The Brothers Everhart - Pres Ch. 15 Sofia and Dana

Sofia Giallelis' baby boy was born after a grueling 36 hour labor, Dana Conadera was by her side as well as her sisters, Thalia and Anneliese and their friend, Jerri. Dana had even taken La Maze classes with her.

She named the child Dion Prescott Everhart, having put Pres down as the father on the birth certificate. She wanted her son to take his father's surname even if Pres knew nothing of his existence. The baby was named after Sofia's late father, Dionysios Giallelis, and of course Pres. Eventually she would tell him about his son, but she wasn't sure how or when.

Dana was turning out to be invaluable when it came to maintaining her home and especially with caring for Dion. He seemed to be a natural with the infant and is affection was apparent.

"I thought you were going to let Pres know about Dion. When did you plan to do that, doll?" Dana brought up one day as they had supper together.

Sofia hedged,

"I want to make sure that he's gone forward with his life. You know, married that girl and then he won't feel like he should offer to...well...offer to be with me or marry me."

"Or help you financially?" Dana said cynically, "Which is what he should do in any case."

"He can do what he wants, I just don't want him to feel obligated in any other way."

"He never married her, you know. In fact, I checked and she doesn't work as a nanny anymore, as far as I can tell she left town."

Sofia immediately asked,

"How did you find that out?"

Dana shrugged,

"Jerri told me when she brought in that piece of crap Chevy of hers for a tuneup."

"How long ago was that?" Sofia gave him a stern look.

"Couple months ago," now it was Dana's turn to feel cornered, "I know I should have mentioned it, but that was right around the time you had Dion and things were kind of crazy here."

Sofia dropped the subject. After supper they played video games and the tension that had built up during the meal dissipated. As a rule Sofia and Dana were very comfortable with each other.

That evening Sofia went shopping for more baby clothes. Once she was at Goth's Apparel she decided she decided to pick up some new outfits for herself too, now that she had her figure back. On her way out she was unaware that she was seen by Pres. He followed her discreetly for a ways, he certainly knew how to shadow someone, of course. It wouldn't have mattered; Sofia was oblivious; just strolling along and humming. To his mind she'd never had any sense of self-preservation and it looked as thought that wasn't going to change. He didn't tail her all the way home; it wasn't necessary. He already knew where her house was, and had for some time.

He'd not seen Sofia since their last night together at her mobile home a little over a year ago. She looked more beautiful than ever to Pres and very unattainable. He had found out early on that Dana lived with her and he assumed it was a romantic liaison.

Pres did not believe there was any hope for a relationship with her, but he just didn't seem to be able to get interested in any other woman. He hadn't put much effort forth to "get out there and meet someone" as his brother Parker kept insisting he do. The truth was he felt if he couldn't have Sofia he didn't want anyone. A ticket to nowhere.

Sofia had grouped her salon customers together into two long days, Thursday and Friday, and one short one on Saturday. Baby Dion was with Sofia then all day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Thursday and Friday she worked until 8 pm and Dion went to daycare from 8 am to 5 pm then Dana picked the baby up when  he got off work at 5 pm and took care of him until Sofia got home. On Saturday he watched him all day until she finished work at 4 pm. Sometimes her sister Thalia would come for an evening on Thursday or Friday to spell Dana while he took time for himself or did the grocery shopping. Sundays were a free day and, in mild weather, Dana usually took Sofia and the baby to the park, or they stayed home and grilled hamburgers and the baby played in the playpen on the patio.

Things were getting stressful for Dana. Once the baby moved from a cradle in Sofia's room to a crib in his own little room Dana had moved downstairs. He slept on the sofa rather than a cot in the nursery.

One Friday night he was working on the desktop in the upstairs hall when Sofia put Dion to bed and then opted for a long bubble bath to unwind. Dana could hear her in the tub not far from where he was working as she splashed and made sighing sounds. His imagination was all too active as he gritted his teeth and tried to concentrate on the online advanced mechanics class he was taking.

When Sofia finished her bath she moved to her bedroom and put on pajamas. it had been a long day and it was late, but her stomach was telling her to eat something light. Dana had made lasagna and said he'd nuke her a polate but she didn't want that much, just a bowl of cereal. Dana joined her because he wanted to discuss something with her; something he'd been meaning to talk to her about for some time.

"Oh, sweetie," Sofia said, "if it's something serious can it wait until morning? I'm so darned tired my butt is dragging behind me. As soon as I finish my Cheerios I'm going upstairs to bed."

Dana's face fell, but then he smiled at her,

"Sure, doll, tomorrow at breakfast."

Sofia turned and headed up the spiral staircase and Dana's eyes were drawn to her full, curvy butt which, in his opinion, was not dragging behind at all, but bounced nice and perky.

