0 comments

Mystery

Mila woke up snuggled comfortably with Tim under their comforter. When she tried to turn, the hold around her waist grew tighter. Tim pulled her closer and mumbled in her hair. Mila just cuddled into him and enjoyed the peace. When their alarm went off Tim groaned.

“Wake up, I need to get breakfast started.” Mila reminded Tim.

Tim kissed her forehead before letting her go. She kissed his lips before running to the bathroom. After doing her morning business she made her way out of their room. She passed by two doors and opened them before heading down stairs. Mila was still getting used to the new house. After years of Tim trying to convince her to move, she surprised him when she agreed without hesitation several months ago. Tim knew it had to be something special to change her mind. He was right, but instead of a single reason there was three.

Mila was push to quit her job due to her superiors trying to use her to get to Tim due to his high position in the business world. After she quit she volunteered in an orphanage. A set of triplets were brought in a bit after she started. They grew attached to Mila and she felt the same with them. In the end they both got what they wanted and more. They were fully moved in by the time that the adoptions went through. The triplets also started school a few weeks ago.

She made her way to the kitchen and started breakfast. She put all the muffins, baked pancakes, and croissants into the oven. After she cleaned her mess, she moved to the dining room where back packs littered the table. She grabbed the biggest and heaviest. It reminded her of her high school days.

Evan was in the middle of his high school career. He makes Mila laugh with how similar is to his father at his age. Ethan lacked any kind of restraint and control. The only reason he didn’t get into more trouble than he did was due to Mila. Evan proved to be smarter than Ethan in that aspect and Mila was relieved. That didn’t stop Mila from making sure he always had contraceptives in his bag, just in case.

She checked his binders and signed what she needed to, as well as look over his homework. Evan was smart when he put his mind to it, he was just naturally lazy. Mila was the same at his age and just gave him nudges to keep up with his things.

She moves onto to a pile of three bags. They were all plastic bags with doodles all over them. They belonged to the triplets. Dima wanted to draw on her bag so they got a plastic white backup for her to put her own designs. Everett and Winston got the same bag and asked Dima to draw on their bags as well.

Everett and Winston are identical twins and are over protective of Dima. They even get jealous of Evan when Dima spends more time with him. They are sweet angels as long as they are together. If you try to separate them, hell hath no fury. It was difficult for them to get used to school. Normally they avoid siblings being in the same class, but they changed for the worst when they were separated. Everett has an insanely short fuse, while Winston gets sad and anxious, and Dima loses the determination to do anything. On the first day of school, Mila was called in because Everett threw a block at his classmate, Winston was either twitching or crying, and Dima refused to cooperate with her class. It took them the rest of the week to figure out that they just needed each other.

When they put them in the same class all the problems were resolved without the surfacing of new ones. They didn’t shut the rest of their class out. They were actually pretty popular with the rest of the class. Their new friends never took priority over their siblings though. Mila could see a difference in their behaviors. The social interactions seemed to make them happier and that’s all Mila wanted for them. They were so quiet when she first met them. It took them a while to get used to her, Evan, and Tim. Tim especially since he was busy all the time and was barely home.

Mila looked over their notes from their teachers for the previous day and looked over their homework. They would help each other with their homework since each excelled in different things. Though most of the time, Mila knew they just did each other’s homework most of the time.

When the food was done the entire lower level of the house was engulfed by the delicious scent of breakfast. Mila heard heavy footsteps running around the second floor. Mila stopped to listen. Then she could hear laughter from upstairs. She smiled as she made her way to the stairs. The closer she got to the triplets’ room, the louder the laughter got. She could here five people laughing.

When she got to the door way she saw the twins clawing for their bed they shared with Tim and Evan trying to separate them from their bed. Evan was tickling Dima who had her arms and legs wrapped around a bed post. Tim was wrestling with Everett and Winston who put up a struggle for their father. Mila shook her head at their antics. When Winston was about to jump on Tim once again, she scooped him up in the middle of his lunge.

“Mommy wins!” Mila cries out in victory.

“Mommy always wins!” Winston whines.

“Cuz Mommy is the best.” Tim says as he scoops up Everett.

“I see you are only causing problems again. I guess I can make Daddy take all of the muffins and pancakes I made into work since I only cook for my good little munchkins.

