G 4 Ch 3 – Edison

It really didn’t seem to matter what stage of pregnancy I was in the only activities I could stand to do long were to read, or flip through, what few books I owned, or to play chess. Anything else just was not going to happen. I had always been plump before the pregnancy during it I expanded 3 times my original size. If it weren’t for Theron’s constant loving support who knows what I might have done.

One of the few bright spots, besides Theron’s pampering of me, was when I found a brown book lying around. When I opened it up I was thrilled to discover drawing of tools and gears inside. Ignoring the cramped script around the edges I studied the fading text and diagrams as much as possible. How I loved learning new things and the challenge that decoding ancient and fading books gave me. Even if physical activity was uncomfortable, I was still able to exercise and challenge my brain.

Theron proved over and over again to be a rock of support and comfort for me. He didn’t care why I was crying, if I needed comforting he was there for me. Gently rubbing my back and holding me close, never once demanding an explanation or complaining when I left his shirt soaked.

Uncle Cadeyrn on the other hand was no help, he happily pointed out that I should move around more to try and ease my aches and pains. He also happily told me that my grandmother had been a twin. No my worries were twice as much as I watched my belly grow. I hadn’t known that my grandmother was a twin. Then again other than a few random tales when I was very little, no one had told me much about my grandparents. More than once I wondered what it meant for me that twins ran not just in Theron’s family but in mine as well.

I once asked Theron to explain about the twins in his family and instantly regretted the answer. It turned out that Theron and his youngest sister were abnormalities within the family tree as they had been born with out twins or triplets. When he mentioned triplets I felt faint and could feel the blood drain from my face. To say that with our first child I was worried about the odds of a multiple birth would have been an understatement.

Theron was so cute when I wasn’t mid mood swing. Always wanting to listen, touch, and talk to my belly. Often he would also play peek-a-boo with my belly, which often set me into fits of giggling. I would tease him for trying to pamper our child before it was even born. In return he would just grin and tell me I looked like the most beautiful woman in the valley. To that I never had a smart reply, but I would feel as if I was lighter than a snowflake drifting on the wind.

There were also the long discussion on what we would name our child. I almost broke down when he suggested naming any boy’s we had after my dad. When he saw the tears welling up in my eyes he said that we didn’t have to if I didn’t want to. I just nodded at him. He made a request that if we had any girls he would like our first daughter to named after his missing younger sister, Elfreda. I agreed knowing how much he missed his family and his younger sister. It was impossible to get information from the council or the militia when people went missing after zombie or bandit attacks, so we were never able to find any signs of his family.

When the big day arrived, things did not go very smooth. I had just gotten ready to go outside when the first contraction hit. I don’t think my screaming helped Theron any, because despite having witnessed his mother give birth several times, the first few minutes of our first child’s delivery he did nothing but run around the room panicking. After a few minutes he snapped out of it and told me I needed to focus on my breathing. I might have told him that he could focus on breathing while I ripped out his spine. Some how that calmed him down and he smiled, telling me I sounded just like his mom.  He then took me by the elbow and forced me to waddle around the room until the water broke, Only then did he allow me to sit at the very edge of the bed. He kept telling me to breathe and that I was doing fine. He would push my hair away from my face and tell me that no one could compare to my beauty. I might have glared at him a few times, but it was so hard to stay mad at someone who was not only complimenting you but not complaining when you dug your fingers into their arms.

Tucking our newborn son, Edison, into his crib I couldn’t help but feel a pang of bitterness that he wasn’t a girl. Calling across the room to Theron who was as exhausted as I was from staying up half the night with me I asked him how soon could we try again for a girl. Theron told me it was up to me. I silently nodded as I rubbed Edison’s belly, he was cute but he wasn’t a girl and I wanted a girl.

It was a few weeks after Edison’s birth that I convinced Uncle Cadeyrn to watch Edison while Theron and I went out by ourselves. I watched Theron playing with Edison, to Theron it didn’t matter that Edison was a boy instead of the girl we had wanted he loved him all the same, why then was I having such a hard time accepting Edison for who he was. Theron was happy to go, if a bit nervous about leaving our precious child with my uncle, we needed the us time. Since Edison’s birth we had taken sleep shifts to care for him, and hadn’t gotten to spend any time alone with each other.