first "weapon of choice," however, was the one area that Alan never touched: painting. During her preschool years, Chrissy produced enough water colors and finger paints to cover the refrigerator in layers.
Shay, obviously the younger, took longer to gain her hair. Once it did grow in, the chocolate curls burst forth with a vengeance. With flashing light blue eyes, (complete with hazel flecks) Shay's short preschool attention span was not held for long by any one particular activity. She went from sports to art to building blocks quickly, and it would not be until high school that she found her niche.
But that's still a little while down the road. Our next event of import takes place only three years later.
***
February 28, 1990
Do I even need to tell you what Alan and J managed to go and do again? I shouldn't have to. So let's just skip the pleasantries and get straight to the facts. This is J's last day of work before going on maternity leave. However, her water broke in the morning. It was so small that J didn't even notice; the fact that she was showering at the time probably didn't help any. Once the labor pains began, J thought that she could put it off until lunch., A little naïve, but this is stubborn J we're talking about. One minor detail that she forgot—Sunshine and Adrienne were in the area, and they are supposed to go out to lunch with Alan and J. So come the period before lunch break, things became rather interesting…
J had only 20 more minutes to go until lunch when she went into the final stage of labor. Between all the screaming, she got the words: "baby" and "Alan" out. Her cries attracted teachers from the hallway and other rooms as one of her students leapt from his seat and raced to the Art Department. The student collapsed in the doorway of Alan's classroom in the middle of his lesson. His shoulders heaving from the run, the student panted, "baby."
Alan's eyes went huge. He dropped the piece of charcoal that he had been using to demonstrate the effects of proper shadowing and sped to the Music Center. By the time he made it there, a crowd of curious teachers and students had swarmed in the room, circling J. It included Sunshine, who had arrived early with Adrienne (who was off calling an ambulance). Sunshine helped Alan push through the group to J. She was half-sitting, half-lying where she previously had been standing.
Alan dropped to his knees, clutched her hands, and helped her breathe. J glanced up with pained eyes to Mike, who had also made his way through the chaos. "The baby's coming NOW" she gasped, "no time for explanations."
Mike nodded and let out an ear-splitting whistle that silenced the room. "I want EVERYONE under the age of 21 out of here!" he bellowed. Muttering in disappointment—it wasn't every day that your teacher went into labor in the middle of class—the students trickled out. Many teachers remained, though. Mike frowned at them. "Everyone…who has not kissed this woman, out of the room!" he ordered. The teachers departed. Now the room was empty except for Mike, Alan, J, and Sunshine. Mike whirled around on the latter and eyed him suspiciously.
Sunshine shrugged meekly with an apologetic smile. "We dated a bit back in high school…" he offered for an explanation.
Mike rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine. You can stay." Just then, Adrienne rushed into the room. "And who the devil are you?" Mike said, exasperated.
Adrienne stared at him, confused, until he remembered. "Oh…that's right, family. Along with Mister High School back there." Mumbling about a school and circus rings, Mike made his way out of the room to decide what to do about the students clustered in the hallway.
***
The ambulance came as fast as it could, but not before the baby arrived. Alan, finally reasonably calm after his frenzied panic during the first two births, delivered the baby under Adrienne's direction. Sunshine gritted his teeth nearly as hard as J, and almost screamed along with her as J grasped his hand painfully tight. He was the replacement after Alan had let go to play doctor. Sunshine had his eyes squeezed shut as well, for the few times that he dared to open them, he turned a squeamish green.
Despite all the adventure surrounding his birth, a healthy Caleb Joshua went home soon after the entire ordeal. The dirt-brown haired, hazel-eyed fourth Yoast child was the quietest of the family, the opposite of his older brother. Caleb preferred calmer games to running around noisily, and once he was old enough, he was most often found with his nose buried in a book.
Life was supposed to be normal after that. As normal as life can get with children, anyway. But when does life ever do what it's supposed to? Especially when we're talking about Alan and J.
***
August 1994
J peeked around the corner of the living room to see Alan hiding behind a newspaper. She couldn't help but smile; Alan had picked up more of Coach's habits than either of them cared to admit. Sighing heavily, she massed her courage. With the kids still asleep and time till they needed to be up, now was probably best. She shuffled into the room and sat down beside Alan. Focusing more on the sofa than on him, J cleared her throat. "Umm…Alan?"
Alan folded the newspaper and put it down at the sound of her voice. "Yes, dear?"
J met eyes with Alan and did her best to send him the perfect puppy dog look. "You love me, right?"
"Of course," Alan replied, suppressing a smile. He was certain that Jules knew that he loved her.
Continuing her puppy dog act, J asked, "you love our kids, right?"
Alan was slightly wounded now. What was going on? Was he doing something? Wasn't he doing something? "You know I do."
J lowered her eyes from Alan's and played with her fingers. "How would you feel about having more?"
Now confusion. What was this about? Slowly, Alan answered. "Well…I don't know. How would you feel about it? I guess we'd have to think about it…"
J cleared her throat again and scuffed the carpet with her foot guiltily. "Umm…Alan…well…it's a little too late for how we feel…but we've got nine months to think about it."
