Travis

Two Years Later

 

“George, put that down, right now! 1, 2, 3…” Aurora shouted across the room as little George was about to toss his toy truck from his high chair across the kitchen. This little guy got some arms on him, maybe he could be a baseball pitcher one day. George had reached his terrible twos about three months earlier than his second birthday, he had been testing Aurora every single chance he got.

Jemma and Andy gave their reluctant permission for us to raise the child. It had been two years now, George was just about to turn two.

Aurora and I moved out of my crappy apartment soon after we became legal guardians of George. My old apartment wasn’t fit for a family. It was way too small and the neighborhood wasn’t family oriented.

Things between Aurora and I were progressing a little fast initially when George came into our lives. I thought I was going to run for the hills with the sudden change. My old friends might look at me and think I was domesticated, but I had never been happier. I became the master of diaper changes, and I couldn’t be prouder of myself.

I didn’t need much convincing to agree to raise George with Aurora. The discussion was quite short and uneventful. Aurora asked if I was interested in being a guardian with her on that fateful morning, and I just said yes by the time we finished breakfast. It was simple and easy. Before having Aurora in my life, I used to be afraid of the idea of being a parent having the responsibilities to bring up a child in this crazy world. But with Aurora by my side, I felt much more at ease to take on this monumental task. Parenting was not easy but being on the same wavelength as Aurora made it much easier.  

When my mother passed away, she left me a letter. She had written me this letter a week before she left us. A good portion of her letter read like her will, she stated how she wanted her funeral, where she wanted to be buried and etc. The rest of it was her reflection and her stories about me, the funny moments she had with me when I was a child, how she discovered my personality through all these little moments, and how my personality traits as a child still shone through now as an adult. I must have read her letter easily a hundred times and every time I read it, I couldn’t help but tear up.   At the end of the letter, she wrote,

“Be Brave, Be Daring and Be You.

PS. There are two boxes of my stamps and coin collection that I had kept since I was a young girl. Get it appraised before you throw it out, there could be a small fortune there. And you will be surprised that I kept your baseball cards.  Remember those precious baseball cards that you sold at the garage sale to raise money so you could buy me Mother’s Day present? I bought them back and in hopes to surprise you one day. SURPRISE!

I love you son.

Love you to the moon and back,

Mom

When I went through these two boxes tucked underneath the basement stairs, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had a faint memory of my mother showing me her stamp and coin collections when I was very young. I brought them to an antique shop for appraisal and the entire box of her collection was worth a hundred thousand dollars. I didn’t know much about stamps and coins, so I sold the collection and kept a few sets of stamps that I remembered my mom told me how hard it was to collect. All that money was more than enough to pay the medical bills and had some money left.

Out of curiosity, I took my old baseball cards for an appraisal, and all those cards fetched me seventy thousand dollars. It was amazing. I remembered I spent my summer days mowing lawn for my neighbors to earn that money, so I could buy those baseball cards. It was hard for me to sell them at the garage sale to buy my mother a pretty sweater for Mother’s Day. She looked so pretty in that sweater, she was so happy that day. Her smile was worth my baseball cards, I thought to myself. I must have been ten or eleven years old at that point. I kept a few cards of my favorite players, perhaps I would be able to share it with my children one day. There were a couple hundred cards in mint condition. This small fortune was enough money for me to go to culinary school for a year and to have some seed money for me to start a small restaurant or several food trucks. 

Once I finished culinary school, a couple of classmates and I decided to put our money together and started our own restaurant. It was a dream came true. We decided to go with Italian cuisine, something that we all enjoyed cooking and eating, and there was also a need for a family style Italian restaurant serving up rustic fare in this town.  

Aurora and Sheila’s business was also booming, once Aurora was working on it in full force, she began selling vintage clothes online. It allowed her to scale up her business much faster than she would have been able to. She scaled up to a level that the bigger players were starting to take notice. They had approached her about a potential merger. It was something that Sheila and Aurora had to wrestle with. The business was their baby, I couldn’t imagine them letting it go easily.

