2009
‘’Be nice to uncle Jimi and aunt Karen.’’ Schlap said.
‘’I will.’’ Daisy replied.
‘’We’ll see you tomorrow, princess.’’ Kimberly said to Daisy and gave her daughter a kiss. ‘’Thank you so much for taking care of her.’’ She said to Karen.
‘’It’s alright, we like to hang around with Daisy.’’ Karen gave Daisy a high five.
‘’Only for one day.’’ Jimi joked.
‘’Not cool, uncle Jimi.’’ Daisy shouted.
‘’We will go before we see our little girl attacking Jimi.’’ Kimberly giggled.
‘’Bye y’all, have fun.’’ The Westbrooks and Daisy waited in the door gate until the car of the Schlapman’s disappeared.
‘’What do we have for dinner?’’ Daisy asked.
‘’Pancakes.’’
‘’In the shape of a heart?’’
Jimi looked hopeless to Karen.
‘’Sure…’’ he said.
‘’Yay!’’ Daisy shouted and ran outside.
‘’Can you cut a heart out of a pancake?’’ Jimi asked to Karen.
‘’Yes. Only cut, in cooking I fail. Okay, what is that?’’ Karen pointed to something on the floor.
‘’It looks like poop.’’
They heard a cat-sound and saw Cupcake, one of Kimberly’s cats, standing behind a plant.
‘’That thing!’’ Karen shouted. ‘’She really dislikes me. Kimberly did not only dropped her kid here, no her critters had to come too. We’re not a damn zoo.’’
‘’Relax, Karen, I’ll clean up this shit.’’
‘’It’s literally shit.’’ The two had to laugh.
‘’Eww.’’ Daisy ran inside and looked shocked to the thing Jimi was cleaning up. ‘’Aunt Kiki, do you have a stick so I can play with Buck?’’
‘’Ehh… I don’t think so. You can find one by the trees with uncle Jimi.’’
Jimi sighed. ‘’You’re so lazy.’’
‘’I am not, I just want to read.’’
‘’Come on, uncle Jimi!’’ Daisy grabbed Jimi’s hand and ran outside. ‘’Come on Buck!’’ she shouted to the dog. He followed them too.
Karen took a seat on the back porch while she was looking to Jimi and Daisy at the end of the garden. She wanted to read her magazine when she saw Cupcake wanted to walk outside. She had no idea why, but for some reason the cat didn’t liked her.
‘’Don’t you dare to come outside!’’ Karen shouted.
Cupcake lifted up one claw and the nails were out of her paw.
‘’Ahw, how sweet! I do love you too.’’ Karen said sarcastic.
‘’I’m broken, can you please play with Daisy now?’’ Jimi let himself fell on a chair.
‘’I was actually waiting until Daisy would to make a princess of you.’’ Karen said.
‘’Oh please no.’’
Daisy ran on the porch.
‘’Uncle Jimi come back!’’ she shouted.
‘’Not now, girl. I’m up.’’
‘’Ahw.’’ She wanted to walk inside when she suddenly ran to Karen.
‘’Can I do your hair?!’’ she asked. ‘’Please?’’
Karen looked hopeless to Jimi. He knows that she doesn’t like it when someone’s touching her hair.
‘’Yeah, that’s such a good idea Daisy. Go make a fairy princess of aunt Karen.’’ Jimi said.
‘’Oh gussie, yes! Can I please make a fairy princess of you?’’ Daisy started to jump up and down. ‘’Please aunt Kiki? Please?’’
It is funny for them to hear that Daisy is taking over Kimberly’s vocabulary.
Karen sighed and gave Jimi a killer-look. He couldn’t stop laughing.
‘’Sure.. let me grab my make up stuff.’’
While she walked inside she gave Jimi a playful hit on his head.
‘’You look pretty, hun.’’ Jimi giggled while he was making dinner.
‘’Shut up. I just know my lipstick is somewhere on my forehead.’’ Karen said.
‘’We should make a picture!’’ Daisy yelled when she ran into the kitchen.
‘’No.’’ Karen whispered.
‘’Yes!’’ Jimi shouted. ‘’With Aunt Karen’s new Polaroid camera she bought last month.’’
