The Greatest Gift

𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 19 𝘹 𝘉𝘦𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘵

Enjoy the sad ambiance :)

Sadie and Conor would not leave Jaison's side.

And poor Jaison couldn't escape them. When he went to the bathroom, they sat right outside the door and waited for him. When Jaison tried to be by himself, and he went to his room to sit at his computer, Conor climbed onto his lap and Sadie climbed onto his bed.

The twins had never been like this before. Before mom and dad died, they were all over the place during the day, playing with their toys and playing outside and playing pretend. Now they didn't do any of that. Sadie carried her pink teddy around with her and occasionally her American Girl doll, but she never put her mermaid or princess costumes on anymore, and she wouldn't make pretend meals for her dolls and plushies.

Conor just didn't play anymore. Sadie at least changed her American Girl doll's clothes, as she was doing currently on Jaison's bed, but Conor just wouldn't play. It was like the world had lost all of its color and excitement in his eyes.

It made me want to cry. Little boys weren't supposed to be like this.

I knocked on Jaison's door and went into his room. I crouched next to Jaison's chair, where Conor was on his lap.

"Hey, buddy; you ok?" I asked tenderly. "You wanna come play?"

Conor shook his head and buried his face in Jaison's chest.

"How about we read a book?" I said. "Wanna read The Cat in the Hat?"

Conor hesitated... then nodded and slid off Jaison's lap, and clung to me.

"Sadie, you wanna read The Cat in the Hat?" I said.

Sadie shook her head and Velcroed on her doll's shirt.

"You sure?"

She nodded.

I picked up Conor and went to the living room. I grabbed Pete the Cat from the bookshelf and sat down on the couch with him on my lap. Conor snuggled up close to me.

I kissed his head, then opened the book.

"The Cat in the Hat," I said. I opened the book and skipped to the first page.

"The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house. It was a cold..."

Conor didn't answer.

I sighed. "It was a cold, cold, wet day."

I paused for a minute to let Conor look at the picture and then let him skip the page. "I sat there with Sally. We sat there, we two. And I said, 'How I wish we had something to do!' " I read. "Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball. So we sat in the house..."

I waited. Conor didn't say anything.

"We did nothing at all," I sighed.

Dang. This was getting depressing.

I skipped the page. "So all we could do was to sit, sit, sit, sit," I read. "And we did not like it. Not one little bit." I skipped the page. Conor put his thumb in his mouth.

I groaned. "Not you, too," he said. I pulled his thumb out of his mouth. "You aren't a baby anymore, honey."

Conor mumbled something unintelligible.

"Hm?" I asked sweetly.

"N'thing," he mumbled.

I furrowed my eyebrows. Jeez, I wonder where he learned to say that.

I shook my head. "And then something went bump!" I read. I made an exaggerated gasp. "How that bump made us jump!"

"WAAAAAHHH!"

Just then I jumped. That was Sadie.

I set Conor on the couch with the book and rushed upstairs and into Jaison's room.

Sadie was still sitting on the bed, but she was holding her doll's hairbrush and crying hysterically. Jaison was frantically trying to soothe her.

"Cupcake, what's wrong?" he cried. "Why are you crying, hon?"

"M-m-my d-dolly," she sputtered. She wailed.

I scooped her into my arms and held her close, rocking her back and froth and rubbing her back in soothing motions.

"Shhhh," I murmured. "He can't help you if he doesn't know what's wrong, lovey."

Sadie sniffed a few times, and her breathing hitched as she struggled to calm down.

"M-m-my d-dolly," she sniffed, holding out the hairbrush. "H-her h-hair is c-coming o-out!" She let out a sob.

Ugh, my stupid heart was breaking. I wiped her tears away with my thumb.

Jaison took the hairbrush and looked at it. Then he took the doll and looked at it.

"Honey, I think that just happens with these dolls," he said. "Your hair comes out when we brush your hair, right? And your hair grows right back."

He held up the doll and stroked her wiry red hair. "Your dolly—erm, what's her name?"

"Betty," she said seriously.

"Betty will be just fine," Jaison said. "It'll be A-OK."

Sadie's breathing hitched. "O-Ok." She took her doll back and hugged her tight, looking down.

She leaned into me. "I wanna read The Cat with you and Conor now," she said.

I smiled. "Good!" I said happily, and very relieved.

I picked her up and went downstairs. When we went into the living room, Conor was lying on the couch snuggled in a blanket like a burrito. He stared into space.

I couldn't help but crack a grin. "How did you end up like that?"

"Shay helped me," Conor whispered.

I sat down on the couch and set Sadie down on the other side of me so that there was a twin on each side, and they could both see the pictures. Conor sat up and snuggled his burrito self into my chest.

I wrapped my arms around them both and squeezed lovingly, then opened the book and cleared my throat.

" 'I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny. But we can have lots of good fun that is funny!' "

Conor shook his head. "Not fun right now," he whispered quietly.

"I'm sad," Sadie mumbled in agreement.

All of a sudden my throat clogged up and my eyes brimmed. I tossed aside the book and pulled the twins onto my lap. I hugged them hard and didn't let go.

Tears made my eyelids wet and my breaths shuddered. Shayne peeped his head into the room. His face filled with concern. I could see the question in his eyes. I shook my head.

I'm not okay.

I closed my eyes and buried my nose in the twins' white blonde hair, breathing in the scent of berry-scented shampoo.

I choked on tears.

Sadie put her hand on my cheek. She gulped. "D-don't cry, Bennet," she said. "I d-don't like it when you cry." Her lip trembled.

Good lord. She'd called me Bennet. What had happened to my babies?