§ § § -- February 11, 2004
Andrea got aboard her bike, which was outfitted with a double basket mounted over the rear tire guard, and set the laptop inside one of the baskets before securing the lid on the basket and pushing off. Sometimes she really missed driving, but riding her bike reminded her of happier days, growing up here on the island before she'd been accepted at Harvard. It seemed like centuries ago now, after her four hectic years at the prestigious school, her job with the Boston Globe, her meeting of and marriage to handsome Troy Polidari, and the births of Janine and Denise. She and Troy had settled in Brookline, Massachusetts, and their lives had seemed idyllic, between Troy's career as a chiropractor and her own in journalism.
But when the girls were in elementary school, Troy had suddenly begun distancing himself from her and them, and he'd even stopped sharing a bed with her. About eighteen months ago, on a Saturday when Janine and Denise had been out with friends, Troy had given her the shock of her life by announcing that he was gay, and he wanted a divorce. It had been such a bomb for Andrea that she hadn't been able to speak for some ten minutes after he'd said this; Troy had taken her silence for disbelief, and had tried to explain himself to her. Most of what he had said had gone right over Andrea's head, but the part in which he had told her he had a partner he felt very deeply for had definitely stuck with her. She had insisted he tell their daughters himself and not leave it up to her, and to his credit, he'd done so. Janine had accepted it; Denise hadn't.
Troy and Andrea's divorce had awarded her full custody. At first Janine and Denise had been resigned to it; then, in the middle of the court proceedings, Andrea had made the decision to move back to Fantasy Island. Troy had approved fully, but both girls had protested. After their father had told them it would be a good experience for them, Denise had accused him of not wanting all his "gay buddies" to know he'd been married and had children. Janine, on the other hand, had begged Troy ceaselessly to be allowed to live with him so she could complete high school in Brookline. Troy's adamant refusals had made her very bitter, but she took it out on Andrea because Troy somehow managed to elude every attempt his daughters made to contact him. He sent Andrea alimony checks, but that was all any of them ever heard from him.
Andrea no longer loved Troy, but she harbored a wellspring of anger at him for the way he was treating Janine and Denise. She was also upset with the girls because of their anger over her decision to move. Denise had adjusted better than Janine, and Andrea could actually see Janine's side of it; but she hadn't wanted to be anywhere near Troy in the wake of what he'd done. She wished Troy had come to realize his homosexuality before they had been married and she had borne Janine and Denise, and she sometimes wondered how many other men had done something similar. In any case, she had had enough of men and the way they seemed to take advantage of her. She had never told either Troy or the girls that she had been raped during her freshman year at Harvard; Andrea had thrown herself into schoolwork and resolutely pushed herself past the trauma the event had brought on. In fact, she remembered that her sister Camille had been more heavily affected by it than she herself was. But, between the rapist and Troy, she was more than happy to be single, and truly didn't care if she never fell in love again for the rest of her life.
She locked her bike to a bike rack in the town square and got out her laptop, glancing at the gray sky overhead. Wouldn't it be just my luck to get caught in the rain going home, she thought morosely, crossing the square toward the storefront that housed Enstad Computer Services. It was a relief, at least, to see that they were still open, and she entered a little hesitantly, glancing around. There were five people in the office; she instantly recognized her brother Jonathan and sister Julianne, but she didn't know who the other three men were.
The startlingly good-looking dark-haired man at the desk to her left looked up from a tower inside which he had both hands. "Hello," he said in a pleasant voice with a slight accent that Andrea couldn't place. "What can we do for you?"
"My laptop's on the fritz," Andrea told him, wondering why he looked familiar. "I don't expect you to be able to fix it this instant, but I'm kind of in a hurry for it, so I'm hoping it's not too far gone."
The dark-haired man laughed. "I can look into it for you," he offered, extracting his hands from the tower and offering her one. "I'm Christian Enstad."
Andrea shook it. "Andrea Polidari." Suddenly she remembered. "Oh, wait a minute, you're the one Julianne and Jonathan are always calling 'Boss Prince'! Miss Leslie's husband, right? It's nice to finally meet you. I'm Julianne and Jonathan's oldest sister."
"Ah, yes, of course," Christian said with recognition. "Julianne mentioned you had come back to the island. Well, let's see your laptop, and maybe I can at least let you know what's wrong with it."
"Geez, sis, about time you came to see where we work," Jonathan called out from his desk as Christian sat down and opened Andrea's laptop to examine it.