And again Karen gave him a killer-look. But then she looked at Daisy and her eyes where sparkling and she couldn’t say no.
‘’Okay, only one picture.’’
‘’I’m going to show this to mommy and daddy tomorrow!’’ Daisy said after they took the photo. She walked to Jimi to look at the photo. ‘’I love this! I want a camera too where the pictures come out.’’ She ran out of the kitchen.
‘’Daisy Pearl , come back, dinner’s ready.’’ Jimi shouted.
Daisy ran back into the kitchen again.
‘’Such an easy child.’’ Karen whispered while she passed Jimi. She looked into the stove, which reflected as a mirror, and looked at herself. She was surprised that there wasn’t any make up on places where it doesn’t belong. She walked back to the kitchen table and they started to eat.
At that moment Cupcake walked into the kitchen.
‘’The Devil’s entering the kitchen right now.’’ Karen said.
‘’Why don’t you have any animals?’’ Daisy asked.
‘’Jimi doesn’t want them because we’re away from home a lot.’’
‘’And if you had to pick one?’’
‘’A big dog. A husky or something, like a wolf.’’
‘’Wolves are scary. Can I please go to the living room?’’
‘’Sure, we’ll be there in ten minutes.’’ Jimi said and walked to the kitchen.
‘’Ugh, I hate doing the dishes.’’ Karen complained.
‘’Is that an excuse for being lazy?’’
‘’Shut up, no. It’s just disgusting to see and touch. I can’t wait until the dishwasher works again.’’
‘’Shall I call for it tomorrow?’’
‘’Yes, please.’’
‘’Will you stop being grumpy then?’’
‘’Sure.’’ Karen shook her head. ‘’I’m sorry.’’ And she gave Jimi a kiss.
‘’Ha! Y’all are losers, I won!’’ Daisy shouted! ‘’Please don’t tell mommy I said ‘loser’ she don’t want me to say bad words.’’ Daisy said very fast.
‘’No worries, little girl, in this house it’s okay because aunt Karen here says bad words all the time.’’ Jimi joked.
‘’That’s only because your uncle is, like you said, a big loser.’’ Karen stood up and walked to the kitchen. ‘’Does someone want something to drink?’’
‘’It’s been 9pm, I have to go to bed…’’ Daisy said slowly.
‘’You don’t have to. Our house, our rules. We won’t tell your parents.’’ Karen winked to Daisy.
‘’Yay! Then milk would be nice.’’
When Karen walked back to the living room, Jimi switched on the TV and Daisy sat on his lap.
‘’This movie with Adam Sandler just started. It’s a comedy, you think Daisy can watch it?’’ Jimi asked Karen.
‘’Yeah, why not?’’ she said.
Karen was the first of three who fell asleep.
‘’Aunt Kiki fell asleep.’’ Daisy whispered.
‘’And then she says I’m boring.’’ Jimi said.
Daisy started to giggle and hit on Karen’s leg.
‘’Wake up!’’ she yelled.
Karen stayed quiet.
‘’She won’t wake up.’’ Daisy looked at Jimi.
‘’Just do this.’’ He replied and hit on his wife’s butt.
‘’Did I fell asleep?’’ Karen yelled.
‘’You missed the end.’’
‘’I’m sorry, I guess I was tired.’’ she stood up.
‘’Damn Jimi, that hurt. I’ll probably not be able to sit for a few days.’’ She walked slowly to the kitchen. When she came back, she lifted up Daisy.
‘’I’m sorry girl, but it’s sleepy time.’’
‘’That’s good, I’m a little bit tired.’’ Daisy giggled. ‘’Is uncle Jimi coming too?’’
‘’I’m right behind you.’’ He said.
Together they made Daisy bed-ready.
‘’If there’s something just give us a yell.’’ Jimi gave Daisy a high-five.
‘’Won’t you read a story? Mommy and Daddy always read stories before I go to bed.’’ Daisy told them.
Karen lifted up her shoulders.
‘’Why not, but I don’t think we have any books for little girls like you.’’ Karen looked to Jimi.
‘’Nope.’’ He said. ‘’But we can tell you stories.’’
