The Good Life

Chapter 98

The next few days were blurry for the whole family. Only those that really needed to know knew about the impending surgery. They weren't sure who to tell and who not tell. Even though they had been through their fair share of ups and downs, this was a controlled chaos that could be monitored. Everything was planned and orchestrated, like one of Bruno's performances. He would lay low for a few weeks before the surgery and then come home and Marla and his mother would take care of him. They had all but forgotten about her getting her license. They had hired someone else for the position. It was just too much to ask for. She knew it was too much to ask for too, so she stayed home with the babies and Bruno while Rosie went to school. Oh, Rosalia. She was not doing well. They decided to tell the school to make sure they knew exactly why she was acting up. She went from being her normal loud obxinous self to either being a bully or crying at a drop of a hat. Marla tried her best to comfort her daughter, but most of the time it was Bruno holding her tightly singing to her that made her calm down. There was this bond between the two of them that Marla had no control over. A bond that was formed when she wasn't there for her. It broke Marla's heart to think that the bond would be broken at some point. She kept reassuring herself that the surgery would get rid of whatever it was inside him. But there was always that piece of her that scared her, like those few memories that just would not come back for any reason. That piece of her that worried that he would not make it to the babies' first steps, or first words. She held on. But it was hard, especially when her oldest daughter wasn't sleeping through the night.

"Mommaaaa....." Marla heard a five year old whisper to her in the middle of the night.

"Come on, mija...come sleep with us...." Marla grabbed her daughter hugging her tightly placing her in the bed in between the two of them. I thought this would stop when she was 3...she thought to herself. But remember, she's stressed out. She needs this...Marla kissed her daughter on the forehead humming one of her songs to her.

Marla awoke to babies crying a few hours later. "Uggghhh..." she moaned struggling to free herself from Rosie's grasp.

"Baby...I'll get them..." Bruno said quietly kissing her on the head.

She nodded her head going back to sleep waking up to her alarm even later in the morning. Marla looked at Rosie, sound asleep holding onto a pillow. She let her sleep knowing that if she woke her she would only be subjected to more nightmares. Marla walked back to the babies' room seeing Bruno sitting in a big cushy chair with his head laying on a pillow holding both of their infants. Oh my god. Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't do it. Don't. She forced herself to walk toward them running her fingers through Bruno's hair gently waking him. "Wake up, Brunz..." she whispered seeing his eyes open looking at her. She sat on the edge of the chair looking at the sleeping faces. "They're so perfect."

"They are. Just like you." He said sweetly laying them in their cribs.

"They have to get up soon, Bruno..." Marla responded.

"I know...but do I wake you up when you can sleep an extra five minutes?" he smiled hugging her tightly.

"Point, Bruno." She said taking his hand leading him to the kitchen. They talked about Rosie and what they were going to do to stop her impending child PTSD from her father's surgery.

"I'm going to talk to her before, Mar. And I have the cd for tonight. And we have the videos if we need them...." He said pointing to a pile of DVDs.

"I don't know how those are going to work anymore, Bru....they hardly worked during the tour." She admitted.

"Dad?" they heard Rosie come up behind them.

"HI baby doll....come sit with me. I want to talk to you..." he said putting her in the chair next to him. "Just you and me...."