JENNIE
Mornings in our household was always grand. I would wake up bright and early by five in the morning, I'd wake Kuma up first, then Lego and afterwards Lily. I'd make sure Lego had his bath properly and help Lily too. While Lego and Lily shower, I'd lay down their clothes on the bed and let them decide what shoes they wanted to wear for the day.
I arranged the plates of pancakes on the table and beside each plate was a tall glass of orange juice. I makes sure their lunches were packed and adds a twenty dollar bill to each paper bag of food. Kuma comes down first and select his plate of food.
"Morning."
I smiles brightly at my son. "Morning, Kuma. How was your night?"
"Good." Kuma replies. He looks away from his pancake and focused on me. Even though I tried to hide it, Kuma could see how tired I was. Underneath my eyes were small dark bags and my nose, as well as my cheeks were pink. A tell-tale sign - Kuma had picked up on-shows how tired I was.
"What time did you go to bed?" Kuma asks, intently staring at me who just shrugs and walks to the fridge. I pats underneath my eyes with the hand not holding the refrigerator door. I doesn't know how Kuma always knows everything.
"Immediately after I left your room. Why?" I asks, not moving away from the fridge.
"So it wasn't you watching 2 broke girls last night?" Kuma asks and it was so sudden that it made me turn around and stare at my son with shock.
"You are awake?"
"I wanted to know what time dada would get home." Kuma replies, shrugging his shoulder in a nonchalant manner. "Is she still upstairs?"
"She came back late, so I wanted her to sleep in a little."
"She's just going to yell at you for not waking her up on time. You always do this. Do you like it when she screams at you and looks seconds away from hitting you?"
"That is no way to speak of your Dada Kuma Jane Manoban. She brought you into this w-"
"No, you brought me into this world, Mommy." Kuma says, quietly. It's been so long since I heard my little boy call her Mommy. Hearing it now was causing a surge of tears to come forward. "The moment she hits you, we are gone. Promise me, Mommy."
I blinks repeatedly. "Kuma..."
"Promise me, Mommy. We need you. Me, Lego, Lily and Luca need you. Strong you and not a beaten up you. The moment she hits you, we are gone."
I walks around the table and hugs Kuma, my hand pressing Kuma's head to my chest. "I promise you. The moment she does, we are gone."
Truthfully, I don't wanna think it would ever come to that but I had promised my eldest, the first fruit of my womb. With perfect timing, Lego and Lily walk into the kitchen. They stare at Kuma and me like they were growing extra head and it almost barked out a laugh from me. Kuma has been angry at me for so long that Lego has lost count. The last time Lego and Lily had seen their older brother hug me was Kuma's fifteen's birthday, four months ago.
I pull back and makes my way to Legoand Lily. I presses a kiss to their foreheads and to their cheek.
"Morning, Mommy." Lily sings, smiling so wide at me that her cheeks were red.
"Morning too, Mommy." Lego said.
"My darling, why don't you take a seat and enjoy breakfast." I says, leaning down to press another kiss to their hair.
Lego takes his seat beside Kuma and dug into his breakfast. I assists Lily into cutting her pancakes into small pieces. I quickly glances at the time and sags a little in relief when I sees it's just ten past seven. By the time my kids would be done with their food, their school bus would be right outside.
"I'm getting your backpacks." I told my kids who just nod and continue eating. I takes the stairs by twos and goes into Lily's room first. I makes sure all her books were inside, after I was Lego's room and I also makes sure Lego's extra pair of glasses were in the bag before going to Kuma's room. She checks the bag for books and the small compartment in front for pens and pencil.
I quickly goes back down the stairs and into the kitchen. I zips open their bags and places their respective lunch bags into it. Kuma was the first to finish and he dumps the plate in the sink, Lily was the next and with little struggle she also dumps her plate in the sink. Lego was the last to finish and immediately he places his plate in the sink, a loud horn was heard outside. The bus was here.
"Okay, have a nice day! Pay attention in class! Love you!" I yells as my children pick up their bags.
"Yeah, okay."
"Love you too, Mom." Lego yells back.
Immediately I hear the sound of the door being shut, I lets out a really loud yawn. My kids chatter was giving me strength but now that the house was empty, my fatigue has come back with full force but first things first. Luca.
