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

of a bother and after all, Cassie was Harry’s too so he should have half custody.
In January they took the whole family to Hawaii for the month but they had to leave in February because it was a baby year, the last one and everyone was having babies. Jewel was fascinated with live births but after watching women give birth she declared eggs were the correct way to go. It was horrific being forced to go through the actual birth process.
Eighteen babies were born in February, eight girls and ten boys but the young people were all waiting until December to have their children so that they could have them when Harry had his third. All of the adults were happy that their duty was over but they were all thrilled with their lovely families. None of them would have had four children if it wasn’t for the Bittermen Legacy Report, they would have stopped at one or two but when they looked at the third and fourth precious child, they were so filled with joy they were thankful they had to have four. Even Max couldn’t imagine his life without his precious little Diana or the new baby they named Rebecca after his grandmother.


Spring came and everyone on Farms One, Two and Three now had the actual size that their fields were going to be and they all gave a fake groan at the size and then laughed. They teased one another about that first year when they had been so afraid of the hard work and only planted half of the little field that Harry had given them. They would laugh at that field now and do it in an hour they all boasted. Now their oldest children rode on the tractors with them and they beamed with pride to show them how to plow a field. They were all experienced farmers and proud of it.
Farm Four still had some children to go before their field size was determined but they seemed resigned, at least the adults seemed that way. The children all laughed. But Jan and Joy with their ten children planned couldn’t say a word. Their house was so crowded that Harry had to give them another house and they attached it to their house to give them more room and more bedrooms. It was a weird looking house when they finished but at least they had plenty of room.
The younger kids were all old enough for pee-wee baseball so they formed leagues and had games and it was a lot of fun. All the farms competed against one another and it was all for fun and no one scored points and some kids played for both teams because Farm Four had more players so when they played against someone, some of their kids went over to the other side.
The summer was filled with games and parks and Harry took the Elizabeth and built two new roads, one a two hundred mile coastal highway up the coast north of town and a hundred miles south of town. The other road led a hundred miles to the mountains where they could go skiing in the winter and camping in the summer and they decided to build log cabins up by a beautiful lake for the summer when they could camp out when the kids got a little older.
Everyone was short of packaged goods so Harry brought out thirty bins and all the kids got together and sorted through them. He did it in a big field and only invited the people he liked like Zach and Roger and Jan plus the kids. He didn’t invite Violet or Susie who didn’t know it was going on until all the people turned up missing and they didn’t know where they had gone. Fran watched the little ones with Wendy so Jake could help and they had a lot of fun and found tons of soda and goodies.
“I get all the cappuccino,” Harry announced and Kathleen made a face.
“And why is that, oh, great master?” she teased. He grinned.
“Because I have the only cappuccino machine on the planet,” he informed her and she made a face.
“Doesn’t Macy’s have one?” she asked and he shook his head.
“You would think a big store like that would have one but they must have not ordered them,” he said. All the kids groaned.
“How about Best Buy, surely they have one,” Jan said and Harry once again shook his head.
“Nope, maybe one of the other people brought one with them, but we’d have to go through all one thousand houses to look,” he said and they all laughed.
“Well, I’m not doing that,” Charlie said and they all agreed that was way too much work. So Harry got all the cappuccino.
When they go all that they wanted and it was a lot of good stuff. Harry took the twelve bins to the center and let everyone else grab all they wanted. There were two bins of coffee and tea to divide up and they did this and this made everyone happy. They had the delicious coffee from Savannah but sometimes instant coffee was a God-send.
Adam was crawling at six months, rushing around the dining room like a little speed demon and bumping into everything. His brother and sister learned early to get out of his way or get knocked down. They didn’t like this one little bit and fussed when he did it.
“Well, next time, Jackson, move out of his way, you saw him coming,” Harry said and picked up his screaming son with a chuckle. Jake laughed and kissed him.
“He got knocked down again?” he asked and Harry nodded.
“Adam is a devil, he just races across the floor and doesn’t pay attention until he hits something and that stops him,” he said and they both laughed.
“You’ve got to move faster, Son,” Jake told his eldest and kissed him. Jackson shook his head.
“Adam bad,” he said. Jake laughed.
