January Blog Hop

Storytime Blog Hop January 31, 2018

Welcome to the January edition of Storytime Blog Hop. Enjoy my story below, then follow the links to other stories of participating authors in the blog hop.  Leave us comments.  We love hearing from you!

 

Note about my story below:  As I finished Growth Spurt something felt off. I think maybe it’s because the story needs to be longer, much longer. Don’t be surprised if Growth Spurt returns one day, after its own Growth Spurt. :).  See what I did there?

Growth Spurt

“Wait! Wait!” Adam stretched out his arm in front of Cheryl. He took the duffle bag from her and set it behind, then gently handed her Tommy.

Tommy – Seven pounds, nine ounces, eighteen inches tall, baby blue eyes, tiny feet and hands, lungs of an opera singer, and in perfect health.

“I want to record Tommy entering the house for the first time.”

Cheryl patiently smiled at her husband. “But I must look like a mess.”

Adam gave her a kiss. “You’ve never looked more radiant.”

It was true. Giving birth to her firstborn was the happiest day for Cheryl. Her wedding was a close second, though she would never admit it.

Adam opened the door of their second story apartment, traded the key for his phone in his front jeans pocket, and positioned himself inside for the best possible angle. “Okay, I’m recording.

Cheryl felt her cheeks burn so she ignored Adam and focused on Tommy as she entered the apartment.

“Isn’t he just perfect?” she commented as Adam retrieved the duffle bag and closed the door.

“Yes. And he has his mother’s eyes.”

That night, Cheryl rocked Tommy while Adam sat at the computer on the other side of their bedroom.

As Tommy suckled, she asked, “What are you doing, honey?”

“I’m downloading the video footage from my phone so I can delete it and start over tomorrow.”

“I hope you have enough memory on your hard drive for all the recordings,” Cheryl joked.

Adam smiled. “It’s in the cloud. We have unlimited storage.”

After feeding and burping Tommy, Cheryl reluctantly laid her beautiful boy in the bassinet next to her bed, then fell into bed and went immediately to sleep.

***

The next morning Cheryl opened her eyes to a wonderful sight – Adam swaying at the end of the bed with Tommy, who was starting to fuss. She smiled, then yawned and stretched.

“I tried to keep Tommy entertained as long as I could so you could sleep, but he’s hungry.”

She scooted into a sitting position and took Tommy, who began to eat. Adam brought Cheryl her favorite breakfast drink accompanied by a straw, and served her sips whenever she wanted.

And so began a most perfect day – just her and Adam and Tommy. Adam spoiled her, changed all the dirty diapers, cooked her favorite meal, and allowed her to sleep as much as she wanted (and after the recent twenty hours of labor, she wanted). In fact, the only thing she had to do all day was feed Tommy.

But the highlight was rocking her newborn to sleep with her husband fifteen feet away, downloading the day’s recordings of Tommy onto the computer, then snuggling with her husband as Tommy slept in his basinet next to the bed.

***

“Tommy!”

Cheryl bolted out of bed. The clock said seven-nineteen, the sun peeked through the curtains, and Tommy stirred in the basinet. She let out a sigh of relief.

Adam had jumped out of bed and hurried to her side when Cheryl yelled. “What’s wrong?”

She was almost in tears. “I’m sorry. I thought something was wrong with Tommy. He slept all night.”

“That’s not possible.” Adam gasped.

She settled into the rocker and began to feed her baby. She didn’t relax until Tommy had eaten well, burped, and dirtied his diaper.

Adam was a dream all day, helping her shower during one of Tommy’s naps, preparing meals for the two of them, and cleaning up after the meals.

When Cheryl laid Tommy in the basinet that night, Adam stood from the computer and put his arms around her.

“I’m so thankful you were able to stay home today,” she whispered.

Adam kissed her softly on the lips. “Me too.”

***

“Adam. Adam.” Cheryl insistently called.

Adam rolled groggily over and attempted to open his eyes.

“Adam.” She said more forcefully. The eyes popped wide open.

“Look!” She pointed down to Tommy.

Adam rolled out of bed to peer at his son. He shrugged. “What about him?”

Cheryl stretched the soft measuring tape the length of her son.

Adam whistled. “They sure do grow up quickly.”

“Almost three inches in one night?”

Cheryl was so concerned that Adam called the doctor, who agreed to see her and Tommy early for their follow-up exam.

Dr. Hall smiled down at Tommy before handing him back to Cheryl. “Well, you aren’t going crazy. Tommy has indeed grown two and a half inches since his birth.”

Cheryl’s eyes watered up. What was wrong with her boy?

The doctor continued. “While it’s extremely unusual, it’s not unprecedented for a person to grow significantly overnight.” She patted Cheryl on the shoulder. “You can relax. All the tests we ran show Tommy is in great health.”

As Cheryl rocked Tommy to sleep that night she said an extra prayer of thanks for his health.

“Did you watch the video after you downloaded it?” Cheryl asked as she crawled into bed with Adam.

“No, I was too tired. We can watch it tomorrow.”

“It’s a date,” she managed before she drifted off to sleep.

***

“Adam!”

Cheryl’s blood-curling scream certainly reached the neighbors, but she didn’t care. Tommy was missing. Where the basinet stood the night before lay a note in its place. Her legs gave out and she collapsed back onto the bed. Adam picked up the note and began reading to himself.

“What does it say?” She demanded.

He rushed to the computer and turned it on.

“It says we have to watch a video on the computer.”

“Does it say who it’s from?”

“Yeah, me.”

“You? What?” Cheryl crawled across the bed and sat on the opposite side. Adam turned the monitor and sat beside her.

Over the next several minutes Cheryl and Adam sat in stunned silence as they watched snippets of video of their Tommy, ranging from the day they brought him home from the hospital to his fourth birthday. Cheryl didn’t recognize any of it. The last thing she remembered was putting Tommy to bed on his first night at home from the hospital.

The video turned from Cheryl tucking into bed a four-year-old Tommy, to Adam. “This is Tommy’s first night in his own bed.”

The video panned to Tommy once more, then back to Adam, who spoke as he walked to his bedroom. “Every day Tommy wakes up a day older, but for us, his parents, every day is still January 31, 2018, the day after we brought him home from the hospital. It’s also January 31, 2018 for the rest of the world. I don’t know what has happened to cause this, but it’s true, as you can see by the video.

Cheryl tried to swallow the lump in her throat, to no avail. Her baby was four? Tears ran down her face. She had no memory of her son as a child.

“Mommy?” Cheryl stood and spun around. Tommy stood in the doorway.

“Oh, Tommy!” She held out her arms he ran into them.

“Mommy, are you okay?”

She wiped her tears the best she could. “I am now, honey.”

Adam hugged them both. “What do we do now?”

Cheryl thought of the horror of waking and finding Tommy gone. “We find a better way to tell ourselves tomorrow morning that our son is four years old.”

 

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