TURNING BACK
UNEXPECTED
CHAPTER 8
Hoss had just come out of his room when he heard the new baby cooing and laughing from Adam and Abby's room. He went to look in the open door and saw Adelaide bending over the baby that was lying on the bed, on top of a big towel spread on top of a large piece of canvas. She had just unfastened the diaper when she looked up to see her uncle standing in the doorway.
"Hello," she said shyly, then stood to get a clean diaper from the dresser, but when she opened the drawer it was empty. She turned to him.
"Uncle Hoss, would you mind watching him while I go down to get some clean diapers? I forgot to bring them up when Ma and I finished the laundry."
"Sure," he said, giving his eldest niece a smile, and bent over the baby.
Adelaide was almost out the door when she turned back. "Oh Uncle Hoss, don't take the diaper off, boy babies..." she was saying when Alan let loose a strong, arcing stream of urine that struck the big man in the face.
She stared at him, horrified and came running to dip a cloth in the pitcher on the wash stand and started wiping his face.
"I'm so sorry," she said and to her surprise Hoss started to laugh and took the cloth from her.
"Let me do that," he said and she gave him a wider smile this time as she used one end of the towel the baby was laying on to cover him.
Alan was staring wide-eyed up at his uncle, and started laughing, waving his little arms around, which set Hoss off again.
Adelaide gave him an embarrassed look and started to apologize again, but smiled when the big man quickly reassured her.
"Not your fault, Addy!" he gasped as he finished wiping his face. "Haven't been around babies for a long while and I forgot." He chuckled.
Fully at ease now, she chuckled too, then set Hoss laughing again when she said, "Pa calls that getting baptised!"
In the early hours of that night a smallish, boy-shaped shadow tiptoed down the hallway carrying something in his arms that rattled faintly.
Slowly, he opened Joe's bedroom door, and slipped in. Sometime later he came back out and went back into his room as quickly and quietly as he could.
That morning Adam was in the process of getting his children up and dressed when he heard a shout, almost a scream of fear coming from Joe's room.
Running down the hall, he burst through Joe's bedroom door and skidded to a stop.
Joe was still in bed, flailing at the covers until he freed himself and jumped out of bed as something clattered to the floor. He was running for the door when Adam held out an arm to stop his headlong flight.
Realizing his younger brother was still half asleep he gave him a small shake to wake him up, then moved toward the bed to pick the source of Joe's hysteria up from the floor.
He held the clattering, articulated skeleton up, holding it by the metal loop attached to the skull and firmly held his anger in.
Turning to Joe he said, "Get dressed and come downstairs, I want you there when I find out who pulled this stunt on you."
Draping the skeleton over his arm, he turned to the door to see Ben, Hoss and Abby looking in. Shaking his head, he went out and motioned for them to follow him down the stairs.
When Joe came down, he saw Adam standing in front of the raised hearth with the older children on the sofa. His hands stacked behind his back.
The skeleton was lying on the low table in front of them, the arms and legs askew, as though having fainted, with the skull turned to look at them reproachfully.
Abby, Hoss, and Ben were sitting at the table, unabashedly watching.
Adam motioned for Joe to come stand beside him and swept a grim look across his children.
"What is the first rule about my medical equipment?"
"Never touch or play with anything in your office," they replied dutifully.
He took a deep breath, and all of the children continued to look up at him with the exception of Andrew, who was now looking at the floor.
He spoke to all the children, but was looking directly at his second eldest son.
"Did you stop to think what a shock like that could have done to your uncle?"
By this time Joe was red in the face from trying to hold in his amusement and wishing he hadn't reacted so strongly to what he now saw as a prank.
Adam shook his head, his eyes on his second eldest son. "Andrew, apologize to your uncle, he could have seriously injured himself."
With his head still down Andrew opened his mouth to apologize, but when his father said his name again in a warning tone, he looked up to meet Joe's eyes.
"I'm sorry Uncle Joe," he said and Joe just gave him a nod, not trusting his voice to speak.
"All right," Adam said dismissively, and all the children got up, the girls hurrying up the stairs with their mother to get the younger children, and the boys out the front door, heading for the barn with Aaron.
Joe and Adam came to the table and sat down in their usual places.
Slanting a dark look at his father, Adam shook his head as the other three men couldn't hold their laughter back any more. To Ben's credit he was the first to stop.
Adam propped an elbow on the table and dropped his chin into his hand. Looking at his father he asked, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Ben nodded, "Andrew feels he is not getting enough attention."
