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“And how are you feeling this morning, my love?”-Ed could see Penny was quite uncomfortable and the nearly one hundred degree heat wasn’t helping.
“Pregnant.-I’m too old for this stuff,” she almost snapped at him.
“Well, it’ll be over now before too long.-The babies should be here within a couple of weeks.-I know little Lorrie Anne wouldn’t make you so miserable if she could help it.”
“I know.-I’m sorry, Ed.-The doctor says she’s going to be a beautiful, healthy, darling, little girl. But right now she’s practicing jumping jacks and I’ve got to go to the bathroom again.”
Ed grinned and went out to saddle the horses so the kids could ride.
About an hour later, Penny was sitting on the front porch trying to stay as cool as possible when the telephone rang.-She heaved a sigh of relief that she had remembered to grab the cordless phone on her way through the house.-She picked it up from beside her on the swing and thumbed it on.-“Hello.”
“And how is my favorite niece?” Aunt Winnie wanted to know.
“As I told Ed a little while ago, pregnant.-It is so hot and humid and, believe me, pregnancy doubles the problem.-I shouldn’t be complaining, Aunt Winnie.-Actually, I’m fine.-I’m sitting here on the porch watching the twins riding the horses you gave them.-They are getting unbelievably good at it; and enjoying them so very much.”
“The twins are actually what I called to talk to you about, Penny.-What will you do with them if you and Chrissy are both in the hospital at the same time?- I don’t think they’ll be in school yet, will they?”
“No.-School doesn’t start until the last week in August.-So everything should be over before they go back to school.-We had expected to take them to the hospital with us.-I’m not sure we have a choice, actually.”
“That could be quite difficult, couldn’t it?-I mean lots of babies are born in the middle of the night and it seems to me it would be pretty hard on them to wake them, get them dressed and make them sit in a waiting room for what could be hours.-What I’m trying to say is that I’d like to come and stay with you all until the baby is born and help out a little.”
“Oh, Aunt Winnie, I couldn’t ask you to do that.-Don’t you have things there you need to see to?-A horse ranch doesn’t just run itself.”
“If I didn’t have the time and the inclination, I wouldn’t have offered.-Now, unless you don’t want me, I thought I’d come tomorrow.”
Suddenly Penny was crying.-She couldn’t have said exactly why, but she tried to tell Aunt Winnie that it would be wonderful to have her there and know the kids were being taken care of.-
“Oh, now, stop that.-What’s the use of having family if we don’t take care of each other?-I might need you to take care of me sometime.-Besides that, I’ve still got a date with your ghosts.-I plan to find out who they were, when they were alive, and why they haunt that house.-I’ll see you tomorrow and don’t worry about cooking.-I’ll bring pizza if you don’t think the kids will be too mad at me for it.-Tell Johnny and Chrissy to come down, too.-I’ll bring enough pizza for all of us.-Oh, and, hey.-You said I could meet Johnny’s parents and Grandmother Lydia, too.-Tell them to come down, also.-We’ll make it a real family get-together.”
“That sounds wonderful, Aunt Winnie.-Thank you so much.”
“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon about five o’clock, if that’s alright.”
“That’s fabulous.-We’ll see you then.”-Then she hung up and cried some more.-Ed found her sobbing and it took several minutes to determine what was wrong.
“It’s—just—such—a—relief to not—have to—worry—about the—twins—while we’re at the—hospital,” she blubbered.
“She’s an especially sweet lady, honey.-Now unless you need to cry, let me dry those tears.-I brought you some iced tea.-I thought that might make you feel better.”
She felt like crying again because he was being so sweet, but she managed to shut off the water works.-And the tea was delicious.-Of course, in just a few minutes she’d need to head for the bathroom again.-That made her smile and sigh and then they both felt better.
