B is For Braxton

It wasn’t until I was much older, that I realized the true miracle of how my mother had gotten pregnant again. My mom and dad had signed up for an experimental drug, knowing that this could be their last chance to have another child. Little did they know what they would be signing up for. 

My mom started taking the drug, and a little over two months after I had dropped the subtle hints of wanting a sibling, I was sitting back at the table; with my parents on one side—and me on other.

 “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing you did.” My mother squeezed my hand. “But your father and I would like to share something with you.”

“Like what? “ I asked hopefully as my eyes lit up. “You’re getting me that puppy for my birthday?”

My father chuckled, rubbing his finger down my nose. “Even better than a puppy.”

“Then what?”

“It’s something that you’ve wanted for a long time.”

“Think carefully.” My father teased me, putting his hand in his pocket. After a few minutes of confusion, he pulled out a blue box from his pocket. “Okay—maybe this will help.”

I opened it with much anticipation. When I had finally unwrapped the white ribbon from the box, I pulled out a beautiful, metal bracelet. There was a huge smile plastered to my face already, as I fingered the metal chain. “It’s beautiful. Thank you. . .  thank you!” I hugged both of them, while wanting to run up to my room to call Nathalie. I was never taking this bracelet off. Never…PERIOD.

“There’s one more thing that you should know.” My mother offered wearily. I had the fleeting thought that my mother looked more tired than usual. However, I was also too caught up in my excitement to ask about it.

My father reached into the box, underneath the stuffing that the bracelet had been on, and handed me a small charm. It was two metal stick figures: one figure was bigger than the other. “Underneath were the words: big sister.

   

“Really?” Were the only words that I could muster for the first few minutes. “I’m going to be a big sister?” My parents both nodded, looking pleased. “When?”

“In about nine months.” 

I could feel myself brimming over the top with excitement. I was finally going to have a brother and sister. But nine months? I had already learned about the days of the weeks, months, and how many months there were in a year—and a year seemed like so long.

Remembering that moment, I remember telling Nathalie as well as everyone else in school about the fact that my mother was having a baby. I just didn’t expect that almost nine months later—the day before summer vacation, my mom would  go into labor.

I came home on the bus, like any other day. I walked home with my friends Nathalie, Michaela and her brother Joseph. We parted ways, half way up the street and I went inside. “Mom? Dad! I’m home.”  But no one answered. Instead, my grandma walked out of the kitchen, holding the dishtowel.

“GRANDMA!” I exclaimed, dropping my backpack and hugging her as tightly as I could. “Where’s mom?”

 “They left around noon, so they could make it to the hospital in time.”

“Did she have the baby?”

She looked at her watch thoughtfully. “It’s been about a half hour since your father called last, and he said that your mom was just about ready to have the baby. He said that he would call back as soon as he could to let us know that everything was okay.”

“I wonder what they named him.”

“Maybe they had to see him first, before they could name him.”

“What?” I asked, wrinkling my nose in confusion.

“When your mother was born—your grandfather and I had such a hard time trying to decide what to name her—Susan or Maggie.”

“How long did it take you to decide?”

“As soon as she came out—we both knew that your mother was a Susan.”

“Oh.”

“Go put your backpack up in your room, and we can make some cookies to eat after dinner.”

My eyes lit up. There was nothing more that I loved, than chocolate chip cookies—in all of its goodness. I just wished that we didn’t have to wait until after dinner to eat them. “Grandma?”

“Yes Ashlynn?”

“Do you think you’ll teach the baby to make chocolate chip cookies one day?”

“Maybe one day, we can.” She was gathering up all the ingredients, and I would never forget the sparkle in her eye. “You know—you’ll be able to teach your brother many things.”

She handed me the measuring spoon, and helped me scoop up the right amount of flour. Pretty soon, we started talking, while getting flour on our clothes and on our cheeks. We mixed all the ingredients and then grandma let me add in the chocolate chips. I also snuck a few—okay, five—but grandma didn’t seem to mind.

We took the circle shaped cutters and made quite of those, before putting them on the sheet. On the other sheet, we took rattle shaped cutters and cut them out. Those were going to be for mom, dad and the baby.

“Grandma?” I asked, my stomach fluttering as I cut out another cookie.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think that he’ll look like me?”

She busily kneaded into another ball of cookie dough. “He might. Not all siblings look alike, you know.” Chuckling at the expression on my face, she took the roller into hand. “For instance—my brother had blonde hair, just like my mother. I on the other hand, had brown hair like my father.”

“Did people know that you were siblings?”

“Yep, they did. Now hand me that cookie cutter, would you?”

I did, as it made a scraping noise on the counter. “I think the baby is going to like this.”

Grandma smiled back at me, as she quickly cut cookies and filled the sheet. “I do too.”

Of course we devoured most of the cookies—at least the round ones. The rest, we waited to give to mom and dad when they brought baby Braxton home from the hospital. Mom said that he weighed 8 lbs 6 oz, when he was born. And when I held him for the first time, I couldn’t help wonder if he would always be this squirmy.