The Guard To My Sanctuary - Chapter 32: Chapter 32

"We need to make some of these plans more concrete Marco," I said as he massaged my "aching" feet. I wasn't in any real pain or discomfort I just wanted to feel his touch after he had been gone all day for work. Thalia was over watching me since I was having cramps and didn't want to agitate it by walking. I ended up reading over her essay helping her find any misspelled words she might have missed. Not that I was much help since I taught myself and my writing wasn't horrible but could get better.
"What do you want to talk about Honey," he asked me looking up from the television that was playing an old episode of House.
"A few things but for starters are these little kickers going to public or private school. My mom had me in pre-pre kindergarten at the age of two and I was wondering if you wanted them to go to that as well," I asked.
"Why the hell do they need pre-pre kindergarten," he asked.
"I learned to read by two and a half and by the time I started kindergarten I was bored because I knew everything. I could multiply, add, subtract, could write in cursive and knew where every country was on the map and it's capital," I stated plainly.
"Oh well, I like that then. I don't plan on raising dumb asses," he said more to my stomach than to me. I gave him an eye but agreed that I wasn't going through all the pains and aches of pregnancy to have underachieving children who lived at home till they were forty.
"So public or private school," I asked.
"Public, I don't want them surrounded by affected white people with vocal fry and trust funds," he said squeezing my feet while he spoke.
"We live in Cupertino baby, all the kids are affected, the only thing in public school here is diversity," I told him.
"Compromise baby, I want them to grow up around different people. Rich, poor, gay, straight, trans, mentally disabled, annoying. The whole nine yards. If they are being left behind because of the conditions then we can talk about private school," he said to me
"Fine," I said holding out my pinky finger. He hooked his with mind and rocked it back and forth.
"Now religion. I'm a little iffy about the whole situation since well...My life but you never talk about it so I want to know where you stand," I stated.
"Well, I want them to be baptized as Catholics. I want them to choose their own religion down the road but they need a jumping off point," he said to me.
"I can live with that. We already have the language stuff down. How about college, "I asked.
"I won't require it for them but I want to start saving in case they want to go," I said.
"Well, they are going to college if I have to kick their asses all the way to campus. They will be sitting in lecture halls with my foot up their asses if that's what it takes. By the way, I don't want them to join the military. I did that so they would be afforded the ability to not have to," he said.
"Well okay, so discipline," I asked.
"I don't want to hit them, I'm used to violence and I don't want them to be used to it," I said.
"That's fine as long as they don't cross a line I'm good with just punishments. Those are worse than getting hit anyways," Marco said while still working my feet with his strong hands. I moaned a little and he smiled.
"What are we going to do if one of them is like me. I was and still am fragile as a child and all of those opposing hormones. Kids are mean Marco and I don't want my child coming home crying because someone's ugly ass spawn decided to make his life hell. I remember running home from school with boys chasing me because I brought my Barbie doll to school to play with at recess," I said holding back tears that came out of nowhere.
"Look I'm not going to lie it scares me little. If they say that Calloway is what we think he is then we will love him as much as the others but we'll have to protect him just a little bit more. Are we probably going to have to run up to that school and raise hell, probably? Will we have to wipe his tears while he cried in our arms, probably? But we'll also make sure he has enough confidence and love from us that he will be able to brave those rough waters. Plus he will have two brother's by his side, in his classes to defend and protect him if he can't protect himself," Marco said and crawled up to me. I could smell that familiar scent of lemons waft off of him mixing with his natural masculine scent and felt comforted. He maneuvered is so that I was laying on his chest on top of our covers. I then placed my hands into his sweats he had put on the moment he got home from work. I laid my clasped hands on his thighs. The warmth of his body seeped into my hands.
"Now how about you, do you have an idea of what you want to do," he asked.
"Not really. I can't pick what I want to do with my life. Maybe I'll be a stay at home dad or something. But that would get boring after a while. I just can't make up my mind. There is so much I could do but I'm too indecisive to just reach out and pick one thing," I said honestly.
"How about this, I want you to stay home and raise the kids till they start kindergarten. I mean they will need their Daddy in that time and I'll be working and going to school so they should have at least one stable dad at home. In that time you can start classes and find something that interests you. Make a few friends and teach the kids Hindi or whatever we find important for them to learn. I want you to not rush yourself into something just to hate it. That's six years till they go to school so take your time and just learn to live life. I promise you I have no issue with you being a stay at home dad till I retire. I just want you to be happy in whatever you do," he said to me.
"Are you sure," I asked him looking up at his face.
"I'm one hundred percent positive, I can't have my baby mama all stressed out," he said with a smile. I pulled one of my hands out his pants and smacked his chest then laughed.
"You know half the shit we just said right now will probably change," Marco said.
"Yeah but at least we have an idea," I told him then turned my attention back to the television until we both fell asleep knowing we had to be up early the next morning.
"Elm was going to the mama & me class. Stop stalling and bring your ass on," he yelled up the stairs while tying his Jordan's up. I could tell by his grunts.
"Ughhhhh, don't rush me," I yelled back stomping my way down the stairs. If he only knew how cute he was when he's mad.
"Stop stomping," he tried to tell me
"And what exactly are you going to do about it," he said stomping again. I had given him a week of being in the house alone during the day and now it was time to socialize and get some practice in for the babies.
"Man come on, you doing a lot right now," he said refraining from using the word hormones because last time he did I threw a book.
"Yeah whatever," I replied walking to the garage. I could feel him ollowed behind me as I got into the car. Quickly I put my headphones in and closed his eyes which were pointless since the place was only ten minutes away.
