We're a Wonderful Wife Ch. 10

He was awakened by a flight attendant a while later, "Your machine is beeping," she said. Don checked the oxygen concentrator, the battery had depleted, so he dropped in another battery and looked around to thank the flight attendant that woke him and told him about the battery, but he didn't see her. Flagging down a flight attendant he asked, "Where is the attendant that told me about my battery?"

The black flight attendant shrugged and asked, "What did he look like?"

"He? No, she was blond with her hair dyed purple at the ends," said Don.

"I'm the only female on the flight crew today," smiled the attendant and she tugged her ebony locks "No purple here. Maybe it was a passenger walking past."

"Maybe," said Don, but he wasn't convinced.

He didn't get much sleep last night, so when he leaned back and inhaled the renewed oxygen, he was asleep in moments. Don didn't wake up until the wheels hit the runway at Minneapolis and as planned, he was the last one off the plane.

Minneapolis St. Paul - Lindburg Airport is HUGE, one of the biggest airports that Don has ever seen, it's a mall, it's a transportation hub, it's a food court gone insane. When he was on active duty, he and Lanh loved to stop by the USO and relax, but that's just for active duty so today he walked past and looked in on the young kids watching TV. He glanced at his watch and realized that Lanh was still in class, she'd love to know that they opened a Charley's Cheese Steak in the food court. She could probably eat a quarter of one, but she'd keep it and gnaw on it all the way to Japan. Just thinking of their travels together made him lonely for his little bride of over a decade. He sent her a quick text letting her know he landed safely and quickly listed the body parts he was planning to kiss when she came out to see the baby and headed for the baggage carousel.

It was a great drive back to Grant Valley with his brother-in-law Huy who brought Don's youngest niece Ahn, it was the first time Don had seen Little Annie (Ahn) away from her twin brother Him-chan for more than a moment and she looked utterly heart broken. "They're fighting," said Huy. The five-year-old was almost in tears, but when she saw her Uncle Don she cheered right up and began chattering happily about life in first grade. Being able to read and write, and count past 100 among other skills, she and her twin brother were bored and disruptive in kindergarten and were placed in first grade. Don handed her a small doll to play with and sat up front with his brother-in-law and best friend and they caught up on what each other had been doing for the past three months.

"When we get back we're thinking about fostering," said Don.

"That will be great for you guys!" gushed Huy. "I'm surprised you guys didn't think about it sooner."

"We never had a plan that would allow us to foster, we've been moving around so much," said Don. "I wonder if we can try to adopt again."

"You'll have to talk to Ahnjong about that, she's the family law wiz," grinned Huy. "Now if you wanted to sue a baby out of General Motors, I'm the guy for you. Did my sister ever tell you who the dad of her baby was?"

Don didn't want to lie to his brother-in-law, especially being a lawyer, so he had to tread carefully. "Kim-ly never told me who the dad was. I always suspected it was some dude she met in a bar."

"That's what I was thinking too," said Huy.

"I told her that I would fill in if she needed a father figure in the little lad's life." He also told Karole the same thing, and little did he know but she took him seriously and put his name on the baby's birth certificate.

It was early evening when they reached the farm, evening milking was finished, and Sandy was setting dinner out for the evening meal. "Hi mom," said Don as he hugged Sandy then shook hands with his dad. To Don it just didn't feel like home, it felt like the big old farmhouse was even more empty than it has been in years and that feeling was really wearing on him. The feeling had an air of permanence to it, that he would be bathed in this feeling of emptiness for the rest of his life, alone, abandoned.

He looked around the kitchen, it was re-arranged by Sandy, it's her kitchen so it's her right to change it to her style, but it was alien to him. He felt something closing in on him and as his dad Ralph was asking about life in Colorado, Don interrupted him with a "'scuse me," and left dinner untouched. He stepped outside and it was a typical March evening on the farm, the air was frigid. Winter has yet to release its grip on Minnesota and Don had forgotten how long the cold remains in the northlands. Poor Marissa is gone now, the sweet little goat that helped Lanh survive her lonely months while Don was deployed had passed on to that goat pen in the great beyond. Marissa liked to climb, and Lanh had photo albums filled with pictures of Marissa standing on top of items that she was able to climb. Hopefully goat heaven had a lot of cars for her to stand on.

