Chapter 8: Revelations

The weekend was over before they knew and later that morning Bella and Mortimer would be welcoming another child into their home.  The social worker was scheduled to stop by around 10:30 so Bella rushed off early in the morning to get in that day's work-out.  Bella was nervous.  Mothering came naturally with her own children; she wondered if this would be different.  Mortimer was so confident that the toddler would be a perfect fit, but Bella just didn't know.  At least her work-out let her release some of her pent up nervousness.

While they were waiting Mortimer spent some time with Alexander.  Cassandra was in school and wouldn't be meeting her new sister until the afternoon.  Mortimer was hoping Alexander would get along well with his new sister.  They were practically the same age; Jada was a couple months older.  Mortimer's idea was for Alexander and Jada to be more than just normal siblings, he wanted them to be best friends and confidants.  He thought it would be good for both of them.  Jada needed family and Alexander needed someone he could relate to, even as a toddler.

Alexander was turning out be quite the special little boy.  He was brilliant.  There was no doubt about it.  The doctor had confirmed their suspicions about Alexander at his last appointment.  He was high functioning, but was probably slightly autistic.  Unfortunately, bad news was associated with the revelation that Alexander was a genius.  Alexander had the best attachment to Bella and the doctor explained it was because Bella spent so much time with him in the hospital when he was born.  Mortimer was working on building a connection with Alexander.  Some days Alexander would respond to play but other days he would just sit quietly and sort blocks.

 The social worker arrived at the house right on time.  Mortimer and Bella waited quietly in the house even though they wanted to rush out and snatch the little girl from the social worker.  They felt lucky to have everything work out so well.  Social workers usually received a bad rap.  Many people hated them and the news usually only mentioned social workers when children were being removed from the home.  Mortimer wished he could call the news station and let them know how much good this social worker has done for the family.  She could have made it a long, drawn-out process but she guided the Goths through this change with compassion and ease.

Jada went to Mortimer first.  She already knew him.  With a smile on his face, he gathered his new daughter into his arms and held her tight.  Mortimer introduced her to Bella and Alexander.  Mortimer and Bella watched in amazement as Alexander responded to Jada.  They took her around to show her the rest of the house.  Gunther came home and met his newest grandchild.  By the end of the day the household was changed in such a way that none of them could imagine what their lives would be like without Jada.  Just the day before they hadn't had Jada as a part of their lives, yet that time seemed like different time altogether.

Jada was slightly behind average in development.  The social worker had explained that the combination of her illness and the large amount of other children in her foster home were most likely the root cause.  Mortimer had taken paternity leave during Jada's adjustment but they didn't overwhelm her with catching up to where she needed to be.  Once they felt Jada was ready Bella and Mortimer started encouraging Jada to use words instead of crying.  It was reminiscent of when Cassandra was learning to talk, but once Jada didn't feel frustrated she started to pick up more words and sentences.

 Cassandra was happy that Jada was her new sister.  Alexander was weird but Jada was normal, so at least she had a normal little sister.  She was also secretly excited because Jada's arrival meant she was getting her room in the attic.  Cassandra thought her parents were being extremely slow about it.  She grumbled at them every once and while but decided it was not in her best interest to make them too mad.  Cassandra started peppering her grandpapa with questions while everyone else was busy.  She found a couple of websites that mentioned lemonade stands or lawn mowing business for kids.  Cassandra knew that her grandpapa could help her get one started.

 Life was getting back to normal.  Bella was back to her routine at the gym.  She had come a long way.  It wasn't easy to keep the weight off and each pregnancy resulted in additional weight gain.  Her job at the restaurant only added to the problem.  Bella bought some sessions with a personal trainer and set up a long term plan.  Then the weight started to drop.  She was somewhat surprised she was able to get her weight to drop below her pre-Cassandra weight.  Bella far exceeded her goal, but the gym provided the much needed personal time, as well and a little social time with people who were not family members.

