EPILOGUE
"Alright, Kayla. What did you get for number four?" I asked the tiny little girl sitting in the front row by the door.
"Umm... fourteen?" she asked, her small voice barely audible, despite the class being entirely quiet.
"Very good!" I praised, throwing a sugar-free Jolly Rancher over to her.
I'd been teaching for almost six months now and I loved it. As soon as I graduated, I started sending my credentials to all of the elementary schools in the southern area. It took me a year and a half, but I finally got an offer at a school two hours from my home town. When they informed me that I'd be teaching second grade math and science, I was a little skeptic. I'd wanted reading and language arts, but they didn't have any openings. I went through all of the meetings and training for a month before school was in session.
On my first day, a little boy peed his pants and then threw up on me. I was ready to quit. I even started to pack my desk up when a little girl walked up to my desk and held her hand out. Nestled between her little fingers was a partially melted Hershey's kiss. "You look like you could use this more than me. Momma says chocolate always makes people smile," she said, placing it on top of my planner before walking back to her desk in the front row by the door. Kayla was my favorite student, the one that showed me that I could do it, but I'd never admit it.
"Mr. Cullen?" Jared asked, raising his chubby hand. "When do we get to go out for recess?"
"Well, it's raining, so we don't get to go out today." The class groaned. "Am I that boring?" I jokingly asked. "I mean, I was thinking we'd play silent speed-ball, but I guess we can sit quietly and read out of our science books."
The class erupted in protest, begging for silent speed-ball.
The Jolly Ranchers were a fellow teacher's idea. The kids seemed to learn better when they had an incentive, so I went to the local Costco and bought a giant thirty pound bag of the little hard candies. It was the best hundred dollars I'd ever spent. My students were now learning at a higher rate than any of the other second graders in the school.
A five dollar rubber band ball was another smart investment; silent speed-ball on a rainy day was genius. It kept everyone on alert waiting for the ball to be lobbed towards them. The rubber band ball was soft enough that it bounced off the windows, so we didn't have to worry about breaking anything. It was called 'silent' for a reason. If you so much as squeaked during play, you had to sit out till the next round, so we never got complaints from the surrounding teachers.
"Fine. Marty, get the ball out of the cabinet please. We'll start our recess a couple of minutes early. Every one stand up and put your books in your desk. Push your chairs in," I instructed, placing my coffee cup on the floor under my desk for safe keeping. We all chose our spots wisely and before long there was a bright colored ball flying around the room. I always ended up being the favorite of the game and more often than not, the ball would be thrown to me. As the teacher I was allowed to speak and sometimes I had to speak up and remind the kids to play fairly.
I'd just tossed the ball to Kayla for the second time since the game started when I heard my phone vibrating in the top drawer of my desk.
"Time out!" I gave the signal, rushing over to my desk. "You can play, but don't throw it at me." The game proceeded as I pulled my phone out and went to stand by the window to insure that I'd have good reception.
"Hello?"
"It's time," Rose said. "You need to get here because it's happening fast. She's sort of freaking out, so you might want to hurry."
"I'll be there in twenty minutes. Um... just tell her to keep her legs clamped shut," I rambled, gathering my briefcase and my jacket.
"Don't drive reckless. Love yah! Bye!" she sang, hanging up the phone. After instructing everyone to sit in their seats, I ran across the hall to Mrs. Bun's classroom. She was the reading and English teacher, so I wasn't surprised to find her class playing hangman during their indoor recess. As soon as the door opened, she looked up and gave me a warm smile.
"Edward, I take it it's time?" she stood up.
"Yeah, it's happening faster than anticipated and I have to go, like now. Can you grab the kids for me?" I rushed through my sentence.
"Of course. Be careful and tell her congratulations from me," she patted my arm.
The drive to the hospital was quick. I maneuvered my trusty Volvo down the almost dead streets, speeding up when I saw opportunity. I parked in a doctor's parking spot and ran into the hospital and all the way up to the maternity floor. Rose and Emmett were sitting outside of a room, their daughter, Michelle, playing with her Barbies on the floor between them. As soon as they saw me, they both stood with sad smiles on their faces.
"I'm too late?" I gasped, trying to catch my breath from the two flights of stairs I'd just sprinted up.
"Yep, about nineteen minutes. Right after I hung up with you, she said she couldn't wait and they had her start pushing," Rose explained. "She's been asking for you though, so knock before heading in."
"Thanks for being here," I said, kissing Michelle on her cheek before rushing over to the door and knocking softly.
"Come in," I heard before opening the door.
"Hi. I'm sorry we couldn't wait."
"It's fine," I replied, shaking my head. "I'm sorry I'm late. I really wanted to be here."
