San-Li woke up with a start and put her hand to her stomach. This time she was sure. The baby inside of her definitely quickened. The thought brought a smile to her face. Little Sammy or Samantha was in there somewhere trying to get comfortable.
Sam continued to snore softly, his arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders. He had taken to spending more and more nights at her place where they would spend hours in bed talking about what kind of kid their baby would be. That and he would pester her about new research on parenting and child development studies. San-Li considered waking him up to tell him about the movement, but decided to let him sleep.
She snuggled into his chest, but just as she was about to fall back asleep, a thunderous boom and a sharp crack of lightning jolted her awake again. Her heart pounded in her chest and she began to sweat. If there was one thing she hated it was thunderstorms. They were so loud and scared the crap out of her. She rolled over to try to get into a more comfortable position and came face to face with a pair of wide eyes staring down at her.
"Jesus Christ!" San-Li shrieked, shooting up in bed.
"Ahhh!" Sam screamed and shot up as well. "The baby! The baby's here!"
San-Li clicked on the bed side lamp and saw that Alex was standing next to the bed. He was clutching a stuffed dragon to his chest and looked down at her, wide eyed in terror. There was another clap of lightning followed by a boom of thunder. San-Li jumped and Alex whimpered in fear.
"What is it Alex?" Sam yawned. "Did the storm wake you?"
When Alex nodded Sam turned to San-Li. "Should I get him back to his bed and read him a story?"
"No, he can come in here with us." San-Li sighed. "I hate thunderstorms too and he's probably never even experience one."
Sam nodded and made room for Alex to crawl up into bed with them. He snuggled close next to San-Li and pulled the covers over himself. There was another clap of lightning and they both jumped.
"Guys, it's only a thunderstorm." Sam chuckled. "Just cumulonimbus clouds, pockets of unstable air masses, and moisture."
But another burst of thunder had Sam jumping as well and the power went out.
"Just pockets of unstable air, huh?" San-Li mumbled.
Alex made another sniffling noise and San-Li rubbed his back soothingly. He settled against against her, trying to get comfortable with her hard, protruding stomach in the way. He stilled after a while and they listened to the storm raging just outside of San-Li's window. San-Li whispered soothing words to Alex and continued to rub his back.
"It's okay, I'm right here Alex." She whispered. "I won't let anything happen to you, I promise."
Alex turned his face towards her and gently touched her stomach before touching himself, tilting his head in inquiry.
"Oh, no." San-Li sighed.
"What is it?" Sam asked sleepily.
She turned to him and whispered in his ear. "Alex wants to know if I'm his mother."
"Have you told him yet?" He whispered back.
"Sort of." San-Li sighed and turned back to Alex. "I told you little bro, mom and dad are... gone. It's just you and me. And Sam."
Alex began sniffling in earnest and buried his face in her arm. She could feel his warm tears and felt her own eyes sting.
"I'm sorry, but I'm not your mom." She whispered, "But would you like to hear about her?"
Alex stopped sniffling and nodded eagerly. San-Li sat up with a groan and wrapped an arm around him, holding him close. Sam sat up as well and put an arm around San-Li's shoulders.
"Mom was an amazing woman, Alex." San-Li said. "She had long, black, silky hair that reached all the way down past her hips. And she never cut it, ever. Do you want to know why?"
Alex nodded eagerly again making San-Li chuckle. "Well, when mom was about your age, her dad began training her in martial arts which is a traditional discipline of fighting. Everyone in our family learns it when they become a certain age. Back then, mom kept her hair incredibly short so it wouldn't get in the way when she trained. After only a couple of years of training mom became really amazing at it."
"The only problem was that mom started to get interested in boys. And she showed her feeling by beating the crap out of them." San-Li laughed. "Grandma, Obaasan, was always so furious at her when she got calls from the boys parents that mom had been picking on their sons. So one day obaasan told her 'You'll never get a husband being a short haired tom boy. Boys only like sweet girls with long beautiful hair who bake them treats.' So my mom stopped cutting her hair and stopped fighting boys."
Alex reached up and ran his fingers through San-Li's hair which was starting to grow past her shoulders. San-Li smiled and rolled her eyes.
"No Alex, I've just been too lazy to do anything to my hair, but mom stopped cutting hers to find a boyfriend or future husband. But there was still another problem- mom couldn't cook. Everything she made either burned, was under cooked, or she added some weird ingredient to it like vinegar to a cookie recipe."
"That sounds familiar." Sam snickered.
San-Li scoffed and elbowed him. "Shut up! I can so cook!"
"Yeah, soggy ramen noodles and microwave take out."
Alex giggled and San-Li pecked him on the forehead. "Traitor."
"Anyways, grandpa- ojiisan, wasn't too happy about mom giving up on martial arts training to catch a guy and mom needed to vent her frustration on not being able to get a guy, so ojiisan began to teach her sword fighting. It was more graceful than regular fighting and our mom began to be more disciplined in not fighting at school. Eventually the family had to move and ojiisan opened up a kendo training dojo."
The storm started to abate outside. The rain hissed softly outside of the window and the rolls of thunder were becoming distant. The lamp beside the bed flickered back on and San-Li could see that Alex was beginning to fall asleep. He blinked at her sleepily and waited for her to continue.
"One of the students who began training at the dojo was a local boy from the suburbs who was getting picked on at school for being a weakling. Sound familiar Sam?" Sam rolled his eyes and laughed sarcastically. "The boy began training at the dojo under our ojiisan with mom acting as a sparing partner for the students. The boy was horrible at first but learned quickly. Mom was a great teacher and her father was very strict with the students."
"Eventually, the boy fell in love with mom because of how graceful, kind, beautiful, and powerful she was." San-Li whispered. "So the boy asked our ojiisan if he could marry her and join our family. Ojiisan was furious that he would dare ask for his daughter's hand in marriage. So he challenged him to a kendo match. If the boy won, he got to marry mom. If the boy lost, he could never speak to her again."
Alex went wide eyed and Sam stared at her. "So what happened?"
"The boy lost." San-Li shrugged. "Ojiisan was an old master of martial arts and kendo. Of course the boy would lose and he got pretty beaten to boot. But ojiisan didn't count on one thing- obaasan. When mom told her what happened, obaasan challenged her husband to a match on the boy's behalf and utterly defeated him. He had no choice but to let the boy marry mom after that. But Ojiisan never did take to dad and still bullied him for years afterwards. It didn't matter though, mom and dad were happy and loved each other very much. But even after she married mom never cut her hair and that's just the way dad liked it."
Alex smiled broadly and his eyes drifted shut. Within minutes he was fast asleep. San-Li made sure he was tucked in before turning out the light and snuggled against Sam again. He ran his fingers through her hair and she smiled feeling happy and content.
"Do you think you'll grow your hair out that long?" Sam whispered his lips brushing against hers.
"Maybe." San-Li chuckled and smirked up at him. "If you think you can beat me in a kendo match."