Author's Chapter Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Salomi walked into the bedroom and Gabriel was reading the paper.”I thought you were asleep too”she said
“No, I just woke up from my nap”he said with a smile. He noticed that she was still a little upset from this morning, he got up and hugged her from behind,”You miss your little boy don’t you?”he asked her
She nodded,”Its so different now with just Lia you know?”she said to him,”Hes my little boy…”she said as tears filled her eyes again,”They grow up so fast you know? It seems like yesterday when…he was born…”
“Now hes the big 5. Hes going to school….its 1929, a new decade is going to begin, more prosperous than this one”he assured her,”He’ll be fine”
“I know…I just…I feel old. I feel like hes going to walk in here with a girl and say ‘Mommy, I want to get married’”
“Now hes not that grown up”Gabriel said with a smile,”That day will come you know, but it will be a long time from now. Don’t even think about it”he said to her,”I demand you to not be sad any longer”he said
“Demand?”she asked with a laugh
“I was serious this morning”he said,”If you don’t do what I say, we will not go to the beach. You don’t want to ruin the kids weekend do you? All that burden on your shoulders, it would be really bad”he said and grinned
“You demand though?”she asked him
“Alright. I’ll ask nicely”he said as he sat on the bed. “I implore you to not be so sad”he said,she nodded and smiled,”Good girl, now sit next to Papa”he said to her. She smiled and sat next to him. “I miss you”he said to her
Salomi nodded,”I miss you too”she said. While he was running around doing various things with various theaters, she was running around with the kids. She refused to hire a nanny and they had a maid come in once a week to help clean. Salomi wanted to be active in raising her children. They barely saw each other. When her day was winding down, his was just starting. He pulled her toward him and kissed her passionately. He then pulled away.
“Lia’s asleep right?”he asked her. Salomi laughed and nodded,”Good, she can sleep through a dust storm, we can be very loud”he said as he laid down on top of her.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Michael waited patiently as their teacher, Mrs. Honeycutt, told them where their assigned seats were. He hoped that he would get a seat right next to Nicky, it would be easier for him. Making friends was so hard for him. Then Mrs. Honeycutt called Nicky’s name, however, the seats around him filled up. Michael sighed with disappointment, wanting to cry. Great now where was he going to sit? “Michael Brewster?”Mrs. Honeycutt asked,he stepped forward,she smiled, she had a pretty smile. She also had dark hair and eyes like his mommy. “You can sit behind Abigail”she said as she gestured to the seat. He walked over and sat down in the chair, he looked over at Nicky sadly and Nicky just shrugged. They both were surrounded by kids they didn’t know. He didn’t pay attention as the rest of the kids took their seats. Then Mrs. Honeycutt put her name on the board,”That’s my name, Mrs. Honeycutt, and I will be your teacher this year. We are going to have so much fun learning. Im very excited”she said to them with a smile. Michael smiled, her smile looked just like mommy’s….he missed her. “Now before we get into our writing lesson, we are going to introduce ourselves. I want each of you to stand, say your first and last name and tell us something you like, your favorite thing”she said and started at the left side of the room.
Michael was seated in the middle toward the right so he had time to think, what was his favorite thing? Then a pencil dropped next to him and he picked it up, thinking it was his,”That’s mine please”a little voice said. He turned and stared in shock. It was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. She had big blue eyes just like Rita’s and dark hair like mommy. She had on a blue dress that made her eyes more blue. He held out his hand slowly and she took it and smiled at him.
“Sorry”was all he could say.
“Its alright”she said as she turned her attention to Nicky who had just stood up.
“Im Nicholas Andrews and I love baseball”he announced and a lot of the boys nodded.Some shouted,”I like it too!”
“Alright calm down children”she said as they continued around the room. Michael sat there and thought, what should he say? He glanced at the girl sitting next to him, should he say,’My name is Michael Brewster and I like her’? His turn was coming up and he started to panic. What was he going to say?
“My name is Abigail Henderson”said the redhead in front of him,”And I like dresses”she said and then sat down. It was his turn now. Everyone turned to look at him, there were a lot of kids in the class.
Michael stood up slowly,it started to get hot, he was scared now that everyone was staring at him. “Uh….My name’s Michael. And I…oh my last name is Brewster and I like….”he said and then glanced at the girl next to him, her dark hair was shiny just like his mothers, wait that’s it! “And I like my mommy”he said. However, some of the boys giggled, most of them said trains, bugs, baseball, not their mothers.