I walks up the stairs again, silently wishing I was living in a bungalow instead of the two storey beauty I was living in. I was almost at the top when Lisa comes out of the room already dressed for work. She had a charcoal neatly pressed suit on and the tie was left hanging. It made me smile because no matter how many times I teaches Lisa or helps her knot the tie, Lisa never learnt.
"Morning, love." Lisa greets me. Her smile was bright and it wasn't something I was expecting this morning. I'd take a pleasant Lisa any day than a yelling one. So I quite satisfied.
"Morning, Love. How was your night?" I asks as I reach out for Lisa's tie. My hands move with expertise as I knots it perfectly and pushes it up to hold the collar of my wife's shirt.
"Amazing. You are always so warm and cuddly in the middle of the night." She says, reaching up to cup of my face. "You look beautiful this morning."
My cheeks and nose turn a rosy pink. I playfully slaps her chest and tried to move away but Lisa grabs me by the waist and pulls me closer. "Lisa, flattery will get you nowhere. You've already married me, remember?"
Lisa laugh at that and I feels a pang in my heart. It's been a while since she has heard Lisa laugh like this in a while and I wonders what happened last night? What changed? I stares at her intently but the answer isn't on her face.
"Flattery will get me everywhere, love. Just because we're married doesn't mean I can't continue to tell you how beautiful you are, how soft your skin is, how bright your eyes are in the morning, almost as if you've got stars in them, how your li-"
I laughs. "You are a crazy person, love."
She leans down and closes the distance between her and my lips. Pulling me close by the waist as she kisses me so hard, my toes curl. With my hand resting on her chest, I kisses back with everything I got. It's been a long time since I had felt Lisa's touch and it feels like my skin was on fire.
We pull apart after a few minutes, a thin line of saliva between our lips. I bites my bottom lip and looks up at her from beneath my lashes. Lisa reaches up and tugs down bottom lip.
"Beautiful."
I chuckles. "You're quite handsome too, Lalisa Manoban."
Lisa was about to reply when were both interrupted by Luca's loud cry. I looks away from Lisa to the direction of Luca's door. I looks back and Lisa and smiles at her.
"Looks like someone just woke up. Want to say hello before going?" I asks her.
Lisa doesn't think it over, she doesn't even move towards the direction of Luca's room. Instead there was a look on her face that I couldn't place. "I can't. I'm already late because someone didn't wake me up." She sneers. Her reaction so far from what I was expecting that I shrinks back a little. I stares at her and tried to understand what caused the change in attitude.
"Lisa, I'm not in the mood for your shit this morning. Take your cranky ass downstairs if you're angry, there are some pancakes in the kitchen." I spits before she could stop myself. I was too tired to feel submissive this morning and I'm so tired for Lisa's mood swings. Me is the carrier between the two of us, I should be the one with mood swings. So who does Lisa think she is?
"By the way, Lego has a science competition coming up soon and you promised to help him with his pinhole camera." I adds.
"I'm busy, Jennie. I don't have time to play with kids."
I stares at her. "You do know, they are your children. Your sperm? Oh who am I kidding? Go on off to work. Enjoy your day."
With that I walks away from her. I shuts Luca's door immediately I walks into the door and makes a beeline straight for the bed. My little boy was standing and holding onto the crib with his small hands, his large blue eyes looking at me like he was betrayed. His nose were already red and his cheeks had a light pink tint. It's a habit he got from me.
"Morning, darling."
"Mommy..." Luca says in greeting, reaching up to grab my hand I had on the top of the crib. I laughs and lifts my little boy from the bed. I uses the opportunity to pat Luca's diapers to see if he made a mess.
"Let's get you ready for the day. We're going to have lots of fun with me today. We're going to get groceries, dance and do laundry, sing till our throats hurt and you, little, Luca are going to shake that booty that I gave you." I cheers as I walks towards Luca's bathroom. I quickly stripped Luca of his clothes as the little boy babbled with excitement. Getting Luca ready for the day took a lot more than twenty minutes and by the time Luca was fully dressed and ready to eat, I was soaked to her bone. Bathing for Luca has always been a tricky thing.
