Three
Archer
When my twins were born, the world became a dangerous place, where something as simple as a staple or a penny could prove to be fatal. My protective instincts kicked in, and my neuroses went into overdrive. No matter what I did, I simply couldn’t rest easy unless I knew they were safe. It was illogical, and I knew it, but that was the reality of parenting. I always had that little voice in the back of my head telling me to rush in and make sure that they were okay.
I couldn’t sleep in the room with them. I never would’ve gotten any sleep, so I bought the best security system I could find. Their nursery door and window had motion sensors and heat sensors that would set off an alarm if anyone came in there uninvited. Then, of course, I had several cameras put in so I could send the feed to the flat screen across from my bed. That way, I could wake up and see that they were okay.
I had just gotten to sleep when I heard the scream pierce through the room. My eyes shot open. Somebody was hungry. I grabbed a bottle from the mini-fridge near the bed and took it to the nursery so I could see what was going on. Abel, the smaller of the two, was shrieking. He was red in the face, flailing around in his crib.
“Come here.” I lifted Abel up and carried him into the hall. I couldn’t have him waking his brother, Andrew, up. He was staring up at me, his face scrunched up, like he was disappointed. “Hey.” I reached my hand out so he could take my finger. He slapped it away and threw his head back, wailing as loud as he could.
I rocked him with one arm, back and forth slowly, then slipped the bottle between his lips. Abel grabbed onto it, thank God. He sucked on it for a moment, his eyes drooping. Then he let the bottle fall, and his eyes closed altogether.
It should’ve been a relief, but it wasn’t. If I was careful and I didn’t make a single sound, there was a chance that I could get him back into his room without waking up his brother. I stayed as stiff as I could, careful not to move him too much, and took careful steps back to the nursery. When I crossed the threshold, Abel began to make soft noises of distress. He wiped his eyes.
“No, no, no. It’s okay.”
Abel erupted with a shrill scream. His brother, Andrew, joined in. I sighed and sat down on the rocking chair with Abel. I had tried to separate them once before. I figured it would allow them to have their own personal space, but they weren’t having it. They wanted to be together. So, they still continued to share a room.
Andrew stopped crying after a few minutes. Then Abel closed his eyes and went back to sleep. I got up, as quietly as I could, to put him in his crib. Then my toe jammed against something, and it nearly pierced the skin. “Shit!”
The boys both started screaming again. I brought Abel back out into the hall to put him to sleep. Once he settled down, I put him back in his crib, but then Andrew started crying, so I had to take him out. Once I got Andrew settled down and back in his crib, Abel started up again.
It went back and forth like that for hours with no sign of improvement. Once I got one twin asleep, the other would wake his brother up.
I finally set them both down with pacifiers and teddy bears and walked back into the hall to check my phone. It was five-thirty, which meant that I’d spent the entire night with the boys. I decided to call Mona.
She answered. “I’ll be pulling up in a second.”
“Thank God. I’m dying. The boys kept me up all night.”
“Are they sleeping now?”
I took a quick look inside. Abel was sitting up in the back of his crib holding onto his teddy bear, and Andrew was laying on his back reaching up toward his mobile. “No, they’re wide awake. But at least they’ve stopped crying.”
“That’s all right. I’m pulling up now. I’ll get them to sleep.” She hung up.
I went down to greet her. “I don’t know what I’d do without you; you know that?”
“You’d find somebody else.” She took her jacket off and hung it on the coat rack.
“No, you can’t be replaced. You’re part of the family.”
I thought I caught her blushing. She started walking upstairs. The boys were both screaming when she came in. But as soon as she grabbed Abel, he stopped crying. His brother followed suit.
“I don’t know how you do that.” I watched as she rocked him back and forth slowly in her arms, shushing him softly.
“They need a woman’s touch.”
A tinge of the old pain rose up inside me. I needed their mother there. I needed her so badly I couldn’t stand it. I tried not to think about Cara’s death. It just made things worse, but every time I saw Mona with the boys, it reminded me how much I missed her.
Cara was so happy when she got pregnant. She’d always wanted a child, and she was going to have two. She made up the nursery and poured over baby books like they were scripture. She had dedicated her life to those boys. It made me feel guilty thinking about it. She died knowing that she would never get to hold the boys or sing to them the way a mother should. It was her biggest regret—and mine.
Mona set Abel down. “You’re tired. I can tell. Can’t you take the day off?”
