Vignette #3
Chapter 9
I Got You Babe
So let them say your hair's too long
'Cause I don't care, with you I can't go wrong
Then put your little hand in mine
There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb
Babe
I got you babe I got you, babe
I got you to hold my hand
I got you to understand
I got you to walk with me
I got you to talk with me
I got you to kiss goodnight
I got you to hold me tight
I got you, I won't let go
I got you to love me so
I got you, babe
Sonny & Cher
I GOT YOU BABE
Casa Jeremiah-Manning-Santos
Spring 2004
Craig and Manny were in more than a little over their heads reading books on names, what to expect while expecting, and lying in the bathroom as she lay in the tub to cure her aches and pains after a long day of pitfalls at school.
Between the rumor mill and constant challenges with Ashley and her friends saying mean things and not having her mom to comfort her Craig did his best. He sat on the little stool by the vanity in the bathroom strumming on a guitar that once belonged to Joey but he found and claimed in the attic when they found the crib. It was March now and she was showing big time. He decided to sing her a song, he wasn't sure what her taste in music was, but he felt comforted by the lyrics of Sonny and Cher.
For those too young to know the impact of the mutual pair, they were artists in the late '60s and '70s, they married and had a daughter Chastity, who is known as Chaz more recently, who went on to do variety shows and music concerts and specials, but sadly split up down the road, and Cher went on to be a megastar. Bono, the writer of the duo, died in the late 1980s in a skiing accident.
He sang the first lyrics and she had a puzzled and thoughtful expression on her face, "I never heard this one. Keep singing."
"No laughing, alright? It's an oldie, but my mom used to sing this when I was a baby to get me to chill out and go to bed."
"She did?"
"Yeah, she was a 70s kind of woman, that was her time. She had an awesome vinyl collection, she lives through her music and even when she was living she always had records on. I kept a few of the ones I managed to salvage from my dad's when he died, they're probably in the garage and basement now. I know she loved suede shoes, had hippie vibes, and dressed in earthy tones. She was an old soul. She educated me on all the old-school music. You would've loved her. It pains me to know, Angie doesn't know her. The closest she ever came to having a mother was Caitlin, she barely remembers just her favorite color, and other little things, mostly Joey and I discuss and it's lost on her, but she forgets like all the things that made her Julia, that she'd do with Ang when she was a baby, naturally."
Manny desperately didn't want to discuss the whole Caitlin debacle, she had kind of left a few months earlier when Manny first moved in back in February. She and Caitlin didn't get along, despite knowing Caitlin through Spike and Emma in childhood. She brought it back to his mother, which used to be a sore subject but she finds it significant that he can share those special memories with her. She feels closer to Craig and feels good about it, and he does too. It brings them closer in a way, closer than ever if he's being honest and he likes it too. "I love it when you open up about Julia. I feel comforted." She questioned, "You think she would've liked me?"
Craig beamed knowing deep down she would've approved, maybe not of how they got together, but ultimately they'd probably get along. "I think she would, she was sweet like you." He poked her with his finger on her nose causing her to giggle. He added kind of softly, "She was soft-spoken but like the complete opposite of my dad who was anything but. He's gone, and I don't think I ever understood him. He never discussed anything vulnerable, he'd simply change the subject. He barely had time, for a while it was just me and Mom. When she left he turned his anger toward me. I was for a while a punching bag or someone to complain to or be a shrink to him when things weren't good for him. He'd apologize and blame it on work. I just don't understand how they even fell in love, I mean he was Mr. Strict and she was softer by contrast. I miss her every day."
"I suppose sometimes opposites attract I guess." Manny thoughtfully remarked, "Kind of like my parents."
"What was it like when you were with them?"
"My dad was the king, essentially to cut a long story short."
"Sounds like my dad. Everything was by his rules. With Joey, it's different."
