Life As We Know It
Chapter 5
It has been three days since Amy and I became Emma's guardian and thing got a little better.
After a night full of Emma crying we realized that she was missing her pink blanket. Apparently Mrs. Hirsh left her blanket at the foster home and dropped it off the next day.
While Amy was feeding Emma these baby crackers I quickly hand washed the blanket. I know Duke, he always wanted Emma to have the best and the cleanest and just because he isn't around anymore doesn't mean I am going to lower that standard. So after I hand washed the blanket I put it in the dryer and went to join Amy and Emma. I needed about 30 minutes to distract little Emma before I can give her the blanket and hopefully go to sleep.
When I walk in to the kitchen I see Amy playing with the crackers in front of Emma. She looks ridiculous because she is just bouncing the crackers up and down and moving them like they are walking, but it has Emma's interest so I wont say anything.
When I enter the room Emma's attention goes to me and she smiles. He hands come up and she reaches for me. I walk towards her and pick her up, when I have her on my hip I bounce up and down and she starts to giggle.
These moments are the ones I remember having with Emma when Shane and Duke were alive. When they were alive I always saw how happy she was, I know there is more to parenthood then the good moments but I never thought it would be this hard. I don't think Amy and I have slept a full night in the last two days and we both are exhausted.
"We need to prepare for the rosary on Saturday, all of their friends and family will be here." I hear Amy say behind me.
I turn around and see how bloodshot her eyes are. I also see dark circles around her eyes and her hair is messy. Even looking exhausted she looks beautiful. I take another second admiring her.
"Yea, after the rosary the immediate family will be coming back to the house for so alone time with Emma." I respond. I remember getting a phone call the other day with Mrs. Hirsh saying she made arrangements for the family to come over.
"Karma, lets be honest." Amy says walking towards me. "We can't do this, I mean we have known Emma all her live but this is different. She was crying for the last three days and we couldn't stop her. I am exhausted and you are exhausted. Maybe we aren't fit for this." She says as takes a huff.
I look at her. "Amy, Shane and Duke choose us to watch over their daughter. I can't believe you are giving up this easily." I yell back at Amy.
The one thing I dislike about Amy is how easily she gives up on stuff. If something becomes too difficult or when life becomes tough she just runs away and move on. She doesn't talk about her feelings or think things through.
Shane told me a little about Amy's past. I know she had a girlfriend Reagan who broke her heart. I learned they were going to move to California together but when Reagan dumped her she was so brokenhearted she just ran into her shell. She sold the house, moved back home and settled for a crappy job. I was annoyed with her because Amy got this amazing offer at a local news station that she turned down. I know Amy is scared, and if I am being honest I am terrified but Emma needs both of us. There is a reason we were picked, and if we want to honor our best friends we need to do this for them.
"Karma, I am not giving up, I am thinking logically. We aren't ready to be parents, and Emma deserves a couple that would love her and take care of her. I'm not sure we are the right ones" Amy says and walks off.
I look down at Emma and see her looking back. Amy has a point, I'm not sure I we can do this either.
It is Saturday and Amy, Emma and I just got back from the Rosary. It was very hard to be there especially with all of their family. Everyone just stared at Amy and I and asked how we were doing.
Neither of us knew how we were feeling, having Emma is more difficult then we could ever imagine.
Some of them would give us both a hug and other would just look at us pathetically. The only ones who actually helped us were Duke's parents, Shane's parents, Shane's sister and Lauren with Theo.
They were the ones who actually give us advice on how to help Emma, tell us old stories about Duke and Shane and give us encouraging words. They would also hug us, but these hugs would mean so much more because they were hugging us because they loved us and knew we both are exhausted, not because they felt like they had to.
Lauren offered to hold Emma for a while which both Amy and I were thankful. Lauren and Theo has been married for a couple of years now and they are trying to have a baby but no luck. I know it breaks Lauren's heart and I wish her the best.
I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn around and see Amy.
She pulls me away from Lauren and Emma.
"It is time Karma, we need to find a potential home for Emma. I think we should try Duke's cousin Jennifer and Marcos. They already have kids so they know what to do and they seem pretty stable." Amy whispers to me. I nod feeling a pain in my stomach. I feel like I am betraying Shane and Duke but I don't think I can be her guardian. Also Amy and I have to find someone to take care of her before our hearing on Tuesday.
