The Kids Grow Up by Trish Hanan (novel24 .TXT) 📖

about her second stomach where her egg was made and how the sperm entered through her mouth and fertilized the egg in the second stomach and the egg was made. She then ‘threw’ it up and the egg was put on a warm bed to grow until it hatched. They were all shocked but if that’s the way it was done in her species then that was the way it was done.
So Harry got a very clumsy blow-job and Jewel barfed up an egg roughly the size of a bird egg. It was light blue and speckled with little flecks of rainbow colors. They made a bed in her house on a double bed with electric blankets and she just left it there. It didn’t have to be guarded or watched or anything. DJ and Steve put cameras on it and a security field around it for protection just in case and they all watched it grow.
“When will it hatch?” Harry asked her. She grinned.
“When is your baby due?” Jewel asked.
“Around Christmas, in twenty-four weeks,” he replied. She nodded.
“About that time,” she told him. He smiled and hugged her.
“That’s nice, our children will be play mates,” he said. She was a little bit flakey but a nice girl.
Both Jackson and Emma were walking at eleven months and Harry, Jake and Fran were running around the house chasing them.
“What walking, these two are going from crawling to running,” Fran exclaimed and the boys laughed.
“Well, think of it this way, Frannie, they’re helping you keep your girlish figure,” Harry teased and she giggled as she picked up Jackson who was headed for the cellar stairs. Jake had gone down for something and left the door opened. Harry pushed it closed by waving his hand. Emma giggled and waved her hand and Harry laughed and kissed her. Jake came up with a case of root beer and a frown.
“This is the last of the soda, babe, we’re going to have to do a bin run, we’re almost out of everything,” he told him. Harry nodded and wagged a finger at him. Jake looked at him and then hit the side of his head.
“Oh, shit, did I forget to close the door again, babe, I’m sorry, I’ll try not to forget next time,” he apologized. He kissed Jackson. “I’m sorry son; your daddy is a feeble minded fool.” Harry laughed and walked over for a kiss of his own.
The next day all of the kids except for Susie and Violet were gathered in the field with Jan, Sarek, Roger and Zach and thirty filled bins and twelve empty bins and Harry was smiling.
“Okay, team, the objective is the same as usual, soda and liquor in those two bins, coffee and tea in those two and the other bins are marked so let’s get to work and have some fun,” he announced and everyone cheered. They went to work and after five hard hours they divided the spoils of their labor and everyone is happy.
The next day Harry sent an email to everyone announcing that coffee and tea was available at the Center as well as packaged goods and everyone rushed to the Center to grab what they can. Sarek and Myla are appalled at the greed of the humans who rushed into the bins snatching at everything they could without the order that the kids had shown the day before.
“Hey, how come there’s no soda or booze in these bins, you greedy kids have taken it all again like you always do and that’s not fair,” Linda shouted and everyone turned around to glare at Harry and Jake who just shrugged.
“All of us kids had to sort through thirty bins to bring this to all of you and there wasn’t that much soda to begin with so be grateful for what you have, we didn’t have to share this with you,” Harry told them calmly. Carl nodded.
“That’s right, all of this food belongs to Harry and he didn’t have to share any of it with us so we should be grateful he is,” he declared and while some people thought that, others thought he was a selfish pig for stealing all of the soda and booze.
“That little fagola takes all of the soda and we don’t get any, that’s not fair,” Max muttered to Charles who nodded.
“Even if it was only two or three cases a house, it would be better than not getting any,” he stated and Max agreed.
“When my father comes to rescue me he’ll take all of us back to Nextarus to live,” Jewel said one day in October as they were picking pumpkins in the field. Everyone grinned and nodded. They had all heard that story before; she had been saying that since they rescued her. Now all she did was tell them stories about the beautiful planet she lived on with its seven moons and two suns. Harry sighed and picked a very large pumpkin and put it on the air-cart. He looked over at Jake and grinned.
“I think this one’s a contender, honey,” he declared and everyone turned to eye the pumpkin. Steve whistled.
“That’s a big one, how much do you think it weighs?” he asked. They all had to stop working and watch Harry put it on the scale.
“Seventy-two pounds, oh, my, that is a big one, that’s bigger than last year by six pounds,” Jan said looking at the book. Everyone grinned. Then DJ laughed.
“You know what we ought to have this year,” he said and they all looked at him. “A pumpkin chunking contest,” he declared. All the boys laughed and nodded. Kate looked confused with some of the other women.