"Yeah," Julianne put in, "where've you been all this time?"
"Working, you two brats," Andrea said affectionately. "It goes both ways, you know. You've never yet shown up at my place, and heck knows it would've been nice to see you over there. And you have even less excuse since Jeremy's just moved in with me."
Julianne and Jonathan looked at each other in disbelief. "How come?" Jonathan asked.
"He says Mom and Dad kicked him out because they didn't like the new job he got today," Andrea said, shrugging. "You know, you two could come over tonight for supper and get caught up on things. Janine and Denise would enjoy the company, too."
"Who's cooking?" Jonathan asked.
"It's Janine's turn," said Andrea.
Jonathan gave an exaggerated wince. "Yikes." Andrea and Julianne both punched him in the arm, and he threw his hands in the air. "All right, all right, I surrender already! Man! Did you guys see what these sisters of mine just did?" he yelled at the other men.
"Well-deserved, I daresay," remarked Christian from his desk, grinning.
"I have to agree with that," said a blond, slightly stocky man from a desk against the wall behind Julianne's and Jonathan's. Andrea found herself watching him; he somehow struck her as a capable sort, and he too had an accent she couldn't place, though his was stronger than Christian's. He noticed her scrutiny and arose from his desk. "My name is Anton Lauterhoff."
"Andrea Polidari," she replied, smiling tentatively.
"Well, you've met Anton," said Julianne. "The quiet one over there is Mateo Apana—he's married to Boss Prince's niece."
Andrea and Mateo nodded at each other; then Andrea turned curiously to Christian. "How do you manage, putting up with these brats every day?" she asked him.
Christian shrugged. "It isn't easy," he said cheerfully, without looking up from her laptop. "Jonathan in particular seems to be a mild case of arrested development at times."
Andrea laughed aloud and told him, "That doesn't surprise me a bit. The kid's a complete geek. My parents still have boxes of his collectibles in their cellar."
"I don't doubt it," Christian said, laughing. "I know how heavily into comic books he is; I have to face those action figures on his desk every day." He began to carefully disassemble the laptop. "I think that's why I keep computer towers stacked up over here as I do, so that I can turn my attention to something besides Superman and Spider-Man and Batman and the Green Wasp and all their friends staring at me."
"Hey, that's the Green Hornet," Jonathan protested with mock indignation. Christian rolled his eyes, and everyone laughed.
Andrea was studying Jonathan's desktop. "Geez, Jonathan, it's a wonder you have any room to work," she commented with a smirk. "You're as bad as Denise with all her Hello Kitty stuff. Geez, Julianne, look at all your junk!" Julianne's desk was littered with framed photos, snow globes, plastic troll figures, koosh balls, and several potted African violets.
"I like my junk," Julianne said with a sniff. "That happens to be one of the coolest things about working for Boss Prince. He lets us put anything we want on our desks."
"Well, almost anything," Jonathan amended slyly. "Anton had a whole row of those goofy dashboard hula dancers across the back of his desk, and they kept jiggling and swaying so much that Boss Prince and Mateo both told him to get rid of them because the moves were distracting the crud out of them."
"Seriously?" Andrea asked, staring at Anton in surprise. "My brother Tommy collects those things. His wife's constantly threatening to throw them all out."
Anton's eyes widened. "Really? My family continually makes fun of me for my collection. It seems it's a tradition in your family to collect things, what with Jonathan's figures, Julianne's knickknacks and now your other brother's hula girls. What do you collect?"
"Dust," said Andrea, which got her a healthy round of laughter that made her grin. "This seems like a great place to work. You've all got senses of humor, and things are really informal. Though, like I said, Mr. Enstad, I'm amazed these brats haven't driven you insane yet. You're just lucky you don't have all four quads working for you."
"Perish the thought," said Christian dryly, and Julianne and Jonathan both grinned. Then he sat up. "Ah," he said, "I think I've found the problem. You have several components that need replacing, Ms. Polidari, and I think I'd better install a new floppy-disk drive as well. This one looks worn out."
Andrea went to his desk and peered anxiously over the top of his computer monitor. "Is that going to be expensive?" she asked.
"No, not very," Christian said absently, coaxing some mysterious part out of the machine with a pair of tweezers. "I have most of the replacement items here in stock. I can send one of your siblings out for the rest of them tomorrow, and fate willing, it will be ready for you by the time you leave work in the evening." He looked up and added, "If you'd like to leave your work number, I'll call you when it's ready."