He dragged his hand over his eyes and down his face as he muttered to himself.

But when morning came Sofia was up extra early and in a hurry. She scarcely touched the poached eggs he'd made her.

"I'm going to be late! I'l be back at the usual time. Then we can talk, Dana, I promise."

All that day Dana imagined how it would be when he confessed his love and asked Sofia to marry him. Way down deep he knew it would never happen that way. He hoped she'd be touched and thrilled and then say she loved him; that he'd made her forget all about the jerk detective. Actually, he'd always liked Pres but now that he stood between Sofia and him, Dana thought of him as competition. He loved her son, Dion, and he would tell her that he wanted to adopt him. That he would always take care of both of them. He caught himself daydreaming of holding her in his arms at last.

Of course, Dana was right; that was not how it came down. The reality was that he ended up sitting on the sofa and she was on the adjacent chair.

Gathering up his courage he told Sofia he couldn't go on this way. She dropped her eyes, twisting her hands feeling ashamed,

"I know it's not fair with only the sofa to sleep on and no privacy. You've been more than kind to stay here helping me."

Dana shook his head,

"No, that's not it. I'm glad I could be here for you. But I can't keep staying here as a friend when I'm in love with you, Sofia."

Down deep she had known he was falling for her, but she had pushed it out of mind because she couldn't deal with it.

"Doll, I want to marry you and take care of you and Dion, adopt him. You know I love him, too."

Tears filled Sofia's eyes,

"Oh, Dana, I can't marry you, sweetie. You're a beautiful man and you deserve happines. I love you, but, I'm not in love with you. I wish that I could be, but I guess I'm just empty inside; at least when it comes to men. And Dion takes all of my energy, all of my interest."

Dana scowled,

"It's him, isn't it? You're not empty inside--you're bursting with love for him. Maybe you would get over him if you told him about the baby. Make Pres decide one way or another. Otherwise you're always going to be waiting."

 "I don't know if I can do that yet."

Dana looked defeated,

"Then I need to leave--find a place of my own. But I don't want to leave you in the lurch with Dion. I'll only stay a couple more days but you need to figure out how you'll handle his care when you work late once I'm gone."

"Dana..." Sofia began in a soft voice and he looked at her intently for a moment, but then she trailed off.

He stood up and said in a wooden voice,

"It's late but I'm going for a walk. I'll be back in twenty minutes and I'll be tired."

She knew he meant that the conversation was over and that he hoped she'd be in bed when he came home so he could make up the sofa and go to sleep.

"Okay," she said, "I'm going to bed now anyway."

As Sofia headed upstairs it was on her conscience that she'd hurt him deeply and she hated it. She didn't sleep well that night at all.

Next blog update: The Brothers Everhart - Pres Ch. 16 Sofia On Her Own

Harvey and Lori Ferguson Ch. 22 Jonesin' For A New Baby

Valrae's Journal

I'm sorry I haven't written in here since our vacation at Twikkii. When we got back it was still autumn and I was going to write about Gray and me working for Grandpa Shep in his garden and greenhouse. But then it was so busy at school, plus we were making posters and tissue-paper flowers in our class for the fall festival. And then it was Halloween and it was busy at our house during Thanksgiving, too, too. I had homework all the time and our house was so crowded at Christmas with all the aunts and uncles from both families and Nana and Poppa there. Those are all excuses, but they are true. Anyway, now it's summer.

Sometimes my brother Gray acts kind of like an absent-minded professor (I  love that old, old movie). He goes off alone and you can't think why. The other night when Mumma put supper on the table he grabbed his plate and went out on the side porch to eat where we keep our coloring books and other books. But it wasn't like he was coloring. He was just eating. I asked Daddy about it and he kind of smiled and said maybe Gray thought all of us were noisy and talked way too much at dinner. Mumma and I looked at each other because she and I are the main ones who talk a lot, except for Grandpa Shep; he's a close third.

Mamie said perhaps it was sensory overload. She's sort of quiet and tends to enjoy her alone time. Maybe Gray gets it from her.

Grandpa Shep yelled that sensory overload and too much talk and noise were the same thing. He didn't mean to shout but he is getting kind of deaf nowadays and sometimes gets grumpy because of it. Usually not when talking to kids, though.

I wrote in here before that my best friend in the world is Scarlett Caswell. Her mom and mine have also been best friends since they were babies. She got a baby sister a while ago and every time she talked about her I wished Mumma would have a baby, too. But, no. Anyway, Monique (that's her sister's name) had a birthday recently. Actually everyone calls her Monie. Now she is learning to walk and talk and I haven't seen her since she was a wee tiny baby.

