Generation Four- Anastasia-Blossom: Chapter 11 Part One

Time passed. Nearing the end of my fifth month, Bean was still pretty tiny, and I was getting pretty worried. I mean, what if he wasn’t even in my belly? What if I was just fat? Then all of this would have happened for nothing…absolutely nothing. And that would just flat out stink.

“You sure he’s in there, Sid?..”

“Of course he is! I felt him kick this morning, actually.”

“Wait…you haven’t asked to feel my belly today…huh?”

“When I wrap my arm around your waist, at night-we stay like that all night, and he was kicking this morning.”

“Ohhhh…Silly me,” I sighed, peering down at the floor. I knew it was silly to think Bean had just magically transported out of my stomach, but that’s just the kind of crazy conclusions my mind jumped to. Smiling up at Sid, I shook my head and went to do laundry, or…something like that. Just…why was it so hard for me to be happy lately? Nothing could cheer me up. Sure, I had mood swings occasionally, and felt like I was on top of the world, but most of the time I was dragging my feet and moping. Macchiato had taken more than my innocence, more than my virginity-he had taken my spirit, as cheesy as that sounds. Yes, being with Sid made me grin, made my heart flutter like a hummingbird, but the natural happiness I had always had just wore out of me.

Sid jumped in front of me right as I was turning the corner (that two seconds of walking was sure a long two seconds) and made the silliest face ever. I scowled at him, barely suppressing a laugh, so he tickled me in my weakest spot-my sides. I burst out in laughter, smiling at Sid.

“Stop it! S-st-hooop it!”

“Don’t smile, Stasia!”

“Sid!” His hands moved from my sides to Bean, tickling the crap out of my belly. I was laughing so hard at that point, it was getting hard to breathe.

“Rrrraaawr! Let’s cheer Mommy up, Bean!”

“Sid, stop it, stop itttt, I can’t breathe!”

“You feelin’ any better?”

“Loads!”

“Good.”

Welllll, Bean sure didn’t like growing, but he did enjoy killing my spine. It didn’t take long for these massively painful backaches to begin occuring, so so frequently-I felt bad for Mom, who had three little Beans in her belly once upon a time. Luckily for me, Sid had the hands of a magician, and he could almost manage to work out every kink in my back most of the time. I was so, so grateful to have him around…I honestly don’t know what I would have done those first five months, if I hadn’t had Sid.

When Bean finally did start growing, boy, did he grow fast. It was around the beginning of my sixth month of pregnancy-by the way, I dropped out of school-when I figured I should check in with my parents. Three months of no contact whatsoever?…Yikes.

*******

When I showed up at the front door, smiling and looking rather forgiving (or attempting to), Mum freaked and almost screamed. She was seriously almost screaming. I guess I should have called or something when I hadn’t after a week of being kicked out. They literally pulled me inside, both Mum and Dad squeezing the air out of me. I just smiled and let them hug me.

“So…it’s a boy…”

“Really?! Yay! Oh, I’ve always wanted a grandson!”

“..Mum, you have four grandsons…”

“I knew that.”

“Sure you did, Mum, sure you did!”

I glanced at my sisters who had just come inside from the porch and my cheeks began burning. They were smiling like fools who had just won the lottery. Even Rose was…that was new. Was she actually going to be nice to me? Wait…nope, that was impossible. Still, I felt guilty for screaming ‘I hate you’ in her face and running away-she was my sister, and not even a year ago we had all been thicker than thieves. Again, Macchiato’s fault. Surprisingly they didn’t say anything to me, just stood there grinning as wide as the moon.

“Anastasia, dear?”

“Yeah, Dad?”

“I-we’re really sorry. For that night. I mean-I was just really mad and I took it out on you…I still want to hurt that berry whose baby you’re having. I can’t speak for your mom but I apologize.”

“What he said, dear.”

“Aww, Dad, Mum…I’m sorry too. I should have called or something instead of avoiding you all these months. And I’m sorry for yelling in your faces..” I walked over and hugged Dad, and he held me tighter than he had in a long time; it was nice to be a normal family, sort of, again. And then, just completely out of the blue, Mum started crying.

“What’s wrong, Mum?”

“My babies are all growing up! I could have sworn it was just yesterday I married Maroo! And you’re having a baby…my baby’s having a baby! You’re makin’ me feel old, Anastasia!”

“But Mum…I’m not old yet, I’m not even an adult! Kobi’s the one who’s, like..old…”

“I remember when your Dad brought him home from Egypt, too…that was only two weeks ago, Maroo! Right?”

“Sure, Pear, love. Sure.”

“What did you do to your hair? Your beautiful hair…it’s so straight!”

“I really don’t know…guess I was just meant to have straight hair.”

Mom reached out and patted my belly, right about where Bean was, and smiled up at me.

“May I, dear?”

“Of course.”

“He must be napping or something, I don’t feel a thing!” I nodded at Mum, not even paying attention to her pointless rambling.

“You’re going to be an amazing mother, Anastasia. Just know we’re here for you if you need anything, anything at all. We should have been from the start, really.”

“Well there is one thing…”

“Yes?”

“I don’t know how to be a mum. At all.”

