The Prodigal
Sixty
ANDY—FATHER ANDREW—INVITED US to be married in the chapel we had decorated. Kate and I agreed that the chapel would only take away from the focus of our vows. It was a gallery—nothing more. With Melody’s banners welcoming us to the Unitarian church, it was like home.
As I watched Kate approach on Oke’s arm, I was filled with awe at the way events turned out. Next to Kate stood Wendy. Melody and Lissa were on my right. Beyond Wendy on the left were Rainbow and Sunday. Willow stood next to Lissa. We were quite the wedding party. Melody held my hand through the whole service until I turned to profess my love for my Kitten.
Allison and Beth sang a duet and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. I couldn’t recite a single word from the ceremony. When I looked to my right, I saw Melody, gripping my hand and Lissa bearing my child. On my left Kate’s smile had never wavered and lit up the room. Wendy looked so happy she was bouncing.
“Katarina Mirela Holsinger, I love you. You make our family complete and whole. I will always love you, always care for you, always support you. You bring light to my life.”
“Tony Harmon Ames, I love you. You are my rock and my anchor. With you I will build my home. Your happiness will be my happiness, your family mine. You are the light of my life.”
“In as much as Tony and Kate have expressed their love to each other and have accepted each other as their legal spouse, I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the minister said. I brushed my lips across Kate’s feeling the first tentative kiss of my new wife. She gasped a little and I remembered what Melody had said about her probably coming during the ceremony. We turned to face the congregation.
“Friends and family, before we release Tony and Kate to the celebration, there is more. This is a wedding ceremony because we simply don’t have rituals that are big enough to encompass the truth of what you see in front of you. In case you are new to this family,” the minister said, “Kate has chosen to add Ames to her name and will be known as Katarina Mirela Holsinger Ames, just as Melody and Lissa added Ames as their last name when they were married last year. But this is also an important time for another member of their family who we bless this day.” Kate and I guided Wendy to the center. We moved close to her on one side as Lissa and Melody moved close on the other. When we were in position the minister continued. “Wendy Martin is here to show her love and join this family as well. We’re breaking new ground here as there is no official marriage ceremony for five people. Melody, Lissa, Tony, and Kate, do you accept and welcome Wendy as equal in your partnership, marriage, and family and promise to cherish and trust her from this moment forward?”
“We do.”
“And Wendy, do you accept Melody, Lissa, Kate, and Tony as your family, as an equal in partnership and marriage, and promise to cherish and trust each member of this family from this moment forward?”
“Now and forever,” Wendy answered.
“Inasmuch as you have all expressed your intent and it has been witnessed by this congregation of friends and family, I am happy to announce that Wendy will also be changing her last name to Ames today. That means I can now introduce you to the entire Ames family—Tony, Kate, Wendy, Melody, and Lissa. You may kiss your spouses.”
Chaos ensued as we each tried to kiss each of our partners in every combination possible as the congregation laughed and applauded. The piano started playing and we turned for the recessional when we heard a gasp and looked over to see Lissa falling to the floor supported by Willow and Melody.
“Oh, my God! She’s here!” Lissa gasped. A wet puddle spread across the floor beneath her. Of course, little peapod. Choose the climax of our wedding to be born. I scooped up Lissa in my arms and carried her down the aisle with Kate, Melody, and Wendy running behind and beside me. Our limo was waiting as we all five piled in. The driver was prepared with the coordinates of the birth center already in the GPS.
Having interrupted everything, and making us leave the entire wedding celebration in the church, Lissa still had seven hours of labor to endure before a little head pushed out between the lips that I loved to fuck. The midwife nurse brought the little girl up to lie on Lissa’s tummy as we all oohed and aahed over her.
“I told you she was a girl,” I said proudly.
“Ohhh!” Lissa moaned. “You said twins!”
The second head was crowning and in a few seconds our daughter’s little brother lay beside his sister on Lissa’s tummy.
“Oh, my god! We have twins! How long have you known?”
“About three months,” Melody laughed. “It was so hard not to tell.”
“I love you little girl. I love you little boy,” I said as I kissed each of them on the head. “I’m a daddy… and a husband… on the same day!”
“And a master,” a voice whispered in my ear. We’d just gone from a family of seven to a family of nine.
“Clara Danielle Ames, I love you,” I said, kissing my daughter on the head while she slept against my bare chest. “Sean David Ames, I love you,” I repeated to my son lying beside his sister. They didn’t answer. They scarcely stirred in their sleep. But I was so flooded and overwhelmed by the absolute love and trust my children had in me that my eyes kept tearing up in spite of myself. I was afraid I’d wake them up with the noise of my beating heart.