"Honey, " he called. Opening my eyes and rolling them I proceeded out of the car. He walked to the front doors and opened them for me allowing me in and looked around at the building that had deep brown wood floors and pastel gray walls. Pregnant women and their significant others milled around mingling with one another in the floral scented air. There were candles burning around the building and snacks on a table that Elm immediately went for since his appetite had reached new highs.
"Honey only one sugar cookie you don't want your sugar to spike," he tried to gently tell me.
"Fine, " I replied in a hormonal mood as I continued in taking one and devouring it than grabbing a paper cup to fill with cucumber water from the pitcher on the table. I looked around and noticed people giving us odd looks and whispering to one another. I smiled at a group of women who had the classic wasp hairstyles. They all seemed to have weaves or extensions as they probably called it with a center part and soft waves. All of their hair was silky and bouncy and lightly colored. The two white women seemed to be tanned artificially while the Asian and Black women both seemed to be wearing makeup that made them seem lighter in the face. The group looked to all be trying to achieve a perfect shade of beige. They wore preppy clothing with designer logos embroidered on the garments and their husbands who were all pale members of the Anglo-Saxon community all seemed to be wearing the same slacks and collared shirts in different shades of red and tan that more than likely came from some store where the employees would follow me around in. One of the white women strutted over to us with a big fake smile exposing her glossy white teeth that had to be artificially brightened. Her white flat kitten heels, which were a problem in itself clacked against the floor.
"Hello, can I help you two gentlemen with something. This is a prenatal mommy and me class. The gay men's prenatal class is in two hours. You might want to come back this will take a while and aren't catered to your kind," she said with a valley accent her perfume was vaguely cotton candy smelling which caused me to scrunch up his nose in disgust.
"Ma'am we are in the right class for our kind but thank you for your concern," Marco said to her lacing the last word of his sentence with enough sarcastic venom that she looked shocked.
"Oh well is your surrogate coming or are you two here to observe because that is also another class," her black friend asked walking to the side of us.
"I'm really not a combative person but you two are standing too close to me. It would be in the best interest of your feelings if you two were to stop assuming that the world lives under your little heteronormative keeping up with the Jones', secret gay husband bubble" Marco said pointing to the Asian woman's husband who had been staring at me while biting his lips since I walked in. The ladies didn't move so I reached down and pulled up his shirt exposing his belly and the trim of his black boyshorts to the ladies who gasped at the sight.
"He's trans now could we please be left alone," I told them. They stood and stared at me for a while as I put my shirt back down. The other women and their men came over to see the bulge in my clothing. I was losing my cool with each second that passed.
"Can you simple minded women leave the boy alone," a woman said walking over to us. She was beautiful with medium length charcoal colored hair and skin reminiscent of caramel. Her makeup was lightly applied but there and present. She had long eyelashes that framed her big brown eyes. She looked slightly mixed but I couldn't pinpoint with what.
"You don't have to use that language," one of the husband's said looking at her distastefully.
"She didn't have to but she did anyway and what are you going to do about it" a man with a deep voice spoke from behind her causing everyone to leave. He was tall and looked Latin. His features were angular and seemed to have a natural scowling look to his face.
"I'm sorry about that they aren't the best creatures walking this earth calling themselves human, my name's Nia," the woman said to us and nudged her partner.
"Sorry I'm Oscar, you didn't seem to need our help you looked like you were about to Hulk out over there," he said to us with a soft laugh.
"Thank you for the help," Marco and I said at the same time.
"That was cute," Nia said with a smile at both of us.
"How far along are you guys," she asked.
"Seven months," I answered.
"Oh you're so small I'm six months along," she said rubbing her protruding stomach.
"Do you know what your having," she asked us casually. He seemed really laid back and chill and let his woman take the lead.
"Yeah three boys," Marco said proudly before I could speak.
"Wow triplets, I'm having a girl and already stressed I couldn't imagine pushing three out of me," she said looking tired.
"I'm not too happy about it either," I laughed genuinely for the first time in two days.
"What do you do," Oscar asked me.
"I work for the FBI as a Linguist at the moment but hopefully when I graduate I'll be a Computational Linguist with an emphasis on Software development," Marco said.
"Cool have a few friends I'm that field, I'm an Interaction Designer for Google," he responded.
"Oh cool," I responded for no reason.
"Oh I'm Marco by the way," he said remembering we hadn't introduced ourselves.
"How about you and Marco partner with us when the lady comes in she's always late," Nia suggested to me as the other two men were having their own conversation.
We walked to the back of the room talking to each other for ten more minutes till an older lady dressed in bohemian garb walked in with her gray hair pulled into a messy chignon with monarch butterfly pins stuck in it randomly. She introduced herself calling herself Fairy then got us started with a talk about the birthing process that didn't apply to Elm and I but we listened and took notes with the little notepad the lady provided anyway. She told us a few pain coping strategies and we went over exercises. We listened intently on the ins and out of a Cesarean birth since that was our only birthing option. She then branched off into postpartum healing while passing out finger sandwiches that tasted amazing. She seemed to be hell-bent on making sure we were full before our departure. When she got done with postpartum she talked about breastfeeding and I got bored since we were going to be strictly formula or donation feeding. My nipples had grown puffy from the hormones but he didn't have milk ducts so it was just a painful annoyance for him and something for me to play with. I tuned back in when she talked about newborn hospital care and how to deal with illness.
Somehow along the way, Nia and I began talking and I found that I might have made a friend for the first time. It was an exciting new development that I would never openly thank Marco for because his ego would get too big to fit in the house.