Just a warning, this chapter is pretty image-heavy. So if your internet sucks (like mine), give it a minute to load.

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1.3 – Livin' Life


Donny, he helped in a lot of ways, just by being thuhre. It still hurt, but not as much when I could hold Donovan in my arms. He was warm, real, alive. An' mine. I don’t know if I was sick, but after he was added tuh our family, I started feelin’ better. I got back to cookin' an’ cleanin’ an’ cannin' thuh stuff from Bernard’s garden. Yesser, I was feelin’ better an’ better!

Donny was such a oddball! Dark green skin, big black eyes, an' no hair at all! But he were smart, I could see that. He reminded me a’ Chloe. But where Chloe had been painfully shy (still is), Donny was so friendly! Always willing to play with anyone, even Medea, though she’d get impatient an' start throwing blocks ‘round. Everybody loved him! Tommy was a lil’ shy at first, mostly curious why Donovan looked so different. Chloe though…I think she picked up how smart Donny was. I’d catch her reading med’cal journals tuh him! Of all thuh things! Yesser, Donny helped our family, just by being him.

Donny…I ne’er had tuh worry ‘bout him. Always healthy an’ happy. A mama’s dream.


Lucy weren’t near as strong as Donny or Medea. When thuhy were born, thuh doctors warned us that she wouldn’t see her first birthday. I worried for a long time, but Lucy surprised us all! She’s a fighter! Thuh twins’ an’ Donny an’ Shaye’s firs’ birthdays passed wif’out a hitch. An’ then their secon’…an’ third..an’ fourth! An’ Lucy just got stronger! Still weak lookin’, and still a bit thin, but she’s still here. I ne’er lost her.

As toddlers, all four o’ em ran me ragged!

Shaye, mine an’ Bernard’s firs’, wuz so precious! She’s such a good kid, but so ditzy! She were ferevuh fergettin’ what she were doin’. I’d find her outside suckin’ her thumb an’ sittin' in a dirty diaper cuz she’d ferget where the potty chair wuz!


Donny, wit’ his cute, funny accent, I dunno where he got it, I hardly had tuh teach him tuh talk, nor walk.


Right after him, Lucy was easily taught as well, bit slower, but she had tuh rest often.


Then…there were my Medea. She were stubborn an' easily frustrated, a true hot-head. Her first word wuz ‘ball’. Dear lord! Wuz I ever happy when she said it! It took months!


It got so’s I couln't get much rest! Days spent carin’ fer toddlers an’ nights spent lengthenin’ jeans. I knew Tommy wuz gonna be tall, jus’ like his momma, but Chloe wuz growin’ like a weed! I sure am glad that thuh older kids were always happy tuh help out when I needed a nap.


It were near Shaye’s birfday that Bernard got that las’ pro’tion and became a “Creatyah-Robut Cross-breeduh’”!


An’ then straight on up tuh “Mad Scientist”!


He looked mighty fine in that uniform!


Every’un got a bit older…


…An’ we finished thuh house.


Bernard finally retired.


An’ I got a surprise! Susan was back on Earth! Hallelujah!


She couldn’t buhlieve her son, lil’ Tommy, had become 16! Last we all saw her, the twins an’ Donny weren’t even born! She’d been gone a long time…10 years! I’d missed her somethin’ fierce. We all had.

Through it all, Bernard stayed true tuh me an’ I tuh him.


It seems like it was jus’ yestuhday that we moved tuh Sunset Valley. An’ then, all’a sudden, I had teenagers tuh cope wit’ and a empteh house at lunch. Bernard an’ I had gotten old. He wuz still a looker though!

Wit’ thuh kids all in school an’ not runnin’ me ragged, it were easier fer me an’ Bernard tuh have some quiet time tuhgether.


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Thanks for reading! ^_^