‘’Oooh! Tell me about when you met each other!’’ Daisy shouted. ‘’Please? Please?’’
‘’Well, your momma and I met each other at college. Together we moved to Nashville and a friend of me introduced us to uncle Jimi.’’ Karen didn’t mentioned Mark’s name or ‘ex-husband’. She took a seat at the right side of the bed and put her feet on it. Jimi did the same but on the other side. They kinda sandwiched Daisy.
‘’Was it love at first sight?’’
The Westbrooks started to laugh.
‘’For me it was.’’ Jimi looked at Karen and smiled to her.
‘’Not for Aunt Kiki?’’
‘’No, I eh… had another boyfriend back then.’’ Karen said slowly.
‘’Oh gussie, did you cheated on him?!’’ Daisy shouted.
‘’No silly. The love story continues years later.’’
Daisy wanted to know everything. Karen and Jimi only told the sweet parts of the story and after twenty minutes Daisy fell asleep.
‘’Daisy?’’ Karen whispered.
Daisy didn’t moved.
‘’Nothing, I guess our job’s done.’’ Karen stood up and tip toed to the door. She wanted to close to door when she noticed Jimi didn’t followed her, he also fell asleep.
Karen sighed and walked into the room again. She grabbed a small pillow and hit Jimi in the face with it.
‘’Wrong bed, loser.’’ She whispered.
The two walked to their own bedroom.
‘’I just love Daisy, she’s just like her mother.’’ Jimi said and put his arm around his wife.
Karen nodded. She laid with her head on Jimi’s shoulder.
‘’Yup, such a sweet heart. And so is Penelopi. When we, I mean I because someone fell asleep, were telling her these stories a feeling showed up, I’ve never felt before.’’
‘’What kind of feeling.’’
‘’A protective feeling, like a mother always have.’’
‘’So if I read between the lines, you want to say that you actually want kids?’’
‘’Yes. I’d love to have a mini me walking around. I’m having this thought for a couple of months already but I was kinda scared to tell you because of the last time…’’
‘’The story with the wrong pregnancy-test result?’’
Karen nodded.
‘’Do you also remember at the end of that story that I said I’d love to have a child with you.’’
Karen looked up.
‘’So you’re saying that you want a child too?’’
‘’Since we got married.’’
A big smile appeared on both faces.
‘’Oh my God.’’ Karen said and started to kiss Jimi.
‘’I’m so glad to have you as wife.’’ Jimi said.
‘’Did I heard it right? Did Karen bought a Polaroid camera?’’ Rebecca asked.
‘’She did, like for like months already.’’ Kimberly took a seat outside the tour bus next to Rebecca.
When Karen walked outside the two asked about the camera.
‘’Does it already work?’’ Rebecca put her sunglasses on.
‘’Yes, Daisy and I made a picture last week.’’ Karen grabbed a chair and joined the girls.
It was like Daisy heard them, she ran outside screaming if she could show the photo to the others.
‘’Sure, let me get it. It’s in my journal.’’ Karen walked inside the bus and some minutes later she gave the little photo to Daisy.
As soon as she saw it she started to giggle and ran to her mother.
‘’Look! Aunt Kiki as a fairy princess!’’ she shouted.
‘’Let me see that!’’ Rebecca looked over Kimberly’s shoulder. Both started to laugh. ‘’Yo Phillip! You should see this. It’s Karen as fairy princess!’’
‘’Please, Rebecca no.’’ Karen said slowly and started to blush.
Kimberly and Rebecca were always teasing Karen with things she was ashamed of and had the biggest fun with that.
While the boys came outside to laugh at the photo, Karen grabbed her journal and started to write. When she turned six, her brother and sister gave here a journal and since then she didn’t stopped writing. Nowadays she already filled more then thirty notebooks with her daily adventures.
The boys took the little girls to a football game to give the girls some free time. Karen was busy writing at the table outside, ten feet from Rebecca and Kimberly who were giggling about almost everything close to the bus.
‘’Look at her, she’s being boring.’’ Kimberly whispered.
Both girls started to laugh.
‘’I already heard Jimi complaining about his boring wife.’’
