September
2, 2003
I stood face to face
with one of the last people I had ever expected to see again. We had just had a
little run in with our children, which surprised the both of us totally.
Neither one of us knew the other had children.
“How many do you
have?” I asked her as I gestured for her to sit. We had a lot to catch up on.
“Two,” I nodded ,
“Not bad,” Patty’s
eyes grew big when I told her the total that I had.
“That’s how many
children we have total all together in Rainbowland.” She told me. I asked her who all had children, and she listed who. I was amazed at how much had
changed since I had been gone. I knew I was missing some things and had longed
to be around them but couldn’t because of some things that I had done.
I knew that Patty
wouldn’t be upset with her daughter coming to visit mine. In fact she told
Forest that she could continue coming as long as she got everything done and
she told her or Buddy where she was going. She also said that her other
daughter, Aqua was permitted. I knew
that she did this cause it would give her an excuse to come to this section
more often. She told me that she may bring Buddy with her the next time. I told
her that I’d welcome him with open arms in a flash.
Patty and I were
interrupted by a scream. Patty sighed,
“Better go see,…” I cut her off.
“Actually could be
one of mine. If anything most likely it’s my three year old.” I told her,
getting up. We headed down to the lake where the scream came from, and sure
enough it was! Mine and Patty’s mouths dropped at the sight. Forest immediately
cried out.
“I had nothing to do
with it.” Patty just looked at her sternly but gently, before turning back to
try to figure out what my daughter had done.
She had managed to get herself stuck out in the middle. On the little
Island that was in the middle, and couldn’t get herself back to this side, and
in front of her was a huge water snake.
“Her big sister told
her not to go there, said we weren’t allowed with out an adult.” Patty turned
in surprise to her,
“You actually
listened?” Then called to the frightened
three year old. “Don’t move,
and it won’t strike!” She then dove into the water, swam to that island and
grabbed hold of the little cub, before Patty brought her brought her back I
could hear Kenya,
“Don’t take me back
to Mmma, she too mad."
Patty laughed as she picked her up and swam
back with her. As soon as she set Kenya on the ground, I checked her out to see
that nothing was out of place, or harmed in anyway. I started scolding her.
“Kenya Elisa, WHAT in the world
were you thinking? YOU KNOW BETTER than to go into the lake without ME
HERE! YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN HURT out
there! And NOT just by the snake either, the water could have taken you under.”
Kenya opened her mouth to say something,
“NO, YOUNG LADY YOU
HUSH!” I scolded. “You scared me to death Kenya. Why’d you do that anyways?”
The little girl looked to the floor; I then turned to the others that were
standing there,
“And all of YOU were
here when she doing that… ONE of you could have come and got me. MY KIDS know that !” I then added, “Don’t you?” They all nodded and
looked to the ground. “And Darlita, you
know that when you bring these children out here that you are responsible for
them. Why didn’t you stop her?” I asked her sharply, my voice rising slightly.
“Don’t you even
start those tears Darlita Rose! Just save them because
you're going to need them later. Let me tell you that you won’t be bringing the
children down here alone anymore, at least not for awhile.”
“But, I…”
“No Darcy, just hush
and head home,” I told her.
My heart about leapt
into my throat. It was the first time that I actually had to punish all my
children at one time. Although they got off with just being grounded, because
of her disobeying the rule of not going into the lake, got a little worse
punishment. I turned to the rest,
“Anyone who comes
here without me or another adult will also get their selves a spanking like
Kenya just got, and I don’t care who you are, whether you're mine or not. Is
that clear?” I had everyone’s attention on that.
“Good, Darlita, Tanjia, Timmy, Shanda, Skyla, and Kenya, head to the house
right now!” I ordered as I picked up two of my infants, and Patty took the other
two.
“Been awhile since
I’ve picked two infants this little like this, but I still got it.” She said
with a grin. Before turning to Forest,
“You can sit in the
chair by me, until I’m ready to go, and I will be talking to Daddy about what
happened tonight.”
“Please no, Mamma.
Please don’t! I won’t do it again.”
“Forest,” The young
girl knew at this moment that there was no way that she was going to win so she
just backed down and sighed as she sat down.
“You know who would
love to see you?”
“Who
Patty?”
“Rainbow,”
“You're kidding, after
what I did, there’s no way. I can’t even forgive myself for it.”
“She realized that
she went a little too far with her decision. And wants to
make amends with you if that’s what you choose to do.”
“I’d like that.
Maybe after a little while the two of us can get together and talk, but when I
don’t know with all these guys I have very little time for anything.” Patty
nodded.
“Between trying to
keep them all out of trouble, babies feed, and farm taken care of. I mean you
barely have time for a bath, let alone a social hour. I mean I’m lucky that I’m
able to sit here like this right now. Those ten normally have you on your
toes!”
“I know how that is
with just one! I also know what a double team is like so it's understandable.”
“Actually I miss
having babies around.” Seeing that look on her face, the one that
you never could tell whether she was thinking of something good or something
bad.
“If you don’t mind,
could I take the twins with me for the night?” I just stared at her for a
moment.
“Well, I don’t know, they’re pretty young; I barely let them out of my
sight right now."
‘I can handle it.
And I’ll bring them back tomorrow. I just want to take care of infants again.”
“You sure that Buddy
won’t mind it?”
“Of
course not.”
“What about your
girls?”
“They’ll be fine.
Now come on.”
“I’m going against
my better judgment. But alright, on one condition, next time you take an older
one instead.”
“That can be done.”
I looked to Forest who had the If - Looks- Could- Kill on her face as she
stared at her mother.
“Forest, cut it out,
you're already in enough trouble.” Patty said as she
handed a bag to her daughter, "Carry this for me. I’m going to have my
hands full on our way home.”