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

they grinned at her.
“That’s an excellent idea, Cassie, thank you, darling,” Harry told her and Jake picked him up in his strong arms and carried him past her and she giggled.
“Jesus; you two never give it a rest do you?” she teased and the boys looked up and laughed.
“Oh, man, its not even bedtime,” Sean protested and they all laughed. Harry giggled and they shut the door.
“What about dinner?” Adam shouted. They didn’t hear anything. Danny laughed.
“Fran, what’s for dinner?” he shouted and Fran came to the foyer.
“I thought your dad was cooking tonight?” she asked. All the kids pointed to the hallway and laughed. She laughed. “I guess I’ll make some chicken, how does that grab you,” she asked. Sean got up and hugged her.
“That grabs me so good, I’ll help,” he declared and she laughed.
“I’ll accept that offer, come with me, Master Sean,” Fran said and they all laughed again. They ate and saved some in the oven for their dads who they knew would be hungry later.
They saw them a few days later at Church and they looked so happy Harry almost cried but then he remembered what his mothers had gone through with him and felt almost guilty. He turned to Jake and hugged him.
“Why do I want to ask my mother to forgive me?” he whispered and Jake laughed.
“I feel the same way babe, it must be guilt,” he reasoned and they both laughed. Everyone who was expecting to see them miserable and sad was disappointed, especially Max and Charles and they walked into the town meeting in a huff.
They were in the middle of the meeting and listening to Max and Charles complain about weeding and the inconvenience of the force fields when they heard a sharp whistling sound followed by a thump. Startled, Max shut up.
“What the hell was that?” he asked. Everyone stood up and rushed to the door and down the hallway. Kids who had been playing outside came rushing in.
“Things are falling from the sky,” Yvette Jackson shouted. They all rushed outside to see it was true; things were falling out of the sky.
“Holy crap, what is that?” Max shouted.
“Meteors,” Harry shouted. “We need to get away from here as fast as we can,” he shouted and everyone rushed to their cars. All of his kids got into his SUV and Jake drove.
“Where should we head, babe?” he asked. Harry looked up at the sky.
“They’re falling at a northeast trajectory so we should head south,” he told him, and then he pointed south. “That way, honey,” he said. “As fast as you can go.” He used his cell phone and called everyone to tell them to head south. And everyone listened and followed them. When they had gone fifty miles Harry decided that was safe enough and they pulled over and stopped. Everyone pulled over and got out of their cars to watch the sky show and worry about their houses.
“Bo and Gertie must be going insane,” Harry whispered to Jake who nodded. But as much as they loved their dogs, getting their kids out of danger was more important. All the kids began to cry thinking about their animals at home. Harry and Jake hugged them.
“Don’t worry, George and Martha will have sense enough to hide and get out of the way, in fact, I bet our houses are going to be just fine,” Harry told them. Emma nodded.
“I hope so, poor Jackson just got that white cow,” she sniffed. Cassie nodded and Jake hugged her. They waited until the storm ended and then drove home slowly; it was like everyone was scared to see the damage caused. They drove by the Community Center, Hospital and Vet Clinic first and a big meteor was sitting in the middle of the Vet Clinic and another in the middle of the parking lot of the Center and another in the field. Harry sighed.
“You know if we take that big one out of the field and line it with cement-steel, that would be perfect for our fish when we go fishing,” he said and everyone laughed.
“Good idea, Harry,” Brian said. They drove across the street where luckily all three buildings were undamaged.
“Oh, thank God,” Reverend Milo said and everyone nodded.
“Let’s check out Farm Two since it’s the first farm on the right,” Harry suggested and everyone agreed. They drove out of town and headed for Farm Two.
“Holy crap, look at my house,” Reverend Phillip said and everyone agreed that a big meteor in the middle on you house did not improve on it.
“Don’t worry, if we can’t fix it, I’ll give you another house,” Harry told him.
“Thanks, Harry,” Stuart said.
“I think we’ll need a new house too, Harry,” Doug remarked and everyone laughed. Lily sighed.
“I hope our cats got out,” she said and everyone got out of their cars and called for her cats. They found them hiding in the barn.
“All that whistling noise and crashing probably scared them,” Harry said and they all felt relief.
The group moved to Farm Four which was next directly across the road where a barn had been hit and logs were spewed all around. Dr. Jackson sighed.
“Shit, there went our white cow,” he snapped. Sissy sighed.