Adam nodded. "Abby and I were talking about that last night. So for the next several days, Andrew will get what he's been asking for." Adam sat up and dropped his hand.
"My complete and undivided attention," he finished and smiled at Ben while Joe and Hoss just stared at him, suddenly feeling sorry for their nephew.
"Let me know if you need any help with ideas," Ben said.
"I will Pa," Adam answered and stood to go out the front door and join the boys in the barn.
Much later that day Adam was sitting on the front porch, and Ben came out to join him.
All the children were involved in a spirited game of tag, and their father was the referee.
The two men sat there quietly for some time until Adam turned to his father.
"Go ahead Pa, ask your questions."
Smiling, Ben shook his head. "What did you think of London?"
"Beautiful," Adam answered, "and absolutely disgusting."
His father nodded, understanding what he was saying.
"So you meant it when you said you would never go back."
Nodding, Adam said, "I'm just not sure of where we'll be going next."
"Next?"
"Of course Pa, we can't stay here, your house is bursting at the seems!"
Trying not to show his disappointment Ben asked, "What locations are you considering?"
Adam turned to look at his father, "Well...Abby was all for San Francisco, until she met you, and Hoss and Joe, so now we're considering either Virginia City, or Carson City."
Relieved, Ben just nodded.
"That is if I don't end up in prison," Adam laughed.
Dismayed again Ben asked, "Do you think that will actually happen?"
"Not really, but you never know." Adam shrugged and slanted a sideways look at his father. "When I said those people are insane, I wasn't kidding and stranger things have happened."
He turned to whistle at his children and they all stopped to look at him.
"Abram!" he called, identifying who was "it" next then turned back to Ben.
"I expect we'll be at a standoff for a long time," he ended that subject.
"Have you considered building here?" Ben said, going back to an earlier subject.
"No, that wouldn't work, I don't intend to stop practicing medicine so I need to be somewhere more accessible." Adam shook his head, "Besides, do you know how long it would take to build a house big enough for us?"
"True," his father answered. "Plus, you might have more."
"More children? Are you crazy?" Adam shuddered theatrically. "No, Alan is the last."
"How can you be sure of that son? Abby is still a relatively young woman."
"Pa," Adam said then looked away for a second, "I had a...procedure done...in London before we left."
Ben looked at him, baffled, then his eyes opened wide in horror.
"Oh No! Pa! Not that!" Adam burst out laughing.
"It was a relatively new procedure, and I won't try to explain the mechanics of it to you. The testing proved it worked. Let's just leave it at that."
Ben nodded, still wondering but understanding his eldest son didn't want to continue talking about it.
Then he was surprised when Adam said, "I had the proceedure because my partner happens to be an expert, and I don't want my wife to die from being worn out by giving birth." He laughed shortly, "Besides, ten grandchildren should be enough for any man."
He glanced at his father grinning. "Abby takes pride in having beaten Victoria, and obviously the queen is finished giving birth." He smiled, shaking his head.
Turning away from his father, he whistled again and called out "Adelaide!:
Laughing, Ben watched the children for a while, then a thought occured to him.
"Did you ever see the Queen?"
Nodding, Adam replied, "I met her." He grinned at the surprise he saw on his father's face.
"I was called in to consult on one of the grandchildren."
Laughing outright, Ben gasped, "What did you think of her?"
"She's a very scary lady," Adam answered and Ben laughed harder.
"I'm lucky she didn't have me taken to the tower. She didn't like the honest advice I gave her."
Ben was gasping for breath by this time,
"Luckily my partner was able to smooth things over by explaining that I was an American, and that's just how we are."
His father's laughter eventually trailed off, but he had to laugh again when Adam added, "Besides, the way she refers to herself in the third person gave me the jitters."
Right then Adam noticed Joe was standing next to him. He whistled his piercing whistle again, and stood, calling out, "Uncle Joe is it!" and gave his younger brother a hard shove.
Joe staggered into the mass of children and they started darting and running around their uncle, laughing and taunting him until he got the idea and took off after Aaron. When the only child he managed catch was Amber, he tucked the little girl under one arm yelling, "Amber is it!" and ran around while the little girl held her arms out, ready to tag whoever they could catch.
Adam sat back down in his chair, crossed his arms across his chest, then stretched his legs out and crossed them at the ankle.
Unconciously, Ben did the same and the two just sat there quietly watching the activity until darkness called the end of the game.