When Aunt Winnie arrived this time, she was driving a jeep.-When she got out of the vehicle, Johnny and Ed were there to help her in with all the boxes of pizza.-They had set up a big, long table that Ed had made along with benches to sit on.-They had put everything out under the trees in the shade and with the sun going down, it was almost pleasantly cool.-Janet had brought down paper tablecloths from Thorne Hill and there were tall frosty glasses of iced tea already on the table.-Everybody sat down at once so they could eat the pizza while it was still hot.-As they ate, introductions were passed around with the napkins.-
“It was so wonderful of you, Aunt Winnie, to offer to look after the twins while Mom and I are in the hospital.-It will make everything so much less stressful for us and I know Andy and Candy will love having you here.”
“I’ll have a lot more fun than you and your mother will, that’s for sure,” Wilhelmina laughed.-“Oh, when we finish eating, I have a surprise for the twins and something for the babies, too.”
“Another surprise for us?” Andy was already inclined to be finished eating if that meant it was surprise time.
“Aunt Winnie, you really are going to spoil us.”-Candy sighed excitedly with her eyes dancing.-“Aunt Winnie does great surprises,” she told everybody.
When the leftover pizza had been taken in the house, the trash all bagged and the tea glasses refilled, Wilhelmina told the twins to go get the boxes that were in the back of the jeep.-They came back loaded down with packages.-Wilhelmina sorted them and gave two packages each to Penny and Chrissy and the rest, she said, were for Andy and Candy.
“Thank you, Aunt Winnie.-May we open them now?”-When both Aunt Winnie and their mother nodded, the twins tore into them immediately.-Andy opened one of his boxes to reveal a real cowboy hat and Candy got hers opened a few seconds later.-In another box each of them found jeans.-In the third boxes, were a pink cowboy shirt and a pink kerchief for Candy and a blue western shirt and blue kerchief for Andy.-There were only two envelopes left to open.-When Andy got his open he ran to Penny to see what it said.
“It says, ‘This is a gift certificate for a pair of cowboy boots for Mr. Andy Wroe from Aunt Winnie Foster’.”
“And I’ll bet mine says the same thing doesn’t it Daddy?”
“Yes, it does.”
“You mean we get all this and boots, too.”
“Well, I figured if you’re going to be cowboys and cowgirls and ride horses, you needed to look like wranglers.-I was afraid to buy the boots for fear I wouldn’t get the right size.-I measured both of you while you were asleep when I was here before so I could get the right size pants and shirts.-Do you like them?”
Both kids went to Wilhelmina and hugged her and kissed her with abandon.-“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Aunt Winnie.-Everything is just simply super.”
“Yes, we love all of it and especially the boots we’ll get.-Thank you so very, very much.”
“A person would think it was your birthday or Christmas, wouldn’t they?”-Grandmother Lydia was almost jealous of all the attention being lavished on Aunt Winnie, although Lydia didn’t recognize the fact and probably wouldn’t have admitted it if she did.
“Speaking of birthdays,” Chrissy remarked, “I know someone who will be having one in about six weeks or so.-I’m thinking a celebration in her honor is in order.-We need to start planning, too, because Mama and I are gonna be sort of ‘out of the loop’ for a little while shortly.”
“Chrissy and I have been talking about it and we broached the subject with Mom and she thought it was a good idea, too.”-Janet nodded her head in agreement.-“After all,” Johnny went on, “not everybody gets to have an eighty-second birthday.”
“Oh, you mean me?”-Lydia had still been thinking about how special they were treating Wilhelmina.-Now she was embarrassed and a little ashamed that s
he had been thinking maybe they thought ‘Aunt Winnie’ was more special than she was.-Now she flushed hotly and somewhat uncomfortably.-But it soon turned to pleasure as she heard they planned to invite the folks from Ireland and Penny’s family from North Carolina, Ed’s family from California as well as a bunch of the local neighbors and friends.-Wilhelmina was even contributing ideas and suggestions of what she could do to help with the party.
“That’s so nice of you all.-But please don’t go to extremes.-If you’re all here to help celebrate, that’s plenty.”-But Lydia was genuinely pleased.-She had never had a birthday party, ever, as far as she could remember.-This would indeed be extremely special.-And she would enjoy so much seeing the Irish members of the family again.-Of course, they weren’t actually her family; but they were Janet’s family and Janet was hers.-Anyway, she had come to genuinely love them when they came for Johnny and Chrissy’s wedding.