"Eh, shit happens. Do you want to hold her?"
"Of course. Let me wash my hands," I explained, walking over to the tiny sink. When Michelle was born, we all learned proper hygiene when it came to babies. I washed my hands thoroughly and dried them off before walking over to the bed. The only thing I could see under the swaddled pink and white was a pair of big dark blue, almost black, eyes squinting at me almost angry like, and a puff of strawberry blond hair.
"Looks like she's going to have my hair huh?" I joked, picking her up as carefully as I could.
"Yep. We can thank grandpa for that," Alice yawned, lying back against the bed completely exhausted. "I swear your first born better come out looking just like me."
"That's not something I can promise, Ali," I laughed, looking down at the bundle in my arms. "Hi there. I'm Uncle Edward."
"She knows who you are, loser," Alice laughed tiredly. "That hurt like hell. Even with the epidural."
"I can't imagine," I chuckled. "So are you going to tell me her name now?"
"Edelyne Grace Whitlock," Alice smiled. "After her uncle, of course."
"Alice," I groaned. "You can't be serious."
"I am," Alice said, sitting up her eyes filling with tears. "Without you, I don't know what I would have done. You've been here for me the entire time and I can't thank you enough. Let me do this because it's the least I can do."
"Alice."
"Oh shut the hell up, Edward. I already signed the papers, so get over it," she sniffled. "I wish he was here." Jasper and Alice were the only ones that stayed in town after graduation. They continued to avoid each other for a solid three months. After running into each other at the coffee house Alice was working at during the weekends when she wasn't in school, Jasper convinced her into a date. Their relationship was stronger than ever after that, as if the entire debacle hadn't happened.
Jasper opened his own tattoo shop two years later and business was booming. Alice stopped working at the coffee house and quickly picked up piercing for him, but the business fell through a few months before she graduated from cosmetology school. Jasper started working at the shop that he interned at after high school and proposed to Alice the day she graduated, refusing to let the failed business hinder their happiness. They decided on a long engagement, but things changed when Alice became pregnant a few months before I received my hiring papers.
Jasper convinced himself that he couldn't raise a baby on a hair stylist and a tattoo artist's salary, and after a lot of deliberation, he enrolled in the navy. They thought they would have time before he was whisked away, but with training and everything, he'd missed almost everything. The money he was making made it all worth it. They were married two weeks before he was deployed overseas and the only communication they'd had since then was via cell phone or webcam. Alice was staying on the base in Texas, but when Jasper was deployed, she decided to move home to be around our parents. I accompanied her to all of her doctor's appointments and checkups, but she wanted her husband and Edelyne's father here instead. If I could, I'd switch places with him at this moment.
"I know, Alice." I sat at the foot of her bed with my niece in my arms. "She's beautiful. Just like her momma."
"Thanks. I feel a little less than beautiful right now," she sighed. "Sort of like a deflated balloon. I can't wait to hit the gym." We shared a laugh before Edelyne started crying. Alice hit the nurse page button and I excused myself so that the nursing assistant could help her set up for their first feeding.
Emmett had Michelle on his shoulder, her crinkly curly blond hair a giant mess as she slept, drooling down her father's shoulder. Rose was flipping through a camera catalog. They'd gone to school together for film and directing, but Rose was the only one able to succeed. She'd done a bunch of low key movies when she found her niche in commercializing. After they eloped in a small chapel they decided they wanted a baby and Michelle arrived eight months later. Emmett decided that filming wasn't for him, and Rose made more than enough money with her career, so he became Mr. Mom. He started a small daycare in their home and babysat ten children from around the neighborhood after school or while their parents were at work.
"How's she doing?" Emmett asked, toying with his phone.
"Fine. She's missing Jasper a lot, but they are both doing fine. Did she tell you what she named her?"
"Yeah. That poor kid," Rose snorted. "How are you doing? I was worried about your drive over here after I hung up."
"Good. It was a little hectic and I was still too late, but we can't change things can we?" I shrugged.
We sat together in the hallway. Michelle woke up and asked for hot chocolate. Rose pawned her off to me, so with a handful of quarters, we headed down to the cafeteria. She swung on my arm like a little monkey jabbering about her new little baby she was going to play with as soon as mommy let her in to see Aunty Alice. I just chuckled and tried to keep up with her once she ran off. She had just made it to the double doors leading to the cafeteria when she ran into a short, brown haired woman wearing hot pink scrubs. Immediately the woman picked up Michelle swinging her in her arms while the tot giggled away.
"Aunty Bella!" she sang as Bella kissed her cheek.
"Hi Miss Michelle. I heard you had a baby? Boy or a girl?" Bella asked, sending me a smile.