That was not true at all, but like the girls, Jimi likes to tease his wife.
Both girls stood up and walked to Karen.
‘’How old are you Kiki? Six? I don’t get it how you can still write in these things everyday.’’ Rebecca said.
Kimberly grabbed Karen’s journal. Karen wanted to grab it back but Kimberly ran away.
‘’Dear Diary, today Kim and Becky are so mean to me! They keep teasing me with everything and ugh!’’ Kimberly tried to talk like Karen, but then on a childish way.
She and Rebecca had to laugh but there did not appeared one single smile on Karen’s face.
Suddenly Kimberly dropped the diary. She looked shocked to Karen.
‘’Oh my gosh!’’ she yelled. ‘’You and Jimi are trying to get a baby!’’
‘’What?! Oh my God!’’ Rebecca screamed.
Karen sighed.
‘’Yes, we are trying but not the whole world has to know that. Thank you Kimberly for screwing my moment.’’ She grabbed her journal and walked back to the bus.
‘’Gussie.’’ Kimberly sworn and took a seat at the table. ‘’Now she’s mad. I never had to do that.’’
‘’Ahw, Kimberly it’ll be okay. Shall we talk to her?’’ Rebecca gave her a hug.
Kimberly nodded and together they walked to the bus.
‘’Karen.’’ Kimberly started.
The girls saw that she laid in her bunk, while listening to music. When she noticed Kimberly and Rebecca she turned her back to the girls.
‘’Shut up.’’ She said.
‘’Karen, let me talk to you.’’
‘’Go away now.’’
Suddenly they heard music.
‘’She put the volume on hundred. She can’t hear us now.’’ Rebecca whispered. ‘’Let’s go back outside.’’
The two took a seat at the chairs close to the bus.
‘’I’m so stupid.’’ Kimberly sighed. ‘’I remember her eyes when I thought I was pregnant, when I told her I wanted to do the test with her, not with Schlap. I’m sure she wanted to do something like that too and now I just screwed it. I’m such a bad friend.’’ A tear streamed down her face.
‘’Don’t think like that.’’ Rebecca said. ‘’Maybe it was better if you didn’t say something. But yeah, it happened and I know sure Karen won’t be mad at you for forever. She can’t, no one can do that.’’
‘’Thank you Becky.’’ Kimberly smiled to her friend and whipped a tear off.
Then she felt a hand on her head, she looked up and saw Karen’s arm through the window with a tissue in her hand. Kimberly had to laugh. The arm disappeared and in less then ten seconds the door got open and Karen walked to the girls.
‘’I’m sorry.’’ She grabbed a chair and took a seat on it. ‘’I never had to react like that. It was childish, I know. But it was also not nice to say it out loud without my permission.’’
‘’I know that, I didn’t had to do that. Sorry.’’ Kimberly whispred.
‘’Same here. We didn’t had to tease you.’’ Rebecca said.
‘’But what Becky said is true.’’ Karen grabbed Kimberly’s hand. ‘’I can’t stay mad at you.’’ With her other hand she grabbed Rebecca’s hand. ‘’The same for you. Everybody sometimes does things which don’t deserve an award but yeah… that’s how life goes.’’
Karen stood up and gave both girls a hug.
‘’Group hug!’’ someone screamed and in no time Daisy and Penelopi jumped on Karen and Rebecca’s back.
‘’The girls are back.’’ Rebecca gave her daughter a hug.
‘’Yeah and sadly the big guys are back too.’’ Karen joked. ‘’Did your daddy’s gave you food?’’ she asked to the little girls.
‘’You mean our daddy’s and uncle Jimi? Yes.’’ Penelopi shouted.
‘’Nooooo Bobops, uncle Jimi’s an annoying monkey!’’ Daisy shouted back at Penelopi.
‘’Well, some people here talked to Karen a lot.’’ Schlap joked based on the fact that Karen mostly called Jimi an annoying monkey.
‘’You know what’s the best of the girls?’’ Karen said to Schlap. ‘’That they attack Jimi whenever I ask them for.’’
Schlap started to laugh.
‘’Go attack uncle Jimi!’’ Karen yelled to the girls.
