Author's note: Refer to earlier disclaimers. This story is back to POV shift mode. And thanks for the encouraging reviews so far!
Rugrats Midlife: New Arrival
Chapter Five: And The Name Is...
===Tommy===
3. 4. 5. Those numbers flashed up as the elevator ascended. I was deep in thought, as I often was for the rest of the day, but also alert as well. It'll be a while before the seventh floor is reached. Four persons, one in a wheelchair, boarded in. 6. 7.
I managed to find Room 705 as in that moment I arrived at the nurses' station, Kira went out with her leather purse and a blank expression. I approached her as she closed the door behind.
"How's Kimi?" I asked as she turned to me.
"At ease lad, she's fine." Her voice was reassuring. "You know, Tommy-kun, I do believe she needs you in there."
"Yeah, I know. Say, where are you off to?"
She smiled. "Where else?" To the cafeteria downstairs. "By this time Huseyin must have brought Carlie from school to this hospital."
"What's Carlie doing here?" I inquired, puzzled at my nephew's arrival.
"Madie told him he had a new cousin, in all probability, and so he excused himself from the bus. I had to agree to her request to borrow Huseyin's services for a while." So saying, she headed to the elevators and took her time before the next lift came. I wasn't waiting to enter Kimi's room.
===Kimi===
"So," Tommy said as he closed the door behind him, "how're you feeling right now?"
"Oh, splendid," I replied, groaning. "Well, the pain's over, the baby's out, Mom's just given me a pep talk on the baby...say, what do we name her?"
"Christ Jesus I don't know," he excused. "You're the one who bore her, you're the one who should name her." That bastard!
"Heck, you're the one who got me into this anyway, you name her!" I replied, less angry than puzzled.
"Excuse me, Kimi Pickles, you're the one who was all fired up nine months ago! Why I remember-"
"Oh stuff it, why don't you!" After a moment of silence, as what was bound to happen, we laughed. "No, seriously, Tom, what do we name her?"
Tommy just stroked his chin. I could tell he was trying to think, but it wasn't just coming to him.
"I dunno, maybe something that sounds Japanese or something, you know."
"I'm too tired to think too. Hell, I'm even more exhausted than you are, sport." I could see he wasn't buying that, but I didn't bother with that. What I bothered with was what to name the little girl with both our surnames.
After a while, Tommy looked at his watch. "Hmmm, better go down. Maybe they have ideas." So saying, he fixed his clothes, tightened his tie, and kissed my cheek before he left. "Take care, Kimi. You'll be needing rest."
Indeed. I needed almost all of it.
===Chuckie===
"Ah, parenthood is sacred," Phil, ever the spontaneous preacher, stated. "The beginning of one's family can be considered the acme of one's achievement as well as a trying challenge..."
"So that's why you got yourself to the priesthood, Father Philip?" Lil snickered, and everyone of us broke into laughter. Phil just looked at his twin sister with a deadly glare and pointed at her as if on warning, muttering "Stuff it Lilian, why don't you?" I looked around and saw a figure in olive drab coming.
"Speaking of fathers, here comes one now!" I shouted, and when Tommy approached...
"WOOHOO!!!" I cheered as I met up with my best friend and wrapped my right arm on his body. The rest, save for Stu and Mama, who were just smiling, were cheering him on.
"Whoa, that's a bit too much, fellas!" My brother-in-law replied, overwhelmed by the support. The fact that Phil, Lil, Susie, Malcolm, Dil and Fred were there (Madie was just arriving with Huseyin, Mel and Carlie) was enough of a show of support among us Rugrats (of whom the spouses we have are now part of). My rarely-shown poetic capability was working overdrive.
"Too much? TOO MUCH?! You my good Marine reservist friend, are worthy of higher praise than what we can offer, for in this bright November afternoon, uhhh, ummm, what's her name anyway?"
Tommy just shrugged. "No idea yet." My poetic mind went blank yet again.
"Oh crud," Susie replied.
The rest of the hour we spent giving out female names from just about anywhere-I, having the fewest ideas, volunteered Elsa, Margaret, Dolores (which got all of the rest protesting as we didn't want the girl to be named sadness all her life), even Shiela, my paternal grandmother's name. None of that got Tommy sold.
"Mommy, Daddy, can I go to Aunt Kimi's room, please," young Carl asked Madie and me.
"Oh, I dunno Carlie," I responded, "but I think your auntie needs to rest..."
"Oh worry not, Chuck," Tommy interrupted, "she's fine, and I think she's a bit lonely up there by now. Madz, why don't you go and accompany Carl, Mellie and the rest to 705? Visiting time's up to seven." It's five-fifty in the afternoon.
"Sure thing Tom," my wife replied as she called the rest to come with her. Phil, Tommy and I volunteered to stay behind for the meanwhile, while Huseyin headed back to the car. I handed back Tommy his service cap which I picked up from the reception desk.
He then went to get himself some coffee from one of the coffeepots, only to find that one's thick as asphalt, and after getting another and pointing his previous experience out to the cafeteria staff, he came back to us and sipped his cup.
"Hmmm, decaf, you ninny," Phil said as he sniffed the air.
"It's nearly 1800 hours, DeVille," he answered back. "Six o'clock."
"Fine, fine, we ain't here to argue coffee choices, we're here for the name, remember?" I gently admonished.
