We settled into our happy home life. I for the most part gave up drinking altogether. I know now it's for the better. My moods still swung from time to time.
One evening as I was walking to the bus stop I happened to pass by the alley where I was born. I gave an involuntary shudder trying to imagine what my mother must have been going through in her time of need. I sank into a guarded depression as my feet moved on their own accord down the alley. I dropped a few dollars at the feet of an old woman huddled against the wall.
She wasn't begging but I felt that she needed it. It was a rather brisk night for fall you could feel the early snow coming. This woman had no shoes nor a heavy coat. She glanced up at me and in a harsh raspy voice she spoke. "Take your money! I don't need it."
"Ma'am? Surely you could use a few coin to buy some warmth perhaps some shoes to cover your feet?" I said. She just laughed at me.
"Ah, my dear boy. you know so little of yourself."
I stared at her in disbelief.
"And you claim to know me? How have you come to such great knowledge? I warn you, I am not a believer in soothsayers or false prophets if that is your game." I told her. She just laughed again clearing the roughness from her voice until it hummed like honey.
"I know who and what you are. We have been searching far and wide for you."
"For me? How are you so certain that I am the right person." I said just as she lifted her chin revealing the same eyes that I had. For an old woman her face was youthful though it was tattooed in raised designs deep within her dark flesh.
"You are kin to me. Your father still roams this area looking for you. I swore that you had been born to him and he denies the truth of it. Do you still have the bear?" I gave a sudden inhale of breath at the mention of my bear.
"Yes, but it's just a silly ragged old bear. Why?"
"That bear must be protected at all times. It holds the key to our return. Your father gave it to your mother to hold in secret. If it's whereabouts are discovered by the Orknids then they will come and destroy the keeper of the bear and all within it's boundaries."
"Orknids? What are they some sort of alien? Tell me of my father so that I may know him?" I found myself asking.
The old woman smiled and gave a slight laugh. "Oh, I see you really don't know. You haven't been listening to the whispers at night have you? Very well, Your father, is my only child Kahl Jenson of Zen. His father is the Lord high master of Zen. You favor him a great deal, though my Kahl is far more handsome. I think it is because he bred with one of these inferior beings they call Earthlings. He told me it was his research that brought him here to this awful place. He was running by that time from the Orknids. I had followed hidden in his craft. We crashed in the thicket of trees in the mountains. He discovered me when I emerged from the wreckage. So we lived in some underground hole built for the purpose of protection. He has blended nicely I believe with the others of this area. They have him doing something called re-enacting. They thought his rich clothing and hair were perfect for his job as well as his superior knowledge of weaponry. That's him there on that poster."
I looked at the image on the poster. My father, a medieval knight, performing for the masses every evening. I shook my head and began to walk away as the old woman watched.
I had a great deal of information to digest that she had just spewed on me. I boarded the bus and rode silently home.
It had been several disturbing days since my encounter with the old woman. I still couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that she had professed to being my grandmother. It had been so long since I had even reflected on being an orphan. This new knowledge even started to affect my love life with Vivian too. There had been moments when we would be hot and heavy in petting then, it was gone, replaced by deep thought again.
As if losing it wasn't bad enough, Vivian told me she was pregnant. It was an ol' great, now I'm going to lose another wife. I was terrified for her.
My troubled thoughts began to spill over to our family life. Vivian spent more and more time with the boys, their bond couldn't have been stronger. It was me that was feeling so distant and on the outside looking in. It finally came to a head at dinner. I noticed that Vivian was looking angry as she was stabbing at her food.
Mistake number one. I asked what her problem was. She proceeded to put down her fork forcefully and began to argue with me. The boys took the que in her voice and cleared out. "Do you really want to know what's wrong with me? Let's start with you! When was the last time you did anything with your boys? They miss you! How about when the last time was that you tended to the farm and the horses you board? Exactly! It's been a while. Another thing that gets me, is after three years, you still set a dinner plate for Kerie. At first it was touching now its just plain obsessive. If you truly want us to get married then you must prove to me that you are ready.
I walked out to the pond and sat on the bench watching the fish suck at the surface. Vivian sat on the couch with the boys letting the guarded tears fall.
"Vivian, don't fight, dad needs you. Can't you find something that makes you happy?" Drake said and Kaleb agreed.
"Boys your dad makes me happy, but I am feeling neglected lately just as I know you are too. I'll go talk to him. Your happiness is as important to me as my own. Go on and get ready for bed. I'll be up later to tuck you in." Vivian said as she kissed the boys heads.