Lissa, of course, had had both children at her breast as soon as the umbilical cords stopped pulsing and were cut. Melody was naked in bed beside our wife cuddling her children as they nursed on Lissa. As soon as the vitals had been checked and approved, the nurse midwife left with strict instructions that we were to have half an hour alone with our children. As the door closed, all our shirts came off and we hugged Melody and Lissa. We just had to have skin-to-skin contact. When the babies had nursed, they both cuddled against Melody’s bosom and giggled before having their first burp. Well, I thought it was a giggle. What do I know? Before they were completely asleep, the two naked babies were cradled against my chest as I held them and cooed them to sleep. In a moment—all too soon—my beautiful babies would be nestled between the bare breasts of Kate and Wendy.
“I will never, ever forget my wedding night,” Kate giggled as she held Clara against her. “I became a wife and a mommy in the same day. Oh, I think someone is hungry again. I’m sorry baby girl. There’s only one mommy that’s got that equipment working,” she said as she placed our daughter in the cradle of Lissa’s arm. Clara was a natural sucker and attached immediately to Lissa’s nipple without ever waking up.
“That feels so incredible,” Lissa moaned.
“Little brother wants some, too,” Wendy said bringing Sean to Lissa’s other side. “He certainly has his father’s love of breasts! Let go now, sweetie.” There was an audible pop as my son was pried from Wendy and attached to his mother’s other breast. “You’re right, though. That does feel incredible.”
I don’t remember everything and I’m sure I’ve gotten things out of order. Sandra and Jade followed us to the birth center taking pictures and making notes. Sandra had casual clothes for us. I’m sure I’ll find out later what else happened. When we reopened the door, Kate, Wendy, and I had our shirts back on, but Melody stayed naked in bed with her wife as they cuddled our children. All our parents—in a family our size there were a lot of people we included in that category and every one of them considered themselves to be Clara’s and Sean’s grandparents—were allowed in to visit and exclaim over the babies. We couldn’t bring everyone else in who had been with us, but we promised another big party in a week or two. Oke and Gypsy were a little tentative about being allowed in the room, but Kate took their hands and brought them to the bed.
“Momma and Papa, I’d like you to meet your first grandchildren, Clara and Sean.” Both grinned as they leaned in to touch the babies.
“Grandma Gypsy and Grandpa Oke are here to see you, little Ames,” Lissa said. Gypsy and Oke looked at each other as their new titles soaked in. Gypsy shuffled her cards and held them out to Lissa who drew the two of hearts.
“I think that says everything,” Gypsy said.
Eventually we shooed people out of the room. Melody stayed in bed with Lissa. The babies lay on their moms all night long.
The bed was too narrow for all of us. There was no way we could fit three more people in it. We pushed a couple of chairs together and I laid back in one with my feet up on the other. Kate and Wendy crawled on top of me and we all went to sleep. In the middle of the night, I found myself making love with Kate as Wendy kissed us and whispered her love to us.
“I love you, Mrs. Ames,” I whispered.
“I love you, too,” answered four voices.
I looked up to see Melody and Lissa smiling at us with the babies back at Lissa’s breast. It was not long before Wendy was sliding onto me as Kate whispered her encouragement. And eventually, I played mattress as Kate and Wendy pleasured each other on top of me. I don’t think those birthing room chairs had ever seen such joy as on our wedding night.
I think back, sometimes, on the dark, depressed, overwhelmed eighteen-year-old that entered PCAD four years ago. He was sure he had ruined his life and he wanted to go home. It’s not like I never get depressed anymore. I’m twenty-two years old and I have four children including Damon and Drew, and one on the way. I think it’s only one. I have art commissions and shows coming up that will take me away from home and the most intense love I have ever known. I have art prints to approve in Georgia and frescoes to paint in Kentucky. Overwhelmed? I have four wives, for God’s sake!
I stood back from the canvas. I’d hardly applied paint to a canvas since I started the whole damned chapel project. But there I was in the studio, late at night scraping big gobs of paint straight from the cans and tubes onto the canvas. What I saw were two pair of eyes. A chubby cheek. The smooth round breasts almost obscured by noses. Those eyes. They looked up with a kind of perfection that I couldn’t comprehend. They looked at their mother and it was more than love or adoration. She was their whole universe. The babies had grown inside her. My children had been nurtured in her womb and nursed by the mother who bore them. It was love and peace and trust all rolled into one beautiful expression.
I turned to clean my palette and knives. Kate wrapped me in her arms. I lay my head on her shoulder and deeply inhaled her fragrance. She pulled me down into my recliner and pushed her lips against my ear, whispering words that were beyond words. My Tiger crawled into my lap and I could feel the deep growl that let me know she was contented. Melody leaned over the back of the chair and kissed my forehead. And in front of me, the mother of my first child—children—approached holding them in her arms. As Wendy slid from my lap to my side, Lissa settled into my lap with those sleeping angels.
As I drifted between waking and sleep, surrounded by so much love, my only coherent thought was, “I need a bigger chair.”
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