Sabella & Malcolm Ch. 11

"You stay right where you are," Mabel said holding her hands out to keep Malcolm away from her as she made her way to the front door.

"I'm sorry," Malcolm said following Mabel so that he could lock and secure the door. "I forgot."

After locking the front door he made his way upstairs straight to the bathroom in his bedroom to take a shower. He didn't want to go around Sabella and the twins with all the dirt from working on the ranch on his body.

After his shower Malcolm went into the small guestroom where he found Sabella sitting on the bed cradling one twin, while the other lay on the bed beside her, staring at her as she told them a story, that sounded like sleeping beauty, but she had put her own little twist on it.

"The Princess opened her eyes and there before her stood the handsomest man she had ever seen in her life. The Prince said, "You are the most beautiful women, I've ever seen. Will you marry me? The smile that was on the Princess' face disappeared.

"You want to marry me because you think I'm beautiful?" she asked. "Yes," the Prince replied. "No," the Princess told the Prince, "I will not marry you."

"Why not?" the Prince asked. "Do you not find me to be handsome?"

"I find you to be very handsome," the Princess replied, "but that isn't a reason for me to marry you." The Prince couldn't believe what he was hearing, the Princess didn't want to marry him.

"Why won't you marry me?" the Prince asked.

"I know nothing about you," the Princess said, "and I've been asleep for a hundred years and I'm only sixteen (okay she's actually a hundred and sixteen but we're not going to argue over semantics). I want to see what's going on in the world and date other before I settle down. A girl has to checkout all her options before she settles down."

The Prince hung his head and left the room. The moral of this story is; Don't marry a man because he wakes you with a kiss and a man should have more to offer a woman than his good looks. The end," Sabella said. "How did you two like the story?"

Both babies looked her like she was the strangest thing they'd ever seen. Which was probably true since they haven't seen that many people since they were born.

"I've never heard Sleeping Beauty told that way before," Malcolm remarked walking into the room.

"It's the version my mother told me when I was little," Sabella said, "and after reading the original version when I got older, I decided her version made more sense. So, it was the one I would tell the children I sue to baby-sit whenever they wanted to hear a story before going to bed."

"I think I like your mother's version too," Malcolm said sitting down on the bed. "Have had supper yet?"

"Not yet," Sabella replied. "Mabel and I just finished feeding and bathing the babies, half an hour ago."

"You ready to eat?"

"I could go for something to eat."

"Well, let's go downstairs and eat the nice meal, Mabel prepared for us," Malcolm said picking up the baby boy lying beside Sabella.

"Alright," Sabella said getting up and placing the baby girl back in the drawer.

Malcolm put the baby boy in the other drawer.

Sabella looked down at the drawers the babies were lying in, her heart going out to them because there was nothing she could do for them.

They had been through so much. Deserted by both their parents, born in a time where they're sure to be rejected by both races that created them, and now they were being denied a proper bed to sleep in.

Sabella thought to herself that if they were in 2009 she would be able to buy them everything they needed, bassinets, clothes, food, formula, toys everything and anything they could ever need. But, here in 1954 her credit cards were useless and she had no other means.

She knew that Malcolm could and probably would buy the bassinets for the twins to sleep in if she asked, but, she didn't know how he would feel or react to her asking him to do such a thing.

At that moment, she remembered something. She rushed down the hall to the bedroom, she used to sleep in across from Malcolm.

"Where're you going?" Malcolm asked knowing that she wasn't going downstairs, by the way, she moved.

Sabella didn't answer him, she opened the door to her old bedroom and rushed in. She placed the drawer with the baby in on the bed, went over to where her purse sat beside the bed, picked it up, opened it and pulled out her wallet.

Sabella opened her wallet and pulled out five, one hundred dollar bills, six, fifty dollar bills and ten, twenty dollar bills all crisp brand new bills.

Her face lit up with the biggest smile Malcolm had ever seen on her face.