“Oh, sweetie, Adam’s just crawling, he’ll get better when he’s walking like you, you’re a big boy, just walk out of his way next time,” he told him. Jackson buried his head in his father’s neck. Jake grinned and hugged him. Emma giggled and threw a block at her little brother. Harry laughed because it was a cloth block and wouldn’t hurt.
“See, she’s defended him, what a little tiger she is,” he said with admiration. “Don’t throw stuff at your brother, that’s not nice,” he admonished her. She pouted. Adam crawled back in and plowed right into her causing her to fall over. She cried and pulled his hair which caused him to cry. Harry laughed and picked them both up.
“Maybe we should have spaced them ten years apart,” he said with a big grin and Jake laughed.
“This was your idea, babe, I just live here,” he teased. Harry threw a block at him which caused all the kids to laugh. Then it was time for yogurt and juice and a nap and the men rushed off to take a nap of their own. Fran sighed when she saw them rush for the bedroom.
“I don’t know where they find the energy,” she muttered to herself as she settled on the couch for some view-screen which she knew she’d fall asleep watching.
June came and the weather got hotter and Jewel decided one day to go shopping for sundresses but when she dropped off Cassie at Harry’s she found everyone was busy and no one could go with her. Harry gave her the key-card to get into Macy’s and told her to take one of the little girls, maybe Amy and Tammy but not Violet or Susie because they were banned. She smiled and kissed him and went in search of a shopping companion.
When she knocked on the door of the girl’s house Susie came to the door.
“Hi, Jewel, what’s up?” she asked. Jewel smiled at her, she hadn’t a clue as to which one this was, she wasn’t good with names or faces.
“I’m looking for Amy and Tammy, Harry gave me the card for Macy’s and I want to take them shopping with me for summer dresses, are you Amy or Tammy?” she asked cheerfully. Before Susie could answer, Violet opened the door wider.
“She’s Tammy, I’m Amy and we’d love to go shopping with you, wouldn’t we Tammy?” she said just as cheerful. Susie grinned.
“That would be fun,” she piped in and they rushed to Jewel’s car before the other two girls could come home and spoil their deception.
All the way to Macy’s the girls had a good time, laughing and talking nice. They got there and Jewel opened the store and they gushed about the great stuff. Then they picked out two bags of dresses and pant suits and shoes to match and hats and even a few pieces of nice jewelry and makeup and perfume. They had a lovely time until they were in the car coming home but then Violet couldn’t resist being Violet.
“So when you barf up an egg, does that mean you’re a bird brain?” she teased her. Jewel frowned.
“What does this mean, bird brained?” she asked. Both girls laughed.
“Like a bird, you know birds lay eggs like you do,” Violet sneered. Jewel frowned.
“I don’t lay eggs, they are formed in a pouch in my stomach,” she told them. Violet giggled.
“I watched the baby being born and I really expected her to come out with tiny claws and a beak,” she said and Susie giggled. Jewel was offended.
“I am not a bird, why should my daughter have a beak, you are being mean. Why are you saying such mean things?” she asked. Violet shrugged.
“It’s just weird, laying eggs to have babies, its not normal, and throwing the eggs out the window, that’s murder, your species are murderers,” she told her. Jewel parked the car in front of their house and the two women got out with their bags.
“Bye, bird brain,” Violet teased her. Jewel frowned and drove to Harry’s.
“Those two girls are mean, I don’t ever want to take them shopping again,” Jewel said to Harry when he opened the door. He looked confused.
“Tammy and Amy were mean to you?” he asked. She burst into tears and he hugged her.
“They called me bird brain and said my species were murderers,” she sobbed. He got angry, when she had settled down; he called Tammy on his phone.
“What the hell has gotten into you and Amy, calling Jewel bird brain after she took you shopping?” he asked and Tammy looked at him funny.
“Harry, calm down, Jewel didn’t take Amy and me shopping and we didn’t call her any names,” she told him. He looked confused. Then he called Jewel to the phone and showed her Tammy. She looked confused.
“That is not Tammy, Tammy had blonde hair and blue eyes,” she said and Harry sighed.
“I’m sorry, Tammy, it seems that Susie and Violet have played a joke on Jewel and pretended to be you and Amy to get into Macy’s,” he said. Tammy got mad.
“Those two bitches, I swear I’m going tear their hair out,” she snapped. He laughed.
“Just inform them that I hope they enjoyed their little shopping trip because it’s the last clothes they’ll ever see from Macy’s and any of my stores because now Susie is