Chapter 33 – Darren
After a good night’s sleep, I woke up and knew exactly what I needed to do. I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me to do this before, but I was about to make a trip to Eve’s house and be completely honest with her. She had always been wonderful to me. She at least deserved to hear from me the truth about what was going on.
I didn’t know how I would be received once I got to the house, but I didn’t expect that Eve would be standing outside when I got there. It was early. The sun had barely come up. I guess I assumed that she and everyone else in the house would be sleeping.
She wasn’t. She was out in their small garden in the front yard, pulling weeds. Eve really was a hard worker, I thought.
When she saw me pull up and recognized me, she turned to face me, arms crossed.
“You! What are you doing here?” He words were venomous, like I’d never heard her words come out before.
“Please hear me out,” I said, walking toward her slowly. “I just want a chance to explain what’s going on.”
“Oh? Now, you want to explain? You concoct this whole plan to impregnate my daughter, making her your whore and buying my first grandchild and now you want to come by with an explanation. No need. Please leave.”
She turned and pretended to busy herself in the garden again, ignoring the fact that I was still standing there.
“I have a son. He hasn’t wanted anything to do with me since I came home. The doctors told me that I have a few months left and I will be completely sterile. I won’t ever be able to have more children,” I blurted out.
I didn’t know what had gotten into me, except that I felt that Eve deserved to know the whole story.
“I know, I know,” I added, realizing how bad it sounded. “How selfish of me to use your daughter for my own purposes. I wanted so badly to have children, I guess that I didn’t think of what that might mean on a deeper level for your daughter. I thought that I could get the baby that I wanted and help you and your family out of your financial troubles at the same time. I guess I left it up to Hope to tell you what she wanted you to know, but I see now that that was wrong. I should have been the one to step up and tell you what my intentions were. And for that I am truly sorry.”
Eve didn’t respond at all. She just kept right on working in the garden.
“Can you please talk to me?” I begged.
I didn’t know what I was looking for. For her to accept my apology? Either way, I didn’t want to keep feeling like an idiot talking to her back. I walked around and stood in front of her, begging her again to talk to me.
She sighed dejectedly.
“What do you want me to say, Darren? I forgive you? It’s water under the bridge? It’s not that simple. What you did wasn’t right. You made Hope feel like she had to lie to me. Her own mother. I’m the reason that you even know who she is! And I regret the day I asked her to fill in for me, or else she wouldn’t know you at all.”
“I know! I really know,” I exclaimed, but I was thinking, ouch. Her words were harsh, even though they were deserved. “And you might not believe me, but I really am sorry!”
“Okay, well, I guess I appreciate the after-the-fact apology,” she spat.
She stood up and started walking toward the house.
“I’m in love with her,” I called out after her.
She stopped.
“Are you serious?” she asked carefully, turning to face me.
“Yes,” I admitted. “I went into this arrangement thinking that it would just be a transaction. Now that I’ve had time to get to know her, I have fallen in love with her. Now, I want her for more than just having my baby. I want to be with her forever.”
She smiled so brightly and even from the distance that I stood, it looked like tears were beginning to well up in her eyes.
“You really mean it?”
“I really mean it,” I said.
She ran down from the porch and threw the full weight of her body into me. I laughed as I stumbled backward to catch her.
“Well, now that makes me happy,” she said, choking back tears. “I thought this was all just some monetary transaction. But if you two actually love each other… well, it’s an unorthodox way for a baby to come into this world, but, it’s not the worst way. At least it will have parents who are in love and who will hopefully be able to provide it a lot of love.”
“Yes,” I told her. “Exactly. The baby will have two parents— and an older brother— who will love her, or him, very much.”
I didn’t know why, but I wanted it to be a girl. Perhaps because I already had a boy. Or perhaps because I felt that it would be so adorable if Hope and I could have a little girl.
I felt like I was floating on the drive back home. I kicked myself for not talking to Eve in the first place. But, it probably happened right on time because the feelings that I now had for Hope were not ones that I felt when we first entered into the agreement. They were feelings that had developed over the past couple of weeks.
I decided I would leave it up to Hope to let her mom know of any further news. Before getting out of the car, I decided to make a phone call.
“Hello, old friend!” came the happy voice on the other side of the phone. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”
“Hey, Harlow! I just wanted to tell you the good news. I am going to have a baby.”
“Wow! Congratulations!”
“Thanks! Also, I have a son too. His name is Bryant.”
“Wow, wow, wow,” Harlow declared. “All this news at once.”
“I know,” I admitted. “I’ve never been the most… open… of people, especially after the helicopter crash and everything, but not even before that.”
“I can relate,” he said. “And it’s fine. Really. I’m glad you’re telling me. Congrats, man. Our kids will all have to get together and play.”
“Yes, that’s part of why I’m calling,” I told him, before taking a big breath and deciding to plunge into unfamiliar waters. “Hey listen, I’m not sure what your plans are for Christmas, and I know it’s rather far away, but I would love it if you and your families came by for a party at my house.”
“Yes, sure! That sounds wonderful,” Harlow answered, causing me to breathe a big sigh of relief.
He had said he wanted to see me, but it was a different thing altogether to get confirmation. I couldn’t believe that not only did I have Hope, plus a baby on the way, plus a son already, but now I had friends, too. Life was only getting better from here on out, I could just tell.
“I’ll have Whitney put it on our calendar now since holiday plans fill up quickly with such a big extended family like ours,” Harlow continued. It would be lovely to see friends who also had kids. I was certainly feeling more and more like a normal person these days. “Shoot me over the details and I’ll make sure that we are all there. I can’t wait to meet your kid, and see you again too.”
“Will do. I’ll be in touch,” I said, hanging up the phone.
I was grateful to Harlow for continuing to reach out to me, despite my initial hesitancy and even mistreatment of him. It wasn’t every day a guy had a good friend like that. But, not every guy was lucky enough to be a fucking SEAL, like me.
This was going to be a first for all of us. I had never had anyone at the house other than Eve, Hope, my mother, and my son Bryant. This made me remember what my life used to be like before the accident, when I was still in the land of the living.
This made me excited for the future.
I was in the land of the living once again.