Good Man

Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence.
- Og Mandino



Caroline laughed out loud as her now four year old son ran around the living room in his Spiderman costume, jumping onto the couch and then back down to the floor, pretending to shoot webs from his wrists. Always ready to follow her big brother around like a little leech, Chloe skipped around behind him, as if dancing to some form of music in her head that only she could hear. Dressed like Belle from Disney's Beauty and the Beast, she really did look like a pretty princess, her long brown hair curled into delicate locks by her mommy and a touch of red lipstick on her mouth.

"You two haven't even gone out Trick-or-Treating yet and you're already wired!" Caroline exclaimed in good humor.

It surprised her how well her mood had changed for the better. Maybe it was Buffalo's crisp, fall weather which perked her spirits, maybe it was the fact that Halloween was probably her favorite holiday, not including Christmas, or maybe it was her pregnancy hormones that had forced her body to excrete all her bad juju and instead create happy, er, juju.

At a little over four months pregnant, her stomach was already protruding further than it had at this point than it did with her two, previous pregnancies. She tried considering the possible fathers, which was something that tended to make her feel a bit of a slut to not know who it was, and then considered what each potential sperm donor was like when they were babies, themselves.

From what she knew or had seen in pictures, each man had been a Butterball turkey in their infancy, whereas Caroline had been a tiny thing with chicken legs. Given that knowledge, she knew this child would most likely come out lookin' like a tiny sumo wrestler.

For the last evening of October, it was unseasonably warm in Buffalo and Caroline was thankful that she didn't have to fight with her kids to put coats on them, in turn covering up their much beloved costumes to go Trick-or-Treating. Caroline, herself, was also dressed in costume as a big pumpkin complete with a green stack as a cap and black leggings.

Snapping pictures of Mikey and Chloe with her digital camera, she smiled more as she began ushering the pair out of the living room and to pick up their pumpkin buckets to put their candy in.

"Let's go get some candy now," she told them.

Five minutes later, mother and children were walking up the street, hitting their neighbor on the left first; the Pritchard kids joined by three older children somewhere between the ages of nine to eleven. Another mother stood beside Caroline on the sidewalk in front of the house, not dressed in costume like Caroline was, and very amused by the brunette pumpkin.

"That's pretty daring," the other mother commented. "I don't know too many, if any, parents who dress up for Trick-or-Treating with their kids."

Caroline shrugged as she listened to Mikey mutter a quick thank you to the neighbor for his and his sister's candy, and then take Chloe by the hand. Caroline snapped a picture of her pair as they headed toward her, skipping happily together.

"I do it for them," Caroline replied to the other mother. "When they get older and start to become embarrassed by me, I won't do it any more. And when they're old enough to go out Trick-or-Treating on their own, I'll stay home and pass out candy." Turning her head, she looked at the woman as both their respective children reached them. "Plus, I love Halloween."

The other mother and her children walked by Caroline and hers, going in opposite directions on the street. Caroline smirked at how the woman didn't seem to recognize who she was, and if she did, had the decency not to say anything and make a spectacle of it. Also, she was glad at how her pregnancy was concealed by the pumpkin costume; something of which she'd been keeping under wraps for a while now.

The only people who knew she was pregnant were a select few; her mom and dad, biological father Alexander, her biological half-sister Timmy and brother-in-law Seth, Dave and Nef since they were still in Buffalo and couldn't avoid noticing Caroline's growing bump, and Valerie, of course, who'd been there when the test came back positive.

And, where Dave was concerned, he'd already asked Caroline on several occasions in the last month if he was the father, but Caroline would not give him a yes or no answer, because she wasn't one hundred percent sure either. She told him as much, and that she really didn't want to know. It seemed easier that way because then there would be no entanglements, latching her to any one man for the next eighteen years that wasn't her beloved Mike. Plus, she really didn't want to deal with the possibility of it being Billie Joe's and having Adrienne find out.

She was given a time frame of when she was due, and when about she might've conceived and the date the doctor gave her did lean more toward the time she was with Dave, but it could've been before that, with Gerard, or after with Billie Joe. There was just no certain answer.

