In It Together

“I don’t know how to help,” Chandler said after Salix revealed that she was pregnant. “It’s seems like too much to put your body through. I hate to think of you feeling queasy or experiencing any pain at all. And my sister tells me this can be really, really painful.”

“Are you sure you want to go through this?”

“You know,” said Salix, “you help so much just by being here. We’re in it together, Chan, and when I’m with you, I feel like I can make it through anything.”

“I wish I could carry our baby for us,” he said. “I would do it in a heartbeat, just to save you a moment’s pain. Plus, it must be awesome to feel new life inside of you.”

“Isn’t there like some medical procedure that would let me carry it for you?”

Salix smiled. “It is awesome to have our baby inside of me. I love it, and I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.”

In fact, the moment she had found out that she was pregnant, she had felt the brightest joy.

“I can’t wait to tell him!”

She thought of the sweet days leading up to her pregnancy–their honeymoon, she guessed it was, even though they hadn’t gone anywhere but that moonbow land created by their candied feelings.

“I feel like we’re floating on a cloud together, with a million rainbows all around!”

Just sitting together with transported both of them to someplace they shared with no one else–their own little sugar bubble of happiness.

And to think that this new being was made from these sweet feelings!

What happiness to be together!

Life was almost too sweet to believe.

After the first day, Salix found that pregnancy was delightful. Her morning sickness was gone, and instead she felt an increase in her natural energy.

She continued to work out all through her pregnancy.

So when Miracle asked on Saturday if she felt well enough for a party at Cradle Rock, Salix said, “Sure! A party sounds great!”

Miracle, though she doesn’t exactly seem like it, is a party animal. The aspiration is not one I would have chosen for her, but she is happy to fulfill it, nonetheless. The weekends are a perfect time to knock off a few parties on her way to the next milestone.

It was a fun party, if a little quiet and laid-back. Just a Saturday afternoon house party.

Dancing, cake, conversation–that’s all a good house party needs!

Sugar, always glad to be of use, catered, and the chocolate cake was amazing. Gluttons know how to cook in a way that appeals to everyone’s sweet tooth.

After eating a slice, Chandler wondered about the little sparks that come from an excellent meal, even a chocolate cake. What happens if you accidentally eat one of those sparks?

He knew he had eaten a few of them, and now he felt that he had sparks coming out of his belly!

“Is this normal?”

“It’s just gas,” Salix said. “It’ll pass. I’m sure you’re fine!”

And they danced and forgot all about the sparks of excellence.

When the party ended, Irving hung around for a while and cleaned up the dishes. Now that’s a thoughtful cousin!

“Heck, I practically live here! Least I can do is clean up now and then.”

The next morning, Chandler’s gas pains were still there. And he felt a little bloated, too.

“Guh! This weird light. That’s not normal for gas, is it?”

“I think I know what this is,” he said in a moment of inspiration. “It’s not gas! It’s not bloating! It’s sympathy! This is what you call a sympathetic pregnancy! I always have been what you might call a sensitive type. It makes perfect sense!”

“Oh, I’m relieved to know what this is. Nothing to worry about, right?”

“Your sympathy belly is pretty cute,” Salix said. “Do you have morning sickness, too?”

“Yeah,” said Chandler. “And I have to pee all the time.”

“It’s so sweet that we have matching bellies!”

Later that afternoon, after getting up from a nap, Chandler remembered a dream he’d had the night before Miracle’s house party.

He took Salix out to the corner of their casita so he could explain the dream.

“It was right about here,” he said.

“This is the spot in the dream.”

“I was sound asleep–I mean I was really asleep, but I was asleep in my dream, too. And then I became aware of these strange lights. They looked sort of like those cells in that big microscope art right behind our bed–I bet that’s where my dream-imagination picked up the images for them.

“So in my dream, I woke up and I came out here to check them out. I felt all tingly, and kind of peaceful-like, too.”

“Next thing I knew,” Chandler continued, “I was levitating. I’ve always loved flying or levitating dreams–so free, you know? So anyway, I just traveled right up this beam of light, just like you told me in your story about that experience that you had. That must have made a deep impression on me.”

“There was a buzz and a whir,” he said.

“I know what happened,” Salix said. “Remember when I told you about when the aliens took me in their spaceship? I bet you just stored that story deep inside your subconscious, and so you dreamed it. You weren’t really taken, I’m sure. It was just a dream. Man, my back aches. What else happened?”

“Ugh. Pregnancy is not for sissies!”

“Well,” he said, “the rest of the dream is pretty murky. I don’t know how much time passed. You know how time is in dreams, right? It can seem like years and just be a moment. The next thing I remember, I was sliding down the light.”

“And I dropped here, in a big puddle of light.”

“Then I woke up in bed the next morning, and I didn’t even remember the dream until today.”

“You know,” said Salix, “it makes perfect sense! You’re brilliant, even in your dream!”

“What do you mean?” Chandler asked.

“Well, you know how you said that you wished you could carry our baby? Well, the only way guys can have babies is if they’re abducted by aliens, right? So, your subconscious registered that wish and put it together with my story about when I was abducted–I mean all your details match my story, right? Even to the saucer up in the sky like that! And then when you woke the next morning, you had this sympathy pregnancy! It’s just your subconscious’s way of showing me that we’re in it together!”

“For sure!”

“Oh! Of course!” Chandler said. “You are so right! We’re simpatico, even on a subconscious level!”