Chapter 13: Going Home Again, at Last

“A baby?” Belinda sounded as shocked as she looked.

“Must have been that night out in the backyard when the kids were at that sleep over.”

“Hush!” Belinda shushed Mike.

“Regardless, you two, the Babies are never wrong. And that’s more evidence that they are apparently dreaming to your kids, so make sure you ask the kids to tell you if the Babies have told them anything. As a matter of fact...”

I stood up and got the families attention.

“Hey everyone, quiet down a second, please. Your brother, Mike, and sister, Belinda, or your mom and dad as the case may be,” I chuckled and quickly shook my head at the screwy family tree I was addressing, “have just experienced the Babies for the first time. Philip, Kayleigh, Diana, you are going to be talking and listening to the Babies in your dreams. If they tell you anything that concerns your mom and dad, be sure to tell them.”

“Yeah, the Babies tell us all sorts of stuff, but if it concerns dad or the moms, we tell them right away,” Margaret Erin instructed her nephew and nieces. “Sometimes they tell us stuff we don’t understand, and we have to ask mom and dad. Sometimes they warn us of stuff, and we have to warn mom and dad. You have to talk to our brother and sister.”

Mike and Belinda just stared at Margaret Erin as she smiled and sat back down, digging into her bacon and French toast like everything was normal.

“Margaret Erin is correct,” I said. “Phillip you’re the oldest so you should probably lead the way, like Margaret Erin does, but that doesn’t mean that you Kayleigh or you Diana can’t say something or ask questions. OK?”

The two girls nodded and had that look in their eyes that means that they understood, sort of. Everyone settled down and ate and talked. The kids were exchanging stories about the Babies with their nephew and nieces. The wives and I told of our experiences with the Babies, Mike and Belinda sat there, occasionally asking questions, but mostly being amazed.

Occasionally the servers would come through with refills of OJ, but after the third glass most of the kids changed over to iced tea. Genevieve Lynn looked at the servers running around and finally stood and asked one of the servers to stop.

“Excuse me, ma’am. But if you’ll bring a few pitchers of iced tea, we’ll be happy to pour our own glasses and save you all the running around. If you don’t mind, we don’t mind,” she looked at her siblings, “Do we Herd?”

All of the Herd shook their heads with smiles and the servers quickly left the room, returning a few minutes later with four pitchers of tea and a cooler full of ice.

“If we put the ice in the tea,” the server explained looking over everyone in the room, “it’ll be gone when you pour the tea into your glasses. It’s better if you just use the ice scoop in the cooler to fill glasses as you need, OK? Be sure to use the ice scoop. If you scoop up ice with the glasses they could break and that would be bad. Can we get you anything else?”

“No ma’am, thank you very much,” Margaret Erin answered with a smile.

The server looked at the other servers in the room and shook her head. I’m sure they were all getting ready to tell the afternoon servers stories about the Stepford children they had in the restaurant that morning.

Almost three hours after we arrived, we left. The Herd cleaned up their places. Taking their plates, glasses and utensils to the bus carts that the servers had wheeling in. As was our normal custom, the Herd lined up and thanked the servers as they left, leaving the astounded ladies shaking their heads. Lynn left an amazing tip for our servers, but it wasn’t nearly as amazing as their experience of meeting the O’Dell Herd.

Out at the bus, everyone hugged, and we packed the bus to drive back to Saint Louis to finish our tour. When we’d been to see Beth and her family, we’d not taken the time to see the sights in the town; mostly because I couldn’t take being in Beth’s messy house. We were trying to budget our time so we could see the Arch and then go to Grant’s Farm.

When we arrived back in St. Louis at about noon, we lucked out, in my opinion, because we found that the elevators to the top of the Arch were down for maintenance, so we couldn’t go to the top.

That gave us a huge portion of the day to go to Grant’s Farm to see the Budweiser Clydesdale horses. We got there at about 1:30 and unloaded the Herd. The presence of our Herd caused a bit of a stir among the hostesses. When the seemingly never ending stream of children was rolling off the bus, the hostess ran into the greeting center and got help.

We divided the Herd into three groups, one of the moms each taking a group and a hostess. I sort of wandered between groups. At one point all three groups were walking along the fence line boundaries of the horse pasture. The hostesses had stopped for a bit so the kids could see the colts running around in the pasture. I was standing behind them when Martha Lynn began to sing. Soon the Herd came together and all the children began to sing and they resumed walking along the fence.

To the amazement of everyone there, six of the colts followed along with the Herd as they walked. When the singing got louder, that brought the attention of several of the huge mares. The girls sang no words just clear notes that reminded me of Clare Torry when she sang the Pink Floyd song “Great Gig In The Sky”. The mares mixed with the colts and followed along until the girls got to the end of the fence line and stopped singing.

The various hostesses and stable workers stood by, watching in awe, and actually broke out in applause when the girls finished. Shouts of glee broke out when the young colts, and the mares, took off running and frolicking in what seemed like a burst of pure joy after the girls stopped.