"Yep, her's is a girl. And I'm gonna dress her up just like Aunty Alice dressed me up when I'sa baby," Michelle rambled, jumping around as soon as Bella sat her on her dainty feet.
"Wow! Sounds exciting! I remember when you were just a little baby. I would hold you in my arms and you'd just fart all over my arm." Bella crinkled her cute nose.
"Ew, that's gross. Momma said girls don't fart. We fluff," Michelle corrected.
"Well then, you fluffed all over me," Bella laughed. "Are you going to buy me some hot chocolate?"
"I dunno. Uncle Ed do you have enough quarters?" Michelle asked thoughtfully.
"I'm sure we do," I nodded. Michelle decided that she was old enough to get her own, so we stood a few feet behind her and supervised while she placed the quarters into the slot and pressed the button. She chose cappuccino accidentally, so I took that one, not wanting Rose to kick my ass when she found out her kid had caffeine.
"How's Alice doing?" Bella asked, bumping my shoulder with hers. "I didn't find out they were here until after the baby was here and this is the first break I've had in twelve hours. I hope she doesn't think ill of me. Without caffeine, there is no way I'm going to last another twelve hours," she yawned loudly, covering her mouth with her hand.
"She's good. The baby is beautiful. Edelyne Grace Whitlock."
Bella snorted into her hand. "I didn't think she was going to take me serious."
"You're the one that gave her that name?" I asked incredulously.
"Well yeah. We were talking one night and she said she wanted to pay tribute," Bella shrugged. Michelle kicked the machine, screaming for it to give her more marshmallows, so Bella stepped in, grabbing her by the hand and leading her over to the small nurse's lounge that was attached to the cafeteria. I watched as they filled Michelle's cup the rest of the way with marshmallows out of a bag from the pantry.
Bella hadn't been in school for less than two weeks before she called me crying over a little girl who'd been hit by a car outside the apartment she lived in during college. Bella had witnessed the entire thing and did everything she could, holding the little girl while the driver ran and left her to die. The ambulance had arrived a few minutes too late. The little girl died in Bella's arms and it hit her hard. I offered to come down and be with her, but she declined.
Two weeks later she was changing her classes and going into nursing. She believed that had she been properly trained, she would have been able to save the little girl. Despite the fact that the girl's parents had told her otherwise. The little girl wouldn't have lived even if she'd been hit by the car right in front of the hospital. Her injuries were too serious. She graduated with a nursing license and started working for the hospital in Florida that she did most of her on the job training.
We continued our long distance relationship the entire time. Not once did we question the other or the fact that we lived clear across the United States. As soon as I graduated and returned home trying to find a job, Bella told me that she wasn't signing a contract with the hospital and that she wanted to be where I was.
When I got my job at the elementary school, she contacted the hospital in town and two months later, she moved from her small apartment into the tiny house I'd started renting once I came back. We made up for lost time, enjoying a month of nothing but each other, ordering out and refusing to leave the house, more like leaving the bed or answer the phone.
When Alice moved home, she started staying at our house on the weekends to give my parents a break. Alice wasn't a polite pregnant woman; her hormones deviated quicker than you could blink. One second crying, the next screaming her head off, then back to bawling before you could even try to console her. It only grew worse when she realized that Jasper wouldn't be back in time for the birth. With Bella by my side we managed. Turning the small spare bedroom in our house into a bedroom/nursery for Alice and the baby. We moved all of her stuff out of my parent's house and offered her a place to stay until Jasper returned.
"What are you smiling 'bout, dork?" Michelle asked, jumping into my lap. Bella laughed and sat the marshmallow filled cup on the table.
"I'm happy, geek. What are you smiling about?" I pulled a messy curl.
"'Cause I just had a baby," she said, ending her sentence with an eye roll. Definitely Rose's child.
"Oh, well, I guess that would make me smile, too."
"Then why don't you and Aunty Bella have a baby?" she asked, bouncing a little as she sipped her hot chocolate. Bella snorted and coughed on her drink, getting up to get a napkin to wipe her nose.
We'd talked about getting married, starting a family and living the American Dream. We wanted to do it the smart way, so once I had been working at the school for three years and Bella at the hospital for the same amount of time, we'd start planning our wedding.
Just like Bella made the first move asking me out on a date all those years ago, she also jumped the gun about proposing. I'd come home surprised to find all of her bags in the living room and found her sitting on my bed. She wasn't supposed to arrive for another three days, but she said she was too excited. She got down on one knee and asked me to marry her. I said yes. Obviously. After we get married, Bella would stop birth control and we'd see what hand life dealt us.
"Someday, princess," Bella answered simply, sending me a sly wink.
"Someday," I agreed.
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