"What're you doing?" he asked his mouth falling open when he saw all the money Sabella was holding in her hands.

"I want to buy bassinets for the twins," Sabella said taking the five, one hundred dollar bills and holding them out to Malcolm. "You can also get them clothes, shoes and whatever else they might need."

"Where did you get this money?" Malcolm asked reaching out and taking the money from Sabella.

"I worked for it," Sabella replied.

Malcolm looked down at the money. Something was different about it to him.

He reached into his back pocket pulled out his wallet, opened it and took out a hundred dollar bill. He took one of the bills Sabella gave him and placed it above the bill he held in his hand and his eye went back and forth between the bills noting the differences.

What's wrong?" Sabella asked not understanding what he was doing.

"Where did you get this bill?" Malcolm asked.

"From the bank", Sabella replied wondering once again why Malcolm kept questioning her about the money.

"This money isn't real," Malcolm said his eyes still moving back and forth between the bills.

"What do you mean it isn't real?" Sabella asked becoming upset with Malcolm.

She walked over to him and looked down at the bills he held in his hands.

"Of course it's real," she said, "The money came...from...the...bank."

As she looked down at the bills and saw the differences between the two bills and she realized why Malcolm thought the bill she gave him was counterfeit and she realized that her twenty-first century money was also no good in 1954.

"The money isn't counterfeit," she said plopping down on the bed beside Malcolm as a feeling of complete helplessness washed over her.

"Of course it is," Malcolm said. "Can't you see the differences in these bills?"

"It's not fake," Sabella said. "The government made changes in our money to make the bills harder to counterfeit."

"What kind of changes?" Malcolm asked.

"I'll tell you later," Sabella said not in the mood to discuss the changes right now. "Let's go downstairs and eat dinner."

Sabella, Malcolm and the twins headed downstairs.

"Oh, my god!" Sabella said as she made her way down the stairs and looked around the living room.

"Surprise," Malcolm said coming to stand behind her on the stairs.

"When did you do this?" Sabella asked. "How did you do it?"

"Frank and I went shopping over in the next county," Malcolm said. "The saleslady helping us made sure we got two of everything the twins needed."

Tears rolled down Sabella's cheeks as she walked further into the living room, it looked like a baby store.

Malcolm had bought two bassinets, two high chairs, two play pens, new born baby gowns, diapers, rubber pants, rattles, pacifiers, everything that a child could need including toys.

"Thank you," Sabella said realizing how insufficient her words sounded compared to what Malcolm had done for the twins.

"You're welcome," Malcolm said. "Now lets put the twins in their new beds.

Sabella put the baby girl in the pink lined bassinet and Malcolm put the little boy in the blue lined bassinet.

"They look so peaceful," Sabella said looking down at them tears still falling from her eyes.

"Are those happy tears," Malcolm asked.

"Extremely happy tears," Sabella assured him kissing him on the lips.

Neither of the twins awoke after they were place in the bassinets.

"They looked so peaceful," Sabella said looking down at them as they slept.

"They do, don't they," Malcolm said putting an arm around Sabella's shoulder and pulling her closer to him.

"You bought four bassinets?" Sabella said looking over at two bassinets still in their boxes.

"Yes," Malcolm replied, "two for upstairs and two for down here. I didn't like the idea of you and Mabel having to tote these things back and forth for the twins."

"Are you saying you would've allowed us to lug these things up and down the stairs without offering to help?" Sabella said her tone teasing.

"Of course not," Malcolm said his tone teasingly offended. "The idea of me lugging those things up and down the stairs didn't appeal to me either."

"You're so silly," Sabella said smiling at him.

"I am I too silly to get another thank you kiss?"

"You're cute enough to overlook the silliness," said bringing her lips up to meet his.

As they kissed Malcolm turned Sabella's body so that it was pressed against his. He loved the tingle that moved through his body, whenever he held her that way.

