The Tale of Zachary Willowbrook: A Leap Day Paradox

Chapter 17: Rebirth

Within the week, Stacy was able to share her experiences with David and the family. Things were back to normal in the Willowbrook household. Well, almost.

Stacy weighed herself and Zachary. To her surprise, her weight hasn't really changed from the two months that she has been gone. Zachary, however, weighed one pound less.

Over the next few days, Stacy noticed another thing about Zachary. From the book tour, Zachary has picked up some bad habits. The one thing that caught her immediate attention was that Zachary did not want to use his sippy cup anymore. He wanted to use his baby bottle instead. Whenever she used the sippy cup, he would throw a tantrum until she gave him his bottle.

When Audrey saw this, she frowned. "Why is Zachary acting so weird, mommy?"

Stacy sighed. "I never bothered to pack his sippy cup, so now, he's used to his bottle."

Audrey kneeled down to her older brother's level. "Don't you want to be a big boy, Zachary?"

"No!" Zachary shouted. "I want my baa baa!"

Sighing with defeat, Stacy gave Zachary his bottle.

Another bad habit that she noticed with Zachary was whenever she was in public. Zachary did not want to walk at all. He wanted his stroller. After the tantrum in the mall, an embarrassed Stacy took him home.

The next time she was out, Zachary got what he wanted. Stacy pushed Zachary around in his stroller.

But Stacy was quite fortunate. She was able to correct these bad habits. She pretty much made the sippy cup his only option, or he wouldn't drink anything. For the stroller, she just ignored him, and placed him in the car if he acted up. She didn't say a word or paid any attention to him. Finally, Zachary stopped asking for the stroller. Although the process was painful, the bad habits went away in early December.

Christmas came and went for the Willowbrook family. It was the usual Christmas, with a bunch of gifts for everyone. Stacy gave My Precious Little Gift of Time to everyone who didn't already have a copy. By the end of the year, sales of this book exceeded 8 million, and made it on the New York Times bestseller list.

During the holidays, Stacy discovered that Gina had another baby. The name of the baby was Donna, and she was born November 8, 2013, towards the end of her book tour.

Towards the beginning of the year, Things began to slow down around the Willowbrook house. This was especially the case with the recent winter storm.

On January 13th, the phone rang. Stacy ran to the phone.

"Who could it be?" Stacy said with wonder. "Is it my agent?" she looked at the Caller ID. It was Mary. What would she want? Full of curiosity, she picked up the phone. "Hey sis."

"Stacy, there is something important that I want to discuss with you." Mary sounded upset. From what Stacy could hear, it sounded like she was crying.

Stacy was speechless. Her countenance went from jovial to very bewildered. "....Sis?" Stacy choked out. "Mary? Are you still there?"

"Yes I am," Mary bawled.

"I thought I lost you there for a second. Can you please tell me why you're crying?"

A brief pause. Then came the sound of Mary clearing her breath. "He died, Stacy. He died!"

Stacy was perplexed. "Who? Richard?"

"No! It was someone that Richard worked with...."

"I'm sorry to hear that. But I'm curious. How did that affect your family?"