They both started to giggle and rushed to Jimi who already ran away. When Karen looked to him, he made up a grumpy face. Together with Kimberly and Rebecca, he was not the only one in the bus who liked to tease others. Karen liked to do that too, but only Jimi.
‘’Shall we order pizza?’’ Phillip asked. ‘’I want pizza.’’
‘’I’m already calling.’’ Kimberly waved with her phone. She always does the food-business and knows exactly what everybody wants with whatever they want to order.
The band hung around outside until midnight. Kimberly and Schlap decided to go to sleep first since they planned to go to an attraction park together with their Daisy and the Sweets while the Westbrooks volunteered to stay at the bus.
The next day, Jimi and Karen were walking around the campsite where they stayed, while judging cars and other vehicles. The band had a week off and decided to stay in the state of Washington because their next show was in Montana.
‘’Look at that beauty.’’ Jimi said.
‘’Sometimes I wish I lived in an airstream, home made curtains just live like a gypsy.’’ Karen sang. ‘’I do agree. I only don’t like the pink curtains. My uncle had an airstream. He lived in Nashville and in the holidays we always visited him. He lived close to Johnny and June and my siblings and I always spent one hour a day near their house to spot them. We never met them anyway but it’s one of my favorite youth memories.’’ Karen had to smile about the memory. ‘’Hey, look! That’s your dream truck.’’ She pointed at an old blue Chevy.
‘’My dream car when I was a little kid, yeah.’’
‘’Well, you still act like a little kid so if we ever want a new car we can think about it.’’
‘’Ha. Ha. Very nice of you, wife.’’
‘’Shall we go back to the bus to grab our stuff and go downtown? I don’t think I can hang out here the whole day.’’
‘’Can you read my mind or something? I wanted to ask the exact same thing.’’
The two followed the gravel rood back to the end of the campsite where the bus was.
‘’When Kim and I met for the first time she thought I could read her mind.’’ Karen had to say. ‘’She was so insecure back in high school, so sad to see. I’m glad we met each other. You know, sometimes I think about what if I didn’t met Kimberly? I would never had met you, or Phillip. The band wouldn’t exist. How would our lives be then? Sometimes I think about that when I can’t sleep. It makes me a bit scary.’’
‘’You can’t change the past.’’
‘’Thank God not.’’
Suddenly Karen started to feel sick. Her stomach and head hurt and her heart started to beat like crazy. She leaned to Jimi and he put his arm around her.
Jimi started to talk about romantic walks.
If he sees this as romantic I’m going to punch him, Karen thought.
Relax, she said to herself. He porbaly doesn’t notice that you don’t feel well.
Karen could have great discussions with herself in her head.
‘’Jimi… I don’t feel very…’’ at that moment she ran to a tree, let herself fall on her knees and started to throw up.
‘’Karen!’’ Jimi yelled and ran to his wife.
When she was done she leaned back into Jimi’s arms. He knew when she was sick she had to lay down otherwise she would faint. He went with his hand through his wife’s hair and waited until she would say something.
‘’Shall we continue our walk back to the bus? If I’ll lay down for an hour I’ll be fine to go downtown by afternoon.’’
Jimi agreed with his wife and pulled her up. At the bus Karen laid down at the picnic table. Jimi took a seat next to her and leaned over her.
Karen had to laugh.
‘’Your head looks weird upside down. But still sexy.’’
She put her hand on his face and they smiled to each other.
‘’I think I have a fever or something. I didn’t fell well yesterday and the day before.’’
‘’What?!’’ Jimi shouted.
‘’Only in the mornings. I laid down and after an hour everything was fine again. No worries, we still can go downtown. In an hour it’s over, like the other days.’’
‘’Karen…’’
‘’What?’’ she looked into Jimi’s eyes.
‘’One word: pregnancy.’’
Karen jumped up and ran to the bus.
‘’Where’s the key, we need to get my bag right now and rush to a Wal-Mart or something.’’
Jimi threw the keys to his wife, who opened the bus. They rushed to the nearest store and bought one.
Back at the bus, the two were waiting quietly in the living part.
‘’I have a weird feeling that I had to do this with Kim…’’ Karen begun. ‘’Don’t hate on me!’’
