Chapter 17

Our house in Lawrence was large, set back from the road with a driveway lined on both sides by trees. It was right off Iowa Street, near Centennial Park. Tucked away like it was, we'd have plenty of privacy.

Mama had purchased the house from the estate of a railroad magnate who had valued his privacy. Situated in an area where houses were not large, or grandiose, this one was both, having nine bathrooms and seven large bedrooms. The master bedroom suite was almost fifteen hundred square feet, not including the three connecting rooms that were an office, family room and a den. It was the den that we immediately turned into our nursery.

We all loved the house right from the very beginning. There was a large, common living area, downstairs, but, each of us had our own separate, personal living wing, upstairs, as well. Joyce and I had the master suite, in the northwest corner; Shirley and Derek took the rooms on the south west corner; Brenda took the southeast corner for herself, leaving Emily with the northeast.

There was a staff of three hired to perform cleaning and maintenance duties. Karen and Phil Plante, were a long married couple that had been hired to serve as our live in staff. They were in their mid fifties, and recently retired from Phil's job with the power company, located right there in town. They had been interviewed and hired by Hans and Gerta, over the summer.

Christine Howard was an outside employee who was hired to help Karen with the house keeping, and had been assigned to also helping Brenda with the kitchen. Christine was somewhere in her late twenties, a solidly built, homely woman, with a pronounced stutter when she spoke. At first, I thought it was just nervousness, because she was very shy around all of us, but it soon became obvious that it was a speech impediment that was a permanent part of her oral skill pattern.

She was a very nice woman, and all three of the children took to her immediately. She liked to hold the babies, and hum to them while she carried them around. When she hummed, there was no noticeable break in the sounds coming forth from her, unlike what there was when she spoke.

Phil was pretty outgoing, and really the handiest of people when it came to any type of repairs that needed to be performed. He was a whiz with all machinery, from cars to garbage disposals. He could fix a stuck window, replace a faulty toilet, and repair a storm drain, all in the same morning. Karen was much quieter, and it was pretty obvious that she was uncomfortable in her new role. Phil and Karen had three children, all grown, and three young grandchildren, two boys and a girl, that they both absolutely doted on.

Right from the beginning, we had worked it out that the house would be left empty on the weekends, and all the staff would be off duty, free to do whatever they pleased, from two o'clock Friday afternoons, until seven o'clock Monday mornings. Karen and Phil could stay, of course, but they said they'd mostly be taking off in their large Winnebago motor home, on weekend trips, to visit their children and grandchildren.

Hans and Gerta had already discussed the nature of our group living arrangement with the staff, even before making the final hiring decisions. Of the three of them, Karen was the only one who seemed at all uncomfortable with the way the five of us interacted together. We had all decided that we wouldn't be comfortable trying to hide the way we lived, or the true nature of our relationships with each other.

Phil seemed fascinated by it, and I could often see him looking at one or the other of the women before looking over at me, and smiling. The day we all learned that Brenda was pregnant also, Phil couldn't resist making a comment to me that I was now his hero. I thought it a very strange remark for him to make, but I really liked having him around, in case anything needed fixing, and to help keep his wife tending to her duties, rather than sitting around watching television all day long. I won't say Karen was lazy, but she wasn't used to having to get things done on any set schedule. She had never done any professional housekeeping, and seemed to think that we would all make do with whatever she and Phil were comfortable with doing.

I preferred clean sheets and towels daily, because that's how it was always done at Mama's. I liked the feeling of going to sleep between fresh smelling sheets each night, and with always using a clean towel after my shower. I also like the rooms vacuumed daily, and aired out, on days when doing so wasn't a problem, due to the weather.

I communicated my wishes about these things to Karen, but she continued to do things in whatever way she was comfortable with. I spoke to Phil, telling him that Karen needed to comply with my wishes, and not do things to her own satisfaction. He told me that he'd speak with her.

None of these problems were big issues, by themselves, but taken all together, they began to trouble me. I had been raised in an orphanage, and I could have put up with dirty linen without any real hardship, but that wasn't the point. I was the employer, and I had a right to have things done to meet my expectations, not to have to make do with what Karen decided was good enough. The whole thing came to a head at the end of the second week. It was Friday, and we were just about to head out for home, when I saw Christine making my bed, using the same sheets as the night before.

"Didn't Karen tell you we change linens everyday, Christine?"

