I was so proud of Nick. He was only eleven months old, and he had taken his first steps about a week ago. He was now walking around the living room. Of course, he had to grab ahold of stuff like chairs, and couches, a lot, but, that’s not the issue.
I turned to look at Zac playing the old piano in the corner of the room and wonder since when had he lived here, for a minute, and when I looked back, Nick was gone!
“Oh my God! Where’s Nick!?”
Zac looked at me and said, “He went over there.”
He pointed out the door.
I rushed to the door in question, and looked out, spotting Nick toddling across the street.
I freaked out, in fear that my most precious gift in life would be run over. Not seeming to be able to move, or anything, I screamed in terror, “Oh my God!”
But Nick made it across the street with no difficulty. As relief washed over me, I finally realized that I should go get Nick.
I ran across the street, almost getting rundown myself, but managed to avoid it. I ran into the neighbour’s yard to scoop Nick up in my arms and coo, “Oh, my little dude! Yes you are! You had daddy scared there, yes you did! You never do that again, okay little man?”
A guy that looked about my age sauntered out into the yard from the house that accompanied it and asked, “Daddy?” in a sarcastic voice.
“Yeah, well, at least I’m not a pathetic bastard that’s not even getting any.”
“I’m getting some. Actually, I’m getting a lot. You, on the other hand, have to deal with consequences, cuz you were stupid about it. So, obviously, my situation is far better than yours, because I am both getting some, and reaping the benefits of birth control, because I have no kids.” He delivered his statement quickly and efficiently, and then stood there, waiting for a reply.
“Yeah, well, uh, stuff!”
“I thought you’d say that. Now, could you explain to me why you and your two year old are having a one sided conversation in my lawn?”
“Well, he ran over here, and I chased him, and now that I’ve caught him, I can go back home again. And, FYI, he’s only eleven months old. Isn’t he mature for his age?” I asked with a paternal tone and a grin filled with pride.
“Uh, yeah....”
“By the way, my name’s Taylor, and my son’s name is Nick.”
“Oh. I’m Brandon. I’m fifteen.”
“I’m fifteen too.”
“Well, isn’t it coincidental that our parents happened to do it around the same time!”
“Hey, you’re perverted!”
“Yeah, are you perverted?”
“Yeah!”
“Cool! You and Nick wanna come inside and drink some OJ? Maybe some coffee?”
“Uh, OJ would be fine...”
“Cool. Right his way. You can also take a look at my sisters.”
“Huh?”
“You can pick one out. Unless you already have a woman.”
“Oh, no, she died.”
“Oh, sorry. You want a new one?”
“Sure!”
Once we were in the kitchen, Brandon poured two glasses of OJ and set one in front of me, and one in front of Nick.
I was confused as to what he expected Nick to do with the juice, but, surprising enough, Nick just picked it up and drank it.
He set the empty glass back down. Brandon asked, “You want more?”
Nick simply nodded. Brandon refilled his glass. He drank it again. “More?”
He shook his head. Brandon took the glass and put it in the sink. “What are you staring at?” he asked me.
I shook my head, as if to knock an idea out of it. “Nothin.’ I just noticed you have quite the way with kids.”
“Yeah, well, the chicks around here have enough of them. Caleb strictly forbids having kids, but, no one really listens to him anyway.”
“Who’s Caleb?”
“My older brother. He’s nineteen and, like, runs the house or whatever. He and that chick he always fucks are my parent wannabe things”
“Do you have many other brothers?”
“Just Justin. And then there’s Matt, Josh and Jay, but we’re not related by blood or anything, they’re just, like, my brothers.”
“Who’s Justin?”
“My twin brother.”
“Do you guys, like, look like each other?”
“Identical in every respect.”
“Oh. I’ve never actually met identical twins before.”
“Well, you will soon. Our, uh, entire family’s made up of multiple births. Out of all of them, you’ve got either two, three, or four people looking exactly like each other. But most often it’s, like, identical triplets, or four of ‘em, with two identical pairs. Me and Justin have two twin sisters that are identical.”
“Oh. Uh, how possible is that?”
“What?”
“You know, the entire thing!”
“Well, it’s a genetic defect thing, so it’s far less possible to have a singular, or twins that aren’t identical.”
“Damn. You’re lucky.”
“No I’m not. Imagine your sister. You’ve got one right?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, now imagine her.”
I pictured Zoe, Avery, and Jessica.
“Now, picture two of them.”
My head was filled with images of two Avery’s harassing me about fixing jump ropes, and two Zoe’s crying at 3AM, and two Jessica’s hogging the phone and fighting with Zac.
“Oh my God,” I muttered.
“See. My point exactly.”
About twenty minutes after the scary thing with picturing six sisters, Brandon had asked me how young and old I’d take a chick.
“Uh, about thirteen to sixteen.”
“Okay. Hold on.” Then he yelled, “Everyone who’s a chick and thirteen to sixteen get your asses down here now!”
“Shut up Brandon!” someone yelled. A few more objections chorused down, but Brandon just ignored them, and, eventually, there were twelve girls standing up against the wall like it was a line up or something.
“Why don’t you all be a large group of sweeties and arrange yourselves?” Brandon requested.
There were a few complaints, but, in the end, they did end up arranged by what appeared to be age.
“Okay, left to right, oldest to youngest, Demona, Carmine, Journey, Sam, Sahara, Sierra, Sabrina, Sydney, Savannah, Jessymne, Jacinda, Justine. They’re all my sisters. Except some of them aren’t. Uh, some aren’t related to me. But they’re all my sisters. Uh...”
“I understand.”
“Okay.”
I looked at all of them and decided which one I liked. She looked a lot like Brandon. He had said her name was Savannah.
Sierra and Sahara (they were identical twins, but Brandon had told me earlier they weren’t blood relations and it was just a coincidence) well, Sierra had on black lip stick and nail polish and Sahara was wearing a Manson tee shirt, and they scared me, and Brandon had explained (many times) that Sam was taken. And Savannah’s twin, Sydney, was looking at me like she thought I sucked. And Jessymne, Jacinda and Justine looked about thirteen, and had discovered that I wasn’t really interested in someone that young after all. So, I set my sights on Savannah.
Then Brandon gestured toward me and said, “This is Taylor. You can call him Tay.”
Sydney, who I had recently learned was sarcastic and cynical chorused in a mocking voice, “Hi Tay!”
“Uh, nice to meet you,” I said dumbly.
Sydney wandered off.
Brandon took it in stride, and pointed at Nick, saying, “This is his son Nick.”
Savannah nodded at Nick and said, “Hey.”
Another point to Savannah, I thought. She likes the kid.
“Uh, you can all leave now,” Brandon told them.
They all wandered off.
“Well, it was nice talking to you, but I really should go home before my mom starts to think Nick and I have been abducted by aliens or something. And, if you’d ever met my mom, you’d think she would think so too. So, see yah.”
“See yah.”
I walked to the door and started home, all the while thinking of my plans to get Savannah to like me.
Chapter Twenty One Back to the Chapters
