You Will Be a Grandma Grandma

Prompt 9 International Twins Day 1119 Words

You Will Be a Grandma Grandma

I sat at Alexi’s Café on the first Monday in May. Each day of the week I found myself at a different restaurant for lunch. Alexi’s was the place I frequented on the first day of each week--- for thirteen years! Lunchtime was my favorite part of my workday. I signed up for an hour instead of the usual thirty minutes. In the pressure cooker called customer service, a break in the day was required to keep one’s sanity.

This particular Monday would be notable. As I ate a patty melt sandwich that day, my cell phone rang. Caller identification displayed my son’s name. Unusual. He rarely called and never in the middle of a workday.

“Hi, Jason. How is your day going?”

“Awesome, Mom,” he answered.

“That’s a pretty strong word,” I joked.

“Yeah, well the thing is I had a question.”

“Shoot!” I replied.

“Are you ready to be a grandma, Grandma?”

I remarked about his stutter. “What did you say?”

“I asked if you were prepared to be a grandma, grandma?”

Naively I replied, “Why are you repeating grandma like that? Is it a joke?”

“No, Ma, no joke. You will be a grandma, grandma around your birthday! You are the first to know.”

“Oh my gosh! I didn’t even know you were trying to have a baby. How is Barbara?”

“She is still in shock.”

“Shock? Why shock? This was planned, right? She would know what to expect I would think, right?”

“Ma! We are having twins! You will be a grandma twice! We asked to know what kind they are, and they are boys. How about that? I gave you three and now we’re giving you two more!”

Always the family member who never runs out of questions, I asked about names. He said they were still surprised they needed to come up with two names. They had Connor left over from their last son. They chose Connor for Andyn, but began to change their minds as the story of Lacey Peterson’s murder was in the news. She was pregnant with a son whose name was Connor. It conjured up bad thoughts, that sad case.

In the delivery room, where grandson number three was born, there’s a whiteboard mounted on the wall with their doctor and nurse’s names written on it. Below, someone added the names Connor and Andyn. While I observed her in labor, Barb and Jason weighed the possibility of each name. I admit I shied away from Connor, too. Andyn, however, was a name of their own making. How difficult would it be for him to carry a name with an unusual spelling? Would they call him Andy?

“Jaxson will be the name of one of the twins,” he announced. I found out later it was the modern way to spell Jackson.

“This is great news, Jay. Keep me informed about your name search. I better get back to my meal here. Lunch will be over soon,” and with that said our goodbyes.
The truth is I secretly wished I could have either been a twin myself or given birth to twins. I grew up with close friends who are triplets. My boyfriend the first two years of high school has a fraternal boy twin. His graduating class two years before mine had 9 sets of twins! In my class, I knew of just one set that I grew up with, a boy and girl twin. All the twins and triplets were very popular. I think they stood out and the rest of us were fascinated with the multiples.

My boyfriend, Richard’s twin brother, was the quarterback of the school’s football team. He had the good looks you associate with a popular, muscular football player. My twin was skinny and looked very little like his brother. They had different colored hair. My guy had black hair. He was so thin there was not much to hold onto when we kissed. That is as far as we ever went was kissing. Today I think people would think that is strange to go out for two years and not have sex. It may be too much information, but I did not have sex until after I was married.

It was a great feeling to be wearing a senior’s class ring on a chain necklace. The school ring was a bright blue stone. He had big knuckles, so the ring was large and heavy. He happened to live across the street from me and was in the same class as my brother. We would all play whiffle ball in the street in the evenings. We would play until the streetlights came on which was the cue to go inside. We liked to talk about the future.

His parents were born in France. I felt lucky to be in love with a French boy. He dressed cool with slacks and a sweater over a dress shirt. He always smelled good opting for Canoe cologne. I remember spending my babysitting money at Morse’s Pharmacy on a bottle of it. Of course, it is French cologne and back then I believe cost $15 or so. He was so happy with that gift. I came to be known for getting people the exact most sensible gift that could be given.

After his Senior and my Sophomore year, my father transferred with his company from New Jersey to California. My mom was going to the grocery store one day shortly before we moved. My boyfriend was an apprentice butcher at the store. I asked if I could ride along. I walked back to the butcher counter and took off my necklace and handed him his ring. I told him his parents spent a lot of money on it and I did not know when I could be with him again. He was shocked. His mouth dropped and he could hardly speak. In fact, he said nothing. I said I was sorry, but I did not want to keep him from living his life in New Jersey.

He ended up marrying, had two daughters, and became a chef of note in San Francisco, California. I spoke to him once since that day in the store. I called him a few weeks after we got to California. He said I sounded like I had moved to Texas with a Southern accent. I told him it was Valley girl talk. He did not know what that was. The East and West Coasts are the exact opposite socially/culturally. It was a great experience to have a gentle boy as a boyfriend. I chose a gentleman for my husband a few years after I was out of high school. He was not a twin but he did have twin cousins.