Rose looked at the calendar. "March 23, 1914. Whew. Time does fly by," she said.
The twins were now almost two years old.
Rose's birthday was in two days, her twentieth birthday.
Jack was now twenty-two.
Cora was eight and was always outside, playing baseball with her friend, Adam.
"Mommy!" Josephine screamed.
"Hold on, dear," Rose called back.
She walked into the room.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I'm hungry. When's Daddy coming home?"
"He'll be here in a few minutes. Ask him to bake cookies with you when he gets here."
"Okay, Mommy."
"Where's Lizzy?"
"I don't know. She ran off."
"Okay, dear."
Rose walked out of the room.
"Lizzy?" she called out.
"Josie, I'm going to Pawpaw and Grandma Lizzy's house. I'll be right back."
Maybe she'll be there, Rose thought.
Lizzy was now getting into Jack's habit of running off.
She also had Jack's artists' abilities.
Josie, too, liked to draw, but not as much as Jack and Lizzy.
Rose walked into her mother-in-law's house.
"Liz?"
"Yes, dear?" Liz asked, coming out of the kitchen.
"Is Lizzy here?"
"Yes, like always. I'll get her."
"Lizzy! Get down here," Liz called up the stairs.
A little blond, curly-haired girl came bouncing off the steps.
"Hello, Mommy!" She jumped into Rose's arms.
"Hello to you, too. You know what your father and I told you about running off."
Lizzy nodded.
"Don't do it again. Okay?"
"Okay, Mommy."
"Thanks, Liz," Rose said.
"No problem. All she does is play with her dolls here."
"Bye."
"Bye."
"Well, hello," Jack greeted Rose and Lizzy, once they walked through the door.
"Sorry, Jack. Lizzy ran off again."
"Lizzy, tsk tsk tsk," he said.
She smiled, and ran upstairs to her room.
Jack kissed Rose.
"How was your day?" she asked.
"Fine. Yours?"
"Well, other than Lizzy running off and Cora only staying here to eat and sleep, it's been fine."
He smiled.
Cora walked in the door.
"Hey, Mommy and Daddy!" she greeted them.
"Have fun today?" Jack asked.
"Yeah...I got into a fight with one of Adam's friends. It was fun."
"Who won?" Jack asked.
"Jack...don't encourage her."
"I'm not. I just wanna know."
"I did, of course! You should have seen the look on his face when he got beaten by a girl!"
They laughed.
"How was school?"
"It was okay. Nothing new. I'm hungry."
"All right...go play and I'll make dinner," Rose said.
"Okay." Cora ran upstairs.
Rose walked into the kitchen.
Jack followed her, and put his arms around her waist.
He started to kiss her neck.
She sighed happily.
"Mmm."
"I love you, Rose."
"I love you, too, Jack."
There was silence, and he was still brushing his lips up and down her neck.
"Jack, the sooner I cook, the sooner the kids eat and go to bed," she said.
"I see...I'm gonna go to my studio."
He kissed her lips, and went upstairs to his studio.
Jack walked into the studio to find the twins drawing on the walls.
"Elizabeth Rose! Josephine Adele!"
They turned around.
"Hi, Daddy!" they said in unison.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Drawing a picture for you," Lizzy said, grinning.
"Yeah," Josie agreed.
"That's what paper is for," he said.
"But Daddy, this room needs color in it," Josie said.
"Then draw on a piece of paper and I'll gladly hang it up. Now go to your room."
They looked at the floor and walked out of the studio.
Jack walked back downstairs and into the kitchen.
He saw Rose sitting at the table with her hands on her stomach.
"Rose? Is there something wrong?" he asked, sitting down.
"No, everything's fine."
"Rose?"
"I'm serious, Jack. I'm fine. What did the girls do?"
He sighed.
"They were drawing in my studio."
"That doesn't sound bad."
"On the walls."
"Oh, God." She sighed.
"I don't know what to do. I'm so tired. I just sent them to their room."
"Sorry, Jack. I have a surprise for you. I wasn't going to tell you yet, though."
"What is it?"