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

and Beyond and the Crystal store,” she said and everyone laughed. She giggled.
“Well, Nabisco I won’t have to operate but once a year so the other two will keep me busy,” she said and Harry nodded.
“Okay, we’ll give you those,” he said and Jake nodded. She grinned. Jackson laughed.
“Okay, then I’ll take the candy factory, Ethan Allen and Borders,” he said and Emma frowned.
“Then I want two stores, can I have the gay bookstore?” she asked. Harry giggled.
“You’re not gay,” he said. She shrugged.
“It should stay in the family,” she said. All the kids looked confused.
“Why wouldn’t it stay in the family?” Cassie asked. She looked at Harry.
“Well, aren’t you going to give some of the stores to your other kids, the ones you made with all the women?” Emma asked and he grinned and looked at Jake who grinned. Adam laughed.
“How in the world did you know that, Emma?” Jake asked. She shrugged.
“Because I know how generous Dad is, he wouldn’t give us stores and not give his brothers and sisters, dad’s brothers and sisters and his biological children stores,” she said wisely and Harry giggled.
“You’re right, darling, as soon as you children pick out the stores that you want, Jake and I are giving out the rest of the stores, except for Macys, Sports World and the Jeep Dealership to the rest of the kids that you’ve named,” he told them. They all laughed. Fran giggled.
“You’ve always been generous, Harry, I guess you can’t help it,” she stated and he shrugged.
The kids picked their stores and Cassie decided she only wanted Bed, Bath and Beyond and Jackson decided he only wanted Ethan Allen and the gay bookstore along with their factories. Harry sent out an email to all of the kids with a list of stores that were available and arranged a meeting at his house and divided them up. Everyone was surprised and extremely happy and assured him and Jake that they had free shopping for the rest of their lives in their stores. When the town found out what they had done they were astonished. Carl, whose son Victor had gotten the Home Depot was very happy.
“Harry, I can’t tell you how happy Victor is and how touched I am by your generosity, you didn’t have to do this,” he gushed and Harry shrugged.
“Jake and I had a lot of stores and they’re my kids too, biologically and it’s a small town, Carl, we all live together and we’re so close, it’s the least I could do, anyway I’ve got plenty of stores,” he confessed and Carl nodded.
“Well, now all you’ve got left is Macys and that’s a great store and Jake has his Sports World and you can have free shopping at all of our stores, mine and Jenna’s, anything you need, buddy,” he offered and they shook hands. Harry laughed as he walked away. Carl had finally gotten his Home Depot in the family, he was glad he had made the man happy, that’s why he had selected Victor for that store, he knew it would make Carl happy.


The following year was forty-two sixty-eight and they had their twenty year anniversary of their wake-up and arrival on the planet and they planned a big celebration and party. Harry brought out some of the whiskey and other alcohol that he had made in the barrels and everyone gasped at how delicious it was and how wonderful they would never run out. David Marshall, whose liquor store was empty complained and suggested that Harry should share it with him but no one listened to him.
“You own a liquor store, David, and I know you have the recipes for most of the liquor you sell, why don’t you make your own liquor?” Harry suggested at the town meeting. David snorted.
“I don’t know how to make whiskey and even if I could figure it out, you have to age it in an oak barrel and I don’t know how to make barrels,” he snapped. Harry shrugged.
“You can find out how to make barrels on the computer, that’s where I looked up how to make my barrels,” he told him. Gloria stood up.
“I don’t see why you just can’t share some of your liquor with us, you have a lot of it,” she said. Everyone looked at her like she was crazy. Kate stood up.
“Gloria, you and you husband are idiots, now sit down and stop whining. If you want some liquor to sell in your liquor store, you’re going to have to learn how to make it yourself, for God’s sake, no one is going to give you some,” she told her. Gloria made a face and sat down. David glared at Kate. Everyone grinned.
All of the kids stared at the pictures of their parents and grandparents with awe and wonder, they had really slept for a hundred years and traveled millions of miles away from other humans and Harry found them this wonderful planet to live on. It was a miracle!
Then Harry took the stage looking very handsome in his black tux and all of his kids looked so proud of him and he began his tale.
“I was having the most wonderful dream,” he began and all of the original sixty-seven survivors stood up and clapped. All the kids were astonished. Then Harry bowed and continued. “I was running through a field of high yellow-green grass and I came to the shore of a beautiful lake of sparking blue crystal water and before me were six high cliffs with six cascading waterfalls.”