The triplets freeze and shoot their glances to Mila.

“Every, Didi! We need to go shower!” Winston yells from Mila’s arms.

Everett vigorously nods his head and jumps off of Tim to get to Winston who Mila lowers to the ground. Dima gets down from clinging to the bed post.

“Eva, can you turn the water on for me?” Dima asked Evan.

Evan accepted and threw her over his shoulder as she giggled and squealed. They all made their way out of the room. Tim pulls Mila between his legs as he sits on the bed.

“You just have a way with kids don’t you?” He peeked up at Mila.

Mila just shrugged and bent down to kiss Tim. Tim pulled the rest of her body down which made Mila giggle.

“If you don’t hurry Eva might just eat all the croissants.” Mila mentions.

Tim stills and looks at Mila with wide eyes. He knew Evan would wipe out the croissants. His stomach seemed bottomless. He would instantly burn off any food he ate, no matter the amount. Mila got off of him and watched Tim run into their bathrooms after another few kisses.

After breakfast was completely wiped out everybody got ready to leave. Evan left with Tim who drops him to school before going into work. Mila and the triplets watched the car leave as they started their walk to the bus stop in their neighborhood. The triplets walk in front of her while holding hands. She sends them off with kisses as they board the bus then heads home to do some house chores.

It was lunch time. Mila and Tim were having lunch in the parking lot of Tim’s building parking lot. Mila’s phone goes off as they ate. It was Evan’s ringtone.

“Why is Eva calling?” Tim asks.

Mila shrugs as she answers the call.

“What did you do?” Mila answers.

Evan nervously laughs. Mila and Tim are confused. Normally he answers with a joke of doing something stupid. This was new and they had a bad feeling about this.

“Do you think you can talk Vera into taking a pregnancy test?” Evan finally asks.

Tim and Mila sigh.

“This is why we make sure you have a box in your bag since you started high school.” Tim shook his head with a chuckle.

“I forgot to put some in my wallet and phone case.” Evan admitted.

“Well in your defense your father never carried any to begin with.” Mila admitted.

When she looked at Tim he was distracted by his phone ringing. He stepped out of the car to answer the call.

“Pick up a pack of tests and bring her by the house. You guys are still on lunch right?” She asked.

“Yeah. Okay I’ll bring her over. Thanks mom. Love you.” Evan thanked.

“No problem. Love you too.” She said before ending the call.

Tim gets back into the car before releasing a sigh.

“Is everything okay?” Mila inquired.

“That was the trips’ teacher. Apparently, somebody took Dima’s food which made her snatch it back and smash it into his face. Then when someone pulled her hair Everett tackled the kid and Winston cheered.” He explained.

Mila couldn’t help but laugh. Their kids were something else. That didn’t make them love them any less, but it sure gave Mila a good laugh when she least expected. Tim had a meeting in a bit so he couldn’t help Mila, but he knew she would have it all under control. He promised to be home right after his meeting.

When Mila picked up the triplets they were covered in food. Winston and Everett were trying fix her hair. Winston was fully invested with each movement of his fingers while Everett made it obvious that he just gave up and is just playing with her hair. Dima didn’t seem to mind.

When they got home Evan was sitting on the couch with Vera. She looked nervous as she played with their intertwined fingers.

The triplets entered with their raincoats on. They were walking oddly due to all the dye and sticky food on their bodies. They wanted a bath.

“Mama, my hair is sticking together.” Dima whined.

“I smell like the bin with all the leftovers.” Winston says as he scrunches his nose.

“I feel something weird near my bum.” Everett admits.

He wiggles his butt and a few chicken nuggets drop through his pant legs. The triplets look at the chicken nuggets on the floor.

“Ooh, I’m a chicken!” He exclaims before clucking like a chicken.

Dima and Winston go along with him and they cluck and walk around like chicken. Mila just shakes her head with a smile. She has seen worse.

“Okay come on you little chickadees.” Evan called as he got up from the couch. “Let’s get to the garage the shake the rest of the extra food off of you guys? Anything else in your pants I should be worried about?”

“He laid some grapes on the way to the car.” Dima recalled.

“Well aren’t you a busy Mama? Come on we don’t need anymore food babies falling out her.” Evan chuckled as he walked to the garage with the rest of the kids.