"NNNNoo SSSir, MMMRR. Ppppppaaarsssssooooones. SSShhhheee ssssaaiidddd tttoo uuuuuussse tttthhheee oooold oooonesss."

"I don't like sleeping in dirty sheets, Christine. I want clean sheets on all the beds, every day. Go get some clean ones, and I'll have a talk with Karen." I went downstairs looking for Karen. She and Phil were in the kitchen, eating some lunch.

"Karen, I just caught Christine making up my bed with dirty linen again. She said you told her it was all right to use the dirty ones." Phil frowned when he looked at his wife, and she just looked angry. Angry at Phil, and at me. "Did you tell her that?" I wasn't in any mood to have a long drawn out contest of wills with this woman. She would either do things the way I preferred, or else go find another place to work and live.

"What difference does it make? You aren't sleeping here tonight anyway."

"Were you planning on changing the sheets on Monday, before we went to bed?" That was ridiculous, but I had to ask the question anyway.

"You don't need clean sheets every day. I have enough to do without having two extra loads of wash to do every day. Twice a week is plenty."

I wasn't born rich, and I don't think I'd gotten too spoiled by having money. I didn't think it was unreasonable to want what I preferred. I was paying for the privilege. Part of the reason we had hired help was so that we could have things done the way we wanted them done.

"You're fired, Karen. You worked for me, and your job was to do things the way you were told to do them. If you didn't want to do that, you shouldn't have agreed to take this job."

"I never wanted to take this job. That was all Phil's doing. I'm not anybody's servant. I spent thirty years picking up after my own family, and that was enough. I wanted to retire, just like Phil did, and just take it easy, for once in my life, but he thought this would be a good way for us to supplement our retirement. Looking after a bunch of spoiled rich kids isn't my idea of taking it easy. Firing us isn't going to bother me one bit. We'll be happy to be out of here before you get back on Sunday."

"Kenny, can I speak to you for a minute? Alone?" Phil had stood up and was coming around the table towards me. He didn't look menacing, so I nodded and led him out towards the entry way, in the front. We stopped, and I turned back to face him. "Listen, I know this is going to sound pretty strange, but I really like working here. Karen was only speaking for herself back there, not for both of us. Is there any chance that you could just fire her? I've been thinking about firing her too, but I just never seemed to get up the nerve to face doing it, until now."

"Phil, I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. We hired the two of you as a live in pair. Are you saying you want to continue working, as the maintenance and caretaker person? Where would you live?"

"There's someone else that I think would be a great replacement for Karen. A friend of mine and Karen's, a friend for many years. Her husband passed away a few years ago, and, well, the thing is, she and I have gotten to be more than friends, in the time since Eddie died. Eddie was my best friend, from back when the two of us were kids. I'm not sure if she would do it or not, but if she was willing, you wouldn't ever have any trouble from her, like what Karen has been giving you."

I couldn't help myself, I had to smile. This was truly a bizarre turn of events. I had to admit that I really liked Phil. He was extremely competent, a hard and willing worker, and his personality made all of us feel comfortable. I wasn't sure exactly how he was going to manage things. I was intrigued though. It was an interesting thing to be happening. As long as it meant that Karen would be history, I figured I had nothing to lose by giving him some time to see if he could put things together, to make it all work out. I needed to phrase it to him carefully though, because I didn't want our home, and our private business, to become part of a nasty public divorce battle.

"Phil. as of right now, you and Karen are terminated. When we get back here on Sunday, I'm going to be looking to hire another live in couple. I like you, and all of us are comfortable with you, and with your work here. If you bring someone with you to apply for the vacancy, I'm pretty sure, subject to our being confident that whoever you bring would be willing to follow what we expect, and not how she wants things done, that you'd get the job. We don't want to get caught in the middle of any domestic squabbles you'll be having with Karen. She needs to leave here before we return. I don't want to have to deal with your marital problems."

Phil's face lit up in a grin, and he reached out and took my hand, shaking it vigorously.

"Kenny, you won't be sorry. You're going to love Claire, everybody does. She'll light up this house with her smiles. All I've got to do now is tell Karen. I warned her already that I didn't want to lose this job. She won't cause you any problems though. All she wants is to be left alone, to sit on her lazy ass, and watch the idiot box all day. I'll get her a place over by Annette's, that's our oldest girl, and the two of them can sit around watching TV, while Clyde's off driving his truck. Those two are like pea's from the same pod. They just want to lay around and have someone else take care of them."

