Chapter 21
Kate
At first, everyone thought that Kate was going to have hair matching her mother's, for it was the exact same color. When it grew, though, it turned out straight. Kate also inherited her father's blue eyes. Although her eyes were her father's, Kate took more after her mother. The same mischievous twinkle and puckish grin alighted her face. An incident, as innocent as it was, foreshadowed Kate's future hobby…
***
Alan arose early one Saturday morning, the dawn of his and J's anniversary. Kate was four at the time. Everyone else in the house was asleep, or so Alan thought. As he entered the kitchen, he froze. Every inch of the counter and the table were powdered with a dusting of flour; some even floated down to settle on the floor. Milk was splattered on some parts of the flour, turning it into a pasty mess. Egg, orange juice, and other unidentifiable substances decorated the kitchen as well.
Furiously stirring (which involved more splashing than actual mixing) a bowl in the center of all the mess was Kate, covered head to toe in her concoction. When she heard Alan enter, she gasped and took one glance at Alan's shocked face. There was a breathless second of wide eyes and a quivering lip before Kate burst into tears. "I'm sorry, Da-daddy," she stuttered, sobbing. "I just wan-ted to make break-fast for you and Mom-mmy! For your anni-ver-sry!"
Alan masked his intentions from his face as he crept over to Kate and sank onto the floor, taking her hand and gently pulling her down with him. Alan gathered Kate into his lap and smoothed the hair back from her forehead. "It's okay, Katie," he soothed, using his special name for her. "That was very sweet of you, getting up early to make breakfast for us. I'm not mad, don't worry."
"You're not?" Kate ventured in a teeny voice.
"No, honey, I'm not. And I'll tell you what, Mommy's still asleep, so how 'bout we clean up a little, then I'll help you make breakfast for her. You wanna do that?"
Kate nodded, sniffling.
Alan kissed her floury cheek, "good," and stood, Kate still in his arms.
***
Their first warning actually came long before that. Kate's birthday was April 1, 1995. Note the month and date. Alan and J should have known from right then what Kate was going to do with every ounce of her spare time as soon as she was old enough to be diabolical.
Originally, it seemed that Kate had inherited her mother's musical talents. Kate took immediate interest, at not even a year old, in the piano that sat in the dining room. At two years of age she abandoned pounding the piano keys mercilessly for the melodic strings for J's guitar. From then on, she and the guitar were inseparable.
Even with the guitar taking up some of her time, Kate's attention did not focus primarily on music for long. As mentioned earlier, Kate was born on April Fool's Day. She was destined to become a prankster, and Kate fulfilled her calling with the greatest of enthusiasm, energy, and ingenuity. Frogs, spiders, bugs, worms, spiders, and an assortment of other creatures that belong in the wild, not in pillowcases, began to make friends with Chrissy and Shay's beds. Tape recorders hid under seats in the cars that her older brothers and sisters used on dates. Shampoo was replaced by mud, hair dye found its way into hair spray…and all this before Kate was ten years of age.
Perhaps the most noteworthy of pranks was one that didn't even get pulled off, but still managed to result in a trip to the hospital…
***
By this time, Kate was 5 and Will 17. Seems like a young age to be attempting what she's about to attempt, but Kate had too much of her mother in her to do anything otherwise. It was a fine Friday afternoon. Will had just arrived home from school, fresh from picking up Kate from Coach's (she had morning kindergarten classes, and he picked her up and watched her for the early afternoon before Will was home from school). Chrissy, Shay, Caleb, Alan, and J would all be arriving home shortly, at slightly different times. This time, however, there was an additional passenger in Will's car: Lanie.
It all happened too quickly. Will was showing Lanie the sports trophies in his room. Kate, ever curious, decided that it would not only be prankish but funny as well to climb the tree conveniently located directly outside of Will's bedroom window. Kate never made it all the way up. As soon as J and Alan were entering the house, they heard a crunch, snap, shriek, and crashing thud emanate from the back yard all in a matter of seconds.
The entire family plus Lanie, who had caught the last moment of the fall with Will from the bedroom window, rushed into the back yard to find Kate, clutching her arm, sprawled awkwardly out on the grass.
***
After a brief but fevered discussion with Will, Lanie was dropped off and their entire family made their way to the hospital. "You were supposed to be watching your sister! And you had a GIRL in your ROOM!"
"I thought she was watching cartoons, and we weren't doing anything!"
"That doesn't matter! You had a girl in the room without us knowing! And you should have been paying more attention to your sister! She's only 5 years old!"
"Uhhh…hey, Mom, Kate doesn't look too good…how 'bout I drive us to the hospital."
"Of course you will, but you're still grounded."
The receptionists were delighted to see again the many children that had as babies past through the hospital doors, but were relieved to find that J and Alan weren't back because of a new one. Kate's arm was fractured, but luckily, it was not a full break. For all that they were upset, J and Alan weren't surprised that it was Kate who managed to pull of this sort of last-minute trip to the hospital. What they weren't excepting was whom they met there.
