Chapter 33

Saturday, July 1, 2000

Two by two, the four Harleys rumbled up the quiet, shady suburban street, likely rattling the window panes in the houses they passed. It was an older neighborhood, an upscale subdivision from perhaps the fifties, consisting of moderate-sized comfortable homes with impeccable yards, the kind of neighborhood young professionals with young children would be likely to want to live in. It was not the kind of neighborhood where a pack of noisy motorcycles would be expected to roll slowly and menacingly past. Vicky couldn't help but wonder how many people were thinking about calling the cops.

The four bikes stopped at a stop sign, made a left turn, and toward the end of the street, made another. Up in a cul-de-sac stood a gray brick house, with several midsize trees in the yard. Emily didn't need to refer to the notes in her pocket to realize that this was the place, so she led the four of them right up the driveway and stopped in front of the garage door next to a white Ford Taurus. One by one, the bikes were shut down and leaned onto kickstands. Helmets and gloves were coming off when they heard a familiar voice say, "You don't exactly need to knock on a door to announce you've arrived, do you?"

They all glanced up to the front porch, where Eve was standing, a grin broad on her face, wearing a nice summer dress, with her slightly taller, dark-haired husband wearing khaki pants and a sport shirt. Both of them looked like midgets, because behind them stood a very tall blonde, seeming to be head-high to the eaves of the house, wearing a tank top and short shorts, with enough belly showing between to make it look as if she'd just grown a foot, a giantess indeed. Her long, long legs reached down to one of the highest pairs of heels any of them had ever seen on a woman. "Darn right," Shae grinned. "I'll bet you have the neighbors hiding the silverware. You look like a motorcycle gang rolling in."

"Right," Emily laughed. "The Knives have arrived to pillage and plunder. God, it's good to see all of you."

"You've been having a good trip?" John asked with a grin.

"Very good," Emily reported. "We caught one day that was wet and crummy, but that's something you just have to take when you're on a trip like this. But the scenery has been awesome, and we've had a lot of fun."

"You're going to have to tell us all about it," Eve grinned. "That has to be such a neat trip. I've never even ridden on a motorcycle; I just admire all of you for doing it. You'll have to come in and tell us all about it."

"We'll have to give you a ride before we leave," Vicky replied. "Give us a few minutes to button up, get out of leathers, and into something comfortable. They're OK for riding but they get a little uncomfortable just sitting in the sun."

Shae cocked her head. "Sounds like someone woke up. I'll go see." She turned, ducked her head to get under the door frame, and went inside.

"You know," John grinned, "Sometimes I wonder who the mommy here really is. I think she gets as much fun out of Sergei and Milla as we do."

There was some degree of confusion for a few minutes as people unloaded gear from motorcycles, went inside to use the bathroom and change to shorts, T-shirts and tank tops more appropriate for this hot day. In a few minutes, they were gathered on a shady patio in the back of the house.

"Before we get too deep into the serious reminiscing," Eve said, "There's probably one thing I should ask. Everyone here knows about me, of course, and so do Mom and Dad and Chad and Cheryl, who will be here tomorrow. But we've made a point of not telling the neighbors, and I'm afraid they're freaked out enough already by having a giantess hanging around much of the time, and now a bunch of crazed motorcyclists on Harleys. The couple next door is especially nosy, and I'd expect they'll make their appearance some time. If they should happen to show up, I'd appreciate it if you were a little discreet."

"Sure," Vicky said. "We realize things have to be hard enough on you as it is, so there's no point in our making it harder."

"I appreciate that," Eve smiled. "It's something we're prepared to handle if we have to, but being new here, and having the children here even newer might make things a little awkward. Emily, are we going to be having any more visitors?"

"Afraid not," she replied. "It's like the last time I told you. Mandy has something going, I think with her boyfriend. Dave Patterson and his wife are going to be at some family thing on Cape Cod. I haven't talked to him directly, but his mom told me at the store he'd rather be here. She said his wife's family thinks their dealie is more important than he thinks it is. I get the impression he doesn't get along with his in-laws very well and is trying to not make waves."

"That's a shame, but I know what it's like to have difficult in-laws," Eve nodded. "And they don't even know I'm 'T'. That would make it much worse."

Shae was the last to arrive, carrying two blonde-haired children barely a year old. "This must be Sergei and Milla," Emily beamed.

"They're not all the way awake yet and they're just a little bit cranky," Shae said, handing Milla to Eve, who took the child in her arms, and Sergei to John, who did the same. "I'll go get them something to drink."

"You sound like the perfect nanny," Emily grinned.

"I spend a lot of time around little kids," Shae smiled as she headed inside. "I like them, but I never get to spend much time around kids this small, so it's a real treat."

"Shae has been a godsend the past couple months," John said. "She comes over most weekends to help us learn how to be a mommy and daddy."

"Shae spent years teaching me how to be a woman," Eve shook her head. "Now she's doing it again. When you grow up a boy, you just don't learn all the ins and outs of managing small children that you soak up almost automatically when you're a girl."

"It's been a problem," John conceded. "I mean, I got more of it than the normal boy, but Shae is still way ahead of us. But we're still gaining ground, even though we wound up with twice as much parenthood as we thought we were going to."

All of them knew that there was a story waiting to be told, but they only had the outline of it; now they got to hear it in detail. Even when they'd been just getting together back in grad school, John and Eve knew they were strongly inclined toward parenthood, despite the obvious impossibility of Eve being able to bear children. Their decision to get married years before, back when both of them were starting work on their doctorates, carried with it the agreement to eventually adopt children. Since they had schooling to complete and careers to establish, they'd decided to put it off until the time was right.

Due to Eve's background -- which couldn't realistically be covered up in the circumstances -- both of them had expected a little more trouble than average in arranging for an adoption. They'd optimistically thought their well-paid professional jobs, high level of education, and especially Eve's work in human services would overcome some of the obvious difficulties. They'd far underestimated the difficulties -- "We got the runaround for two years and never even got our feet in the door," John sighed.

"We had to deal with some of the most prejudiced, stupid people you can imagine," Eve snorted. "I know 'T" people who have worked their way through that system, but apparently not in Pennsylvania. I have no idea how they could have managed it."

As time went on and difficulties increased, their thoughts began to turn more and more to a foreign adoption. "There are some incredible scams and con artists running around in that field," Eve reported. "The legitimate people are hard to find, but I was able to use some professional contacts to make things work. It still wasn't cheap, and you would not believe the paperwork."

Three months before, with everything arranged to pick up Sergei, they'd flown to Russia on what they expected would be a fairly quick trip -- but at the orphanage, they discovered a poignant situation. In the bed next to Sergei was a little girl with a captivating smile. They were told that her planned adoption had just fallen through, and they knew from all the trouble they'd had with Sergei that there was a planned change in regulations going into effect shortly that was going to make future adoptions more difficult. John and Eve had only to look at each other to wordlessly make a decision to add the little girl to their family.