Mum took over the talking thing at that point, going into oddly detailed stories from when we were little, and how to deal with a kid, and all of that stuff. All I could focus on was how much my back hurt from standing up for so long, and how nice it would be to just sit in a tub of hot hot water right now.

“…And then Sunglo fell over the railing! It was hysterical, but so frightening…”

“Mum? Can we, er, sit down? Please?”

“Oh of course! Why did I not think of that before?! Come, come, sit, sit!” Mum and Dad literally sped to the couch, eager to please slash continue their conversation with their estranged, impregnated daughter. She wouldn’t have it though. Instead, she went and hugged her two sisters.

Yeah, even Rose. I apologized, too-and surprisingly, she apologized for treating me the way she did. I don’t know what had gotten into her, but I loved it, and didn’t want her to change again. (So much hugging in one day! I couldn’t bear it…kidding.)

She and Ruby headed out the door while I replaced their spots in the living room, joining my parents.

“C’mon, Rube, I think we can make it to the park in time for his gig! Maybe Jella will even be there, hurr hurr.”

“Oh, shut up Rose! Bye, An!”

“Have fun with the ‘rents!” Rose snickered, then the door slammed shut and I was alone with my parents. Razz was probably off doing who knows what who knows where, but he wasn’t here.

“Okay, how do you be a mom? Because I can already tell I’m going to stink at it.”

“You haven’t been going to parenting classes or anything?”

“No, I never thought to.”

“You’re gonna have a bit of a tough time at first then, An, dear.”

“Do tell…”

I’m fairly certain you don’t want to hear the mindless blather I listened to in the conversation. Most of it was what kind of diapers to get, where to go for food, where to go for clothes and what kind of clothes to get, et cetera et cetera. All that good stuff, ya know.

“Is he good to you?” Dad interrupted Mom; right in the middle of her talking about the kinds of behavior to look out for and discourage, of course.

“Huh?”

“Obsidian. Is he good to you?”

“How did you…”

“I’m your father, Anastasia. I know things.”

“Okay then,” I muttered, blushing a deeper red. “Yeah, he’s real good to me. I swear I’m like his world, or something, Dad.”

“Good. I always liked Obsidian.”

“Yep…”

“Now, when are we going to see that ring on those pretty little fingers of yours?”

“DAD!”

“Honest question…”

“Okay, fine…I don’t want to get married. Not yet. I kind of want to have a little bit of free life, even though I doubt I can with Bean, but…I’ll let you know when I do get engaged, alright Dad?”

“Your mother and I got married at twenty. That’s only three years for you, Anastasia.”

“I know.”

“Just sayin’!”

“I just don’t want to start a family family yet, Dad. Okay?”

“Alright, alright, I’ll back off!”

Mum barely got in a word before I spoke up again.

“I really should get going. Sid’s probably getting worried.”

“Stay safe, alright?”

“You too…don’t be falling down those stairs yet. Last thing we need is another medical bill,” I joked, with a pointed glance at Dad. Did I tell you about the heart attack? Yeah, we were just randomly in the park one day, Kobi and Mum and Dad and I, and it was all good, but then Dad had a heart attack out of nowhere. Literally. Nowhere. I don’t know what was up with that but the last thing I needed to happen now was losing my dad.

*******

I swear, as slow as each day seemed to go, the three months following my happy little reunion zoomed by. Bean seemed intent on making me live a personal hell, and soon it got to the point where I could barely stand without having terrible pain course my spine.

I could tell my due date was near, about a month from when Bean was supposed to be born. All I wanted to do was sleep, so sleep I did. I tried watching movies or playing games or something with Sid, the amazing guy, but ended up falling asleep in his lap every time-and it was always in a semi-awkward position, too. Oh well, he was my boyfriend, I was allowed to sleep in his lap.

On the rare occasion I could actually stand to stand, I cooked. A lot. And ate it all. I must say, I was a terrible cook when it came to anything but cereal and hot dogs. I ate everything, though-Bean was literally sucking it all up, it felt like. Weirdest sensation ever.

I didn’t mind cooking or cleaning, though-it got my mind off of things, and it gave me something to do during the day while Sid was at school, so I did. Mom had actually dropped off some maternity clothes a few weeks until Bean was due and I could barely even see my feet-tons of good that would do, but it was a very very nice gesture anyways.

And on the days I didn’t feel like making my own food, I just made frozen waffles. Those always turned out good…if good means charred as hell but normal inside. That was good on my standards, so so be it. It was food, right? And that was a lot better than what most people out in the world had at the moment. Bleh, here I am, getting all sentimental. Let’s not.

And then the long awaited, not outdated and dreaded day came. I was just collecting the miscellaneous trash around the house, dusting off all the knick knacks and stuff. So the stuff could be nice. Because I like stuff being nice. I didn’t notice the water trickling down my leg, so I just kept doing what I was doing-and that was when Bean started kicking.

“Calm down, Bean, it’s okay, Mommy’s only cleaning.” I patted my belly in reassurance, but was only responded to with pain. It was familiar, having contractions, so I just stayed where I was and tried not to scream, but Bean just wouldn’t relent. That was when I realized it wasn’t fake labor. When I realized that I was actually having my baby.

“Okay, okay, we can do this-oof-your way, Bean,” I huffed and began to panic. “SID!!?”