Chapter 39 – The Finale
Claire's POV
My face glistened in the bathroom mirror as I imagined a beautiful holiday resort in Hawaii – or somewhere like that. I wasn't getting my hopes up though; chances were that we would end up at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in England, which I had been told was quite a nice place from my old friend Elizabeth.
When we were best friends back in high school, she and her family would go to Blackpool every year in summer. She would always arrive back, run to my house and tell me everything that they did. I always laughed at the photos of her on the waterslides... Priceless!
Maybe we wouldn't be going there; maybe it would be somewhere beautiful, like Tenerife or Florida. Wherever it was, I was sure I would like it. Shane had made it a surprise for a reason, he wouldn't disappoint.
"Claire! You ready?" Shane shouted up.
"Almost," I yelled back down as I left the bathroom and jogged through to my bedroom.
I continued at the same speed and reached the cot two seconds later.
"Hiya, Ollie," I said, and he giggled at me as I made funny faces above his cot. He was two weeks old now and already he had grown from the tiny baby that I had held in my arms. "You better miss me while I'm gone, but you probably won't miss me as much as I'll miss you."
"Mama," he spoke, and I jumped in surprise.
Running to the stairs, I shouted down to Shane.
"What? What's wrong?" he demanded as he entered the room. I held Oliver in my arms and smiled at the concerned Shane.
"Nothing's wrong, Shane. He just..." but before I could finish my sentence, I was interrupted by my two week year old baby.
"Daddy."
"Now, that is not possible," Shane stated as he walked over to stand behind us.
"No, it's most definitely not. But it seems that our child has made it possible. You heard it yourself," I turned to Ollie, "Will you say it again?"
His eyes looked at me, but his moment in the spotlight seemed to be over. He stayed quiet as he fell asleep in my arms.
"It's seems that we've got ourselves a little baby genius here," I said.
"I wonder where he gets it from," Shane smiled.
I laughed as I looked from him to the baby and back and forth.
"What?" Shane asked me as I glanced around the bedroom.
"This was what it was like in the dream. The only difference was that the walls were yellow, not blue." We'd decided when we were looking for baby stuff to make it original instead of copying the dream to ensure that we live the same life that had been planned. We'd lived our lives taking risks; we were used to it by now. Instead of yellow and white, the room was blue and white. Instead of having a baby girl, we had a beautiful baby boy.
"Are you ready to leave?" Shane asked me.
"I don't think I would ever be ready to leave here, but I suppose we'll get used to it once we're gone. And we'll slot right back in when we come back."
"Of course, everyone here loves us!" he exclaimed.
"First of all, dream on. Second of all, shut up or you'll wake the baby!"
"So, you're ready now?"
"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess."
"Well then," he said as I placed a sleeping Oliver back in his cot, "Let's get going."
I sighed, "See you later, bedroom. See you later, Ollie."
"I'll miss you," Eve sniffled at the entrance/exit to Morganville. "Have fun."
"I'll miss you, too. You won't even be here when we get back!" I exclaimed. Shane and I were going away for two weeks, and so were Eve and Michael. Eve and Michael were leaving two days before we got back. "Do you know where he's taking you?"
"Paris," she pronounced in a French accent, "You?"
"No, it's a surprise," I told her.
"Auw, that's sweet!" she squealed.
"Not when you could be getting dragged to only God-knows where, but I'm sure I'll love it!"
"Of course you will, otherwise he wouldn't have chosen to take you... wherever he's taking you."
"Definitely. Remember, he needs fed at six o'clock, twelve o'clock, four o'clock..."
"Claire, I know! I can't tell you how many times you've enumerated that over and over and over again."
"Okay, what toy does he need?"
"Betsy the Bear," she recited.
"Pillow?"
"Winnie the Pooh."
"Bottle?"
"The blue and white one when he's happy, the green one when he's crying, and the yellow one when he's sleeping – and I still don't understand why you did that, but who am I to judge?"
"When do you need to give him to Amelie?"
"Exactly twenty-four hours before we leave. Claire, I know everything, you've only told me a million times now, I think I caught on during one of those times. Go on, have fun, and I'll see you in a month."
"One month," I sighed. "That's a long while."
"I know, but just look forward to our amazing reunion when we return and kick the guys out so that we can have our own 'girly night'."
I laughed at the glint in her eyes, "I will look forward to it."
"Good," she wiped her eye before a tear fell, "Enjoy."
"You too."
We left it at that as I got in the car and waved her goodbye until all that I could see of them were small dots.
I turned to Shane in the back seat. "Okay, so where are we going?"