CHRISTMAS 1990
Okay. The table was
done. It was set for one, two, three,
four, five, six…
Wait a sec, there should be seven.
Had he missed one? Surely he had
counted them out properly. He’d got
seven sets of cutlery out, hadn’t he? So
where was the seventh? It couldn’t have
just walked, could it? It had to be
there. It had to… One,
two three, four, five, six… seven.
There it was. It was okay after
all.
Right.
The table was all set.
Though there were only six chairs.
Mental note, bring chair down from bedroom. Okay, then.
Decorations were up. The tree was
standing proudly in the corner. The
cards all looked great on the walls. The
dog was in his basket… no wait. No, he
wasn’t. Where?...
Where?...
“Guess who I’ve just found trying to get into my kitchen again?”
Murdock sighed in relief as Billy came skidding safely across the
room and took refuge in his basket. The
poor dog had a look on its face that Murdock recognised
all too well. The ‘but I’m innocent’
look. If he hadn’t known any better, he would
have thought the dog had been taking lessons from Face.
Grinning, he looked up at his wife. His wife. He still couldn’t get used to that. She was his, he was hers. After all that time. And she looked beautiful. The festive red jumper added a hint of colour to her complexion and did little to conceal her
beautiful, swollen shape.
“You’re giving me that look again,” she laughed slightly, a blush
slowly crossing her cheeks.
He blinked as if brought out of some kind of trance.
“That’s because I can’t believe just how beautiful you look,” he
grinned, moving across the room so he could place a soft kiss on her
cheek. It had been a while since he had
been able to hug her properly, her pregnancy having seen to that.
“And you’re such a romantic,” she smiled. “But don’t worry about today with the meal
and things. Everything will be alright.”
“Worry? Who me?” he asked,
his eyes wide.
“Yes, you who’s been rushing back and forth making sure that
everything is ready,” she laughed.
He smiled and pretended to be making a close inspection of her
jumper. “I just want everything to be
perfect. You know, our first Christmas
as husband and wife. And with everyone
else coming. And next year we’ll have
Junior…”
Kelly rolled her eyes, taking his hand away from her jumper. “Don’t even think about Junior as a name,” she
reminded.
Murdock pouted. “My pa
always called me Junior and look how well I turned out.”
Kelly just looked at him.
“Anyway,” she continued, “we can’t call both of them ‘Junior’.”
“Double Trouble then,” Murdock joked, before wrapping his arms
loosely around his wife’s back.
“Seriously, I just want everything to go right.”
“It’ll be fine,” Kelly said softly, leaning in to place a soft
kiss on his lips. “You’ll see. Now, go get that chair
before your friends arrive.”
“Don’t I get another kiss first?” he asked, running his hands
gently up and down her back.
She pulled away, laughing. “That’s exactly how I ended up in this condition
in the first place.”
“Well, I can’t help having such a beautiful wife, now, can I?”
He grinned as he got another kiss.
“Chair, now,” she said making sure to retreat out of his arm
reach. “Your friends will be here any
minute.”
There was a knock on the door.
“Guess that’s them,” Murdock said, and spinning, skipped his way
to the door and flung it open. “Hannibal,
Maggie, welcome to our humble abode.”
“Merry Christmas, Murdock,” Maggie smiled, pulling him down for a
hug. “Here, we brought pie. Kelly around?”
“I’m here,” Kelly said, moving to join Murdock by the door. “I see you brought pie.”
“Yeah, apple. Murdock told us how you’re craving apples,” Maggie
said with a hug. “How’s it going?”
“Better,” Kelly admitted. “And
I went for another scan.”
“So, was I right?”
“You were right,” Kelly said with a smile. “As usual. They’re due in March.”
“They?”
Murdock grinned with a shrug.
“Double Trouble,” he replied as if that explained it all.
“So, twins?”
Murdock nodded. “Yeah, we
found out last week. Maggie thought
Kelly was a little bigger than should be expected, so we went back for another
scan. Maggie was right. The scan missed it the first time because
one’s hidden behind the other.”
“Do you have to wait till their born to find out if they’re
identical?”
“Nope. According to the Docs the babies are almost
certainly identical. Something
about sharing one sac or something.”
Murdock looked down and nodded.
“Funny really.
I always thought nothing could be more frightening than ‘
“I don’t known,” Murdock admitted, sitting down with a sigh. “I, uh, I’m not sure I know what to do. My own father, well, you know, he was never
there and all that. I don’t want to be
like that, like him. But I’m afraid I
might repeat his mistakes.”
“You’re not going to repeat his mistakes, Murdock.”
“But I don’t know that.
For all I know, I’m gonna end up in another
mental institute. And
then what? I won’t be there and
I’ll be just like him. I’ll… I’ll…”
Nodding thoughtfully,
Smiling slightly, Murdock nodded.
“Thanks,
Murdock watched curiously as
“Had I known it were twins I would have brought two.”
Murdock chuckled, rolling the cigar between his fingers. “Thanks,
*-*-*