"Come on, baby. It's time for food." I sings. I doesn't pick Luca up this time but allowed him to walk till they got to the stairs. The entire house was silent and the heaviness of it weighed me down. I picks up Luca and goes down the stairs, then turned to the kitchen. I places Luca in his high chair and looked through the fridge for my little boy's food. I wanted to give Luca something light but a bit heavy, something Luca likes and won't spit it out or throw up.
I grabs the box of mashed potatoes from the cabinet above my head and flicks on the kettle. I grabs as small bowl and waits for the water to heat up. Luca just sits on his chairs and babbles to me the occasional I leaving his mouth. Luca looked so much like me. We had the same dark hair, same pointy nose and lips. But like all of our children, he took Lisa's blue eyes.
I was snapped out of it by the feel of my phone vibrating in my pocket. I thinks for a minutes, this is the closest I've had something near my crotch. I laughs at my self in pity as I pull the phone out of my pocket and picks the call. I smiles when I sees it's my best-friend calling.
"Rosé. You've finally called." I said, my smile big and bright.
The kettle goes off. I puts the call on speaker as I goes about making Luca's food.
"You're saying it like I abandoned you. We spoke a day ago, remember? I called you to complain about the fake Channel bag I saw." Rosé defends herself and I couldn't call bull because it was true. Her friend has almost burst into tears as I told her about the black bag she had seen.
"How are you, Rosé? Are you eating well? You aren't sick are you?" I asks just as I places Luca's food in front of me. I waves the spoon in front of Luca's face and the boy took it into his mouth without protest.
"I am not Jennie. Jennie, we are not married. I will live my life how I want to. But to answer your question, yes I am eating well. The other night I had a date and he took me to that new restaurant on 14th street and we had Lobster." Rosé says and I could feel she roll her eyes through the phone.
"Did you just roll your eyes at me? Tell me you didn't just roll your eyes at me." I says as I feeds Luca another bite of mashed potato. "Luca, say hi to your aunt."
"Hi..." Luca parrots back and looks at me with big eyes as if he was expecting a reward for being a good boy. I smiles at my son and presses a kiss to his nose.
"Hi my wonderful boy. I bet you're all big now, " Rosé said.
"He is. He's starting to look more like me now." I says as I lets Luca take a sip of water from his cup.
"All of your kids look like you, well except Lego, he looks more like Lisa." Rosé says. "Speaking of Lisa, how are you guys? Still lovey-dovey as usual?"
I pauses at that. Lovey-dovey. It's been a long time since me and Lisa were lovey-dovey. I doesn't even remember the last time we held hands or the last time Lisa had made love to me. I doesn't even remember the last time I got flowers from my wife, heck, I doesn't even remember the last time Lisa came home at dinner time, not by one am when every one of our children had fallen asleep.
"Jennie? You there? Is something wrong?" Rosé asked, worry laced in her tone.
Is something truly wrong? I asks myself. I'm not stupid. I had seen something and heard whispering. I was not stupid. Something was truly wrong and I don't know how to fix it. Was it my fault? Maybe it was something I did or said absentmindedly, I don't know.
I just wants my wife back. The wife that used to send flowers home to me every day, the wife who liked to read my corny poems and say cheesy things, the wife who would cuddle with me and reminisce about anything and everything.
"Jennie? Should I come over? Is something the matter?"
"Rosé." I says. I takes a deep breath to push back the tears that were threatening to fall. "I think I have lost her."
"Jennie. What do you mean?" this time Rosé sounded frantic and I could hear the sounds of something scratching glass and I knows Rosé has grabbed her keys from the glass bowl next to her door.
"I have lost Lisa, Rosé. She's not the same woman I married. I just feel like we're roommates now. She just leaves every day and comes back late every time. She doesn't spend time with our children and they all miss her and I just don't know what to do anymore, Rosé."
"I'm on my way. We'll talk about it when I get there, alright. Just take care of Luca until I get there." Rosé says, her voice soft and I just nods. Luca was done with his food and done with his water. So I just lifts him off the chair and takes him to the sitting room. I flicks on the television and changes it to Baby Tv to keep Luca entertained.
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