The more she thought about her situation, the more she was convinced it was better she kept this to herself. Well, obviously, the fact that she was pregnant and was going to have a child would not escape notice, but after all was said and done, and this child was born, she felt it would be better to raise the child by herself, without the father, whoever it may be.

She'd already thought up an excuse about who the father could be for those who would eventually inquire: not long before Mike had died, he'd 'donated' his sperm to a sperm bank, specifically only for Caroline's use, in the event that they wanted to conceive more children and something happened wherein it wasn't physically possible for them.

Therefore, in vitro.

Given what happened the year before with Caroline's breakdown, overdose and subsequent miscarriage, she felt now was a better time to have that third child they originally planned on having. She could say she had the procedure done in privacy either before or after she arrived to Buffalo.

This child would carry her last name, and Mike would be named the father, posthumously.

Maybe one day, many years from now, Caroline might have blood work done to find out who the real father is. And, who knows? Maybe once the child grows up, it'll become obvious who the father is, by sheer looks alone. However, to go by eye color alone would not help things. The child would either have hazel like Caroline or green; Gerard, Dave and Billie Joe all happened to have green eyes.

But, this was only October 31, 2013.

Her due date -- March 31, 2014 -- was still a ways away.

Five months to be exact.



Speaking of babies...

Ellis stood in Avarielle's bedroom, dressing the 4-month-old in a little bumblebee costume, but she was putting up quite the fuss. Blue-eyed, bald and quite roly-poly, the youngest Wright child was possibly the cutest thing ever.

But cute only went so far when a child was teething and cranky as all hell.

Avarielle's bottom lip quivered as she whined and squirmed, crying without any tears.

"Faker," Ellis muttered with amusement in her tone. "No tears, no cry. C'mon..."

After she finally finagled the little girl into her costume, hooked her hands under her armpits and lifted her up at eye level, she couldn't help but laugh at how Avarielle whimpered and threw her head back.

She had already come very far in development; she was teething, as already mentioned, could roll over and lift her head, and on occasion laughed quite a bit. The next major milestones would be sitting up on her own with minimal support and holding a bottle on her own.

"Are you excited for your first Halloween, Avrie?" The infant girl only whimpered in response before focusing her attention on her Aunt Ellis. "I'll take that as a yes."

Even though it was Halloween, Avarielle was far too young to be Trick-Or-Treating, and given who her father was, there would be no one coming up to the house for candy, but that didn't stop Ellis from dressing her niece up. There were such things as costume parties, which is exactly where they were headed, and Ellis was very proud at how she had persuaded Tre to join her with Ellis at the Armstrong house for said event.

It would be the first 'family affair' she would be attending with Tre's friends and to say she was nervous was an understatement. She felt like an outsider most times; like a bizarro world's replacement of Giselle -- the only female counterpart to Tre at the moment, and only mother figure Avarielle currently had on a regular basis.

"How come you're not dressed up?" came Ramona's voice.

Tre's eighteen-year-old daughter was visiting for the week, up from Los Angeles where she shared a condo apartment with a girl she'd become close friends with during her tail end of high school; Keisha Campbell, a beautiful African-American freshman at UCLA with a currently undeclared major and with no desire to reside on campus in the student dorms and with an occasionally morbid sense of humor.

"I've never been one to dress for Halloween," was Ellis' aloof response.

Ramona was leaning in the doorway with her arms crossed, watching her step-aunt tend to her newest half sibling. It was a little weird at times, what with her dad having more kids when she, herself, was old enough now to be the mother of her own sister.

"Well, now's as good a time as ever to start..."

Ellis shrugged, glancing at Tre's oldest. "I don't even know where to begin with what to dress as."

"I have a shit load of things in my bedroom closet," Ramona stated, pushing off the doorframe and walking up toward Ellis. "We can put something decent together, I'm sure."

Holding her hands out, she gestured to her baby sister. Ellis caught on and passed the little girl off the Ramona with a smile.

"Alright," Ellis obliged. After a beat or two, she tilted her head to the side slightly. "How's Hollywood treating you?"