‘’It’s fine. But now we have to rush. If you’re pregnant we have to see a doctor as fast as we can.’’
‘’True. And if Kim and I take the pregnancy test here the whole bus knows it in no time. I don’t want that actually. How long?’’
Jimi tooked on his watch.
‘’Two minutes.’’ He replied.
‘’Damn, the five longest minutes of my life.’’ Suddenly Karen started to laugh. ‘’Kimberly would have say: ‘you already said that the last time. And the time before. And when we took mine.’ Gosh, I really miss her with this moment.’’
‘’Hey, don’t be sad.’’ Jimi put an arm around his wife. ‘’She’s the first one who gets to know it, okay?’’
Karen nodded.
‘’It’s time…’’
‘’Can we please do it fast? The last two times I almost fainted I don’t want that again.’’
The two walked to the bathroom.
‘’Negative.’’ They said at the same time.
Four months later they were still on the road. They stopped somewhere in Nebraska. Sadly for them, the shower in the bus didn’t worked. Since a couple of days Karen and Rebecca were pretty grumpy because taking a shower is a part of their morning rituals. Kimberly didn’t care a lot and enjoyed her long morning walks to the bathrooms at the campsites.
With a bag in her hand, she was whistling a George Strait song while saying ‘hi’ to other people. When she entered the bathroom she heard someone crying. She wanted to close the door of the shower she had chosen when she saw who came out of the toilet.
‘’Karen!’’
Her eyes where red and she was wearing sweatpants. Kimberly was kinda shocked by that fact first, because Karen never enters a public place in sweatpants.
Karen looked surprised. She hates it when someone sees her crying. Especially Kimberly or Jimi. She always had the feeling that they thought that they made her unhappy. It was a weird thought but still it was in her head.
‘’I’m sorry.’’ She cried and gave Kimberly a hug. They hugged for at least two minutes, when Karen let Kimberly go. ‘’Thank you. I really needed that.’’ She tried to smile, but the action failed.
‘’Of course, honey. Now tell me what’s going on.’’
Both girls took a seat on the floor.
‘’You know Jimi and I want a kid right at the moment right?’’ Karen started.
Kimberly nodded.
‘’And about the test we did back in Washington.’’
Kimberly nodded again.
‘’Well, we really want that baby but for some reason it just doesn’t happen. In those three or four months I already did five tests. This one’s the sixth.’’ Karen hit on the plastic bag next to her. Kimberly didn’t even noticed that.
‘’It keeps being negative, it makes me crazy! I just don’t want to disappoint Jimi. What if I can’t be pregnant? He would probably leave me or something, having kids is his dream and… and… I don’t know.’’
Karen buried her face into Kimberly’s curls.
‘’Oh, Kiki.’’ Kimberly put her arm around her friend. ‘’You’re worrying too much. You have made up so many scenes in your head. If you relax, life will be easier.’’
‘’I hate thinking. I want to stop thinking. Over thinking. Ugh.’’ After that, a bunch of swearing followed.
Kimberly had to laugh about that because Karen came up with the most weird combinations.
‘’What if we go to see a doctor? No one will know. Maybe Jimi, if you want to tell him.’’
‘’Why a doctor?’’
‘’Well, he can tell us everything you want to know and maybe calm you a bit.’’
‘’Hmm, okay.’’ Karen made up a sick face. ‘’Some of your hair is in my mouth, eww.’’
The two had to laugh.
‘’Lucky that we’re in a room with showers then. I don’t want all your dirty drool in my hair.’’
‘’Ah Kimberly stop!’’ Karen shouted. ‘’You know only hearing that word makes me sick!’’
Kimberly received a text message.
‘’Is Karen with you?’’ she read out loud. ‘’She sure is. Sent. That was Jimi. Your husband is worried about you, oooh.’’ She teased. Kimberly knew that Karen wanted to keep the romance private.
‘’Shut up.’’ Karen said. ‘’Hey, does Schlap still has his medicine from his surgery which I took a month before my wedding day? Maybe if I am stoned I stop worrying.’’
‘’Oh gussie, Karen!’’ Kimberly wanted to get mad at her friend but then the memories of Karen being stoned came up in her head and she started to laugh.