All the time Scarlett talks about playing with Monie and taking her for walks in the stroller. Of course she also says how little Monie gets into Scarlett's doll house some times and grabs the little doll-people in there and bashes their heads together. I would put all my stuff up high on shelves if I got a baby sister or brother. I always tell Mumma and Daddy these things and that Scarlett's daddy Gareth plays with Monie a lot and Melanie rocks her to sleep still and isn't that sweet? Also Gareth and Melanie live with her parents and the grandparents help take care of Monie. Then I say wouldn't that be good if Mumma had a baby and Grandpa Shep and Mamie would help take care of her--or him? I tried it again last week and Daddy said that Mumma's bakery has only been open a year and it takes a lot of her time. Then he said they have to decide what to do about our house, like whether to build or just move to another place.

Mumma reminded me that Daddy and her were both twins and so probably they would have twins again. Two babies instead of one would keep them really busy.

All Gray did was mutter that there was no more room in the house. Thanks Gray.

But then Daddy and Mumma smiled at each other and Daddy said they'd have to think about it.

I usually hate it when parents say "we'll see" or "we'll think about it", but this time I decided to stay hopeful. 

Mumma did say she would take me and Gray over to the Caswells for a visit. Gray doesn't care one way or the other about babies but he just loves to see Scarlett's daddy Gareth. He is best friends with Daddy and they used to play basketball and football in high school and college. Anyway, Gareth doesn't have any boys so he always spends time with Gray when we're over there if he can. Daddy couldn't go with us because he was working. The spa was having a special going on over the weekend and it would be very busy. Mumma's bakery was closed on weekends.

I like Gareth, too, he's funny and he gets down on the floor and plays with Scarlett and helps her with her homework; sometimes he cheats and does a little bit of it for her (Scarlett told me that in secret because her mom doesn't know). He'll put Monie on the potty-chair and doesn't even care if he has to wipe up poo, either. Mumma said Daddy used to change our diapers and put us on the pot. When she said that Gray smacked his hand over his forehead like he could have had a V8, closed his eyes and yelled "TMI, TMI, TMI!" Mumma just laughed and Daddy kept reading the paper and pretending he was deaf. He does that a lot.

He is really a good daddy; he throws us around in the air and catches us, taught us to swim and carries us upstairs if we fall asleep in the car or on the sofa. He's very strong because he works out at his spa. But he's not so much on rolling around on the floor.

The day we went to Scarlett's house was a nice sunny one. Mumma went upstairs to play pool with Melanie. They did that all the time when they were teenagers I guess. But Gray went right to the pinball machine because Gareth had gone to the store and would be back later.

Melanie told me to go right on in to Scarlett's bedroom. Scarlett said let's make something with the blocks so we were doing that at the play station when Monie crawled in and joined us, starting to make a scribbly drawing with her crayons. Oh, she was so adorable! She has long black hair in a pony tail and bright sapphire blue eyes. I know what sapphires look like because Mumma has a sapphire and diamond ring Daddy gave her for Christmas. It used to be Mamie's ring from Grandpa Shep. I just wanted to grab her up and kiss her little fat cheeks, but I figured she'd better get to know me first 'cause like I said she was a baby the last time I came over. Mostly during the school year Scarlett and I see each other at school where we are in the same class with Mrs. Schmansky. It's in the summer that we visit more at each other's houses.

 

 
Gareth came home pretty soon and the first thing he did was grab Gray and they went out to the pool to play Marco Polo.

Meanwhile, Monie finished her little drawing and sat there looking at me. So I went over, real quietly, and said I would teach her to play patty-cake. She smiled real big and all the time we were playing she laughed like it was bubbles coming out of her. So cute.

 

Then Melanie came in to get Monie and take her to the den where she and Mumma had been talking. Mumma told me later that as soon as she thought Monie would let her she got down on the floor and played peek-a-boo with her. I could tell when Mumma talked about Monie that she also thought she was darling and I hoped that it would make the wheels in her head start turning.

Scarlett asked me if I wanted to go in the sprinkler and I was glad Mumma packed our swimsuits. Once we were outside screaming and laughing and I heard Gareth say to Gray why didn't he go over and terrorize me and Scarlett because he had to take a break to get stuff done indoors. Then he said all he asked was for Gray not to spill any blood. Uncle Gareth makes me laugh sometimes.

So Gray came over to have fun with us and he actually didn't even give us a hard time for once.

It was getting late so we all wanted to get in the pool for a while before Gray and I had to leave. It was dark before Mumma came to the back door and called us in. We'd been there all day but I still wished we could stay longer or come back again the very next day. I was happy that Mumma had seen Monie though; maybe I should expose her to every baby in the neighborhood so she'll get the idea?

Well, that's all I have to write about for now, but I promise I won't take so long to journal again.

I love you and you love me,

Valrae Diana Ferguson

Next blog update: The Brothers Everhart - Pres Ch. 15 Sofia and Dana