“Travis, remember we have the ultrasound appointment this afternoon?”

“Of course, darling.”

How could I forget?

Aurora was expecting. She was 19 weeks along, and we were supposed to find out the gender of the baby this afternoon. We both agreed that we were at the right age to try for a baby before the window opportunity escaped from us. We were both over the moon.

“George, let’s get going.” Little George ran over and sat next to me and attempted to tie his own shoes.

“Remember the bunny ears trick?” It was early to teach him to tie his shoelace at this age, but he showed interest in learning.

“Ah-huh.” He stuck out his tongue trying to focus on his shoelaces. After a few tries, I felt his little hand patting me, gesturing me to help him.

We were finally out the door ten minutes later. The traffic was light, it took no time to get to the OB’s office. We sat there in the waiting room, my palms were getting sweaty. For the life of me, I didn’t know why I was getting worked up over this appointment. George was sitting next to Aurora while she read him a story.

“Mr. and Mrs. Parker, the doctor is ready for you.” The nurse greeted us.

“Mrs. Parker, after you.” I teased Aurora.

“It’s Ms. Rose, Mr. Parker.” She countered cheekily.

We hadn’t tie the knot yet.

I was ready to propose to her two years ago. I had my mother’s ring in my pocket. It was clear to me that Aurora wasn’t ready or wasn’t keen on walking down the aisle after her divorce to Andy, which was understandable. But that was two year ago. 

“Aurora, how are you feeling now that you are in second trimester?” Dr. Dawson asked while flipping through Aurora’s chart.

“Good. Very good actually, my energy is back. Morning sickness is practically gone.” I was carrying George as he was acting shy in front of the doctor.

“Let’s lay down and have a look.” Dr. Dawson squeezed the cold gel on Aurora’s belly.

A few swipes over her belly, the good doctor found the little one.

“I have news. You may want to have a seat as well Mr. Parker.” The doctor tapped on the ultrasound machine and captured a few images. I couldn’t make out the heads or tail from those images. She passed a box of Kleenex to Aurora for her to wipe the gel off her belly.

I sat down next to Aurora, Aurora scooted upright on the exam table.

“Congratulations, you are carrying twins! I didn’t get to see the second baby when I was doing the first ultrasound, she or he must have been hiding.”

“She or he?” I asked.

“Do you want to know the sexes of the babies?” we nodded in unison, ”you are having a boy and a girl, they are fraternal twin, they are both hanging out in their own sacs, so I don’t know which one was hiding during the first scan.” Dr. Dawson smiled.

We were so excited that both of us had teared up. I was hugging Aurora with George sandwiched between us. Our little family of three was now a family of five.

“This is my dream come true.” Aurora said with beads of tears coming out of her eyes.

“Mine too…” I kissed her tears away, “mine too…”

 The doctor went on and on about the risks and implications of a pregnancy with twin babies.  We were both trying to absorb as much information as we could. But I was too distracted. My mind had wandered off to the idea of proposal. We had been living together for the last two years as common law. I wondered if Aurora was ready to take the leap of faith with me.

There was only one way to find out.

Once we finished at the doctors, we drove home. The moment Aurora got home, she went into research mode. She was reading everything and anything about multiple pregnancy and parenting twins. Thankfully George went down for his afternoon nap without much fuss. That gave me some time to prepare for the big night.

I had to dig deep into my memories of the last two years, and think of what Aurora would like for a proposal. I had learned that Aurora was a much more practical than a romantic kind of woman, and she had all sorts of quirky preferences. For example, she preferred a potted plant over flowers, or a big bag of BBQ chips over a box of fancy chocolates, or a bottle of Malbec over a bottle of champagne. I loved every bit of her quirks. Her idiosyncrasies continued to surprise me everyday.

“Aurora, I’m gonna step out for a bit. Call me if you need anything.”