Chapter 16

The day Mark was able to come was the day that Amber left the hospital. But he came in early though so he came to visit her in the hospital. The three of us, and Claudette, were in the hospital room together talking. Mark held her now, and at one point just closed his eyes and was silent for a long time. I thought he getting a vision until he said: "I'm not seeing anything, Kane."

I laughed. "Then when is it?"

He didn't answer me right away. "I'm remembering the first time I held you. I was five. And this child looks exactly like you did…"

Pain rose in me for a moment, thinking of the fire, but Amber giggled. "That sounds so cute." I noticed that Mark had started to look sad, obviously thinking about the same thing that I was, which was always the case when we thought about or mentioned out younger years. Childhood- a word empty to us both. Amber sighed. "Will you two stop it? You guys are pissing me off! Be happeee! Happeee!! You two are my evil fire kitties, don't do this."

Mark laughed and rocked Claudette. "Hey eyes…" he whispered. "They're like pearls." Amber gasped.

"What?" Mark and I asked her simultaneously. She was smiling.

"Pearl," she said. "It's perfect. Claudette Pearl Callaway."

She was right. It had a nice, feminine ring to it. We had it made official on her birth certificate. And later that day when we came home she let Claudette sleep while she went to work painting a piece of wood that said "Pearl" in  fancy cursive.  When we first walked into her apartment though she almost cried. Her apartment was filled with balloons, flowers, baby toys, clothes…she had asked not to have a baby shower for fear that too many wrestlers would spend too much money on her but it turned out that they did so anyway. She walked from room to room, looking at all the clothes and diapers and toys and even the huge stack of fan mail. And I waited for her in the living room with my surprise. When she walked in and saw me she almost screamed. Mark laughed, absolutely doubled over and laughed, tears streaming down his face as I handed her Jake.

"Gah! Oh my god!!" she was screaming as we exchanged Claudette for Jake. Jake was so small that he could fit in her hand. Perhaps that was why Mark laughed at me, implying that I looked ridiculous. She looked so happy that she was going to cry. "Oh my god, Kane! It's a duckie!" she yelled, holding and petting the little yellow duckie.

"Shh," I said to her, noticing that Claudette's face was twisting. "Don't wake her up."

She laughed and laughed. "A duck, Kane, a duck! Oh sweet Jesus a duck! I can't believe you took me seriously!"

"Call it a Valentine gift…or an anniversary present…"

She looked sad for a moment as she held Jake to her heart. "Shit, I didn't get anything for you…"

I looked down at Claudette. "Of course you did…you gave birth to our little Claudette. Ha. 'My little Claudia!'"

"Ooh!! Ooh Kane let's watch Interview With the Vampire! Please please!"

I nodded and laughed at her enthusiasm. Mark took it upon himself to clear balloons out of the way of the TV and rummage through the chest next to it before he pilled out the tape and stuck it in. We all sat down, silent immediately. I let Mark hold Claudette as I held Amber and she held Jake. We must've looked hilarious.

So for another two hours of our lives we were silent, except of course for a few random outbursts with the movie, such as: "There's still life in the old lady yet!" and: "She pollutes the very house we live in!" or: "The ship is sailing without us!" And then of course was "Somebody change my shorts" and a few minutes trying to perfect our impersonation of Antonio Banderas' pronunciation of "good." We had a jolly old time.

That night, after Mark had left, Amber was on the phone with Vince. I heard things coming from her but not from Vince.

"But…no I didn't…I want to…I will…ugh…Jesus that's too long…what about Kane?…Please?…Why not?" she was arguing with him about coming back I suppose. After a while I decided not to listen to it and I walked through our bead curtains from the living room to the foyer, where I took Interview With the Vampire off the shelf and walked to the other side of the room through the little door into Claudette's nursery, where she slept soundly. I turned on a light, still astonished at the amount of things that she'd been spoiled with. I pulled up a rocking chair and sat next to the crib.

I began to read, " 'I see…' said the vampire thoughtfully…'"

Claudette, after a few moments, opened her eyes and looked at me, silent and concentrated on me as I spoke softly. I was on page five when I heard a stifled giggle and stopped to turn around.

Amber stood in the frame of the door, laughing. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm reading to her."

She gave a little bit of a whine. "God Kane. You're so goddamn cute," she sighed happily. "Oh I wish I could take a picture of you." I laughed softly and looked back to Claudette, who had fallen asleep again, who lay on her stomach, looking very comfortable and very cute. I closed the book, making a not of the page that I was on, stood, left the book on the chair, and walked over to Amber. She seemed so much weaker now, without the extra but of weight from Claudette and still a bit exhausted from childbirth. But her weakness was beautiful to me, and I folded her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. She pulled the door closed of Claudette's room and we kissed, walking backwards with each other into our bedroom and onto the bed. She seemed so frail…so pretty. We were about to engage in one of our favorite activities when she asked in a small voice if I would stop. And so I did, not knowing how to feel for a moment.

"What is it?" I asked her. She sat up and pulled her shirt closed.

"Kane, don't be offended…but I really don't want to be doing this right now." She laughed. "We've been together for a year now and never once have you used a condom. Listen, we just had a daughter. I want to work, I love to wrestle. I don't want to get pregnant again…not yet anyway."

I smiled. "You mean you wouldn't mind having more children?"

"With you?" she gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Of course not."