"Yeah, and because he was the king, my mom and I were considered lesser in the totem pecking order. My mom and I had no real say in anything, not even my brother, I can't blame him he doesn't live at home, and hasn't since he graduated a few years back and went off to college. Dad, was sometimes or seldomly nice enough to let us do things, he worked, and my mom stayed home, so he'd throw us a little money just my mom and me, but we always had to play by his rules as if it was his way or the highway. There were a lot of things I couldn't do, I think he liked it better when I was a baby because he could decide my destiny. We did everything he told us to do, if he said no that meant no. His brother's daughter got sent to a convent for getting pregnant, so I tried to hide that for a time before we told them. I didn't think they'd freak the way they did. Before that, my mom would try to give me some things, but my dad didn't want me to date at all. My mom was brought up similarly and was a model teenager, very respectful but down. She was taught that early on, being Filipino and being a good daughter and eventual wife was integral, Dad rules the roost and the women do everything else I suppose, it was drilled." Manny rolled her eyes, "it sucks not being able to talk to my mom since she stood by dad, as you saw. I don't even know if my brother even knows if Dad told him to shun me, pretend I don't exist. I messed up, I know that, I don't think I deserved the fallout to be that drastic, and now they don't support me at all, not even in the slightest. It's sad. I'm their daughter. We have blood relations, I'm not adopted. I wish he loved me, I didn't mean for this all to go down the way it did."
Craig felt bad and guilty. The only reason she likely went all out at the beginning of the school year to appear more conventionally attractive with all the enthusiasm and glamor was indeed a facade, a game, a charade, brought on by something he said in confidence that eventually got around.
In reality, she was a scared teenager who just wanted to be loved and accepted like most girls at 14. They wanted to test limits in fashion and flirtation. She was this character when they started hooking up desperate to make themselves known by him in a sense.
She heard him sing to Ashley and capitalized when they argued to pay him an innocent compliment about his song. How happy she'd be for months, or forever since her change. He still had love for her, but he hid it because he didn't see her sexually or romantically since she was miles not in number but in maturity. He sees her as he is, and he loves her more and more each day, the more he got to know her, her learning to be a mother, her struggles, she was still just as beautiful.
When he somehow harshly compared her to his little sister, and told her off on their first date he told her he simply didn't like her it stung but motivated her to do and be better. He wanted to protect her deep down from who he was deep down inside he didn't want to take that innocence she had and still retains about her which motivated him in turn to be present. She used that unknowingly and took it to heart and made herself into this force of sensuality and an air of sophistication rivaling girls like Paige and Hazel, she hated that she seemed childlike in dress and attitude, but it was truthfully a front. She read everything in Sizzleteen and Girl Trash, basically the cosmos for teens. She cultivated her image but now she doesn't go all full force, pregnant she sees little need to wear a thong.
Craig observed through her confession seeing her emotionally in the bathtub that she wanted to be held, but he knew she couldn't go back to her family and feel heartbreak he didn't relate to, nor did he want her to feel that kind of pain he feels partly responsible for. He simply supported her by strumming and singing softly. He pulled out his beat-up cassette player earlier to have music while he was in the bathroom shower and put the song on for her to listen.
It was unmistakable, It was their song, she lit up when he told her it was. She used to badger him to write her something, and eventually, he'd deliver many a ditty.
She felt touched and she smiled softly. He kissed her hand affectionately. Before long they knew all the words. It was a symbolic thing of young love as depicted between them and the song's words about being young with naysayers telling them they don't know what true love is like her parents, the bullies at school, and Caitlin. He made it his mission to make Manny happy no matter what from that moment, from whatever hurdles may come in their paths or challenges they may face in the future of being young parents with an infant or even her pregnancy hormones making her Jekyll and Hyde. He wanted that family dynamic even if it was unorthodox or ill-advised, and now they can have it together.
Suddenly the water inside the tub managed to splash, surprised she giggled touching her growing stomach to confirm, "Oh my God, our baby kicked."
It was the first time she felt it. It truly sank in and it was love at first kick. He softly without hesitation touched her stomach and sure enough, "I guess the baby likes the song. As the song ended he sang the ending, softly to Manny and their unborn baby, 'I got you, babe.'