Sabella fought to hold back a moan that almost escaped her lips as she felt Malcolm's body react to their kissing.

If they were in 2009, she would be able to show Malcolm the effect that kissing him had on her, and it might not shock him. But, given the time and the sensibilities of the era she thought that Malcolm might think less of her and that wasn't something Sabella could live with.

"We'd better stop," Malcolm said as the kiss ended. "I'm finding it harder and harder to control myself when it comes to you."

'Who says you have to control yourself?' Sabella thought to herself. 'Why can't you take me upstairs and make love to me the way I want you to? Why can't you stoke the fire of desire, I feel consuming my body until we both combust into flames of passion, then to orgasmic satisfaction? Why can't I undress you and we both come together and drive each other over that passion cliff calling out each other's names as we fall over and float back down to earth on our climatic parachute?'

"Yeah," Sabella said, "I guess we, should go and eat dinner."

"After you," Malcolm said allowing Sabella to a pass by him."

Sabella prepared their dinner and Malcolm pushed the bassinets with the twins in them into the dining room.

"My sister-in-law Regina thinks I should name the twins", Sabella said as she placed Malcolm's plate in front of him on the table.

"What do you think?" Malcolm asked.

"I don't like calling them baby boy or baby girl", Sabella said. "Nor, do I like calling them twins baby boy or twin baby girl. I think naming them would be a good thing."

"You don't think that naming them will make it harder for you if you if they're discovered, and you have to give them up?" Malcolm asked.

"They're already in my heart, Malcolm", Sabella said. "If they're discovered and taken away from me, I'll be devastated. If anyone tries to take them away from me, they will have one hell of a fight on their hands."

"O-o-o-okay," Malcolm said raising his eyebrows, "I guess you should name them then. Have you thought of any names you like?"

"No," Sabella said. "I thought of naming them after their parents."

Malcolm went silent, at, Sabella's suggestion, but the look in his eyes told her that he didn't think too much of her suggestion.

"What names would you suggest?" Sabella asked deciding not to react to Malcolm's reaction to naming the twins after their parents.

Malcolm looked down at the little girl twin, and as usual she was lying down in her bassinet sleeping, as if she didn't have a care in the world, a hint of a smile on her face.

"Serena," Malcolm said. "She's calm and soothing like a pond and she makes you feel that way. Something about her just makes you not want to disturb the calmness surrounding her."

Sabella liked the name Serena but not for the same reason Malcolm did. The baby girl did have a calmness about her, but Sabella also saw a little bit, of fight in her, a spirit about her, that she likened to Serena Williams the tennis player.

Serena went into a game that was usually dominated by whites and later by her older sister Venus, but she hung in there and rose to the top. Eventually gaining respect for her talent and beating her older sister and Sabella saw the same thing in baby girl. She knew if given the chance Serena would also rise to the top and succeed.

"What name would you give the boy twin?" Sabella asked.

Malcolm walked over to the little boy and looked down at him lying in his bassinet. The little boy's eyes were open, and he seemed to be staring Malcolm directly in the eyes.

As if he was asking who are you? Malcolm knew that many whites would consider even at this age the baby looking them directly in the eyes to be a threat.

Their response would've been that they were going to have to break him, show him how he's supposed to act, put out the fire they saw burning in his eyes, put him in his place.

But, there was something about the little boy that told Malcolm that putting him in his place wouldn't be an easy task.

There was a strength in the little boy's eyes that said he would stand toe to toe to any man.

"I would call him, Solomon," Malcolm replied. "There's something in his eyes that says that he's going to be a strong, but wise and determined man. He's just a few days old, and he's already looking me in the eyes, like he's trying to size me up to see if I'm worth knowing or giving time to."

"Serena and Solomon," Sabella said allowing the names to roll around in her mouth. "I like them. One calm and the other strong. Serena and Solomon will be their names. Thank you for helping me. Ididn't know what names would fit them."

"Just calling them as I see them," Malcolm said.