The Cupid Bureau

"Grace, it was about Halloween, I had a week to go before the Jeffersons showed up, and I hoped, or trusted, or something, that Cupid would also show up and make his promise to me come true. I did not lie to your dad, but I did give him a fake excuse. I told him my feet were swelling, my back ached, I needed rest, I could not handle his insecurities right then."

The narrative stopped. Henry turned the tablet's camera off. We talked through how to present the next part, because it happened simultaneously, but not among all four of us. We decided the men would go first, then the women. I took the tablet and started recording Henry's account.

"We arrived about 3:00 at the airport and Bob was there to pick us up. Your mom didn't feel like a car ride. Grace, I have had so many friends over our lives, more black friends than white. But at the same time, I've had a number of good, white friends. Like everyone, I suspect, most of my friends are about my age, more or less. When I saw Bob at the reception area it was a feeling I'd never had. I was so happy to see him. It was important. That's the only way I can explain it.

"Michaela and I both hugged him as though he were our own."

Henry shifted himself so that Bob could get both Henry and young Grace in the shot. "We just jabbered on the way home. Catching up. But how could we really be catching up? We'd met only 8 months earlier. But we weren't getting to know one another, it was as though we already knew all about each other."

Henry looked up. "Bob, do you have anything you want to add?"

I didn't even turn the camera, "No, just go until Cupid came, I'll say some then."

"Our reunion at the house was nice. I could feel Michaela was still jealous of Julia. I don't know that anyone else could tell, but we'd been married too long for her to hide anything from me. She was all smiles, but a little tense. We talked, got settled, and Bob wanted to talk to me. Julia wanted to show Michaela the nursery."

He stopped talking and looked at me, let's go to your office. We made our way to the office, just the two of us, I nodded to Henry and started the video again. "When Bob showed me this room, I wished I had one just like it. My office is small, just what I thought I wanted. This one has this nice seating area and the little bar. I was sitting in this chair, Bob in the facing chair and suddenly between us hovered Cupid. My thought was, I wonder what this is going to be about?

"He really wasn't talking, but I heard him as though he were. Bob heard about the same thing, I'll let him say what he heard. Cupid told me at my advanced age I was going to be a father. Somehow it didn't surprise me. He also said that, in order for the baby, you my dear Grace, to have the best life possible, she needed a younger Dad, and a loving home. She needed Bob to be her father."

I handed the tablet to Henry. "Grace, your gramps looked at me and I knew, he loved you more than anyone, and he was telling me I was your dad. Cupid appealed to us logically more than emotionally. He told us he had decided to reveal himself because it was the only way to make sure everything came together as it had to. Cupid told me, well both Henry and me, really, that we had to make sure Michaela was ok. This would be hardest for her."

"He told us that Henry knew he was too old to be a Dad and that to do so he'd have to break up a marriage. Henry is an extraordinary individual, who knows his duty, and being Gramps was his role. He knew it at his core. He had an heir, and the price was being Gramps. I had my first child. We went to Paris to conceive a baby and that is what happened. I was going to get to raise our beautiful child and know your mother would be with me the whole way. Of course, you are your mother's child, only Michaela needed to be shown her role."

Henry set the tablet on Bob's desk, aimed so it would show both men. He sat down and looked back at the camera. "This story is coming to you all at once. But most of it happened 9 months ago. The visit from Cupid was only last month. A part of the message he relayed to me was that my wife's role and Bob's role were the same. In one sense they were surrogates, or step-parents, but in the truer sense, Michaela's role and mine were precisely the same. Just as Bob and Julia's roles were the same. A conception from an errant arrow, was really irrelevant, other than it gave Michaela and I a chance at an heir we never thought we'd have. Given a choice, we'd not have done it, but thrust upon us, it was indeed a miracle."

Henry and I thought our account was good. We stopped and went back to the nursery. "Would you two ladies like to see what we recorded?"

Julia looked to Michaela, both shook their heads, no.

Henry asked, "We recorded our video with just the two of us, would you like to do yours in a similar way?"

Again, two nods no.

"I want to start." Julia was almost twitching from nerves. "I had been living in increasing terror—well, that's too dramatic—with a sense of dread that I was going to give birth to a baby, and it would be apparent my husband was not the baby's father. What bothered me the most was I knew I'd never get away with telling any of the other three, I didn't know. What would they think of me? We were now hours from your birth, and I needed an ally. I couldn't see how I could ask either of these wonderful men, so I told Nana I wanted to show her the nursery."

