Chapter 22

Donna's turn:

Do you know how to bring on pure pandemonium in my daughter's little community?

Let me tell you.

Saturday nights are the big night for music. Everybody's usually there. Well, sometimes we add Stoney and Johanna, sometimes Jason and Susan are off visiting one set of impending grandparents or the other.

This particular weekend, though, we're all together. Me and Bill, we have our own swing there. So we laugh and sing and dance and then there's a break and my Bill stands up and says, "Hey, everybody! Me an' Donna, we have an announcement."

As they say in, like, everywhere, 'a hush falls over the crowd.'

I'm looking at Bill. It's probably a goofy look, because I'm goofy in love with the guy.

Everybody else is looking at Bill.

"Donna and I are having a baby."

Which brings up the second cliché –"And the crowd went wild!"

After that it was difficult to remember anything. Well, there's this one thing. My daughter, my spectacular daughter, came up to me and hugged me and whispered, "I love you, Mom. This is a good thing."

Yes, it is.

Donna has turned her life around. Didn't do it by herself. No. I raise my hand and thank God and all the people he sent me, people who tripped me up so bad that I finally hit bottom and people who were there to love me all the way back.

Cindy, my daughter, who by rights could have turned her back on me, but didn't. She and her husband opened their home and their hearts to me and by doing that, took me into the middle of an amazing community.

And Bill. My Bill. The man who looked at me and saw a future, not a past, and married me.

It wasn't a quickie thing. We spent some time learning about each other. When I started working at 3Sigma I took care of his paperwork and since I was the oldest female in the office, I guess ... No, check that.

"Why'd you ask me out, Bill?"

"You're pretty, Donna. Man likes a pretty girl."

I am a girl to him. Bill's as much older than me as Dan is older than Cindy.

Of course, before he asked me out, we'd already been 'out' together, things like dinner and shopping, but then he formally asked me.

"Date, Donna. I wanna call it a date. No coverup. No 'well, it might be'. Date."

So we dated. I asked Cindy's Dan, he's Dan 1.0, "Has Cindy said anything about me and Bill?"

"She hopes that you both are happy. If going out together is part of that..."

"She didn't freak?"

"Well, there was that 'mouth open, blank stare' phase." He snickered. "Aren't many times I've seen Cindy speechless. Matter of fact, I think that's the only one."

"It's serious, Dan." I noted his expression. "I know, I know, guys don't talk about that kind of stuff, but Cindy'll ask. I am serious about Bill and he is serious about me."

And then Bill had his heart attack. I thought I was losing the only man I'd ever had in my life that was really worth caring about.

So we're married. I am satisfied. Doesn't need drugs or alcohol or fancy shit every day to be this way. Just this big ol' guy who adores me like he deserves to be adored.

We talk about everything.

Married, though – we DO everything. I'm kind of amazed. At sixty, he's still VERY capable, and he's caring and – where'd he get that experience?

"My wife – my first wife, Donna," he answered when I asked. "We sort of learned together. There was this book, The Joy of Sex. We read it together and tried it."

"You learn well, hubby," I told him. "I..."

"You can say it, Donna."

"I had a lot. Buddy, I never had THIS!"

I have a picture from our honeymoon in Hawaii. I showed it to Cindy. "Hon," I said, "Look at this. This'll be you an' Dan in twenty years, if you're lucky."

"I can accept that, Mom," my daughter said. "I hope Dan does a little better job of staying trim, though."

"Don't be talkin' about your dad like that."

She giggled. "Step-dad. Adopted grand-dad. Like a country song."

"How did you grow up to be so mean?" I love my daughter. Now. When I was younger, I was too fuckin' stupid.

So the weekend after we got back from the honeymoon, we're sitting on our swing. Cindy and Nikki just finished a Cajun song and now she and Dan are doing a duet. Bill leans over to me and says, "Donna, you have a pretty spectacular kid, there. It's a shame..."

I swiveled my head. "You think?"

"I'm flushing the pills tonight," I said.

There were only three left in this cycle anyway. Period. Caved Bill's head in, if you know what I mean. Every night. Donna is NOT going to neglect this one.

You know what? Sex is REALLY better when you and your man are TRYING to make a baby. It's like Bill redoubled his already considerable efforts and I have my legs wrapped around him the first time after my period, urging him on. "Come on, baby. Make me pregnant!"

Ran through every position the two of us could think of. At least once a day, we mated. Most days, twice. And Saturday and Sunday? I dunno who's limited here. We LIVE together. It's a wonderful way to spend time.

Of course, my daughter looks at me funny when I walk in, holding onto Bill.