Mrs. Honeycutt nodded,”Now be quiet class. I like my mother too”she said to Michael,”We wouldn’t be here without them”she said and then turned her attention to the kid behind him. Michael sat down and sighed with relief. That wasn’t too hard, but now he was anxious to see what her name was and what she liked. Finally her turn came.
“My name is Emily Hubbard”she said sweetly, her blue eyes shining, she moved some of her hair off her shoulder and continued,”I like to dance, I want to be a ballerina”she said proudly. Mrs. Honeycutt nodded as another girl sighed and said,”I was going to say that”
Michael smiled. Emily, what a pretty name.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Mommy was right. The day went by really quickly and he learned a few things and he was happy when he got a few answers right in math class. Mrs. Honeycutt even told him that he was good at math and that he should stick with it. Recess was fun too. Nicky seemed to be popular with a lot of the boys already, especially with his new baseball, he introduced them to Michael and soon he made friends. But the best part of the day happened when Emily tripped and fell. Not her falling, no, but what happened after. Michael rushed to her rescue and asked if she was alright, she nodded hiding the tears however, her knee was bleeding pretty badly. He called Mrs. Honeycutt over and she took Emily to the nurse, he also went along, just to make sure she was alright. The nurse bandaged Emily up and she was free to go just in time to get back to class. “Thank you Michael, my knee is better now”she said to him with a smile
“Your welcome”he said politely,”You can call me Mikey”he told her.
“Is that so?”Salomi said with a cocked eyebrow as Michael followed her around the kitchen as she started to clean and prepare for dinner. “So Emily is a new friend?”she asked him
“I hope so”he said as he blushed,”Her last name is Hubbard and she wants to be a ballerina like Rita and she has dark hair just like you and blue eyes like daddy”he rambled on,”She sits right next to me”
Salomi smiled. Gabriel was right, Michael did just as he said he would. He did come home excited and couldn’t wait to go back, but mostly over a girl. Michael seemed to have a crush already. How sweet. “Im happy that you had a great day at school”Salomi said
“You were right mommy, school is fun, I wanna go back tomorrow”he said excitedly
“I wanna go back tomorrow”Dahlia said
“No you cant go yet, your too young”Michael said to her
Dahlia crossed her arms and pouted,”Im not!”
“Yes you are”
“Im not!”Dahlia shouted back at him
Salomi turned around and wanted to scold her but took a different approach,”I have a feeling that two naughty little children don’t want to go to the beach”she said. They both looked at her with wide eyes, she turned to Michael,”Now get started on your homework”she said to him
“Yes mommy”he said as he went to the bedroom
“And you….”she said to Dahlia, she sighed and yet she smiled, she was so loud and wild, she reminded her of herself when she was little, letting frogs into the house, pretending to fly and getting many bruises,”you go play with your dolls and be quiet until dinner alright?”she said to her. Dahlia nodded and ran off. Salomi smiled and went back to cleaning.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Rita smiled as she took off her tap shoes and put on her regular shoes. Another great dance lesson, she loved to dance. She wanted to be like Fred Astaire, but a girl version. She walked out of the dance school with Kit and they saw Kit’s parents having a disagreement. They stopped and listened.
“Sweetheart you are overreacting”Kit’s mother said,”It isn’t that bad-“
“You don’t know how bad it is!”Kit’s father said to her,”The stocks are starting to fall, I have invested a lot of credit into it! Money that isn’t even mine-“
“Well that’s your fault”Kit’s mother replied,”Stick with what you have, your own money”
“Yeah, you would know”he said to her,”You spend more time with my money than you do with me”he said. She gasped and then turned away and saw Kit and Rita.
She quickly smiled,”You girls are done already!? How was class Kit? Hello Rita”she said to them
“Hello Mrs. Andrews”Rita said politely, but she wanted to know what they were fighting about.
“Dance class was great Mommy, I cant wait for the Halloween recital”Kit said as a car pulled up. Rita recognized it as her mother’s car.
“I’ll see you tomorrow”Rita said to Kit and Kit returned the farewell, she walked toward her car as she heard Dahlia yell,”RITA, WE’RE HERE!”out the window and her mother scolding her. “Hi mommy, Mikey, Lia”she said as she got into the car
“How was class huney?”Salomi asked her as she waved to the Andrews and drove back home.
“Great, my pirouettes are perfect now. Madame said so”Rita smiled proudly,”Can I show you when I get home?”
“Of course”
“Is Daddy coming home late again?”she asked. Salomi nodded. Rita sighed, she wanted to show Daddy, he loved watching her dance and gave her great tips as well. “Mommy?”she asked
“Yes dear”
“How do you spend more time with money than a person?”Rita asked
Salomi looked at her,”What do you mean?”