We walk towards Jennifer and Marcos. I met them a couple of times before and they were at the wedding.
"Hi Jennifer" I say as I give her a hug, I move back as Amy hugs her and I go on to hug Marcos.
"Karma, I am so sorry for your lost. I know this is all a lot for you" Jennifer says. Amy nudges my side.
"Yea, it is. Amy and I didn't know how difficult it is to take care of a baby" I reply, getting ready to mention Emma.
"Don't worry, when we had Marcos Jr. we didn't know what we were doing, but you have to learn to be around each other and communicate. Being a family is difficult but very awarding, just be patient." Jennifer says.
I feel my heart sink. We can't ask Jennifer and Marcos they just gave us encouragement. We continue to small talk with them for a while and then pardon ourselves.
"Okay, lets try Shane's sister Sasha."
We find Sasha in the kitchen talking to some man and have a wine cooler in her hand.
I instantly grab Amy's hand and shake my head "no".
Our next victim is Shane's third cousin Peter and Rose. Peter is an accountant and Rose is a stay at home mom. They have I think 5 kids and live in the in Oklahoma. That is a little far from Austin but right now I feel desperate.
We walk up to Peter and Rose. "Hi Peter" Amy says and they hug. I give Peter and Rose a hug and we start small talk.
"So Peter" I say. "You are an accountant, you have your own firm? How is that going?" I ask sounding interested.
"It's going okay, right now is tax season so we are super busy. I work Monday through Saturday and a couple of hours on Sund- KEITH, GET OFF THE STAIRS! RACHEL STOP PUNCHNG YOUR BROTHER!" Peter started to yell.
I look up and see three of their kids are running on the stairs and the two twins are about to fight.
"RACHEL, GET OFF YOUR BROTHER! RACHEL, DON'T MAKE ME GO UP THERE!" We hear Rose yell.
Rose turns towards us and says "Well, it would help if your husband is home to help take care of the kids instead of being home for a few hours on Sunday."
"Rose, I work, we need money, how do you expect us to raise 5 kids on one job" Peter starts to argue.
Before we knew it Peter and Rose are having a screaming argument about the kids, jobs and the house.
Amy and I remove us and move to the next potential guardian.
The last potential guardian is Duke's 70 year-old uncle. When Amy mentioned him I looked at her is disbelief. I knew this would not work but right now Amy and I are desperate.
I walk towards Lauren and grab Emma. I tell Lauren I will be right back. Lauren just stares at me with her narrow eyes. I feel my stomach fall as I can feel Lauren's eye dart at me. I learned a long time ago not to get on Lauren's bad side, she would go all bitch on you.
I walk towards Duke's uncle, George with Emma in my hands. In my arms I feel Emma snuggling against me and rest her hand on my chest. I look down and see Emma just resting on my chest; she looks so calm and quite that my heart melts. This is the Emma I remembered and love.
I walk into the living room and sit next to Amy. Amy looks at me then to Emma and back up to me. She gives a small smile as this is the first time since we got Emma she has been this calm.
I let Amy talk to George so I wouldn't wake Emma up.
I look at George, he is an older man with grey hair and has a oxygen tank to his left and tubes running from his nose to the tube. There is no way this man can take care of a one year old.
"Hi George, how are you?" Amy asks with a small smile.
George just stares at us and says "what?"
Amy repeats and says "How are you?" George continues to stare at us. I don't think he can hear us.
"Can you help me dear" George points at me "and turn on my hearing aids. I can't reach behind my ear."
I gently put Emma on the floor in front of Amy and walk towards George. I move my hand to the back of his air and press a button.
"Thank you dear" He says as I walk back to Amy.
"How are you George" Amy says for the third time.
"Good Dear, how are you?"
"We're okay "Amy says grabbing my hands. When she touched my hand I feel warmth travel up my body. "It has been difficult but we are making it."
"I went through Pear Harbor and many other war and I-"
The tubes that were in George's nose fall out and he is gasping for air. He starts to choke and mouths "Air, Air!"
I look down and see Emma has crawl to George and started to play with his oxygen tank. I get up after Amy and pick up Emma. Amy is trying to put the tubes back into George's nose and he starts to breath again.