Ramona was distracted with bouncing Avarielle up and down in her arms when she snapped to and looked over at Ellis. "What? Oh. It's okay. I've had some auditions over the summer that really lead nowhere, but I just got this part in a national commercial for some kind of deodorant. Ban, I think. And I had this audition for a walk-on, speaking role on a soap opera for next month. My agent told me she was talking to the casting agent, and this part could last more than one stint, and possibly build into a recurring role for a couple of weeks, though it would be a minor recurring role..."

"Well, hey, that's still something. It's more than most young women get when first coming to LA."

Ramona shrugged. "Yeah, I s'pose. I just hope I'm getting this stuff on my own merit, and not because they know who my dad is."

"Your dad's known around the world as Tre Cool, not as Frank Wright. You're Ramona Wright, a person unto yourself."

"I hope so..."



Meanwhile, a few blocks away and a bit further up the Berkeley Hills, The Armstrong house was already ablaze with commotion. Fog machines pumped out nauseating clouds of white smoke, 'The Monster Mash' was currently wafting throughout and the colorful onslaught of several guests in costume clogged several rooms of the first floor. There was the usual din of chatter, laughter and talking over the music and other sound effects added to the ghastly decorations Adrienne had put together for the Halloween holiday.

And while the party carried on downstairs, complete with Joey's longtime girlfriend Nicole who was dressed as an 18th century socialite, Joey was laying on his bed upstairs, dressed as in an 18th century nobleman's attire, but with his white, powdered wig draped on his bedpost.

In his hand, he cradled his cellphone against his ear, smiling lasciviously. "I had a great time last night, too," he was saying. "I'm just putting in an appearance here at my parents' party for about an hour or two more and then I'll come by and we'll go out."

On the other end of the phone conversation, and a few miles away, across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridge, in San Francisco's Chinatown, a nineteen-year-old Crystal Banach was leaning against the doorframe of her small kitchen, beaming from ear to ear as she twisted her blonde hair around her thumb and index finger.

"Good, 'cause I miss you," she informed.

Crystal had met Joey in Nob Hill by some college friends of hers that happened to know Joey through some mutual acquaintances. They had hit it off right away, and he was honest with her from the start about having a girlfriend, but that he was not as happy with her as he had once been; that it was the same old shtick, nothing was new and everything was predictable. But he didn't want to break Nicole's heart either.

Then there was Crystal, who was just getting out of her own long term relationship with her high school sweetheart and could understand where Joey was coming from, completely.

And though she didn't want to break up any relationship and be a homewrecker of sorts, especially since his girlfriend seemed like a really great person, Crystal also couldn't help her baser instincts and needs.

By September, Joey and Crystal were sleeping together, and the night before Halloween, they'd had mind blowing, marathon sex. And Joey was ready for more, if not Crystal more so.

"I miss you more," Joey smirked. "You gonna wear a costume when I get there?"

"Mmhmm," Crystal confirmed, nodding her head though he was unable to see so. "The sexy Marie Antoinette costume that Playboy makes that we saw at Spencer's."

"We'll definitely look perfect together. And I can't wait to rip the costume off you afterward..."

Crystal giggled. "You're so bad." Then, as an afterthought, "What are you gonna tell Nicole?"

"About what?"

"About leaving your parents' party and going elsewhere without her."

"She has a class tomorrow so she doesn't wanna be up late tonight anyway. I'm gonna be driving her home and I'm just gonna say I'm going out with some friends to the city."

"Okay, 'cause I don't wanna deal with her finding out, then hunting me down to confront me," Crystal grimaced. "I hate confrontation. Of any kind."

"Don't worry, Crys, she'll never find out about you. And I really don't think me and her are going to survive Christmas anyway. I don't feel the same about her. Not like how I feel about you. You're so different from her...I like that. You're more...all-American. You're the good girl with a secret naughty side. Nicole...isn't. You're refreshing."

Crystal smiled.

She'd waited all her nineteen years to feel this way about someone of the opposite sex.

"Well, I should be getting ready. Looking good don't come natural," she joked.

"It does for you," Joey assured.

Blushing, Crystal bit her bottom lip and smiled. "Bye, Joey."

"See you soon."

"'Kay."

Hanging up, Crystal leaned off the doorframe and stared into her living room which doubled as her bedroom, toward her costume draped on the futon bed.

Then she smiled again.