I tossed the last bit of dry grass in the pond as Vivian sat beside me in silence. I looked over at her and seen how relaxed her face was at the time.
"Devon, I know you have been distracted lately. I wish you could tell me your problems. I love you I do. How can I help you?" Vivian said as Devon pulled her onto his lap.
"I love you too, Vivian. I just don't know where to start. I do know that I want to marry you more then ever before. How about we set a date?"
A week later I placed a call to the local courthouse and asked if they could send out a judge to officiate our wedding. We gathered by the moonlight under our homemade trellis as the judge came into the yard carrying his book. Vivian looked at him and leaned into me.
"You know he bears and uncanny resemblance to you, Devon. Do you know him?"
I looked at the man reading us our vows and the shock that filled me nearly burst in my chest. We got through our vows and the moment that I was able I approached the man.
"Excuse me, are you Kahl?" I asked getting an unsettled look from the man.
"Yes, I am he. I was told by my mother that I should come here and find what I have been seeking. I think she has finally turned mad. Congratulations on your nuptials." Kahl said as he began to walk away.
"Wait. I believe I may be what you have been searching for." He looked at me strangely.
"How's that? I have been searching for nearly twenty and five years. What makes you so certain it is you?"
"Because I have the bear." I said seeing the intense shock on his face as he stared at the ragged old bear of my youth.
"Where did you get that?" He demanded.
"My mother had it with her as she birthed me in an alley. She lost her life that day. Ms. Bernice took me in noticing the bear beside my mother she grabbed it for me. I've had it ever since."
"Give it to me. It must be protected!" Kahl said. I tucked the bear out of sight.
"No It is mine! I have protected it all these years."
"Please, Devon. You don't understand the importance of the bear. That is how we will get home again. Inside the stuffing is the key to the portal. If you lose it then we are doomed to stay here. Please son, give me the bear."
"No, I can't do that this bear has meant the world to me growing up and I cannot let you take him now."
"Then I cannot help you. Goodnight I'll be in touch."
Several months had passed since Vivian and I married she is blooming larger and larger. Dr.William Jenkins her OB said we are expecting twins by his sonogram. Now I am even more terrified. What if she becomes pigheaded like Kerie?
Vivian swears she wants to go to the hospital. She wants drugs and the hole kit and caboodle. I laughed at her but she said she was serious. She didn't have an issue with the hospital. She worked in it everyday. Only now Dr.Jenkins put her on restrictions because of the twins. So she had to discontinue the research at the aquarium and she had to cut down her hours in the OR.
The boys have really taken to her and the babies. Denver celebrated his birthday, shortly after Drake. I was surprised at how much like a man Drake was starting to look. He even started with a Boy of facial hair. I don't know where the time has gone.
True to form, when Vivian turned thirty two weeks she was put in the hospital. There wasn't any complications other than her dilating more then Dr.Jenkins liked. She was a four. "Even singletons are admitted at three, Devon if her water was to break right now she would labor very quickly at this rate and you wouldn't make it here in time. Relax she is in great care." Dr. Jenkins told me. I wouldn't be reassured until I was able to hold those two squirming pink things and she was able to laugh at me by my side.
Four more days and I received the call from Vivian in the middle of the night. "Get the boys and come quickly. I'm in labor." I rounded the boys up as we sped to the Belladonna Memorial Hospital.
I stood by her side as the first baby, a son slide freely from her. We named him Jason. It was the second twin that seemed to take her by surprise.
She was in so much pain trying to bring the baby down. I thought that the second one was supposed to be easier.
"Relax Vivian let your body do the work. Devon this twin is large than your son. That's it Vivian."Dr.Jenkins said as the pain medication wore off and she could feel everything.
Dr.Jenkins exclaimed as he pulled the screaming baby from Vivian, "It's a girl!" I nearly fainted after four boys, I finally had a daughter. I cried with Vivian as the doctor whisked the baby away to clean her up. The nurses quickly cleaned and dressed Vivian as I received Jason clean and wrapped in his blanket.
I gazed into the blue eyes of my son. He was the image of his mother. I walked him over to Vivian as Dr.Jenkins walked our Daughter Kerianne over for Vivian and I to see her all cleaned up. She looked identical to Jason aside from being a girl. I was so proud.
We settled into our new life with twins. It took more settling from Vivian as she decided to nurse both babies. She is always tired. Every two hours she has to be up feeding our babies. but she loves it, she's never without a natural smile on her lips.
I still wonder why my father has kept such a strange distance from me. The last time we spoke was when he married Vivian and I. Luckily the vows were legal. I had to call and verify that the next day at the courthouse.