A couple of second's later George's caretaker comes towards us. She checks on him and says it is time to go. We both nod.
I watch as George gets wheeled out of our living room and huff. We have no potential guardian for Emma.
Amy is about to say something when Lauren comes up to us with her arms crossed. Her eyes are narrow and he face is red.
"You two should be a shame of yourselves. Emma needs you both and here you are trying to give her to people who don't eve care about Shane or Duke or Emma. Rather you two like it or not you three are now family and you need to learn to love one another. And by the way, I would sacrifice anything for Emma and you both should feel that way too. " Lauren says and walks off.
If I didn't feel bad already I feel worst now.
Tuesday- Day of Hearing
Tuesday came along and I am nervous as hell.
I had to take half the day off for this hearing and make sure Amy, Emma and I look presentable for the judge.
I am not sure what is going to happen or what Amy and I will have to do but I am terrified that this situation will be permanent now.
I am not saying that Amy and Emma are bad or anything, but I miss my life. I miss working at my job and I miss my alone time. Now since I am going to be living with Amy and Emma in Shane and Duke's house I am not sure I would ever get some alone time.
I suggested to Amy we make a schedule. We both have jobs that are important to us and we need to learn how to time manage our lives now that we have Emma.
Last night after Emma was asleep, Amy and I made a calendar of the month and put all the important dates down. Unfortunately most of our important dates overlapped which sucks.
We argued on who would have to watch Emma and who got to work or do whatever plans they had for the night. Unfortunately Amy made popcorn and we ended up throwing popcorn to one another and made a mess.
After our popcorn fight we settled that every other event we would have to watch Emma. I got the first event of the month because I was the last one to throw a popcorn kernel at Amy.
I hear the doorbell ring and head downstairs. I see Amy holding Emma in her arms as she opens the door. Amy is wearing blank dress pants, a green top and a blazer with flats. Emma is wearing a cute pink dress with white shoes.
Mr. Oliver asks if we are ready.
After 30 minutes of driving we finally make it to the court hall. We are in the courtroom filled with other case and patiently waiting for the judge to call our names. Emma is getting fussy so I take out some of her crackers and feed them to her. As I feed her another cracker I hear the Judge say "Ms. Raudenfeld and Ms. Ashcroft".
I feel Mr. Oliver tap my shoulder and tell us to proceed forward.
I start walking to the table in front of the judge with Emma in my arms and still feeding her crackers.
"This is the Case of Emma Harvey, from some unfortunate events Emma's parents aren't around any more-" The judge says.
As he is talking Emma slaps my hand with the crackers and all the crackers fall to the ground.
I look at Emma and she is about to cry. I quickly knell down and grab the crackers from the floor. I see Amy is kneeling by me helping me pick up the crackers. Our hands meet and we look up at each other. I get lost in her eyes when Mr. Oliver knell down beside us and say, "Ladies, get up".
We quickly get up and see the judge staring at us.
"Sorry Judge Patterson." I say. The judge looks between Amy and I and continues to talk.
"As I was saying, Emma's parent's aren't around anymore and in their will they honored you both to be Emma's legal guardian. Do you both accept?"
Amy and I say "Yes" in unison.
The judge picks up her gavel and slams it down.
"Okay then. Ms. Raudenfeld and Ms. Ashcroft, you are now legal guardians of Emma Harvey. Mrs. Hirsh will still come by periodically to check up on the three of you."
Mr. Oliver motions for us to follow him. "Is that It?" Amy says confused. The Judge must have heard her because she asks, "What more is there to ask?"
"You're not going to ask if we are mask murders or something?" Amy asks. I push her and whisper, "Why would you say that?"
"Ms. Raudenfeld, are you a mask murder?" The Judge asks. Amy looks in between the judge and me and says "no."
"Okay, then welcome to motherhood."
A/N: Hi everyone. I just wanted to give an update on this story. I know the length of the chapters are short, I am going to work on making them longer from next chapter on. I have the majority of the story written so I will be combining chapters and probably adding more stuff (that is not in the movie).
Thank you for reading and I hope to post more frequently. Please leave a comment for any suggestions, they are very much appreciated :)