"Well, I'm counting on you to get it all taken care of, Phil. If it takes a few more days to get it done, go ahead and take them. I won't fill the position before next Friday, unless it's with you and Claire."

Joyce and I talked about the Phil and Karen situation for most of the drive back home. The twins slept like little angels for the two hour long journey. Joyce thought it was the most romantic thing she'd ever heard. She practically ordered me to keep the positions open for as long as it took Phil to convince Claire to take the job with him.

Brenda was the only one who didn't have any classes to take. She would sit at dinner with us, listening to all of us talking about our classes, seeing all of us take off, after dinner, to do our reading, or to prepare ourselves for the next day's classes. She was doing what she wanted, cooking and watching the children. Christine helped her with both chores, and the two women were becoming good friends.

Brenda found out, for sure, that she was pregnant, only a couple of days before the blow up with Karen. She was so excited at the news. She had suspected that she might be pregnant, about the time that Emily's pregnancy was confirmed, but she had wanted to wait, to make certain of it, before telling any of us.

As soon as we got back to Ridgeline, I called Frank and told him to set up another trust, this one for Brenda, and our unborn child. Brenda had money of her own, but I couldn't do it for Emily, and not do the same thing for Brenda. At a million a clip, I was going to have to start thinking about either cutting back, or else going to my Dad and asking him for a distribution from my main trust.

After hanging up with Frank, I started thinking about Joyce, and about the twins. I hadn't done anything, financially speaking, when the twins were born. I called Frank back and asked him to draw up a will for me, leaving everything of mine to Joyce. I knew that Joyce would take good care of any of the X's, if a need ever arose to do so.

The X's all thought the situation with Phil and Karen was incredibly funny. Everyone was pleased that Karen was leaving, but no one wanted to lose Phil. At dinner, we discussed how long we should delay looking for another live in pair, in case Phil wasn't able to convince Claire to join him. Consensus was, that we would hire one or two temporary people, for as long as it looked like Phil might still have a chance to talk Claire into it.

Brenda called her parents, as soon as we got home, giving them the news of her pregnancy. Georgia was pleased, but Walt didn't share those sentiments. I hadn't expected anything different from him, but I was glad that Georgia was supportive.

We both went together to tell Mama our happy news. We found her in the kitchen, having some tea, and talking to Gerta, who was busy preparing dinner. When we walked through the swinging door way, Mama jumped up., almost spilling her tea, to run over and give us both hugs. Gerta had prepared some shrimp cocktails for that evening's dinner, but seeing me, she went to get one of the servings out of the refrigerator, setting it down in front of me. I had hugged her right after Mama let me go, and while we hugged, I whispered that Brenda had some good news for Mama.

Gerta's eyes got big, then they started tearing up, so she had to turn away so Mama wouldn't notice them. I turned to Brenda and nodded to her that it was time to tell Mama our news. Mama had sat back down again, and was firing off questions faster than we could answer her. She wanted to know where Joyce and the twins were, and how our school classes were doing. We had spoken four or five times on the phone, in the two weeks we'd been gone, but, listening to Mama, you'd think we hadn't seen or heard from each other in years.

"Joyce is coming over with the twins in a few minutes. She needed to feed them, and unpack some of their things first. She wanted Kenny and I to be alone together when we told you our news." Mama stood up, yelling something unintelligible to me, and then she stood right in front of Brenda. "I'm pregnant, Kenny and I are going to have a baby!"

I'm not sure what I expected. I mean I expected her to be pleased, and excited, at hearing the news. She knew we had been trying to make a baby, all summer practically, so it shouldn't have been any kind of surprise that we had succeeded. Mama was overcome with the emotion she felt though. I had to grab her, and help her down into my chair. She had almost fainted at the news. Gerta moved me out of the way, understanding much more than I ever could, how much this news would affect Mama. The two women hugged for a long time, with Mama weeping softly, as Gerta lovingly patted her back, like you would do, to comfort an injured or upset child.

It only took a few minutes for Mama to recover and get her emotions back under control again.

"Are you certain, Brenda? You've seen a doctor?"

"Yes, I'm going to have the baby in the beginning of April. Emily will have hers in late March. It's going to be so perfect, because we'll both be pregnant together. I hope its a boy."