Don wandered around lost, like he had forgotten how to navigate the farm. He had this horrible feeling that he had never been here before, nothing he saw was familiar, everything was alien. Every piece of equipment in the tractor shed, the old GMC truck, the Ford tractor, the John Deere tractor, all three items he spent huge amounts of his life operating or repairing, but now all were different, foreign. His sister-in-law, Tam, would call this feeling jamais vu, seeing something that is familiar, but it seems novel and different.

Don went back inside and wandered through the house looking for something that would help him beat this strange feeling. He felt a bit better in the parlor, his mother used to sit in here and sew while he practiced his piano lessons on the old spinet, but as soon as she died, so did his interest in the piano. His piano teacher understood and didn't mind if he quit piano lessons, they were more for his mom anyhow. He saw that picture on the wall, the head table at their wedding. There was everyone paired off with people who would become their life partner, Rosa with Bao, Tam with Jake, Syd with Craig, Dad and Sandy, and in the middle was Don and Lanh with Kim-ly hugging them and over Kim-ly's shoulder is that odd blob that's starting to look more like a face. Poor Kim-ly, she doesn't seem to be interested in a long-term relationship, the longest one was with a fellow named Tim, was he a beard for her? Was she a beard for him?

With a sigh Don sat at the piano bench and opened the spinet to expose the keyboard, 88 former friends glared up at him waiting to humiliate him. He fumbled around until he found two keys that sounded good together and pressing the soft pedal, he began to play chopsticks.

He played through the old song several times until his piano teacher sat down next to him and gently began to play the left-hand part of the chopsticks duet. They played faster and faster while his teacher played a more complex version of the left-hand part with every repetition until she sounded like she was playing a Beethoven concerto. Don started laughing and stumbling as their fingers occasionally tangled but he continued playing the right-hand part until the song broke down in laughter. "Oh my, you still remember," laughed Sandy as she hugged Don.

"It's not easy to forget," said Don. "It's not all that complex of a song."

"Are you ok?" Sandy asked.

"I don't know," said Don. "Everything is unfamiliar, I feel like I've never been here before for some reason."

"When was the last time you were here without Lanh?" Sandy asked softly. "Maybe that's why it feels uncomfortable."

Could that be it? Could that be why Don was so melancholy? Was it that this isn't home without Lanh? Don thought back and realized with shock that Lanh has been a fixture here for over 17 years, since that first Christmas when she, Kim-ly and Bao came out to decorate for Christmas and got snowed in. To be honest, Kim-ly actually was a permanent fixture here. Kim-ly was here nearly every evening that Lanh stayed to make sure the teens didn't let their hormones overcome them and commute late at night between their bedrooms. She remained in the apartment Don made for Lanh and helps out on the farm and as an accountant she does the farm's financials for his dad.

That probably was it, when his mom died it took years for Don and Ralph to feel comfortable with the farm again. It was only when Lanh became the "Lady of the House" that Don felt happy with the farm, and he was sure that his dad Ralph felt the same way when he and Sandy married not long after Don and Lanh married.

"Where is Kim-ly now?" Don asked.

"She's down in her dungeon, it's tax season and she only comes up to eat and help with milking, but your dad chases her off. He doesn't like pregnant women working out there, he's afraid she'll get hurt."

"Has she mentioned the father of her baby?" Don asked.

"She told us that he's a nice guy but he's not a part of her life anymore," said Sandy. "We don't press her for details."

"I had better go down there and say hi," said Don as he got up from the piano bench. As he stood, he leaned over and gave Sandy a little kiss on her cheek, "thanks teach, mom would have loved that."

"We'll work on it when you move home," she smiled, causing Don to chuckle. She's obviously been talking to Lanh because he hasn't mentioned moving home to anyone yet.

Down in the basement Don found that Kim-ly built an efficient office for herself. There was a TV down here with a Roku for feed, right now it was playing a weather channel with the sound turned off. There was a Keurig machine nearby on top of a tiny fridge next to a trio of filing cabinets, there was also a laser printer/scanner/copier/fax at the ready. Kim-ly was at an ancient wooden desk in a conversation with her business partner and twin brother Bao and a client on the speaker phone, and her appearance startled Don. She was wearing her hair down, permed like Lanh tends to wear her hair, and she was wearing glasses that looked like the style Lanh wears.