"Uh…that sounds okay, but…what's it going to cost?" Andrea asked. "I don't want to be a nag, but I don't get paid till next week, and I'm a bit short till then."
Christian glanced into the machine, weighed the small part in his hand and sat back in his chair. "I don't think it will exceed fifty dollars, and in fact it probably will be less than that. Is that acceptable?"
"I can swing that," Andrea said, relieved. "That's great, thanks, Mr. Enstad." Christian smiled in response, and she glanced out the door. "I better get home before it starts pouring out there. Thanks again, and you two brats, show up for supper."
"Yeah, okay, okay," Jonathan and Julianne said together, rolling their eyes at each other. Christian chuckled, Mateo grinned, and Anton watched curiously. Andrea looked back on her way out, and somehow hers and Anton's gazes collided and held for a long few seconds, before a rumble of distant thunder called her out.
An hour later she, Denise, Janine and the three quads were digging into generous helpings of spaghetti with meat sauce and carrying on a fairly animated conversation in which even Janine seemed content to participate. "So how come Mom and Dad kicked you out, anyway?" Jonathan eventually asked his twin.
Jeremy stopped eating and surveyed his brother, sisters and nieces. "Seems like I'm the family black sheep. All the rest of you have careers they approve of. Andrea, you're a respected journalist. Tommy owns a software company. Camille's a housewife and soccer mom, which just tickles Mom pink! Jon, you're an accountant, Julianne's a computer tech, and Jennette's a kindergarten teacher. And here's old Jeremy, a DJ—a profession everybody knows means you must be a total bum."
"Who says a DJ's a bum?" asked Julianne.
"Try telling Mom and Dad that," Jeremy retorted.
Andrea broke in, "Jeremy, I've been wondering. You keep saying they 'threw you out' or they 'kicked you out', that sort of thing, like it was done under duress and created a lot of hostility. Are you sure that's really the way it happened?"
Jeremy stared at her, then at Jonathan and Julianne by turns; the other quads both shrugged, and Jeremy sighed. "Well, we had some harsh words," he said.
"But they'd know as well as anyone else that you can't make a living on the kind of money you'll be earning," Andrea pointed out. "Maybe we should have a family meeting about this. If I call Mom and Dad and make a suggestion—" Just then the phone rang, evoking laughter, and Andrea got up. "Hold that thought, I'll be right back." They could hear her end of the conversation, and the quads looked at one another when she said, "Oh, hi there, Camille, what's up?" After a couple of seconds she gasped. "No kidding! When'd it start?" Another pause, then she said, "No, don't bother, they're all here at my place. We're having supper. As soon as we finish we'll come over there. Right, bye." She hung up and returned to the table. "Camille says Lauren's gone into labor, and she and Jimmy and Robin are at the hospital with Brian right now."
"Oh, gross, a baby?" groaned Janine.
"Everybody was once a baby, including you, Princess Superteen," Julianne informed her. "And I'm sure that when Andrea was about to have you, some dopey teenager said exactly the same thing about you that you just did about Lauren's baby. In fact, I hope they did." Denise snickered gleefully, Jonathan and Jeremy laughed, and Andrea grinned.
Janine rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, whatever. Mom, I'd rather stay here," she said.
"Why don't we just leave her?" Denise urged when Andrea frowned. "All she'll do is make smart remarks anyway. I wish Dad had let her stay in Brookline after all."
"Fine, Janine, do whatever you want," Andrea said tiredly, "as long as you do the dishes for us. If we get back and they aren't done, you'll lose privileges. Well, folks, how about we get finished here and then hit the road."
‡ ‡ ‡
Brian Knight was sitting on the edge of the hard plastic chair in the waiting room of Fantasy Island Hospital, his upper torso twisted in the direction of the double swinging doors that led to the interior of the building. Jimmy Omamara, Christian Enstad, Nick Okada and Grady Harding were there as well, telling anecdotes about the births of their own children (or in Christian's case, those of his nieces and nephews) in an attempt to keep him distracted. In another group across from the chairs the men occupied, their wives and some children were waiting: Leslie Enstad, Maureen Harding with Brianna, Myeko Okada with Alexander, Noelle and Dawn, and Camille Omamara with her youngest, nine-month-old daughter Robin. Maureen was patting her pregnant middle, and Leslie had locked her hands around her own, while Myeko was telling some animated story.