Julia and Michaela exchanged a warm look and Julia continued, "I didn't know what my chances were. I know if things had been reversed and Bob had been in bed with Michaela, I would have held a grudge. I could not see how she could be any different. We looked at your furniture, and I got the obligatory oohs and ahs, and suddenly, Corodyn joined us. I was relieved at once."

Michaela took up the narrative, "Corodyn looked at me first. She told us we really did not understand her tie to us. The cherubs had been looking for ways to help people, beyond adding a little lust to the moment. Many attempts had been made and there were successes. Most of them were in broader areas of love. Helping a depressed mother love her child, helping extended family love one another, and things like that. Corodyn wanted to find the right couples and help their love grow to enable them to be all they could be.

"She told us most of the cherubs did hours of research before launching an arrow. She said a cherub can know a lot in hours. She, on the other hand, worked for weeks to find the right people. She wanted people with a unique ability to be of help to one another in all that life threw at them. People who could be the ultimate success, as couples."

Julia interrupted briefly, "She told us the four of us were among only a few financially successful couples. Most were not and needed a particularly strong bond to help them through the difficulties life threw at them. Successful couples was not a monetary distinction, it was defined by how the two were able to support one another in good times and bad."

"Yes, she did say that, but for both of us, she said we offered qualities that would help our man be all he could be, and in turn, he would provide the kind of love and support to enable us to be what we wanted to be."

Michaela paused and looked at the camera, "Grace, it is an important lesson. It was more common in my day, and much more common in my mother's, but you should set your goals based on what you want to be. Society may have different ideas. You do not limit yourself by choosing what you want to pursue. You limit yourself by choosing what others want you to do.

"Oh my, I'm getting bad as the men. Your story is what we are here to tell. Corodyn was telling us we were her most successful couples; her first and her last, it seemed to me there was a "but" coming. I got tired of waiting for it and asked what the catch was."

Julia added, "But Corodyn was not quite finished with her side of the story. She told us she blamed the Cupid Bureau. We nodded, and she said, oh you probably don't know that much about the Cupid bureau. I told her it doesn't come up that often. Apparently, the huge numbers of cherubs scurrying about shooting people with arrows has caused more than a little chaos.

"But she claimed a big part of it was the Cupid Bureau was soft on 'bad arrows' as they are called. Chumley, for instance got a swat on his bare behind, and nothing much more. They call him a cherub, he is a gadfly, with emphasis on the fly. Where is the work ethic? Where is the dedication? She was on her soap box."

"I interrupted her, again." Excuse me, I am sure the worthiness of the liberal wing of the race of Cupid is a fascinating topic, for someone. I was hoping to know what you are doing about my husband and this young, pregnant woman."

Julia got very serious, "Grace, Corodyn told me, I guess telepathically, to tell Michaela that you were her husband's child. As I told her, Corodyn shot her with one last arrow. I thought Michaela would be furious, instead she looked at me and wondered what would happen now. I saw fear in her eyes, for just an instant."

"Corodyn looked at me and told me at this same moment Henry had accepted he was in fact, the child's grandfather. We had an heir from Chumley's error. I love my husband, we have given each other most of our lives. Henry was happiest in a role as grandfather, and I could join him as grandmother. Life would be good."

They stopped the narrative and looked at one another. "Is there anything else?" I asked.

Henry motioned to start the recording, "Grace, you turned out to be a miracle child for Michaela and me. You helped us form a family and give two older people something to look forward to for the rest of our lives. Chumley may be incompetent, but he surely blessed us."

They all agreed it was a great finish to the video. The Jeffersons would fly out mid-afternoon the next day. It had been a great visit. We enjoyed a great dinner, and conversation, then retired for our last evening.

About 3:00 am, Henry woke up. He had to go to the bathroom. He got up shaking his head, remembering younger days when he always slept the night through. Although they had an en-suite bath, Henry preferred to go to the powder room, off the foyer, and then get a drink of cold water, from the kitchen, before returning to bed. It had been his habit this last month.

As he left the powder room, he saw Julia in the family room. She was wearing a shear, short nightgown and raised it enough Henry could see, no panties. Julia was looking at him with lust-filled eyes. This was not supposed to happen; she was like his daughter-in-law. "Julia, it has not been enough time since Grace was born, I don't think this is wise."

She said nothing, continuing to raise her nightie over her head, and then she stood naked.

Henry's heart in his throat, croaked out, "Michaela. Bob?" He gained control and shouted, "CUPID!"