Don was shocked at the resemblance between Kim-ly and her younger sister Lanh. Now that Kim-ly is not wearing makeup Don could see the facial features were almost identical with Lanh, especially their eyes have the same fire between them. When Don and Lanh first met, the only look in Lanh's eyes was fear, but when they got to know each other, he saw a change in her eyes, she was comfortable around him and eventually that look grew to include love. For her part Kim-ly had a smirk in her eyes whenever Don was around, but over the years she grew comfortable when Don was around and now did he see love in her eyes? She glanced up from a spreadsheet on her laptop and her eyes, once so haughty, now softened. She motioned him over and he came around behind the desk where she tugged on his shirt indicating wordlessly that she wanted him to bend down, the same tug that Lanh gives him when she wants him to bend over for a kiss. Don obliged Kim-ly and the surprised look she received as she kissed him without interrupting her conference call was precious.

"Ok, Bao, your brother-in-law is here, he's giving me that same look I get from his dad," she said to the conference call, "I think I'm in trouble."

"Did you eat?" Don asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'm in trouble," Kim-ly told her brother, "Let's pick this up tomorrow." After Kim-ly finished her call, Don stepped forward and pushed her laptop closed and glared down at her. She looked up at him and if she read his expression right, she was in trouble. "Lanh told you, didn't she."

"Obviously... and it looks like she didn't warn you," said Don firmly but still trying to hide the laugh. This was Lanh being assertive, leaving her big sister twisting in the wind. "Let's talk about it upstairs, come on." He took the laptop and headed upstairs and without turning said "follow me or the laptop gets it."

Kim-ly grabbed her notebook and cell phone and followed Don up the stairs and into the kitchen where Sandy was waiting for them. "Do you know what she had for lunch mom?" asked Don.

"She didn't eat lunch and I'm pretty sure she didn't have breakfast either. She went right to work after morning milking," said Sandy as she served both Don and Kim-ly porkchops and mashed potatoes she kept warm in the oven.

"No more milking," Don said in a voice that more befit a father talking to a calcitrant daughter.

"Good, I can spend more time at my job," said Kim-ly reaching for the laptop.

"Four hours a day, maximum," said Don. "I already texted Bao and he agrees. Tam will be over tomorrow morning to bring us the books we need."

"What books?" demanded Kim-ly.

"Natural childbirth, child rearing, children's health," said Don as he gave Kim-ly a spoonful of apple sauce to eat. He wanted to have a real conversation with her about the child, but Sandy and Ralph were hovering, happy to see Don was feeling better and Kim-ly was up from the basement.

"I got a magazine," pouted Kim-ly.

"When is your due date?" asked Don.

"The fifteenth."

"That's next Friday!"

Kim-ly nodded and said around a mouthful of mashed potatoes, "See? We have time."

꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳

Don had that dream again, those faceless, nameless women took Lanh away never to be seen again, the one with the purple tipped hair said, "Don't worry about it, Reggie will be ok," and Don was left shouting "Who's Reggie?" And the next thing he knew he was getting married again. He couldn't see who the bride was, but he knew she wasn't Lanh. He was shouting for Lanh when a screaming noise out shouted him and he woke to find that it was his cell phone. It was Kim-ly calling from downstairs, "My water broke, let's go for a ride."

Something in Don's heart was screaming, "This is all wrong!" He never got a chance to talk seriously with Kim-ly, they never got a chance to get their breathing practice done, they never read those books, instead of almost two weeks they had four days to get ready, and now she was in labor. This isn't right. He wanted to sit down and talk with Kim-ly and maybe find out some more about the mindset between her and Lanh that came down to this, he wanted to talk to Lanh but now it's too late, it's all too late.

As usual her cheerful effervescence kept Kim-ly afloat, a smile on her lips and an off-color joke always at the ready. She's been through this three times with Tam so she's an old hand and she guided Don through the prenatal procedures. Kim-ly called her mom who would notify the family, and the hospital that they were coming in, and she was chatting with Rosa as Don went outside and packed Kim-ly's "go bag" and started her car. It was -20 degrees, and her car was slow to start, but it finally fired up. Scraping her windows with a brass edge window scraper was a battle to say the least. Normally a brass edge scraper peals the frost off like the skin off an apple, but at -20 degrees frost is a different animal that doesn't release its grip on anything until heat is applied.

Kim-ly came out and handed Don a cup of coffee and said, "Let's go, the defroster will warm up as we drive. There was logic in her words so he helped her in the car then sat down in the driver's seat and just as he reached for the shift lever, she said, "Did you unplug the block heater?"

