On the Loveseat Ch. 26

I never thought much would come from this, it was just a project to get my name out there and to show what I could do. I was able to talk a local movie theater, one of the last old ones that only had two screens before the multiplexes took over, to show my documentary for free for two showings. They were in the middle of the day when there would be few viewers, but it would be out there.

To my shock, the movie theater called me after the second showing and asked if they could continue to show it as the second showing had been nearly full. My little flick! I hastily agreed and made a point of showing up myself for the third showing. I hadn't gone to the first two, because I didn't want to be distressed when no one showed up for a free movie!

It had been only about three-quarters full and most were likewise elderly and I had to wonder how many were there just because it was free. Erin had to work, so she couldn't be there and I missed her presence at that moment. I don't know how it came about, but someone had to have known who I was; that I was the film's director, etc. After the showing I had a crowd around me praising me for the film.

It only grew from there. Other theaters wanted a copy to show in the afternoons as well, and even wanted to charge people to see it! Charge money for my movie? I couldn't say no. I even heard that a critic from New York was in the area and had seen it and gone back to the Big Apple giving me rave reviews.

Then the phone calls started. All sorts of film festivals wanted to have me enter my movie in the documentary category. And the awards followed. I was floored! I had thought it was a great idea for a film, but that so many others were now thinking the same was surprising.

I will say though, that my highest praise came from the most likely and unlikely source. Mom called me one day, much as she did on almost every day. Jenny had known about the project from day one and had always been supportive, but supportive in that way that parents have to be. She informed me that she had finally seen my work. She told me how touched she had been by it and that it was very good. But that wasn't praise I meant. My father had seen it with mom. He had felt that as his son that it was his duty to see it; that all my talk about movies had to have led to something. Jenny told me as she choked up with emotion, that dad had actually been very proud about the film and had come out telling everyone that it was made by his son.

Dad was proud about my movie! One without a single gunshot, roundhouse kick, or bit of frontal nudity. Even if I never made another movie, I felt right then that I had made it to the big leagues!

As to those big leagues.

Producers started calling me. Asking if I could possibly direct this movie or that. None of them were blockbuster stuff, and were still local or documentary type projects, but they were a start. I was even shocked when I was told that my documentary had somehow made it to Sundance without my knowledge. It didn't win anything (I would have had a heartache if I had and the award would have been presented posthumously!), but my name got around.

I was able to quit my menial job and after a few more projects, Erin did the same, coming to work with me in her own right. As script consultant, or continuity editor, and even did some cowriting on some. It became a given that if I was hired for a project that my wife was part of that deal as we were a team.

Mom would call after each film, movie, documentary came out and give her review along with that from my dad. They were usually overwhelming gushing, though there were a few that I hadn't 'felt' it and it showed in the end product. I did find it odd that with as much as I talked with dad that he never gave me his opinion himself and it was always through the intermediary of my mother.

Erin and I moved into our own house, a modest affair but comfortable for just the two of us. Within a month after moving in, Erin brought up our plans for a family. We were doing okay and I was making headway with my work, so I readily agreed. With all the time we spent in the next few weeks in bed, it was no shock when Erin missed her next period. It was early and we didn't want to jinx anything, so we continued trying. We also took no tests or went to the doctor either. It was only when she missed her second that we were sure and went through the rigmarole to verify it.

Yes! Erin was pregnant! With our baby!

We immediately spread the news far and wide, both sets of parents first and then relatives and friends.

Everyone congratulated us, especially Jenny.

I took her to the side one day and told her my deepest secret, something that I had never shared and if it had been repeated, I would have denied to my dying day.

"I wish it had been with you, my love."

Jenny was almost in tears at this confession, but she also smiled, so they weren't completely tears of sadness.

"So, do I Jeremy. But that was never to be. You'll be an amazing father. I'm so happy for you, both of you. I really am!"

We hugged. We kissed. Not as mother and son, but not quite with our full passion either.

A passion that we did get to share fairly regularly. Erin was fully behind the time that I spent with Jenny, many times even making sure that we got time together. Each time was just as magical as the first, the twelfth, or the one-hundred and thirty first! Erin might be involved upon a rare occasion, but her desire to be included waned as she declared that it had been a fantasy that she never thought to fulfil and even though she did love Jenny, it wasn't in the same league as what she felt for me or what I felt for either of them. Jenny or Erin never made the comparison to who that I might love more and I never wanted to have to decide. Each was equally important to me, each in their own but different ways.

Mom did tell me that as she got older that she didn't have the same 'urge' to have sex all day long. I had to scoff at that, particularly after one visit that we did spend all day having sex! She did inform me that dad was actually able to keep up with her much of the time. I didn't need to know that! The concept of my parents having sex still an anathema to me!

The pregnancy was rough, but was mostly for being Erin's first. She had an overwhelming support from both prospective grandmothers, and a husband that waited on her hand and foot, sometimes to his detriment as she declared to me that she was pregnant, not an invalid!

Then the big day arrived. Erin's water broke and I almost passed out at what that portended. We rushed off to the hospital as she called parents to let them know what happened.

Erin and I hadn't wanted to know the sex of the baby and wanted it be a surprise. Dad argued about this, as he declared that we could have bought all the color-coded necessities ahead of time rather than wait until after the birth and then have to shop when we had an eating, sleeping, or pooping baby on our hands! I laughed at that response, but did see the logic behind it. It didn't change my desire for the surprise.