"Sure, sure, that's it," my annoyed brother-in-law said. "Well, I'm outta here." Both of us followed him.
===Kimi===
Tommy entered my room as we were watching the local news. After the special feature came the weather update.
"Save for the northern parts of California and most of Oregon the Pacific will experience inclement weather and continuous showers this balmy November day. Now for the rest of the country, rain is also expected to fall..." Strangely enough, Phil was doing some thinking over the weatherman's prediction, muttering yes all over again.
"Eureka!" the Jesuit exclaimed.
"Eureka what?" Lil replied deadpan.
"Don't you wonder why this part of California remained sunny while the rest of the Pacific got drenched?" The rest were wondering what this had to do with the baby.
"Clement weather! Sun shining, cloud cover light, this day fits her like a round hole fits a round peg! NAME HER CLEMENTINE!!!" Clementine? What on earth was this raving lunatic in a white collar thinking, I felt some of them think, and Lil wasn't one of them.
"Ah, I dunno," Tommy said after some brooding. "Clementine's too sophisticated. And I don't think she'll be happy being called Clemmie or Clem by her peers."
"Oh, piff and twaddle," Phil replied. "Clementine is, as you know, a derivative of Clement, meaning considerate, mild. She was a darling to behold, right?" Hmmm, maybe Padre's right, I thought. She was beautiful, she was cute, and if anything, she had the right, no, the destiny, to be named a girl of mercy.
"Hmmm," Tommy thought deeply, and looked around. Chuck, Madie, Dil, Mom, Stu, Susie, Carlie, Malcolm and Phil were silent, but the message was loud and clear. He then looked at me and saw the assent in my smile.
"All right folks," he assented, "Clementine it is!"
"Yeah!" we all cheered at the reply. He immediately got beside me and we shared a kiss on the lips, which I observed made Fred and Lil, Malcolm and Susie, and Chuckie and Madie follow suit. (Wonder why.)
"So what do you think?" I asked to the rest afterwards.
"The name's beautiful," Mama replied.
"Fitting," Stu concurred.
"Clemmie will do," Lilian, my best friend, nodded.
"Yeah, smart choice," Susie and Chuckie said at the same time. Phil, rarely the silent one, just nodded, and so did Malcolm and Madie.
"How's about a second name?" Stu suggested. "After all, she is the 'best of both worlds', you know what I mean?"
"Stuart's right," Mom assented. "She needs to have a Japanese name too, something to complement Clementine."
"Besides," Chuckie added, "Clemmie ain't exactly a popular nickname nowadays."
Another wave of silence followed. I was trying to think of whatever female Japanese name would complement Clementine. Clement means merciful, mercy means love... Eureka!
"Aiko," I blurted out discreetly (irony, ain't it?). "Child of love."
"Perfect match, Kimi-chan," Mama replied. "Clementine Aiko Pickles."
"And here comes she," Susie, who was silent for most of the time in the room, stated. A while back, Susie moved back to the door and was talking to a nurse. Now we found out what the chitchat was all about as she and a nurse brought in the baby.
She was a darling. Save for her nose, eye color, and, I would dare presume, her hair's shade of purple (she was bald), she was mostly like me when I was first delivered. Everyone, Mom, Stu, Chuckie and Carlie, Dil, Tommy, and finally me, got to hold the beautiful (you would agree with me, no?) and healthy baby. It seemed nothing could be more perfect as I laid Clemmie by my side, the latter now more silent than awhile ago.
After some time, Chuckie looked at his watch. "Madz, Carlie, we'd better go home now. Young man, you have homework to do, and I need to do some paperwork Lebedenko gave me. How about you, Mama?"
"I'll stay here," she replied. "Maybe tomorrow, when they'll discharge your sister. Huseyin is tired from the driving in and out of town, and he'll need all the rest he can get."
"So how about you, Thomas?" he then asked.
"I'll be making a letter of official leave. Patterson only took my word for it when I got out of the MCB. D, will you drive Dad home?"
"Yeah sure T," Dil replied. "We'll have to refine the smart lawnmower those guys at Pickles Tech sent us. Plus we'll have to check on Uncle Drew and Aunt Charlotte."
"Suze?"
"I work here, silly," she retorted. "Though Malcolm may go."
"For one thing we just live nearby," Malcolm added, "and my office is just a drive away. You staying here, Tom?" A resounding duh met his query.
"Phil? Lil? Fred?" Something about classes from the former; going home to the kids for the latter two.
"All right then," Chuckie exclaimed as he wrapped his arm around my Tommy's back, "so as I was saying, you my good Marine reservist friend, are worthy of higher praise than what we can offer, for in this bright November afternoon, or should I say gentle November evening, Clementine Aiko Finster Pickles was entrusted to your fledgling and growing family. God bless the both of you, you're number one!"
"Yeah!" cheered the rest in unison. And so ends what could have been another banal, ordinary day with.
"Oh, Tommy," I asked as the rest left the room, "what happens when Clem asks why we named her so?"
"Tell her," he replied, "It's something to do with the weather." He then went off to make his leave letter at the Internet cafe downstairs.
Watch for the conclusion of this story in Chapter Six: Some Weeks Later, coming soon!
P.S. Now that this is nearly over, I need a break. Maybe a month, maybe two, just to recharge my mind. Otherwise, keep reading and reviewing!