“No, I should get going.” I checked my phone. I should’ve been out the door by now. Instead, I was standing around like an idiot staring at my nanny. If I didn’t get it together, I was going to have a terrible day, and nothing would get done.
I shook myself out of my daze and finally tore myself away from the nursery. The boys would be fine with Mona. I just wished that I could do the things that she did with them. It bothered me all the way to work. Was there something about me that they didn’t like? Was it just the absence of a woman’s touch? Could they even sense something like that? They were infants. I should’ve been the one that they listened to, not Mona.
When I got to the office, I decided to take the back entrance, hoping it would help me get past some of the staff members that were undoubtedly trying to hunt me down. I walked through the double doors and quickly ducked into the stairwell so I could call my receptionist without anyone seeing.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Ange, you think you could keep everyone away for a couple hours? I just need to relax and get things situated.”
“Uh,” she said and laughed awkwardly.
“Come on. If you find a way, you can take an early lunch. The twins kept me up all night.”
“Two lunches, and it’s a deal.”
“Is it that bad?”
“I got sixty-two messages for you in the past hour.”
“Jesus,” I said and rested my head against the wall. “All right. You know my priorities. Move everything else out and clear me at least an hour.”
“I think I can do that.”
“And go get us something, coffee and donuts or whatever. Use your company card and get something for yourself.”
“Thank you.” I could hear her smiling through the phone.
“You’re very welcome, my dear.” I hung up and started walking up the stairs to the office. I wanted to have my own personal entrance and elevator so I could go up to my office without being seen, but the building was leased, and it came as is. There was nothing I could do about that.
Fortunately, it looked like Angela had managed to clear out most of the reception area. That was progress. “Hello,” I said as I walked in and greeted her with a smile. She was on the phone with somebody.
“I’d be more than willing to take a message for you.” She paused to listen and handed me a folder with my messages inside. “No, I’m sorry, but he’s not available right now.” She glared at me. “Well, you’re just gonna have to call back later, then. I’m sorry.”
I walked into my office. There were matters that needed attending to, and I was already behind. I needed to have a clear head if I was going to manage a company, and that wasn’t going to happen if my phone was ringing every two seconds.
I took some time at the computer to go over my messages slowly, glancing at the news every so often. Every one of the people that called me needed to be called back immediately, but some people were more important than others and quite a bit easier to talk to, so I went through the list in my own way, calling whoever I knew would give me the least amount of stress.
There was a knock on the door when I was on the phone with the head of the maintenance department. “I’ll call you right back.” I hung up. “Come in.”
It was Angela, carrying two bags of goodies and a coffee carrier with steam flowing off the top. “Here ya go.” She handed me one of the bags and a cup.
“Thank you. I really needed this.”
“Somebody from the testing department is here.” I looked over her shoulder to see Rick sitting in a chair smiling.
“Send him in.”
“You can come in now.” Angela walked back to her desk.
“How are ya?” I asked when he walked in.
“Good, good. Got a new optical display.” Rick took a seat.
“The Hawkeye?”
“Yep. Gonna go down and hook it up to Bessie this afternoon. You should come down and see it.”
“God.” I leaned back in my chair. “I can barely think straight. I feel like I’m going to die.”
“Is it the twins?”
“Yes, and it’s the most infuriating thing. They keep waking each other up. Soon as I get one to sleep, the other starts going. They’re ganging up on me, and it’s pissing me off because they won’t listen to me. When I pick them up, they scream, but when the nanny picks them up, they go right to sleep.”
“That’s because she’s a woman,” Rick said.
“That’s what Mona said. I didn’t believe any of that crap at first, but now I’m starting to think there’s something to it.”
“That’s why you need to get yourself a girl.”
“It won’t work. As soon as they find out I have children, they run away.”
“Okay, then forget about a woman for the kids. Get a woman for yourself. Have a little bit of fun. I’ll bet you haven’t gotten laid in months. Come to the club with me tomorrow night. You don’t have to go looking for wifey, but I’m sure you can get laid.”
“It has been a long time.”
“So?”
“Yeah, I guess I’ll go.”
“Nice.” Rick got up. “I’ll send you the feed from the optical display.”
“Can you send me some of the specs, too?”
“Course, man. I’ll catch you later.”
When Rick left, I looked down at my phone list. There were fifteen more people I had to deal with, and that was just for this morning. I had no idea how I was going to get through the day, but at least I had a night at the club and the inevitable hookup to look forward to.