It's Hard To Find A Good Plumber

"I need you to come on home," Sydnee whispered and Ken let go of her fists.

"I need you," Sydnee said, putting her arms around him.

"And I need you too," Ken said, kissing the top of her head. "But I am home."

"I see that," she agreed.

The next morning, Mrs. Montoya was singing to Kennedy when Sydnee and Ken entered the kitchen.

"You got no job today; I tell everybody you wife just come here you two need you some time left alone," she announced as she began loading up their plates.

""Oh my God, I can't eat all..." Sydnee began to protest but Ken clamped a hand over her mouth.

"But Honey, I just lost sixty two pounds!" Sydnee whined when he released her mouth.

"And you look great," he said and Sydnee's face lighted up.

"That boat? That no place for pretty baby girl," Mrs. Montoya announced as Dolly came into the house.

"Hi," Sydnee greeted the woman.

"Hey," Dolly said, squinting at Ken. "Hmm, no black eye, he okay, huh?"

"He's okay," Sydnee giggled happily.

"No, pretty little baby girl needs a swing play on, nice back yard," Mrs. Montoya went on.

"But where would we find a swing and a back yard?" Ken asked Mrs. Montoya, smiling.

"Hmm, we put swing right there," Mrs. Montoya pointed to the large oak tree.

"Oh yeah and maybe a slide over there?" Dolly agreed, looking through the window into the back yard.

"Hmm, oh yes, a slide, you like a slide? A slide and you go 'whee!' all the way down?" Mrs. Montoya asked the cooing Kennedy.

Dolly fixed herself a plate and sat at the table.

"Sydnee, what you do, huh?" Dolly asked.

"Well, I was a teacher, taught third grade," Sydnee said, hefting some of the fried plantains onto her fork. "But then they fired me."

"Fired you?" Ken asked, ignoring Dolly as Dolly dropped her fork. "Why'd they fire you?"

"Unmarried and pregnant?" Sydnee asked him.

"You a teacher?" Dolly asked excitedly.

"I mean, it's all right for the high school coach to be giving blow jobs to his students; I mean Baylor Lake's finally winning football games but unwed and pregnant? Oh no, we can't have that," Sydnee shook her head and swallowed.

Dolly got up from the table and scurried to her purse.

""You a teacher?" Mrs. Montoya asked as Dolly began talking rapidly into her cell phone.

"I was; these are good," Sydnee said, stuffing more food into her mouth.

"No, no, tomorrow, she just come home, you leave her alone today," Dolly ordered.

"Who's she talking to?" Sydnee asked Ken.

"Beats me," Ken shrugged.

"So you get you stuff off that boat and get you old room back, okay?" Mrs. Montoya decided.

"And then we put swing up, okay?" the old woman asked Kennedy.

"Okay, fifth grade, Jackson Elementary you start tomorrow," Dolly said, sitting down and eating with great gusto.

"Wait, what?" Sydnee asked.

"Oh, and I watch baby you go to work!" Mrs. Montoya said excitedly.

"But I still need to get stuff off boat?" Ken asked, amused.

"Well, yeah," Mrs. Montoya said. "Boat no place for pretty little girl."

"But if she was ugly?" Ken asked, playing with Kennedy's tuft of blonde hair.

"Then she look like you," Mrs. Montoya said. "But boat still not good place for little girl."

Even though Kennedy was barely five months old, Ken was ordered to hang the swing after he'd finished moving all of his belongings off the boat and back into the spare bedroom. Sydnee sat on a thick root and watched.

"So after Dad passed, I mean it wasn't even a week, Baylor Lake fires me and your Mom said I should come stay with them, in case you ever decided..." Sydnee said, and then faltered.

What Robin had said, with a sneer, was, "In case Kenneth ever decides to grow up and face his responsibilities; we may be waiting a long time."

"Oh, I can about imagine what my mother had to say," Ken said, clamping down the chains that held the swing.

"And see? Daddy's got your swing up," Mrs. Montoya cheerfully said, bringing the freshly bathed and powdered and dressed baby.

Her attempts to brush the tuft down, however, had failed miserably; the tuft still stuck straight up.

"And Mr. Brent call; he say now you living here how much you want for boat?" Mrs. Montoya said.

"Oh my God, you haven't even finished..." Sydnee said.

"Honey, there are no secrets in Bender," Ken said and again squinted at the level he'd placed on the swing. "They all know what we had for breakfast; hell, they even know what we did last night."

"Call me that again," Sydnee said, walking to him.

"What?" Ken asked, looking up from his kneeling position.

"Call me that again," Sydnee asked.

"What, Honey?" Ken asked and she kissed him.

"Call me that again," she ordered.

"Honey," Ken said and Sydnee kissed him again.

"Call me..." Sydnee said.

"Honey," Ken said, getting to his feet and plopping her onto the swing.

"Whee!" Sydnee laughed as Ken gave her a shove.

****

Kennedy 'helped' her mommy plant the gardenias into the large wooden wheelbarrow in front of the house. The three year old girl got more dirt on her than into the barrow.

Two year old Julia was more interested in chasing the dragonfly that hovered just out of her reach. But Kennedy was definitely a 'Mommy's Girl', when she wasn't busy being a 'Grandmama's Girl.'

"And Grandmama says I was too pretty be on a stinky old boat," Kennedy prattled on as Mommy showed Kennedy where to dig the next hole in the dirt.

"Daddy!" Julia screamed as the white van with Bender's Plumber' printed on the side pulled up to the curb.

"Oh my God, let me get a picture of this," Ken said, getting out of the van. "You mean to tell me, Grandmama let y'all out of the house without her hovering over y'all?"

"Shush," Sydnee laughed, getting to her feet with some difficulty, her eight month pregnant belly sticking out over her shorts.

"Hi Honey," Ken said and kissed his wife.

"Call me that again," Sydnee ordered.

"You just in time, lunch on table, come on," Mrs. Montoya said, opening the front door of the house.

The woman shrieked when she saw how filthy Kennedy was. In Spanish, she ordered the three year old girl to get into the bathroom and get out of those filthy clothes. Kennedy knew better than to argue with her Grandmama and scurried into the house.

"This one better be a boy, you hear?" Ken said, rubbing his wife's belly.

"Uh huh, and if it's a girl, what you going to name it?" Sydnee asked as Ken helped Julia wash her small hands in the kitchen sink.

"Trouble," Ken smiled as a freshly scrubbed, freshly changed Kennedy came into the kitchen.

Robin Thibodaux had frowned in disapproval when Julia was named after Sydnee's mother.

"Hey Mom, you drop dead? I'll name my next one after you," Ken had cheerfully suggested.

"Trouble, huh?" Sydnee laughed. "Well, I'm just glad this one's coming in the summer."

"Miss Ortega? She say her sink backed up; you get it after we eat, okay?" Mrs. Montoya said, quickly serving their lunch.

"Oh, I think Daddy's going to need a nap after lunch," Sydnee suggested.

"Them naps why you having another baby," Mrs. Montoya said, taking her own seat at the table. "Daddy get a nap after he finish Miss Ortega, okay?"

THE END

**Author's Note: I write these stories for my pleasure; I post them here for your enjoyment. Thank you for reading my stories.

And now for the disclaimers.
Yes, I need an editor.
Yes, it's in the wrong category.
Yes, it jumps around too much.
Yes, there's too many people to keep track of.
Yes, it's too long.
Yes, it's stupid shit.
And, yes, I suck.
And you have a super sparkly day.