‘’Don’t you dare to think about that, Cupcake!’’
‘’And?’’ Jimi stood up and walked to the girls.
‘’Keep trying. Such a great doctor.’’ Karen said sarcastic. ‘’Let’s leave this crap hole fast before I get sick.’’
‘’I guess the talk didn’t ended up as we hoped?’’
‘’The doctor was kinda weird. Close to scary. Maybe it was better if we waited a week until we are back in Nashville. Sorry Kiki, this idea was bad.’’ Kimberly said.
‘’It can’t wait! We want kids. Now!’’ Karen sighed. ‘’I’m sorry Kim, it just makes me tired and all.’’
‘’Oh, it’s okay. By the way, it that offer for a lunch still counting? I’m hungry.’’
‘’Yeah, why not. I spotted a Subway on the road to that crap hole.’’
‘’What? No chic restaurant? I always thought you needed more class?’’ Jimi said.
‘’You don’t need class when you got this ass.’’ Karen joked and started to laugh.
‘’You sure don’t have to.’’ Kimberly yelled and hit on Karen’s butt, who started to scream and ran to the end of the road.
‘’Kimberly!!!’’
‘’That’s my revenge for the time you touched my butt!’’ Kimberly shouted.
‘’Not that loud!’’
‘’What?! Did I missed something?’’ Jimi asked
Kimberly started to giggle and Karen knew what that meant. She started to blush.
‘’No, please.’’ She whispered but it was too late, Kimberly was already telling the story to Jimi. He couldn’t stop laughing.
‘’Not cool.’’ Karen turned to Jimi. ‘’At least you can say I have a good taste for women.’’
‘’Well, I hope you don’t look at them.’’ Jimi joked.
‘’Who knows… maybe…’’
‘’Oh gussie, Karen.’’ Kimberly laughed.
‘’We should go to Starbucks.’’
‘’And get a sandwich at Subway.’’
The three ended up walking through Target.
‘’What are we doing here?’’ Kimberly asked after a while.
‘’Cooling off at the freezing section.’’ Jimi randomly said.
‘’Did you stare too much to your wife today?’’
‘’Kimberly!’’ Karen shouted but her friend already started to giggle.
‘’This is such a waste of time.’’ Karen laughed. ‘’’And what did y’all do downtown today?’ ‘Oh, just hanging around in Target.’’’
‘’No, but serious,’’ Jimi started. ‘’We do have to think about something we were doing downtown because… yeah ya know.’’
Karen didn’t want to tell the others about the pregnancy-thing yet. She didn’t want to make up drama and all.
‘’Well, we can say we went to the opening of the new Zara. Look!’’ Kimberly pointed to an ad on a newspaper who laid on the floor.
‘’Wait, there’s a Zara here?!’’ Karen almost yelled. ‘’Yep, we’re going.’’
‘’But what do I have to do at an opening of a store?’’
‘’Holding our bags.’’ Karen looked at the ad.
‘’At least they’re going to believe us.’’ Kimberly giggled.
The last four months Jimi and Karen gave up their baby wish. They decided to look at the opportunities after their tour. Back at the bus, Karen was searching through Jimi’s bags to one of his shirts, which is too small for him but she likes to wear.
Under a jacket she found a small yellow box, a pregnancy test.
How sweet, she thought, he bought a reserve one. Only the wrong one but yeah… still sweet.
She found the shirt and walked into the bathroom. She locked herself up and took a seat on the toilet and opened the pregnancy test, she found out it is different than the other one’s. After that she grabbed her phone and googeled a random store. She likes to Internet-shop while she was in the bathroom, no one knew why, even Karen not.
When she wanted to flush, she realized it wasn’t working.
‘’Well, shit.’’ She aggressively hit on the button. ‘’Damn it.’’
She slipped out over her jeans but she could grab the hand basin, which broke her fall but the pregnancy test fell into the toilet.
‘’You gotta be kidding me.’’ Karen sighed.
She unlocked the bathroom and walked to the living-part to grab the plastic bag Phillip brought back at the bus yesterday. She heard someone entering the bus.
