And Baby Makes...?

Chapter 52

I told Mom the whole story about Jill's seizure and how I helped her and everything.

"Samantha Joseph, I am incredibly proud of you. Despite how Jill has been treating you, you still took charge and helped her when she needed it.  I think you deserve the surprise waiting for you at home."

"Surprise?  What surprise?"  I asked.

"It won't be a surprise if I tell you, now will it?" Mom winked.

I rolled my eyes.

We got home and Mom and I walked inside.

"Hey there String Bean," a voice said. I looked up and there was Uncle Josh. I threw myself into his arms.

"I didn't know you were home today!" I said.

"Surprise!" He said, hugging me tightly.

I hugged him tightly back.

Then Dad came over and I threw my arms around him, too.

"I missed you so much!" I said.

"Missed you too, kiddo," he said, kissing the top of my head. "Did you grow more in three weeks?"

I smiled.

"SaSa!" Rosie cried from Mom's arms.

I took my baby sister from Mom and raspberried her tummy. Her laugh is musical.

"Rosie," I said. "Say Dada."

"SaSa."

"Dada."

"Mama," Rosie laughed.

"You bum. You're doing that on purpose! Look. Dada's sad," Dad stuck out his bottom lip and pretended to be sad. Rosie laughed.

"Come on Rosie posey. Say Dada," I smiled at her.

She looked over at Dad.

"Dada?" She tried. Dad looked up, smiled and grabbed Rosie and spun around.

"She said DADA!" He cried. Rosie laughed. When Dad stopped spinning, she looked at Uncle Josh.

"Dada?" She said pointing at Uncle Josh. We all broke down laughing.

"Come on, Sam. Let's get you a snack," Mom said, holding back her laugh.

I followed Mom in to the kitchen and Dad and Uncle Josh followed. Mom made me peanut butter and crackers, which is definitely my favourite after school snack.

Dad and Uncle Josh asked me about the past few weeks and about what was happening with Jill. I told them what had happened at school and Dad and Uncle Josh told me they were proud of me for putting Jill's needs before whatever it was that made her stop talking to me in the first place.

After my snack, we sat around talking while I worked on my science homework. It was all I had left to do since my gym teacher gave me the period off.

It was so amazing having Dad home and having Uncle Josh for a couple of days too! He said he was staying until Thursday to finish up some stuff with Dad before he went home to California, and Aunt Debby.

Mom's phone rang while we were sitting around and she frowned a little when she looked at the display. Then she got up and went into another room.  I couldn't hear what she was saying.

A little while later, she came back into the kitchen where we were still sitting.

"That was Erin," Mom said. "She told me to thank you again, Samantha, and that Jill is feeling better and will probably be back at school tomorrow.  And that she is very sorry for how she's treated you and wants not only to apologize, but she and Erin want to take you out for lunch tomorrow to thank you."

I looked at Mom and then Dad and Uncle Josh.

"They don't have to take me out for lunch. I did what needed to be done for someone who needed help."

"I think Jill feels really bad about how she was treating you the past couple weeks and Erin is not terribly happy with her behaviour either. Especially after what she said about Stanley," Mom said.

"What did she say about," Dad said, frowning. He couldn't get my birth father's name to come out of his mouth. He really hates Stanley.

"Nothing worth repeating," Mom said, frowning.

"Well, Sam, I told Erin it was up to you if you wanted to go for lunch tomorrow. And it is,"

I frowned.

"It seems unnecessary. I mean, what else was I supposed to do? Let her bash her head on the desks? Let everyone see she peed her pants?"

"A lesser person than you would have," Dad said.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It means that someone who didn't care about people as much as you do, would have let Jill have her seizure and let others take lead, or not. There are a lot of good people in the world, but there are also a lot of people who aren't so good. Some people will just let things play out as they do. But then there are people like you, who no matter what happens to them, always finds the good in people and helps them, even if they know that person wouldn't help them."

I frowned again.

"I'd like to think of it was me having a seizure at school, Jill would still have helped me," I said.

"Maybe she would have, maybe she wouldn't have.  Thankfully, we haven't needed to find out," Mom said.

"How," Uncle Josh said, getting up and coming around the table to hug me again. "With everything you've been through, do you still have this incredible ability to be so good?"

I shrugged.

"What good is it being a horrible person?  Stanley was a horrible person and look what happened to him. Adam wasn't exactly the best either and look what happened to him. I want to believe that somewhere deep inside Stanley liked me a little bit. I mean, he left me everything. So I guess somehow he didn't fully hate me. No matter how hard he tried to show he did.

And he didn't quite kill me with how he made me treat my diabetes. I don't know if that's so he couldn't be accused of doing it on purpose, but he still didn't."

"He did a lot of things that did a lot of damage to you in other ways. And yet, you don't exactly hate him, do you?" Mom asked.

"Not exactly. I think I feel more sorry for him. If I feel anything at all."