Mortimer enjoyed his wife's new figure, though he would love her no matter what she looked like.  He found her the most sexy when she was confident in herself.  If going to the gym was what made her happy then Mortimer was going to give her the support and the time she needed.  He benefited from her time at the gym as well.  Bella often came home in an elated mood with some extra energy left over.  With Cassandra in school and the toddlers down for a nap, Mortimer and Bella took full advantage of each other.  While it was average for most married couples to woohoo once a week, Bella and Mortimer found their way to bed three or four days of the week.

Mortimer's job at the laboratory was evening out and most of his co-workers had adjusted to his promotion and his changes in protcol.  He became a handy man around the house after discovering a talent for building things at work.  Mortimer could easily fix almost anything around the house.  His father was going to throw out the busted laptop and buy a new one.  Mortimer fished it out of the recycle bin and refurbished it for the kids to use.  Cassandra was the only child old enough to use it, but eventually all the children would want access to it for various projects and to get accounts on MyTwitFace.

Cassandra never lived down the cemetery project for Junior Achievement.  Most of her classmates taunted her by calling her "freak" or "daughter of death".  She only had one true friend in Darryl Hart because they made fun of him too.  His grandparents were the neighborhood crazies.  Darryl was embarrassed by his family so he never let anyone come over to his house.  His mom took care of his grandparents at home.  Cassandra didn't mind.  She just invited Darryl over to her house instead.  They would spend hours together dreaming of ruling the neighborhood and making their classmates miserable when they were older or they would just dream about one day leaving this awful town for a place more exciting.

Jada started surpassing her developmental milestones, just as Bella and Mortimer expected.  They had enrolled them both in preschool, but after a couple weeks it was apparent that Alexander was going to need some extra attention.  He often became distraught if Jada wanted to play with the other toddlers in the class.  At the suggestion of the preschool head-mistress Mortimer and Bella placed them in separate classrooms.  Jada only attended the preschool three times a week, as did most of the other children, but Alexander attended pre-school all week.  On the days she was home while Alexander was in school Jada quietly played with toys or sought out whichever adult was home to read a story.

Mortimer grew accustom to the needs of Alexander and Jada.  He often forgot that Cassandra needed him too.  She was such an independent child.  One day, while getting Jada ready for lunch, Mortimer noticed that Cassandra was having an issue on the computer of the next room.  When he told her he would be there in just a minute, she had replied she didn't need him and would just find Grandpapa.  Cassandra had stopped coming to them with her needs.  Mortimer decided to spend more time with his oldest before she was unreceptive to being with them and coming to them with her problems.

Mortimer enjoyed fishing, though he mostly only took out his pole when required by work.  He bought a small pole at the store and gave it to Cassandra.  At first she looked at him kind of funny, but after thinking about it for a minute she decided it could be fun.  Mortimer started teaching Cassandra to fish in the pond in their yard.  While they fished he talked about his idea for a large garden.  Cassandra liked fishing but she really liked the idea of the garden.  Mortimer told her stories of her Grandmama Cornelia's garden and his love of gardening came from her.

Every Sunday Mortimer and Cassandra would go fishing.  Sometimes they would visit other places in Sunset Valley.  However, their favorite place was their very own pond.  Cassandra was becoming an expert at catching minnows.  Mortimer was soon going to have to sneak off to catch or buy different types of fish to stock the pond while Cassandra was at school or sleeping.  Cassandra was a mystery to Mortimer.  She seemed to have aquired the best of all members of the family.  Cassandra had the tenacity and business sense of her grandfather, the love of nature like her grandmother, the perseverence of her father, and the ease of painting like her mother.  Mortimer gazed at his first born and marveled at the wonder she was.

Bella was somewhat surprised when she discovered she was pregnant again.  Mortimer was down right shocked when she shared the news, though she didn't know why he would be so shocked.  It wasn't as if they were trying prevent it or if they even cared at the time.  Bella was not plagued by morning sickness with this pregnancy so she was able to keep the pregnancy to herself for awhile.  She wanted to make it through the first trimester before making any big announcements.  Since this was her thrid pregnancy she noticed that she was beginning to show much quicker than before.  Bella made it to the second trimester before her boss actually worked up the nerve to ask if she was expecting.  When she confirmed the news Chef Frio released her for the maternity leave the law required.