He told the whole story and the kids were all entranced and they laughed at some parts and they cried at others and the girls all felt it was so romantic him and Jake falling in love at first sight. Everyone got up and told their story about first waking up and realizing they had been asleep for a hundred and three years and the accident and children realized that maybe their parents were cooler than they had thought. To go through something like that and survive was pretty damned cool. And to come to a new planet where they had nothing and build this whole town and houses and survive that first winter; that was pretty cool.
Everyone stood and cheered and clapped when the story was over and a few people cried and everyone hugged one another and then dinner was served. When Harry got back to his table Jake grabbed him for a big kiss.
“That was great, babe, you did a great job,” he said and kissed him. All of his kids beamed at him. Kate came over to hug him.
“You did a terrific job, Henry,” she gushed and they hugged.
“Thanks, Mom,” he said and kissed her. Everyone was hugging and kissing everyone that night. It was a wonderful celebration.
At the next town meeting Harry announced something that had been bugging him for years.
“And what would that be, Harry?” Max asked him dourly.
“We have this nice town, but hasn’t anyone realized that we have no sidewalks, no traffic lights and so road signs of any kind?” he said and they all looked at one another and laughed.
“We didn’t realize that, Harry, we should fix that right away,” Carl stood up and declared. Everyone agreed.
So the first thing they did after spring planting was get together and build sidewalks and put up traffic lights, benches along the sidewalks for shoppers and road signs. It made the town look so much prettier and Harry had this unique device that painted on the sidewalk neat designs like flowers and rainbows and everyone had to have one by their stores.
Then Harry emailed them one morning and told them all to meet him at Toys R Us for a little surprise and when they got there they were astonished to find he had put up a large mural on the side of the building of the Roosevelt flying in space on one side. On the back side was a list of every crew member and on the other side was the planet Eden with the continent Eden in view, they were fantastic.
“My God, Henry, these are incredible, it must have taken you days to put these up,” his mother Kate gushed. All of his kids nodded.
“It took him two weeks but we helped,” Emma told them. Everyone was impressed.
This was the year Emma and Jackson had to make their decision about moving out. Their sixteen year-old cousins Stevie, Stephanie, May and Martin all wanted to share houses with them.
“I’ll share with Stephanie and May and you’ll share with the two boys,” Emma said and Jackson nodded so they made a pro and con list. Emma wrote them down.
“Okay, pro, we’ll be able to come and go as we please, no more curfew,” she wrote down and they both shrugged. They had a pretty reasonable curfew now and after dinner they didn’t like to go out much anyway.
“Okay, con, we’d have to do our own laundry,” she wrote it down and they both frowned. No more Dad or Fran to drop off clean little piles of freshly folded clothes on their beds; that would suck.
“Okay, another con, we’d have to do all the cooking, cleaning and housework and you know the twins, they’re both pigs, Martin and May are neat, but Stevie and Stephanie are totally gross and disgusting and we’d be picking up after them constantly,” she said and wrote it down. Jackson made a face.
“That wouldn’t be bad if they kept it in their own room but I’ve seen their crap all over Aunt Kathleen’s living room, their house is nowhere as clean as our house,” he said and they both frowned. They liked their clean, neat house, even if all the kids made fun of it. It was nice to come home to a tidy place where you knew where everything was and you didn’t have to play search for the view-screen remote like you did at Aunt Kathleen’s where it was always getting lost.
“We’d also have to make our own yogurt, butter, cheese, ice cream and do all of our own food prep. I know we help Dad and Fran now and we know how to do it, but if we move out, we’d have to do it all and I don’t think the twins know how to do it. Martin does but they don’t,” Emma informed him. Jackson frowned.
“They’re really not ready to move out,” he said and she nodded. Then she gasped.
“Oh, my God, Jackson, green milk, you’re going to have to drink green milk until your name comes up on the lottery for a white cow,” she informed him and he shook his head.
“Well, that settles it, I’m not moving out until I get a white cow, there’s no way I’m drinking green milk or green cheese or green anything, I’m a white milk man,” he declared and she giggled.
“If you want to be a healer you have to drink green milk,” Emma reminded him. He sighed.
“There are plenty of healers in this town, they don’t need me,” he said firmly and it was decided, they would wait until they were eighteen to move out or until he got a white cow. They told the other kids who were slightly relieved and then they went into the study to tell