Bativa and Ben Look Back
Quick Note From Tam: Hey, just wanted to let you know, I’m updating this site to the point I’m at and have been all along. I’m on second generation, all the children are teens. So, I’m updating this blog so I will be ready to immediately update after all the teens go to Unviersity! (If they can afford it, I’m not sure how that works.) Anyways, I hope the story doesn’t seem too disjointed or cheap because I’m doing it this way. I wanted to do it the right way, as it happens, but with all the kids, I just reallycan’t. I have to do it all at once, and fly you through like 20 years of their lives. It’ll be better than this next time. Anyways, enjoy and back to the story…
Yesterday was Bativa’s 54th birthday. She still couldn’t believe it. 54 years old? Why, it felt likes Ben and I just got married yesterday. She sighed. Relaxing on her same old bed, joints aching and creasing, she felt tired. Ben relaxed next to her. “You don’t have to sit next to me. I’m all old and gray, and you- you still look like you are 25 years old!” Bativa sighed.
Ben laughed. “Well, only a few more days till my 54th birthday, and I’ll be as aged as you. You can count on me having lots of wrinkles and a slouched posture, for sure.”
Smiling, Bativa propped up a pillow behind her back. “God, it seems like yesterday our whole lives happened. Geneva, Hamilton, Austria, Lausanne- all kids, babies even!”
Ben nodded. “Now teenagers! Bativa, can you believe we can actually afford to send them all to college? I mean, we are still living outside walls for the most part!”
Bativa bit her lip. “Maybe we shouldn’t have had so many children. I mean, we both reached our potentials in our careers, and we still are living in a piece of crap house?”
Ben gave his wife a look. “You know we could have done all those things. What would we have given up? Austria? Lausanne? Went to work more often? You never going on maternity leave so our kids would be unhealthy? Honest, sweetie, I wouldn’t do a damn thing different.”
She nodded at Benjamin. He was right. Bativa laughed. “God, remember when I was pregnant with Geneva– right after our marriage? God. We were such children.”
Nostalgia setting in, Ben nodded. “If this was a tv show, we’d definitely be flashing back now, with a blurry screen.”
As they sat relaxing, they made their lives blur and flash back to good times, not better times, but old times just the same.
“Goodness, remember when I was pregnant with Geneva? I was HUGE. I thought I was going to have twins with all that weight I was carrying around.”
“You always thought you were going to have twins just from eating too much spaghetti.”
“Well, I did eat a lot of spaghetti, you know what they say about spaghetti and twins. Plus, I was extremely large for all of my children’s pregnancies.”
“Regardless, never twins.”
“Thank god, Ben. What the hell would we have done? We barely could afford one crib when Geneva was born.”
“It turned out alright.”
“That it did. She was a goregous baby. I never thought she’d have my eyes. Plus, I’ve always wanted to name my first born after Geneva.”
“Well, we didn’t waste any time making little Hamilton.”
Bativa chuckled. “That we didn’t. You were such a good dad. I don’t know if I ever told you that, but I always appreciated you during my pregnancies.”
Ben snorted. “Like hell you did! You don’t seem to remember screaming at me during the deliveries, do you?”
Bativa cocked her head at her husband, smiling. “Well, that was during a little bit of pain.”
“Wasn’t Hamilton the sweetest toddler ever?” Bativa remembered his darling snuggles.
Ben nodded. “And smart too. He learned everything so fast. I’m so glad he’s going to university. I just hope he doesn’t major in anything too crazy. Or do poorly.”
“And then there were 5.”
Ben beamed. “Little Austria.”
Bativa shook her head in shock. “How did we ever manage? A child, a toddler, a baby… another on the way?”
“Lots of luck. Amazing they even turned out okay.”
“The years just flew…”
Ben nodded. “First they were just all children, then Geneva was a teen, Hamilton and Austria both children, Lausanne only a toddler.”
“And you with your big promotion to Minas Tirith’s Captain Hero.”
“And you! With your promotion to Hall of Famer of the Athletics Team?”
Bativa nodded.
“Hey, honey, what position were you even? And wait- what sport? I always was sort of confused on that issue…”
Bativa sshhed her husband. “Apparently some higher power out there doesn’t want us to know.”
They both looked at the sky simutaneously.
“Well, never mind. Let’s not get too philosophical.”
Bativa nodded her agreement.
“God, well, now they are all teens…”
Finishing her sentence for her, Ben added “and great ones. There’s Geneva, our eldest…”
“Our animated, talkative, playful…”
“Sometimes shy around the men…”
“Well, honey, she really isn’t so shy anymore, now that she’s got Orlando for a boyfriend.”
Bativa smiled. Now that she was old, she was fond of such things. “Her first kiss with him… you know, a girl always remembers her first kiss.”
Ben nodded. “There were many kisses with Orlando though.”
“She is gonna miss him when she goes to college.”
Bativa nodded. “Well, there will be other men… hot university men.”
Ben grimaced. “She’s my daughter, for god’s sake.”
“Well you have a great son too.”
Beaming with pride, Ben nodded. “Private school, top honors, held down a job, reached the top of the business career as a teen… who couldn’t be proud?’
“He’ll do great as a student at the university.”
“That he will be.”
“He even looks like you, Ben.”
“Poor kid got my nose, but your beautiful eyes.”
“Well, none of our other girls got your long beaker of a nose or my fat one for that matter. Somewhere in our line is good genetics.”
“And Austria… our little sweetheart.”
“I think she will be a heartbreaker.”
“That she will be.”
“And Lausanne- a little jealous at times of her older sisters… but she’ll find her own space in the world.”
Bativa nodded confidently. “I’m sure that college will be just the thing for her.”
“We’ll miss them in the house, that is for sure.”
The two frowned, yearning for the old days where kids were in the house, the patter of feet, dinners together, and even the fights between them all.
Ben got up and looked out the door at the “kids”.
He smiled slightly, staring at his beautiful children. “They are all studying hard to get those scholarships.”
Bativa tried not to cry. “They’ll be perfect for the unviersity. Have all those opportunities we never have.” Ben looked back at his wife on the bed. “Bativa! They’ll be great. And after university, I’m sure one of the kids will come back, marry, have grandkids.”
She nodded through a few tears. “We’ll finally have real kids in the house again.”
Ben chuckled. “I really wouldn’t call it a house, but we’ll work on that when the kids are gone.”
“A real home to offer the kids when they come back! Oh, Ben, it’ll be perfect.” Bativa looked happy. “We’ll be old farts finally in our own home.”
“Rocking away in rocking chairs till we die. I promise.”
The two cuddled together on the bed, looking forward to their future, the kids’ future, and the possibility of grandkids in their home.
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