Out of nowhere, the door burst open and Andrea, the three quads, and Denise came in and found seats. Jonathan and Jeremy gravitated to the men, while Myeko got up and moved so that Andrea could sit beside Camille. "So how's our cousin, who always swore up and down she wasn't getting pregnant for any amount of money?" Andrea inquired.
"No word," Camille said. "Brian's been sitting like that for the last three hours without seeing anyone come out of there—well, at least nobody who was looking for him."
Andrea eyed him for a minute. "Huh. So are he and Lauren prepared for this kid?"
"I guess," Camille said, shrugging at her older sister. She looked at her thirteen-year-old niece, who shared classes with Camille's own thirteen-year-old son David. "Hi, Denise. Where's Janine?"
"She didn't want to come," said Denise, rolling her eyes. "Mom got your call and the first thing out of her mouth was 'ooh, gross, a baby!'."
Camille gave Andrea a wry look. "Janine's got some of me in her, I think," she said, sounding apologetic. "You ever have a problem with her, send her over to my house and I'll knock some sense into her head. I still want to whack that Troy upside his for what he did to you. I mean…I suppose he can't help being gay, but he could've been more graceful about telling you and dealing with it. Doesn't he ever talk to the girls?"
"He won't answer our phone calls," Denise said. "I don't want to try anymore, but Janine's stubborn. She still wants to go back to Brookline, y'know."
Leslie regarded her; all the girls were listening now. "How do you feel?"
"Me?" Denise peered at her shyly. "I like it here. I don't really have any friends yet, but I like it anyway. The kids are kinda…well, I don't know, clique-y."
"That can happen," Leslie said, nodding. "Has David introduced you to anyone?"
Denise snorted, "He's a boy. Right now I don't care about getting to know any boys, I just want some friends I can hang out with. I did join a couple of clubs…"
"That's a good start," Leslie said and smiled.
"Yeah, it's a great start," Camille agreed. "I guess Janine hasn't bothered, huh?"
While she and Andrea were discussing Janine, Leslie felt a twinge in her back and made a face that got a chuckle from Maureen. "Backache, huh?"
"Sort of," Leslie said, sighing. "All those symptoms I'd pretty much escaped up to now are starting to kick in, and Christian's always eyeballing me in case something new crops up so he can bug Dr. Hannaford. We both just noticed my bellybutton, too. I used to have an innie, and now it's an outie." Maureen laughed. "And me…" Leslie's eyes went wide with realization as she stared at her friend. "It just occurred to me—I have absolutely no clue how to change a diaper, or properly feed a baby, or bathe one safely…"
Maureen smirked and reached into a tote bag at her feet, extracting a book and handing it to Leslie. "I brought this with me since I've been using it to keep track of my progress and compare this pregnancy to my first one, but you know, I think you need it more than I do. Study this, because you're gonna have a test in a few months."
Leslie peered at the title. "What to Expect When You're Expecting," she read and opened it at random. "Oh my God, this is perfect!"
"Yep," Maureen said. "It defused a lot of Grady's insanity while I was pregnant with Brianna, and he's a lot calmer with this one. Every time something happens and Christian starts losing it, refer him to that book and tell him to read it carefully. You'll both be a lot better off. He'll be calmer, and your nerves won't be on edge from his going nuts."
"Wonderful," Leslie said, then looked apprehensively at her. "What about the stuff I need to learn, though?"
"Check the back. There's a section on breast-feeding, and it even shows you a couple of ways to hold twins. And if Christian's the expert on babies that he seems to pretend to be, he can show you how to change diapers and bathe them." Maureen looked oddly at her. "I thought he did that when you were babysitting his great-niece."
"Yeah, well, it didn't exactly stick," Leslie admitted sheepishly. "See, we've babysat for Lisi only twice." She frowned suddenly. "Come to think of it, it's been a week since we last heard from his sister. I hope something hasn't gone wrong."
Myeko leaned over, having overheard. "I promise you on pain of death I haven't said a single word…but rumors have started flying at the paper that old Negative Nordeman's got himself a hot romance." She lowered her voice to ask, "Do you think maybe something's gone wrong between him and Princess Anna-Laura?"
"I don't know," Leslie said slowly. "Maybe when Christian and I get home, we'll give her a call and find out how she's doing, and see if she says anything."