Becoming April

Chapter Four

"I'm ho-ome!" May sang out unnecessarily, swinging into the living room her arms hung with bags. Abandoning my research, I put down my cellphone. Steph lay on a blanket beside me on the couch, asleep again (I'd decided she really must have had a fussy night) with my free hand resting lightly on her back. When he taught me the trick, Carl had said she'd started compulsively rolling onto her stomach to sleep at ten months and refused to sleep any other way. For some reason that light touch always seemed to settle her and keep her settled, and May's eyes softened when she saw us.

"You know, you'd have made a great grandpa."

And dammit, just like that I teared right up. What the hell was up with that?

"Need help?" I ignored my eye-water to stand and stretch. The last of the post-transformation aches were long gone and physically I felt fantastic, full of energy I had no idea what to do with.

"I actually do." May grinned wickedly. "Put her in her crib and come with me."

Gathering up the limp lump and her blanket I laid her down on her back in the crib and, yup, she rolled right over. With a last look and a check that the crib baby-cam was on I followed May.

"How are you feeling physically?" she asked over her shoulder as we went up the stairs. "One to ten?"

"Ten, I think. A little hungry?"

"No surprise, you're growing." She grimaced. "Our schedule today is really all off."

"You missed church," I realized. They attended The Good Shephard Universalist Church at Eastford and Mills Street every Sunday morning.

I'd once asked (carefully) what they believed, and May'd summed it up as "We're all sinners, and we're all saved eventually, hallelujah. The first bit's self-evident, the last bit's a matter of faith. Be kind to each other, that's just part of loving everyone, and help each other through this life, your hands are all God's got." Carl had just nodded to that, and it had worked for me too as a non-churchgoing agnostic.

"Today has been for practicing instead of preaching," she said now, stopping on the stairs, arms loaded, to look me over and sigh. "I'd hug you, hun, but right here it would be a disaster. Spinning about like the announcement of a random hug was no big deal, she continued on up. Trooping up to the third floor, we turned and went up the hall to find Carl back in the bedroom removing the last couple of boxes from a wardrobe his moving everything else had unblocked. She leaned forward, arms still occupied, to lay a kiss on him. "This looks perfect, sweetheart. Steph's all yours, David are I are about to engage in extreme girl time."

Carl gave me a look of deepest sympathy. "I'll start dinner, then." He left with the boxes.

May dumped the bags on the bed. "Now," she said, turning to me eyes narrowed, "you need to shower." Grabbing one of the bags, she pushed me towards the small ensuite bathroom. "Here's shampoo and conditioner. In separate bottles, not like silly men do it. Also some shower gel." Getting me where she wanted me, she ruthlessly yanked my t-shirt over my head, still talking as I automatically covered my new breasts and then snatched my hands away. "Use the shower gel everywhere but down there. For that, use the white bottle, it's an emollient. Use that first, covering your lady bits before getting under the water, then shampoo, conditioner, and gel-the emollient will act as a barrier to everything else. Afterwards rinse everything off. Everything. Understood?"

"This is more feminine hygiene stuff, isn't it?"

"Yes. Start good habits early. You'll thank me-bacterial infections are no fun at all. And pat yourself dry with your towel, don't scrub. It's bad for your skin. I'll bring the rest of the bags up while you're in here." With that she stepped out and closed the door.