I was by Erin's side throughout it all. It was an experience that I totally recommend. The miracle of birth, new life coming into the world, my baby being born!

It was a girl!

I was a father!

Me!

(Here, have a cigar! They still do that, don't they?)

Erin looked very worn after, but she was the most beautiful thing in the world to me right then, possibly only second to the tiny ball of pink skin that the nurses worked over.

"Do you want to hold your daughter?" A voice came from behind me. I turned.

And I was lost forever.

I had thought I had known what love was. What I felt for Jenny. What I felt for Erin.

I learned at that moment that everything I knew was wrong.

When I got to hold that precious little bundle in my arms, I knew then that I was truly in Heaven. Her little face looked up at me even with her eyes closed, and when her miniscule, but perfectly formed hand reached out and grabbed at my pinky, I knew that the rest of my life would be spent protecting this true miracle!

I looked to Erin and saw her face beaming much as I was sure mine had to be right then.

"It's a girl, dear. A girl."

Erin nodded her head, her scraggly red hair like a halo around her face.

"Do you have a name?" A woman's voice asked. A nurse, I guessed. I didn't even turn.

Erin nodded again at me, with a beatific smile, and I knew what she meant.

"Tabitha Anne." I stated proudly. "My daughter's name is Tabitha Anne."

***

And so, the end.

Joanne grows up and after college becomes a famous fashion designer with her own reality show. When she is twenty-six, she initiates an affair with her sister-in-law, Erin who is thirty-five at that time. It lasts for almost two years without anyone discovering it, although Jenny suspects something had happened between them, as the once close pair are much cooler towards each other when it ends by mutual decision.

Johnny graduates from college with a business degree, but has no idea what to do with his life. It is only after he meets and marries a busty, strawberry blonde girl that looks very much like a much younger version of his Aunt Jessica, that he makes some minor scientific discovery and uses the money he gets from it to start his own small company.

Justin gets promoted to VP of the company where he works.

Jessica marries Eric and they adopt a girl who is five years old, and a year later, a boy that is eight.

***

Years later.

Jenny went about doing her housework, but without the kids around anymore, she didn't have to scramble to keep up with it anymore. No little kids running around without clothes, no dirty clothes strewn everywhere, no more toys scattered about like an obstacle course. Even if she took her time, she would be done before she knew it. After so many years, it was all just automatic now.

Then she heard and saw Justin come in with a cheerful smile.

"Look at you, all domesticky!"

He came over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"I hope you haven't started dinner yet. I want to take you out tonight!" He declared boisterously.

"Aw, thanks honey, but you know that I do. I'm even making your favorite." Jenny told him.

Justin looked at his wife with a long stare. Almost in disbelief.

"Pot roast? With the cutup mushrooms on top and cooked with all the veggies too?" His voice nearly cracked.

"Yes, dear." Jenny told him lovingly.

"We haven't had that in ... how long?"

"Before Joanne was born." Jenny answered, not realizing that it had been that long ago.

"Has it really been that long?" Justin couldn't believe it either.

"Don't you remember the fights we had with the boys to eat it?" Jenny said with a reminiscing smile.

"Hard to believe that there was anything that Jeremy wouldn't eat!" Justin mocked.

"He did start off very finicky. Remember the messes with the strained peas?" Jenny grinned at her husband.

"Oh my, yes! I'm sure there are still spots on that little apartment's walls that we missed!"

Jenny had to laugh at the memory.

"So. What's the special occasion then, dear?" Justin stared at Jenny then with a mild panic. "I didn't forget an anniversary, did I? No, that's in November. So, what's up?"

Jenny smiled as she answered.

"Can't I make something special for my guy?"

"Thank you hun, you're the best! Let me change out of this suit and I'll set the table for us." Justin said as he pulled his tie loose and headed for the bedroom.

While he was gone, Jenny thought back over the years they'd had together, many years, a few turbulent, and the many wild and interesting turns! She knew it was a path that few, if any other wives or mothers took! This made her realize that she hadn't heard from Jeremy and Erin in ... what, almost six months!

She knew that he had been in China filming part of his latest movie, but they still had cell service on the other side of the planet!

It had been quite some time since she and Jeremy had gotten time to be together, but she knew that he had his own busy life now and she was more comfortable with just her husband now that her libido had finally cooled, or at least such that it now nearly matched Justin's own. And that Jeremy and Erin had their own little girl to now raise. This only caused some motherly ire, or rather grandmotherly; as she hadn't gotten a recent holo of little Tabitha!

"Daydreaming?" Justin came up behind her and gave her a soft, but tender hug.

"No, not really. Just thinking over my life. Our lives together." She turned to look at her loving husband. The man that she would grow old and grey beside.

"Any regrets?" He asked her.

"Not really. A few small ones, but nothing really." Jenny gave him a smile. "It's really been a good life. So far."

"Well, I think we're over all the humps that we could have. All the kids are off and doing well. We have a beautiful granddaughter with more soon to come, I'm sure!"

"Yes, I'm sure." Jenny smiled again. Yes, life was good.

"Let me get that dinner, before it burns." She said and hurried to the kitchen.

"Good, I'm hungry."

***

It's not over yet!

Next: The Appendix!