Chrissy’s family was equally precious.-They had treated Lydia with respect and affection during that time also and she looked forward to seeing them again as well.-As the plans progressed, Lydia listened in awe as they planned for mountains of food and beverage, all kinds of entertainment and a generally wonderful day.- Since Chrissy and Penny would be new mothers, Janet would take care of a large part of the work involved but they would all be in on the planning.-Most of the food would be catered, they decided, so all of them could enjoy the festivities.-Unless it rained, they wanted to have it outside.-By the middle of September, it would probably not be as oppressively hot and maybe the Fall rains would not yet be started.-As it turned out September the fifteenth would be on a Saturday so that made it a perfect time for celebration.
-“All of that sounds wonderful and I’m so looking forward to it.-But, am I the only one curious about what’s in those packages Wilhelmina brought for Penny and Chrissy?”-Lydia was no longer feeling threatened by the family’s affection for ‘Aunt Winnie.’
“I certainly am.”-Penny waited for a nod from Aunt Winnie and then she began to carefully undo the beautiful pink wrapping paper around her gift.-Then she pulled out a tiny pink chiffon dress with yards and yards of lace-trimmed ruffles and ribbons.-There was also a tiny pink crocheted shawl and matching booties to go with it.-They were also lined with chiffon, since sometimes crochet yarns tended to irritate sensitive skin.
Tears fell unashamedly down Penny’s face.-“That is the most beautiful little dress I have ever seen in my life.”-Penny’s voice was barely audible; but the silence, broken only by whispered ooohs and aaahs, allowed it to be heard loud and clear.
After everyone had gingerly examined the little dress and proclaimed it unbelievably superb, Chrissy began unwrapping her box.-The little outfit she drew out of the package was equally if not more spectacular.-The powder blue pants had permanently sewn creases down the fronts of the legs. On the bottom of the legs were foot covers fastened on that looked like patent leather shoes. The top half was a combination shirt, long-tailed coat and bow tie in the shape of a tuxedo complete with cummerbund and attached boutonniere.-When the top half of the outfit was fastened in the back, it looked just like a tiny tux.-In the bottom of the box was an envelope.-When Chrissy opened it, the retractable top hat sprung into shape and would just fit the size of a tiny baby’s head.
Chrissy just sat and gazed at the ensemble.-She had never dreamed there was anything so charming and adorable.-From the shiny little black shoes to the top hat and tails, it was breathtaking.-
“Aunt Winnie, where on earth did you find something so awesome and so unique?-I have never seen anything remotely like it anywhere.”
“Neither had I, Chrissy.-But I wanted something as a counterpoint to the princess dress.-I know a seamstress who had designed clothes for some of my acquaintances.-Her name is Eva Mae and she helped me design the little tux and then she put it together for me.-She made the dress, too.-It’s also one-of-a-kind.-There’s not another exactly like it in the world.”-The entire group, even the men, were nearly speechless.
“That’s like the tux I wore at Chrissy and Johnny’s wedding, isn’t it Mommy?-I didn’t know they came in baby sizes.-And he won’t have to worry about his socks going down in his shoes like mine did.-These are sewed right in.”
“Yes, Andy.-Both outfits are astonishingly gorgeous.-Thank you so much, Aunt Winnie.”
“I just can’t wait to see my little Tommy in his tux.-And you were so clever and sweet to design it yourself.-We’ll want to take lots of pictures and then we’ll keep the little outfits in case we have more babies to wear them.”
“Speak for yourself, daughter.-I’m definitely not planning any more babies for us.”-Penny was sure.
Then Ed spoiled things.-“I don’t believe we planned this one either, but it happened anyway, didn’t it?”- Everyone laughed heartily.
Chrissy and Penny opened the other two gifts at that point and found short sets for each of the babies.-The little yellow shorts would be topped with a sleeveless T-shirt with darker yellow canaries pictured on it for Lorrie Anne and the green bottoms would have a short-sleeved shirt in pastel green with darker green crocodiles pictured on the front.-They were adorable, too.