“Well Mr. Andrews said that Mrs. Andrews spends more time with his money than with him, how?”she asked
Salomi sucked in her breath, seemed that Rita overheard a pretty heated debate,”That just means she shops too much”she said and then looked at Rita,”You know its wrong to eavesdrop, you shouldn’t listen to other people’s conversations, its rude”
“I know but I didn’t understand”Rita defended herself. Salomi nodded and they rode home in silence except for moments when Dahlia and Michael would argue, but they didn’t last long since Salomi kept bringing up the beach.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Salomi woke up with a start as she felt a body fall on top of her, she opened her eyes and saw that it was Gabriel,”Are you crazy? Do you want me to have a heart attack?”
“I missed you”he said as he kissed her passionately and she eagerly kissed him back. They laid there and kissed for awhile, just like they used to do when they first met on the Titanic and when they found each other again 2 years after. That seemed so long ago, almost 20 years. He pulled away and laid next to her and then sat up with a start, “How were the kids today?”he asked
“Well behaved”Salomi said with a smile,”A few arguments here and there but whenever I mention not going to the beach, they shut right up. I think we need to go to the beach every weekend, I love it when they’re quiet”
“Good, because I cant take it anymore”he said as he got up and walked out of the room
Salomi got up and followed him and saw that he was walking down the hall to the kids’ room.”Gabe!”she hissed as she ran to him,”You are not waking them up now are you?”
“Yes, we gotta start spreading the news”he said in a sing song voice as he opened their door and turned on the light. Rita opened her eyes, Michael stirred a little but Dahlia was dead to the world. She could sleep through anything but she was always the last to go to sleep. “WE ARE GOING TO THE BEACH! CONGRATULATIONS!”he said as he danced around the room. Salomi stood there helplessly as Rita let out a yell and jumped off the bed and ran to her father, Michael sat up with wide eyes and he looked at her.
“Really mommy?”he asked her
She nodded,”You all have been very good this week”she said and Michael let out a shout and hugged them both. Dahlia finally stirred and Michael ran to her.
“WE’RE GOING TO THE BEACH TOMORROW!”he shouted excitedly and Dahlia nodded sleepily, not quite awake yet. Salomi looked at the clock it was almost 1 am, how was she going to get them to go back to sleep after all this excitement?
Rita and Gabriel danced around the room and then she proceeded to show him her perfect pirouette and put on her tap shoes and did the latest routine. Gabriel turned on the gramophone and put in a record and they all started to dance, Michael too. Dahlia stood there confused,”Why are they dancing mommy?”
“Theyre happy, didn’t you hear? We’re going to the beach sweetheart”Salomi said to her with a big smile and then Dahlia let out the loudest scream of joy ever and joined with them and danced, or more like hopped around the room. Gabriel smiled and walked over to her as her favorite song played.
“Dance with me darling”he said as he twirled Salomi around the room. Rita danced with Michael and Dahlia danced with her teddy bear, screaming in delight as she did.
“Now how are we going to get them to go to sleep?”Salomi asked him,”They have school tomorrow you know..actually today is Friday, its one in the morning!”
“Let me put them to sleep my dear, I woke them”he said with a smile as they danced around the room. However, the children tired themselves out and soon they were laid back down in their beds, it was almost two by then.
“They lost an hour of sleep, you’re a bad boy for doing that”Salomi said to him
Gabriel smiled wickedly,”I’ll show you how bad I really am”he said as he picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. Salomi didn’t know what had come over him, but she liked it, they made love for hours and as usual, it was amazing.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
“Why are you so happy today?”Emily asked Michael as they ate lunch together. Ever since the first day of school, the two got closer and closer and Michael didn’t mind. Emily was so pretty, he loved being around her.
“My daddy promised me and my sisters that if we were good all week that we were going to go to the beach and we leave today after school”Michael said excitedly
Emily’s eyes lit up,”Really? I have never been to a beach. What’s it like?”
Michael looked at her with wide eyes,”You have never been to the beach before?”
Emily shook her head,”My mommy just moved here with me, we used to live on a farm with my grandmother. I didn’t see any beaches around”
“Beaches are fun. Theres lots of water and sand. The water is cold but once you get in, it warms up, its like a big bathtub with real fish in it and you can make sand castles and theres stores with lots of toys and candy nearby”
“Real fish?”Emily asked, her eyes lighting up. “I would love to go one day it sounds great”
“I’ll take you one day”he said to her and she smiled. “But Ive never been to a real farm before. Are there lots of animals? Whats it like?”he asked her. She smiled and explained and he looked into her deep blue eyes as she did so.
*________________________________*