“Oh, well, we didn’t need a big house anymore with all the kids moved out,” Jan said when they saw the big meteor crashed in the middle of their house. Harry nodded. All of his kids were happy because all of their dogs barked and greeted them at the door and were very happy to see them. Cassie found both of her cats hiding in the closet and Harry left them all home with Jake as he continued surveying the damage.
Farm One was the most hit with three barns gone and four houses hit and they were pissed. Max and Charles lost both their houses and their barns and were very angry men because now they had to drink green milk again. Harry thought it was justice and there was no way they could blame this on him and laughed all the way home to tell Jake. Luckily for everyone none of the stores got hit because the storm didn’t go that far south.
Crops were destroyed of course but not all the fields were hit and it was summer time so they had plenty of time to plant enough to last for the winter. They spent the next month replacing houses and barns and with all the kids helping, it was a community affair and Harry had plenty of houses for people to choose from. He made sure none of the adults got houses with packaged food though; he didn’t like them that much. For the two farms that lost their wheat crops he took flour from the Nabisco factory and said everyone would have to plant an extra wheat field the following year to replace it or they wouldn’t have any cookies or crackers the next year. No one was happy with that but they did love their cookies and crackers so they all agreed to the deal. He stated quite firmly that any farm who didn’t contribute flour would not receive any products from the factory and they all knew he meant it.
Cassie and Adam moved out the next year and they didn’t have to wait for a white cow, both were just fine with green ones. Most of the kids were happy with green cows and green milk; it was their parents with the white milk hang-ups. And so far none of the kids had shown any healing or telekinesis abilities but Dr. George said it was early in their development considering that they were born on the planet and their bodies were in turned to its cycle. But both he and Harry expected them to develop both abilities as they got older.
Cassie moved out with her best friend Megan and the twins Shannon and Sharon got their own house. Adam moved out with CJ and Isaac and the three boys were reportedly swingers and their house filled with one party after another.
Losing two more children was just as hard for Harry and he wandered the house like he had before only this time no one snickered, he was much too sad. Fran was sad too and could be found weeping that she had lost her babies. The two of them helped each other through the crisis and prepared for the day when they lost two more. Jake felt the pain too and he and Harry clung to each other at night and felt sorry for their parents, now they knew what they had put them through.
Harry took his mothers some wild flowers he went all the way to Mykonos to pick for them. Jake took some to his mother. They both gushed over them. Kate eyed him suspiciously.
“Why did you bring us flowers, Henry, what’s wrong?” she asked and he laughed.
“Nothing’s wrong, Mom, I just wanted to bring you some flowers for your greenhouse. These are special, and we went all the way to Mykonos to get them for you two and Sissy,” he told her and Barb smiled.
“That’s awfully nice of you, Mouse, to go all the way to Mykonos to get us flowers,” she gushed. Kate still looked suspicious.
“Why would you and Jake go all the way to Mykonos just to get us flowers?” she wondered. Harry giggled.
“If you must know, they’re a peace offering,” he said and she gave him a triumphant smile. Barb shook her head.
“We haven’t had a fight, why would you give us a peace offering?” she asked. Harry kissed them both on the cheek.
“Jake and I feel terrible for all the pain we caused you years ago when we moved out and we wanted to ask your forgiveness,” he confessed and they both laughed.
“Oh, you’re feeling that pain now, we understand,” Kate said laughing. Harry laughed too.
“I know they’re eighteen and we were much younger, but its really hard letting them go,” he admitted and they both hugged him.
“Oh, Mouse, we understand,” Barb said and wiped her eyes.
“This house is so empty without our brats running around, now you know why we were so angry about you giving them those damned houses, but you were right, we couldn’t keep them at home if they were determined to move out,” she confessed. Kate nodded and sighed. She looked around the kitchen.
“This house is neater though,” she said and they all laughed.
They kept Ryan at home an extra year because he wanted to wait and share a house with his brother Sean so the two of them moved out together and that left only Danny at home. Harry was much better at losing his children and didn’t wander at all, but with nothing left to do, he began to look around for a hobby. All the people began to look around for hobbies.
“What are you looking at, babe?” Jake asked one April day in forty-two seventy-four, they had been on the planet now for twenty-six years and Harry was forty years old but really a hundred and forty-three. He looked up from his computer and grinned.
“Something interesting to build or do, now that all the kids are grown up and leaving