  Bella and Mortimer decided to tell Cassandra the good news since word of the pregnancy was making its rounds.  They wanted Cassandra to hear it from them and not someone around town.  That evening Mortimer cleared the table to let Bella tell Cassandra.

"Cassandra I have something I would like to tell you," Bella said as she took her daughter's hand.

"Okay," Cassandra replied.

"I'm going to have a baby.  I'm pregnant!"

"Really?" Cassandra questioned.  "From your tummy?"

"Yeah, I'll be getting much bigger before the baby gets here."

Cassandra looked at her mother's stomach with doubt.  Worried shadowed her face.

"What is wrong, Sweetheart?" Bella asked.

Cassandra hesitated.  "Will the baby be like Alexander?"

"I don't suppose so.  The two of you are different and this baby will be unique, as are all of you."  Bella hugged her daughter.  "Everything will be just fine.  You'll see."

With the pregnancy practically public knowledge, Mortimer and Bella started making plans.  They were going to hire a contractor to get started on Cassandra's room and to redo the nursery.  Mortimer and Bella went back and forth on whether or not to find out the sex of their baby.  Mortimer wanted to know and Bella wanted to be surprised.  They could hardly narrow down their ideas for a list of names.  Bella was being extra cautious and Dr. Jolina was watching her closely.  Bella needed to have some extra appointments so they could catch any problems if some were to arise.

Each passing appointment was a relief.  No problems were detected as of yet.  Once Bella was noticeably pregnant Cassandra started taking more interest in the baby.  She would often sneak up to Bella and hug the baby bump.  Cassandra loved to rub her mother's tummy.  She was excited when the baby began to kick and move.  Mortimer and Bella eventually did decide to find out what they were having.  Cassandra was thrilled to be getting a new baby brother.  They were nowhere near ready to pick out a name so everyone still just called him baby when they talked to Bella's tummy.

When she wasn't following her mother around, Cassandra disappeared to the attic to paint.  In a couple weeks she would have to stay out of the room so the workmen could get the renovation done.  She wanted to spend as much time up there before that happened.  Cassandra started painting a picture for her parents to hang in the new baby's room.  She knew she could get Grandpapa to take her to buy a present, but she wanted to give them something special that she could eventually tell her new brother about.

Alexander and Jada didn't fully comprehend what it meant that Bella was going to have a baby, but they were told nonetheless.  The news didn't affect them on a daily basis.  They did get excited every once and awhile and pretended they had babies in their bellies too.  They would talk about it to whoever would listen, even if they had already talked about it before.  Mostly, days were just normal days for them.  Separating them into different classes didn't seem to have any negative effects.  If anything, it strengthened the bond they had with each other when they were together.

If they didn't look so drastically different anyone could mistake them for twins.  Alexander and Jada were near each other always.  They played together and walked around together.  Sometimes Bella or Mortimer would find them snuggled up together in a nap because they fell asleep looking at one of their picture books.  As parents, Mortimer and Bella felt lucky that Alexander and Jada would be able to rely on one another as they adjust to a new baby in the house in a couple of months.

The household was busy.  Gunther didn't know how Mortimer kept it all together.  Mortimer did have something that he never had; a partner, lover, companion, and ally.  Gunther went to bed worn out and alone.  He believed he was alone.  Lolita still took form every night.  She watched his somewhat labored breathing.  She couldn't remember what breathing felt like.  She gazed upon his face, wrinkled with age.  Lolita still thought he was beautiful.  She smiled to herself.  Most people always discribed Gunther as handsome, good-looking, or smooth.  To Lolita he had the beauty of a Greek God, and she still thought so.  She vaguely wondered what it would have been like to have his children, grown old with him, and watch their grandchildren in awe.  She never did get a chance to tell Gunther she was pregnant.  He never knew; the test result buried in the back corner of a storage room in the basement of the hospital at her father-in-law's request.   Lolita garnered enough strength to lay beside him in bed and pretend she was wrinkled and gray and his family was one they had made together.