Mila took a seat next to an anxious Vera.

“So are you experiencing symptoms?” Mila asked.

“I feel a bit sick and sleepy, it could be anything but we had a mishap. This has never happened so I am a bit scared.” Vera admitted.

Mila leaned back into the couch.

“It gets like that.” Mila chuckles as she remembers her past incidents. “You will never know if you are worrying about nothing, unless you take a test.” Mila adds.

Vera takes in a shaky breath. Mila puts a reassuring hand on Vera’s shoulder. She offers the young girl comfort through her touch. After a bit, Vera was still scared to take the test.

“I went through the same thing in high school.” Mila shared.

Vera turned to her in surprise. She always saw Mila as a very responsible and orderly person.

“It was with Evan’s bio father.” Mila continued. “He talked me into this dumb party, someone spiked my drink. It made me crave sexual interaction and Ethan helped me through it. He was a bit tipsy so he wasn’t that reliable.” Mila laughed a bit as she recalled.

Vera showed more interest in the story. She leaned forward in her seat.

“The next day I knew I needed to take a test, but the idea terrified me. Then Ethan made a suggestion. There were two tests in the pack so he would take the other while I took mine. It didn’t make sense, but it worked as a reminder that I was not alone.” Mila smiled as she remembered the silly suggestion.

“So he took one too?” Vera asked with a giggle.

“Yup, he did. He even added to the eccentrics by stressing about the possibility about being pregnant. ‘What am I gonna do if it’s ugly? What if I can’t love it?’ was some of the things he asked.” Mila quoted with a shake of her head.

“Is that how he reacted when he heard about Ethan?” Vera asked.

“More like ‘What if I accidentally kill the kid?’ ‘What if I forget to feed it?’ ‘What if I drop them?’” Mila quoted again.

Vera grinned at the thought. She never met Ethan but she heard stories from both Mila and Evan to make her wish that she did.

“What I was trying to get at is that I will take the other one while you take your test.” Mila offered.

Vera felt better with her offer. It did feel like a reminder that she wasn’t alone. She knew she wasn’t alone with Evan, but having Mila was even more comforting.

They agreed to take the tests together and went to their different bathrooms. While they waited for the results they watched the triplets run around the living room. They were freshly cleaned and acting like chickens and kangaroos because of all the food they found in their pockets and hair. Everett had more than just grapes and chicken nuggets in his underwear. There was also a half eaten pizza stuck to his leg. Winston also had dunkaroo cookies and frosting stuck to his back with juice and milk soaked socks and shoes. Dima had noodles that fell apart in her hair, Evan needed to help her pick it out in the bath.

It took Vera’s mind off of the situation. She ended up falling asleep as she leaned on Mila’s shoulder. Then the door opened to Tim walking in take out bags.

“So what exactly are we celebrating?” Tim asked as he entered.

“Daddy!” The triplets called out as they ran to him.

Tim puts the bags down before getting tackled by the three. Evan dusts himself after getting up from being trampled by the triplets. Mila then remembers the tests. She wakes Vera with a soft shake.

Vera goes with Evan to the bathroom to check the test.

“So how did you convince her?” Tim asked.

“I did what Ethan did, took the other test.” Mila smiled.

She then met Tim to give him a kiss before heading to the stairs. She had to go throw away the test she took.

Tim went back to unpacking the food. The triplets took their seats at the dining table and helped with setting the table. As Tim gave Winston his food, Vera and Evan come into the dining room. They both had relieved faces.

“I hope you both learned a lesson.” Tim teased.

“I am putting a box in every spot I can.” Evan concluded.

“Me too.” Vera added.

They shared a laugh as they got seated for lunch. Mila made her way downstairs and joined them. She kissed Tim before taking a seat next to him. She ate her lunch as the triplets talk about the fight at school.

“So the only one who became a parent today was Everett?” Tim joked as the rest laughed.

“Then I am a proud one, they are all tasty food.” Everett chimed in with food in his mouth.

The rest of the room laughed at his comment. They enjoyed their lunch as they talked about anything they could think of. Mila rested her hand on her pocket. Holding something that meant there was more to come for their little yet growing family, a positive pregnancy test.

May 21, 2020 07:01

You must sign up or log in to submit a comment.

0 comments

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in the Reedsy Book Editor. 100% free.