Our Second Life

Chapter- 21

Winter Parker

Flashback

Second Trimester- Week 15

I clumsily struggled to wear my new Christmas boots as I bent over the bedside. I tried hard for once... twice... thrice... to tie the shoelaces but my cute little baby bump would not let me succeed in doing so for yet another day.

It has already been three months into my pregnancy and now that I have entered the second trimester phase, I have also started to show a little. My belly feels like rock hard and I have difficulty in carrying things and doing stuff while bending over. So, mostly I have to seek for Godmother Irene's help in all tough and tiring tasks. But looking on the bright side... I don't anymore vomit what I eat every now and then like I used to do during my earlier months.
Though my morning sickness has subsided a lot these days but my moodswings and cravings have increased to some whole different level. Now I almost get emotional for every single thing that happens to me. Infact one day the liftman closed the lift just a second before I arrived and hence I felt so sad that I started crying!!
If this wasn't enough... the other day at Trader Joe's, I couldn't find my favourite ice cream flavour and that made my mood go so downhill that I cried all the way back home!!

What a crybaby !!!

At this point Irene had officially declared that she would not take me out for Christmas if I kept on having these heights of moodswings because it was clearly embarassing the shit out of the people around me.

This year was gonna be different. This would be the first year I would be celebrating Christmas far away from home. Though I lived with Jake in his appartment, but during Christmas both of us visited our families atleast for some time during the day to share the  gifts and meet our parents. I would also  specially look forward to meet Nana(Grandma) this once a year when she came all the way from Minnesota to celebrate Christmas with us. Though Grandpa John had died when I was 14, but Nana still didn't want to shift with us here. She strongly expressed her opinion regarding the fact that she wanted to live her last days in the same place as that of Grandpa John. Also back in Minnesota she had her little group of elderly people who ran a self-help organization where she took active part in. So in overall, she was happily staying there by her choice and only visited her children and grandchildren during the year while festivals and occassions.

She is a lady made of love and affection and was like a second mother to me. Even when my parents were against the whole idea of me and Jake being together, Nana wholeheartedly supported whatever that made me happy. She put me before everything else in this world. I had also spent a fair part of my childhood with her and grandpa back in Minnesota. So, I was the most loved, the most prefered and the closest grandchild to them. While my other two siblings were always busy in studies and other activities and never really visited my grandparents, I almost spent each of my summer holidays during middle school at their place. Even when I grew up I kept on visiting them every two or three months. So, naturally my bond with my grandparents ran way deeper. Thatswhy, even when my parents turned me down after coming to know about my pregnancy, I really hoped that Nana would support me through this.
So, I tried to contact and reach her but she didn't pick up my calls. I kept on trying day after day but the results were negative. Also money was tight. I had to pay for my medical bills, accomodation bills and though Irene supported me a lot financially but I had to also save up atleast something for the future when the baby arrived. So it was not possible for me to take a flight and go all the way down to Minnesota by myself to find Nana because that would cost me a fortune. Hence I couldn't consider that option. Therefore, I called my parents to ask about Nana's whereabouts but they straightaway refused on my face by saying that they won't give me her new contact number because they don't want me to be in contact with any of the family. So, I even tried reaching my elder sisters for help but they did the same thing as my parents- they turned their back on me. Also I was never close to my sisters because they were always way better than me in academics and extracurriculars. One of them was a famous lawyer while the another one was a renowned pianist in an orchestra. So, my parents kinda always had a bit of preference towards them which I was never really jealous of.
Therefore unable to reach Nana I eventually gave up and accepted my fate... but deep down I knew the only person who would have supported me through all of this would be none other than my grandmother.