When the bough breaks

Four

"Dakota James. That's your name." I say to my now balloon belly. It's been four months since we found out we were having a boy, and I'm thirty weeks today, almost seven months.

Zander laughs and squeals.

"What's so funny?" I ask him, turning my head to face the teenage boy behind me on the hospital bed.

"He keeps kicking me. Look, come here." Zander says, and moves my hand where Dakota's legs are.

I burst out laughing at the hard flutter coming from my abdomen. Venus walks in to take my blood pressure when she sees Zander and I.

She clears her throat, and we look up. Zander quickly jumps down from the bed and sits in the chair beside me.

"Might I know what you two were laughing about?" Venus inquires, putting the cuff over my right arm.

"Feel." I say in my best Yoda voice and me and Zander burst out laughing. She feels where I direct her hand, and her face lights up with pure joy.

"That's a strong boy you have there." I told Venus the gender a couple days after we found out. She swore to keep it a secret.

"I know." I say but the bile in my throat bottles up to the surface of my mouth. Zander catches it in the cup.

"When is the official gender reveal?" Venus asks Zander, who's rinsing out the cup.

Everybody in my family, they already know we're having a boy, because the gender reveal was three months ago, but I've been planning a gender reveal for the rest of my family, who live in England.

"Tomorrow. I snuck out this morning and had Trent help me decorate. That's her brother." He says, and Venus shakes her head because she knows who Trent is.

"Am I and Caleb invited?" She asks, and gets out her phone to mark the date on her calendar.

"Yes. Of course. I haven't officially met him yet, you know." I say after I get up from the bed.

"Hey, miss, don't forget you have Cancer. You're beating it but still. Be careful." Venus playfully says.

A couple days ago, we got the good news. The tumor shrunk, it's barely there.

My hair has started to grow back; it's short for now but it'll be a long brown wave when summer arrives.

"Did it snow this morning?" I ask Venus, who's staring out the window.

"Yes it did. Pretty too, and cold. Only five days left till Christmas." She says, and someone comes through the door.

"Hey, sis." Trent says giving me a kiss on the head, and Sam comes rolling in behind him.

They both hug me and rub my stomach, as if to say hello to Dakota.

"We brought you something." Sam says, and hands Zander a long box.

He pulls it out and I gasp. A Christmas tree.

"We can decorate right now." Venus says, and she leads me over to the box of ornaments hidden behind the couch.

I start to grab ornaments and the others follow my actions, and we decorate until there's no more ornaments left.

After a while, we end the day by watching a movie in the hospital theatre.

Then Trent and Sam leave, to go pick up the girls from daycare.

Venus has desk duty for the night, so she grabs a cup of coffee and a bag of doughnuts from the Cafe.

An hour later, it's just Zander and I admiring our work. We stay up for hours on end watching movies on the T.V. and talk about what's gonna happen in the next few months. Soon, we fall asleep.