"You had to wait until I sat down?" he asked. It was frustrating, he knew about the plug, he just didn't think about it. He got out and unplugged the electric block heater and coiled up the extension cord. The block heater warms the anti-freeze inside the engine block which makes it possible to start the car in the arctic cold of Northern Minnesota. Even his antique John Deere tractor has a block heater.

As they drove through the pre-dawn darkness the defroster slowly kicked in and the porthole that Don scraped through the frost started to grow in size, he was soon able to drive without having to scrape the window continuously. As he drove and shivered, Kim-ly made call after call letting whoever came to mind know that she was heading to the hospital. She finally put her phone on speaker and said "Here, say hi to daddy, he's looking overwhelmed."

"Hi honey, are you ok?" said Lanh.

"Oh, I had that dream again, it's really unnerving." He talked to her about that dream in the past and it's starting to concern her. "Maybe... I don't know... I just don't feel ready for this, this whole trip has seemed off."

"I'm sorry, it's my fault. It's because I deceived you..."

"No, stop. I understand why you did what you did, and I love you for it," said Don. He felt a little better for saying it, maybe understanding the horror she felt when she thought she lost him was causing these dreams. Maybe his subconscious is taking Lanh in away in these dreams so it can say, "See? This is what Lanh felt like." He also had a horrible feeling that he was wrong. He wheeled into the hospital parking lot and Kim-ly pointed out where to park. "Ok, we're at the hospital, I'll give you a call when I get a chance. I love you."

"You're going to be fine," said Lanh, "now take care of my sister, I love you."

He felt better after their little talk, and as he parked in the Expectant Mommy parking spot, Kim-ly said "The reason why she asked me to do this, is the exact same reason why I agreed to do it." She grabbed his arm preventing him from opening the door, "We were terrified of losing you. Your son will give us a part of you to hold should you succeed in getting yourself killed." Kim-ly leaned over and kissed Don's cheek and whispered, "I love you." She was out of the car and walking toward the entrance before Don could react.

"So it's finally your turn, eh Kim-ly?" grinned Dr. Carol Schaeffer as she sat down between Kim-ly's legs. She remembers Kim-ly's antics when her sister Tam was in the exact same bed three times and hopefully, she'll be more subdued now that it's her turn.

"I hope you brought your catchers mit doc," grinned an exhausted Kim-ly, "He'll be hitting the ground running, right daddy?" She said that to get a rise out of Don, but he turned to her with a smile.

"Let's make a baby." If Kim-ly had a response it was lost behind clenched teeth her contraction. As his concern for Kim-ly and the baby grew, Don's trepidation about an unidentifiable problem faded into the background. Her labor was intense, her hospital gown was wide open and the only item remaining that she wore was warm fuzzy socks and a sensor belt around her midsection. "We're getting close!" Don said excitedly.

"What do you mean we?" Kim-ly growled around a spoonful of ice chips.

"You are the only woman to ever get pregnant from a handjob," said a familiar voice.

Kim-ly looked up and groaned "Oh no."

"That's right!" said her sister Tam in a sing-song voice. Tam leaned over Don's shoulder and gave Kim-ly a kiss. "It's payback time!"

"Isn't there a lock on the door here?" grumbled Kim-ly.

"There is, but Doctor Johnson was invited," said Dr. Schaeffer. "Ok darling, one more good push and this little fella is free. Ready?"

"Who invited her?" grunted Kim-ly as the next contraction built in intensity.

"I did," said Don.

"You never asked me," Kim-ly gasped.

"That seems to be going around," said Don which earned him an angry glare from Kim-ly.

"Enough chit-chat," said Tam, "let's get this baby out, the waiting room is full.

"I can't do it," gasped Kim-ly, "I'm too tired."

Don got as close to Kim-ly as he could without climbing in bed with her and whispered softly in her ear, "Let's get Danh born, after we rest up then we'll go have a nice dinner at the Wilderness on Lake Bemidji, just you and me."

Kim-ly's eyes opened wide, the Wilderness? "Spring Fling?" she gasped.

"Yes, Spring Fling," chuckled Don. Spring Fling is a beautiful, romantic evening and a show in the ballroom of the new Wilderness Inn on Lake Bemidji. It's becoming popular in the frigid north to build large entertainment complexes in the larger towns, these complexes become an oasis of warmth for the frozen people of the north, many of whom are suffering from severe cabin fever. Pools, spas, water parks, stores, "open air" restaurants and events. Spring Fling is as big if not bigger than their New Year's party; there is formal dining, live band, one act plays... no children allowed, it's a night for the grown-ups.