‘’Don’t look at me, I don’t wear pants!’’ Karen yelled. This was awkward.
‘’Relax, it’s just me.’’ Rebecca laughed. ‘’What are you doing?’’
‘’Looking for this bag, but I found it.’’ She smiled to her friend. ‘’You don’t have to wait for me, I’ll come later.’’ She rushed back to the bathroom and put her hand into the bag and fished the test out of the toilet while she was swearing.
She looked at it and two lines appeared.
‘’What?’’
Karen grabbed the box and read the instructions.
After three minutes the test will show you if it’s positive, if there appear two lines.
‘’What?’’ Karen asked again. Then she screamed Jimi’s name.
After then seconds someone knocked on the door very fast. Karen unlocked it and Jimi rushed into the bathroom. Karen closed the door again and gave the test to Jimi.
‘’It’s positive.’’ She said.
Jimi’s mouth fell open.
‘’There’s a Wal-Mart at the end of the road. Buy the blue test. Blue.’’ Karen instructed.
Fifteen minutes later Jimi knocked on the bathroom door and yelled Karen’s name. She let him in again and did the test again.
Positive. Again.
‘’How is this possible.’’ Karen whispered.
‘’Oh my God.’’ Jimi said. The two sat in the shower.
‘’Oh gosh, Jimi.’’ Karen started to cry and hugged her husband.
A tear streamed down his face.
‘’God blessed us, Jimi. I know it for sure.’’ Karen kept repeating the line.
Then the two started to freak out.
‘’Do you want to tell it to Kim?’’ Jimi asked after a while.
‘’Let’s tell it to the whole crowd.’’ Karen smiled.
The grabbed each others hands and walked outside.
In the door gate, Karen saw Kimberly walking back to the bus. She waved to her and put her hand on her stomach while lifting up her eyebrows. Whenever Karen did that, Kimberly knew something special was going to happen.
Her mouth fell open and tears streamed down her face. The others didn’t noticed it.
‘’Guys,’’ Jimi started. ‘’Karen and I… Karen’s pregnant, we’re expecting a baby.’’
Three months later, they had a break from their tour and spent a month at their own house. Jimi was busy making the baby-room ready while Karen couldn’t stop buying baby clothes already.
Karen sat on their front porch while Jimi walked out of the house.
‘’I’m running out of planks. I’m back in an hour I guess.’’ He gave his wife a kiss.
‘’Okay, be careful.’’ She said and watched her husband walking to their truck. He said ‘hi’ to their neighbor Astrid, got in the truck and disappeared out of Karen’s sight.
The two girls waved to each other and Astrid drove away. Karen started to read her magazine.
After a while she heard some noise. She saw that a vase fell into a bush under the front porch.
She stood up when she heard someone saying her name. It was her neighbor, Astrid’s husband. At summer nights the two couples spent a lot of hours together at one of the front porches.
‘’Hey Austin, how ya doin’?’’ Karen yelled back.
‘’I’m fine. Busy working in the garden.’’ He replied.
‘’Give me a yell when you need help.’’
Karen leaned over the fence and fished the vase out of the bush. Then her sunglasses fell off of her head. They were pretty expensive so she leaned a little bit farther to catch them.
The last thing she heard was an awful noise, and everything turned into black.
‘’She’s awake.’’ A voice said.
‘’You’re right.’’ Another voice replied.
‘’Can we see her.’’ Another voice. But this was a high female voice.
‘’No.’’ the first voice said. ‘’She’ll fall asleep soon, please come back later.’’
‘’But is everything alright?’’ A third male voice appeared.
‘’Yes. She just need to take some rest.’’
Three hours later Karen opened her eyes again.
‘’Where am I?’’ she whispered.
‘’You woke up.’’ Jimi squeezed in her hand. He sat next to her. ‘’You’re in the hospital.’’
‘’Why?’’
‘’You fell off the front porch. The fence broke. Austin saw it happening.’’
‘’Who’s Austin?’’ Karen closed her eyes again. ‘’Jimi, why are you eyes red.’’
‘’Well… eh…’’ a tear streamed down his face. ‘’You fell on your stomach. The baby’s dead.’’