"We'll love it no matter if its a boy or a girl, Brenda. We just want it to be born healthy and that's all we care about." I was looking at Mama, waiting for her to ask us questions about the logistics of where the baby would be born. I had assumed that Brenda would move back to Ridgeline, sometime in March, to have our baby there. That wouldn't be a practical thing for Emily to do, because of her school work, but Brenda could certainly do that.

"Have you picked out any names yet?" We hadn't even thought about names. Names were something you came up with right before the birth. That seemed a strange question, coming from Mama. I looked at her and then at Brenda. "I have names already picked out for this baby." I stopped looking at Brenda, and looked straight at Mama. I could see she was serious. She really had picked out names already.

"What names?" I couldn't keep the suspicion from my voice when I asked this question.

"If it is a boy, like Brenda hopes, we can name him Dwight Richard Parsons. Dwight for President Eisenhower, and Richard for President Nixon. If its a girl, I've always been partial to Rose Elaine. My mother's middle name was Rose, and Elaine is a very pretty name." Mama had looked right at me when she said the boy's name. The look on her face was one of those 'I will brook no argument about this' looks. She was testing me to see how well I was planning to keep my promise to her. Since I knew that Dwight Richard Nunes was the name of Brenda's late birth father, I wasn't buying any of her talk about naming the baby after two Republican presidents.

"They sound like perfect names to me, Mama. How about you Brenda?" I didn't want her doubting, not for a second, my commitment to following all the way through with my earlier promise to her. I expected possible difficulty with Brenda about this though.

Brenda looked at the two of us, confused. She knew something was going on, but not exactly what it was. She had agreed immediately, when I told her that Mama would have a very special relationship with any child we had, especially the first one. So immediately, that I hadn't taken any time, or felt the need to discuss what I had meant by it. I hoped that wasn't going to cause us any problems, now that she was pregnant. Brenda smiled at us.

"Whatever Mama wants, Kenny. That's what we agreed, right? This baby is going to have two mommy's." She went over and shared another hug with Mama, and I breathed a deep sigh of relief. She had understood me. Both women were sharing the moment together, communicating that perfect understanding that only two women can ever really have.

Brenda had trained her whole life for this moment. Somehow, she had known, this baby was the key to fulfilling all of her hopes and ambitions in life. She was determined to pay her entry fee, if it meant she was going to get what she both wanted and needed. I couldn't fault her for that, because I had been willing to do so as well.

In that moment, the deal that all three of us had struck, was ratified and approved unanimously. Any reservations I might have had, or any residual guilt I might have felt, over this decision, was simply melted away by this conversation the three of us were having. All three of us understood, and we all agreed, this was to be Mama's baby, in everything but name.

We were finally going to set to rights a situation that had occurred more than thirty five years in the past, We'd be serving as the surrogates for Mama and Dwight. Mama would finally be allowed to keep her baby, to hold this tiny he or she in her arms, and to lavish all her pent up motherhood hopes on that one special child.

We were all together at dinner that night. Dad had greeted Brenda's and Emily's announcements with a fairly neutral and cautious acceptance. He was happy to hear that Georgia was pleased and excited, and unsurprised to learn that Walt was upset by this news. Emily's pregnancy he'd already known of, from Mama.

Things at work had been proceeding well in our absence. Ellen was handling things, although I was pretty sure my Dad didn't know how much time the two girls were spending on the telephone together. Joyce admitted it probably wasn't all necessary, but she did tell me that she had come up with an idea that added considerably to improving on an already good system. She had come up with this whole new routing and storage idea that was going to save us many thousands of dollars in shipping costs, effectively creating a master hub where product could be shipped and stored for free, while they determined which of the other eight hubs needed the merchandise. Product arrived fresher, by up to three days, and we were better able to take advantage of the delay in continued transit, without having to pay storage fees to park the railcars.

I had Joyce explain the whole thing to Dad after dinner, in his study, while the rest of us were in the library, talking about Emily and Brenda's pregnancy's. I figured Mama would hear it later, from Dad, and the two of them would both enjoy him telling her about it. Mama loved hearing about new ways of doing things, especially things that resulted in her making more money. To her, it was an aphrodisiac. To him, it was one way of validating his value to her. Mama gave him full credit for bringing Joyce and me into the business. Whatever the two of us accomplished, some of the credit from her always got reflected back his way.