"You never grinned like that before, Mom," she told me one day in the kitchenette at work.

I looked around. Nobody there but us. "Hon, I didn't know what 'good' was."

"You're really happy..."

My daughter's concerned about me. "Yes, baby, I finally am." I have a job that requires my brains, not my tits 'n' ass. I have a husband that loves me almost as much as I love him.

So I'm preggo number 3. Three months behind Tina and what everybody calls The Radiant Susan.

I told Tina my remedy when she was having morning sickness. She told ME what Susan's remedy is. I don't know if it works, but it sure beats the hell out of ginger ale.

Naturally, I get a little bit more attention. I'm sitting in my swing on a Friday evening, Bill's over at the grill with a couple of the other guys, and here comes Terri.

"Where's Bot-bot?"

"Recharging," she says. "We ran his batteries down trying to teach him to play with dogs."

"You're not bothering that sweet old basset hound, are you?"

Her head bounced in the affirmative. "He's a GOOD dog. And Bot-bot learned to pick up a ball and toss it, and Humphrey goes and gets it and brings it back. We have videos."

"I'll look at 'em this evening when we get home," I said.

"So, you're gonna have a baby, too. That's neat."

"You think it's neat?"

"Yes. I think it's neat that Tina's havin' one with Dad and Susan's havin' one with Jason. Now you and Mister Bill. Neat. What families do."

"If they're doing things right, it is," I said. "Sometimes, though..."

"I know. People are messy to deal with. That's what Tina said. Some people just never get right."

"And some do, sweetie," I told this little angel.

Bill showed up, looked at Terri. "Hi, sweet thang," he said.

"Hello, Mister Bill. I was just keepin' Mizz Donna company." She stood up so Bill could set next to me. Polite little thing. She bounced off to yet another interest, gathering Vicki and Rachel along with her. I watched them, had a little pang of regret that I didn't provide anything like this when Cindy was their age. Still, I see Cindy now, standing over there with her arm halfway around her own husband, her hand in his back pocket. I don't know how one path would have led to another and finally to this.

"Forward," Bill tells me when I start getting morose over my history. He's done it a lot of times. I explained to him all about how I was.

"'Was', that's one thing. Can't do anything about that now. 'Is'," he said, holding me, "is very pretty and very satisfying. And 'Gonna be' is something you and I will face together." Just in case you wonder why I married him. That's one reason of a list too long to print.

Bill hands me a ginger ale. Pregnant. Means no alcohol. Of course, I look at my Master's in engineering, doctoral candidate daughter and think of what all was going on in my life then, it's a wonder she doesn't have extra toes or something. I mentioned THAT to Bill, too. "Bill, she's lucky she wasn't a PUPPY!"

He laughed. "Just think. If you HADN'T stunted her development, she'd likely be the galactic overlord."

Of course, we visited Grandma Desai after the announcement. She graciously brought me a special dish.

"I cook this myself. One of my princesses, she is having a baby." She smiled at me, then glared at her granddaughter studying in the corner.

I laughed and thanked her. "You didn't accidentally drip some cream on that lingam, did you?"

Her dark eyes twinkled in mirth. "Perhaps I did. I am old woman. Hands shake. Maybe cream on lingam."

That's it! I'm pregnant and EVERYBODY'S happy about it, including ME. I can walk around among decent people with my head held high and I can look forward to having a proper home for this little one that's a product of love between me and my Bill.

It's gonna be good.

Nikki's turn:

I guess I'm not too tuned into the idea of summer vacation like a lot of kids. Oops. Not a kid any more. Eighteen here. Or as Terri says, "Almost nineteen."

Growing up, summers meant trying to live with Mom from time to time. The turmoil in my life was stultifying. I only got relief when Mom got tired of trying and I went off to live with Grandma.

That's why working through the summer isn't that big a shock. My sister Cindy and I are doctoral candidates. We actually TEACH classes. We have research to do for dissertations. And in free hours, I get to help out at the office. Cindy does, too, but this is MY story.

We've developed a strategy with the engineering business. On the original calls, it's always one of the men and one or two of us on the visit. After all, they are listed as 'Principal Engineers' and have the 'professional engineer' licenses.

Causes a chuckle from time to time. Went on one of those excursions with Alan and Tina.

"Mister Addison, you're the principal engineer."

"Yessir."

"And this little girl," he said, indicating me, "Has her MASTER'S?"

Alan looked at me then at the client. "I've got twenty years as an engineer. Nikki's got two and a half."

"Yeah. Just jerkin' your chain."

"And I'm a doctoral candidate now, anyway," I said.

Tina added fuel to the fire. "She's also a fellow with the National Laboratory in New Mexico."