Devour

Today I felt the baby move, for the first time. My stomach is large but not too big. I wanted Ville here for that. It’s been months since I’ve seen him, though it’s not as hard this time as it was when he went to rehab, it was still difficult to be without him. But this time I knew he was coming back, the same old Ville.

I try to tell myself, it’s not as hard, hard, hard as it seems.

I sat in the backyard watching Jacob practice his karate with Bam. He was doing his high-kick’s.

“Hi-yah!” He screamed then kicked Bam dead in the shins.

“OW!” Bam screamed then immediately went onto one leg, clutching the hurt leg.

I laughed, but this time it wasn’t only my laugh. That same guttural laugh that I loved echoed.

“Daddy!” Jacob yelled then ran to Ville. He wrapped his arms around his neck. Ville pulled Jacob into his arms and hugged him tightly.

I struggled to get up out of my chair. I had just reached the verge of the waddling months.

“Wow, mama.” Ville said as he put Jacob down and made his way to me.

I reached up and ran my hand across his chin, “You can’t be my Ville. He would never grow a beard.”

He smiled, “Alas, dear, I am.” He said then wrapped his arms around me. He lifted me off the ground.

“I missed you so much.” I whispered in his ear.

“I missed you too.” He said then put me back on the ground. I walked over to the swing and sat down. Ville sat next to me and put his arm around my shoulder.

“So, what did I miss?” He asked as he admired my stomach. I shrugged.

“She moved this morning.”

His eyes lit up, “Did you say, she?”

I nodded, “Yes, I found out last week. I didn’t want to tell you over the phone.”

His cute little smile popped up on his face. He nodded his head toward the house then winked. I laughed.

“Bam, can you keep an eye on Jacob for a while?” I asked, he sat across from me, on the other side of the pool.

“Yeah, I can watch the little devil.” He said smugly.

Ville stood up then offered his hand to me, he helped me up out of the swing.

“I found something while I was in, I think it was a place in Connecticut, it’s a bassinet from like the early 1900’s. It’s in perfect condition though.” He made small talk as we walked to the house.

“That’s cool.” I said simply. My ankles were beginning to swell, I’m having backaches and worst of all I’m exhausted.

He smiled sympathetically, “Have the doctors said anything about this pregnancy being like the last one?”

I shook my head, “No, he said in about three months I may have to go on bed rest to make sure that nothing will happen. He suspects that’s what went wrong last time.”

“Stupid Finnish doctors.” He muttered under his breath.

“Anything else you want to know?”

“How is Jacob’s karate classes?”

“He’s a green belt.”

Ville’s eyes lit up, “Really?”

“Yep, they’re wanting him to start advanced classes after he gets his black belt. He loves it.” I bragged.

“Good, how is his school?”

“Uh, he’s having a hard time. They said he’s not really good at anything, they can get him to communicate with them through drawing. His teacher was scared he was autistic.”

Ville stopped walking, he put his hand on his hip, “Did you take him to a specialist or anything?”

“No, we really haven’t gotten to. I just talked to her yesterday. She said that it could just be him having a hard time coping with you being gone.” I didn’t want to make him feel even worse about being gone. He already beats himself up enough as it is.

He hung his head, “So he’s not autistic?”

“Probably not, other than that he’s developing like a normal four year old.”

“I did that when I was little.” He added, he seemed relieved so we began walking again.

“My teacher told me that it was a sign that I was going to be an artist. She took her time and helped me.” He continued.

“Oh, okay. I’ll tell her that, maybe it has something to do with it.”

He nodded, “When is the wedding date?”

“Your tour ends in four more months right?”

“Yeah.”

“Any consecutive days off?”

“Uh we have a week off in about a month and a half. It’s supposed to be to prepare for Japan.”

“Can we do it then, we can go on our honeymoon and everything?”

“Yes we can.”