“What’s a pumpkin chunking contest?” she asked. DJ giggled.
“You take pumpkins and you throw them as far as you can, only you don’t actually throw them, you build machines that throw them and the one who builds the machine that throws them the farthest wins,” he explained.
“That sounds stupid,” she declared. All the men booed her.
“You sound like a chicken,” Harry informed her and she looked offended.
“Oh, now that sounded like a challenge to me,” Steve remarked. Barb giggled.
“That sounded like a challenge to me too,” she admitted. Kate sighed.
“I am not going to build a machine that throws pumpkins, Henry, that’s stupid,” she said firmly. Harry grinned.
“Brrwk, Brrwk, Mom; isn’t that what the chicken says?” he teased her. She looked angry.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, I have six children; when would I find time to build this machine?” she asked. Barb laughed.
“I’d watch them,” she offered. Harry laughed.
“And you can have anything you want from any of our fifty-four stores to work with,” he offered and she held out her hand.
“You’ve got a deal, young man,” Kate said and everyone hooted and hollered. Then she looked at Jake. “And Jake can’t help you, Henry,” she called out as they went back to work. He nodded and waved. Then he looked at his husband.
“I’ve got a 217 IQ and she’s worried about your help, she should be worried about that,” he said and Jake grinned.
“I am handy with a screwdriver, babe,” he reminded him. Harry frowned.
“Oh, yeah, shit I forgot that,” he said and Jake laughed.
All the farms were informed of the pumpkin chunking contest and Harry sent out an email informing everyone that any supplies needed by anyone including people banned from his stores would be made available as long as they were for the contest and only for the contest. Everyone got excited and went shopping.
“What the hell would we want to build a machine that tosses pumpkins in the air?” Gloria asked her husband. He giggled.
“It’ll be fun, darling, and think of everyone’s faces when we win,” he said with glee. She sighed and helped him design a machine.
Harry designed his machine using the old catapult and used two giant springs to launch it. The trick was in not letting the thing go all the way to the ground; that just sent your pumpkin straight to the ground. He used the springs to give it extra lifting power and pressurized it for extra zoom. He worked in the garage at night when the kids went to bed.
They waited until after the harvest was complete and then drove out to a big field to launch their pumpkins. Everyone kept their machines under cover until it was their turn at bat and then Doug took pictures and DJ took out his video camera to film the attempts. The failures were just as much fun as the successes and everyone had a great time. They started with Farm One and worked their way to the big event which was the official challenge between Harry and Kate which they left for the last. Max was the MC.
“Okay, this next machine was built by David and it looks like a catapult to me,” he announced and everyone looked excited. David giggled as he lifted a pumpkin and put in on a giant spoon looking thing that was pulled back. Then he pulled a lever and the spoon went off correctly, but it went right onto the ground in front of it taking the pumpkin with it and smashing it all to hell. Everyone broke into laughter. He flushed with anger.
“Well, you try to build a catapult, its hard,” he snapped and Steve and Charlie rolled his machine off the staging area. There were a couple of successes and a couple of failures like Carl’s cannon which blew the pumpkin all over everyone. Frank’s rubber band tossed the pumpkin nicely but not very far. Jan and Joy’s catapult worked fine but once again, not very far. Then it was time for the challenge and Kate went first.
“This contest was harder than it seemed, it seems that it is very difficult to toss a pumpkin,” she admitted and uncovered a giant cannon. Everyone laughed thinking of Carl’s cannon. She smiled and hooked up the water hose, she and Barb had dug a well the day before. Then everyone watched, very impressed as she filled the water cannon with water, pressurized it and shot the pumpkin out and it flew about a hundred feet before it smashed to the ground. Everyone cheered and clapped. She took a bow and gave Harry a triumphant grin. Harry grinned and uncovered his catapult.
“Oh, man, you’re never going to beat her with that,” Roger exclaimed. Harry shrugged and he picked up a larger pumpkin that she had and placed it on the bowl shaped arm and pulled it back. Then he took out the remote control and turned it on. Everyone looked at one another. It wasn’t your typical catapult, maybe he had a chance. Kate’s grin turned to a frown. Then Harry pressed the button and the pressurized springs sprang and the catapult went into action and the pumpkin sailed high into the sky.
“Look at that baby fly,” Max exclaimed. It sailed and then landed way beyond where Kate’s had landed. They rushed out to measure and it was a hundred and sixty-eight feet. Everyone cheered and clapped and Kate fumed.
“I’ll get you next year, you’re going down, little man,” she informed him.