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My abdomen has grown to three times its size over the last three weeks. Sometimes, I can feel the baby thumping inside me. Other times, it feels like nothing is there.
Blumiere and I have made several trips back to Dockside, mostly to get food and baby things. Today, we are returning back to the Meadow. It is a little after noon.
“Does everything feel alright?” Blumiere asks.
“Feels like nothings there,” I reply. Then I feel a knock. A hard one. I stop walking.
“Timpani?”
“Yeah… I’m… Okay. It’s just… the baby.”
“I’ll carry you. Here.” Blumiere picks me up. I’m clutching my belly, squeezing my eyes shut.
Blumiere starts to run back to the Cure tree, thinking that I’m going to give birth now.
“Blumiere… I’m not gonna… give birth. I… I don’t feel anything painful.”
He keeps running without a reply. When we reach the tree, he sets me down on a big soft black cushion.
“Do you think that it’s the contractions, Timpani?”
“I… I don’t know… My back just… hurts. Aches. I... I just want rest.”
“Yes. I’ll be right back.” And Blumiere leaves to get some pillows from our mini-hideout-tent-thing. He returns with three pillows.
I put the first pillow behind me, to stop my back pain. The second pillow goes to the side to me, since I also have a side-ache. The third pillow goes on my lap, and I squeeze it when I feel something painful.
I sit on the black cushion the rest of the day, with the help of Blumiere feeding me my supper. He sits with me, and tries to talk to me. He’s trying to get my mind off of the baby; and I thank him for that mentally.
When nightfall comes, Blumiere snuggles in next to me. We pull a blanket up on us, but then I object.
“Blumiere… my slippers,” I say quietly.
“Oh yes.” Blumiere gently takes off my slippers, and my feet immediately feel better in the breeze around us.
“Thank you,” I manage to say.
“I’ve wanted to show you this for a while, Lady Timpani,” Blumiere starts. He pulls out a small rainbow-colored butterfly that looks like a hair clip. I recognize it as myself as a Pixl.
“Oh Blumiere…”
“Here…” Blumiere begins. He places the clip on the top of my head, and I adjust it to make it more comfortable. “You look… Beautiful,” Blumiere says slowly.
I blush and sigh. “And so you do, Blumiere. You always have.”
Blumiere pulls me closer and we kiss. “Timpani… I love you so much.”
“I love you too...”
When we pull away from kissing, Blumiere shows me more constellations.
He points to one in the far distance. “See that?” He says to me.
“Yes…”
“That is a scorpion… I do not know the actual name.”
“A scorpion…” I look at it more closely. It resembles a scorpion very well. But then I spot a baby.
“Look! Blumiere! A baby!”
“Ah… yes. You can find many other constellations by combining some with others.”
We talk more, but when I feel tired, and Blumiere says that it’s eleven-thirty, I decide to go to sleep.
Blumiere expands the black cushion and I set my legs down on it. We sleep next to each other.
During the night, I get up and take a short walk around the lake. My abdomen is killing me.
When I am walking around the lake, I feel something… something… unusual. So I lie down in the grass, and wait for whatever will happen.
In the morning, I sit up next to the lake and bathe myself. I get Blumiere up, and lead him over to the lake. Then he sees what I have made. We have had twins. One girl and one boy.
“Oh Timpani!! I… I’m so happy for you!” Blumiere is so happy that he picks me up and runs down to the lake. I’m laughing my head off.
Blumiere sets me down next to the babies. The girl has less hair than the boy does, which seems unusual to me.
“Have you named them yet, Timpani?”
“No, I wanted to name them with you around.”
“Thank you, Timpani. But I’d like you to name them.”
“Only me?”
“Only you.”
I smile and throw my arms around him. We sit down next to the babies, and I pick up the girl.
“…Eleanor,” I say. “Or Ellie.” The girl will be called Eleanor or Ellie.
Then I pick up the boy. He is slightly bigger, and slightly heavier. “…Gaz. Or Gazzy.”
Blumiere nods. “I like the name Gaz. And Eleanor. Excellent choices, Timpani.”
I smile again. The boy, Gaz, has started to pull grass from the ground and starts to throw it at Eleanor. All Eleanor just sits there and smiles, mocking him.
Blumiere and I put diapers on them, and then we bathe them. I bathe Ellie, while Blumiere bathes Gazzy.
“How was the birth? Was it… hard? I wish I was there for you, Timpani.”
“It was hard at first, but then it became much easier.”
Blumiere nods in understanding. When we finish bathing the babies, we put them in clothes. A small green shirt and shorts for Gaz, and a pink shirt and white shorts for Eleanor.
Over the next few days, all Blumiere and I do is care for our kids. We feed them all we can, and they still want more. Soon enough, we must make another trip back to Dockside, which neither of us wants to do.
After a week or so with the babies, Blumiere decides to hike to Dockside for more food. He makes me stay at the Meadow with Gazzy and Ellie.
“I’ll return in a day or so, okay?” Blumiere asks.
“Yes, I’ll be fine,” I reply. And Blumiere takes off in a run towards Dockside. When Blumiere is out of sight, Gaz starts to cry.
I turn to him and smile. “It’s okay, Gazzy. Daddy will be back.” I smooth out his new hair with my fingers. Gazzy starts to settle down, but then Eleanor starts to doze off.
“I guess it’s time for a nap,” I say to the babies, who clearly have no idea what I’m saying. So, I expand the black blanket and lie down with them.
When we wake up, it’s early evening. The babies are still asleep. I want them to sleep longer, so I leave them. I decide to take out my supper. As I eat, I wonder when they’ll learn to walk. I bet Ellie will learn to walk first, since she is a few minutes older than Gazzy.
When they awake, it’s around nine. I wonder why Blumiere hasn’t returned yet. It is a three hour walk, after all. He should be back soon. I decide to try and teach Ellie how to walk. I get her on her feet, but when I let go, she falls back on her bum and starts to cry. I try again, walking a few feet in front of her as a demonstration. I pick her up, but she falls again.
As I pretend to be angry at her, I say, “Oh Ellie! You need to use your feet! Your feet!” I tickle her feet to show that she is being punished. She giggles, and we try again. We fail once more, so I keep trying. Eventually, she takes her first step when it’s around ten o’clock. After that, she’s walking back and forth on our black blanket. I feel tired, so I lie back down with Gaz, who is still unable to walk.
“I’ll teach you tomorrow, okay?” I say nicely to him. He makes a funny face at me. I poke him in the nose. He laughs. Then I fall into a deep sleep.
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