After that the hostesses took the Herd to the tram that brought us to the petting area where the Herd fed and goofed with the herd of goats at the Farm. One of the small baby goats decided it would be a good idea to butt Wanda Lynn in the butt, sending her flying and giggling. She turned and chased the baby goat, then turned and ran away as the baby goat chased her.

The Herd enjoyed the various animals, William got to hold a huge rabbit and overall a marvelous time was had by all. On our way out to the bus, we stopped in the Clydesdale tourist area and the girls bought all sorts of post cards with pictures of the horses and Wanda Lynn bought a baseball cap and a Sharpy marker. Then she went around and had politely asked all of the hostesses to sign it. They did and thanked the Herd for an enjoyable day.

One of the hostesses approached us as we were getting ready to leave. “Watching and listening to y’all singing to the horses was amazing. Are you guys a singing group?”

I answered for all of us.

“No, actually that was the first time any of us have heard the children do anything like that. It was amazing.”

The hostess said, “It was more exciting than when the President came to visit. It made the day very special for all of us. Thank you.”

“Thank you. My brothers and sister and I all had a lot of fun,” Margaret Erin said as she lined up the Herd like at the buffet.

They shook hands with all of the hostesses that had guided us around and in return Martha Lynn was given a figurine of a Clydesdale horse before we loaded onto the bus at the end of a long afternoon.

We stopped at another family buffet on the way out of town. The Herd gave an equal impression to the servers and customers at this buffet. Then it was back on the bus and the drive back to Mike and Belinda’s house. It was late when we arrived, so I set the levelers, and everyone got ready for bed.

Before the kids all lay down, I asked Amy Erin and Martha Lynn when they’d listened to Pink Floyd before. I was surprised when they said they’d never heard of Pink Floyd.

“Really? After the way you all sang to the horses, I would have sworn that you’d heard of them. Tell you what. Once everyone is in bed, I’ll play the Pink Floyd song that you girls reminded me of. OK?”

“OK, Daddy,” Martha Lynn said, flipping her red hair out of her eyes.

When everyone was washed and tooth brushed and hair brushed and settled, I put on “The Great Gig In The Sky” at a low volume. Blossom took me in her arms, and we danced down the aisle to the music. Erin and Lynn had washed up and gotten ready for bed while Blossom and I danced. By the time the song was over, the Herd was asleep. So, Blossom washed up, I followed and soon we were all snuggled together in our bedroom in the back of the bus.

“I don’t think I’ve ever spent a better day on this Earth,” Erin said quietly. “I’ve had happier and sadder, and weirder, but not better. So many wonderful things happened. And the singing...” That was when I heard the sniffles.

“Erin?”

“It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard,” tears were running down her cheeks.

“And it was all so ... organic,” Blossom added. “No one led them to start. I don’t even know who started it.”

“It was Martha Lynn,” Lynn said. “My little girl amazed me. And then when all the children joined in...” Then she was sniffling.

Blossom finally broke down and joined the tears of joy. She climbed snuggled close to Erin and Lynn wrapped me up in her arms and legs and we all fell asleep.

In the morning, everyone got up and walked to their brother and sister’s house in their sleep wear, carrying the clothes they were going to wear that day. Belinda opened the front door right on cue. The kids made their way to one of the three bathrooms in the house and quickly showered and dressed.

“It’s a good thing Boomer installed that instant water heater when you guys bought the house,” Mike said to Belinda on this their wedding day.

“Are you two ready to get hitched?”

“Yeah,” Belinda said hugging Mike. “We did a lot of consummating last night. Part in celebration of the wedding, partially in celebration of the baby and partially in celebration of being super horny in love.”

“How was your trip to the Arch and Grant’s Farm?” Mike asked.

“I know you guys aren’t fully into the Babies thing yet, but something wonderful happened yesterday at Grant’s Farm.” I went on to tell Mike and Belinda about the singing and the horses following the girls.

“Kids, I don’t think that could have happened without their exposure to the Babies,” I looked at my son and Belinda. “You’ll find out for yourselves. The kids will still be kids, but they will be more. There will be a depth to them that you won’t see in other kids. They will stand out in every way you can imagine at school. Blossom does all the teaching at home now because the Herd is so far ahead of the curve in school.”

“Philip’s actions in calling the family meeting was so out of character,” Belinda said. “I can see it already. I watched the kids play Scrabble last night and the words they came up with were amazing.”

“We think that is one of the ways the Babies teach them,” Blossom said. “Their vocabulary has exploded way past anything I would have thought possible at their ages.”

After a few minutes to allow those thoughts to sink in, Belinda finally brought us all back to the real world.

“We need to be at the courthouse in about an hour. Do you all want a quick breakfast or a brunch after the wedding?”

“I’m up for the later meal,” I said. “After two buffet’s yesterday, I don’t think the kids are in a hurry to eat.”

“I agree,” Lynn said. “Besides if we eat first Erin will be farting all through the proceedings.”

“What!?” Erin said, astonished with her wife’s words.

“Sweetie don’t be like that,” our smallest wife declared. “You know that if we eat now, you’ll be ripping them for the next hour plus. And even if we think they smell like roses, others might not.”