Chapter 4

An aide ran over, pushing a wheelchair. Two other aides grabbed her to help her into the chair.

‘Hold up,’ Natalia said, resisting them. ‘I’m not in labor. I’m here to see Bonnie.’

Mag help push the people away, but it still took them a few seconds to realize she wasn’t in labor.

‘I’ll be here in two weeks,’ Natalia said to them. ‘There’s no rush.’

‘Sorry. There’s been a flood of babies today.’

They actually looked relieved that she wasn’t in labor. With a wave at someone else, the hospital staff left at a trot, looking tired.

Natalia and her group lined up at the front desk.

‘Bonnie. Girl. Elsa,’ she said when she stepped up to the front desk.

‘Fifth floor. Five zero seven,’ the nurse said.

‘Is the fourth floor full?’

The nurse nodded and was already gesturing to the people standing behind them. Natalia moved out of the way, pulling Victoria along toward the elevators to join a large group of people waiting. A steady stream of people who had just exited the elevators passed them. The elevator filled up before Natalia’s group reached it, making them have to wait for the second one, which filled up as fast as the first.

Natalia knew all of them were Viperian with the black hair and green eyes. She and Victoria stood out. People stared at them. And Tail. However, no one said a word. Everyone knew her since she was on the Council, even if she didn’t know them.

The elevator opened on the fourth floor. People lined the hall. Three people left the elevator to a chorus of greetings and waves. The elevator door closed, hardly dampening the voices. When it opened on the fifth floor, it was the same. People packed the hall, greeting all that they knew.

Natalia spied Uri and Tia standing outside a door. Travis was there, holding the baby. It was the father who introduced the new member of the family to everyone. She could see a proud father holding a baby at every doorway. Grazie led the way, threading through the people.

He bumped shoulders with Tia. Natalia bumped into Uri, who put his arm around her in a sideways hug before picking up Victoria. He gave her a hug and a kiss on her cheek.

‘Elsa,’ Victoria said, pointing at the baby.

‘She’s beautiful,’ Natalia said.

Elsa scrunched her face. Natalia could already see her resemblance to both Bonnie and Travis.

‘Easy, Elsa. This is Nattie and her daughter, Victoria,’ Travis said.

‘How’s Bonnie doing?’ Natalia said.

‘She’s sleeping. Doing well. Considering her size… nine pounds, eight ounces… she was an easy delivery,’ Travis said.

People jostled past them.

‘I can’t believe how crowded it is,’ Natalia said.

Tia laughed. ‘Always around this time of year.’

‘Your timing was off, Uri,’ Travis said.

Uri shook his head. ‘My timing is perfect. There won’t be any crowds when we come back for Matilda.’

Tail leaped up onto Natalia’s should to curl herself around Natalia’s neck.

‘You’re getting too big for this,’ Natalia said, gently moving Tail’s tail from her face.

Tail purred in her ear.

‘Besides,’ Uri said to Travis. ‘I’m still pissed at you for knocking up my driver. She’s useless.’

Travis laughed at Uri’s exaggerated distress. There was no anger in Uri’s voice.

‘I’ve added a new limo driver to the lot,’ Travis said, lifting Elsa up a fraction.

Uri laughed. ‘It will be awhile before she’s driving.’

Even though Bonnie was no longer allowed to drive once she hit the sixth month mark of her pregnancy, Uri had kept her on the payroll. Viperians usually did such a thing for family members who worked for them, and even though Bonnie wasn’t family, she was considered so because of all she had done for them. In fact, Bonnie and Travis were going to take over the apartment that Uri and she were staying in once the construction company completed their house repairs.

‘How is the house coming along?’ Travis said.

‘A few more weeks,’ Uri said.

‘It’s always a few more weeks,’ Natalia said.

‘It was extensive damage,’ Uri said.

Natalia thought he seemed serious. More so than usual, so she didn’t chide him about secret renovations.

More of Bonnie’s family arrived.

Uri moved aside, closer to Mag. ‘I’ll drive Nattie home.’

Mag nodded. ‘Zena and Kate are on their way.’

Natalia knew they would spend a little more time visiting, since Bonnie was their roommate.

‘Take care, Travis. I have to get Nattie off her feet,’ Uri said.

Everyone nodded in understanding.

He pulled her hand, and they slid through the crowd toward the elevators. People waved and nodded in acknowledgment. The elevator opened and all the people exited while they got on. They rode the elevator down by themselves. Uri let go her hand only long enough to put Victoria down before he took her hand again.

‘You look like you’ve been on your feet too long,’ Uri said, feeling along her hand. ‘Even your hands are puffy.’

Natalia shrugged. ‘Walking should ease that.’

‘Walk, not standing.’

The elevator opened to an even larger crowd of people. They wove their way through and out to the parking lot.

‘I’m already feeling better if I keep moving,’ she said.

Natalia knew the discussion about Ian and Rene would start in the car and not out in public. Uri waited until they had pulled out of the lot.

‘I hear the Council approved Ian’s request,’ he said.

‘It all hinged on me.’

‘That’s what I figured. This was a hard decision to make.’

‘By you?’

‘By the men’s group and my group. At least we were pleased to hear she wasn’t pregnant. Ian does seem to be going about it in a proper manner.’

‘I’m against it because of what I believe the odds are for survival. But Tia said they are in her favor because of her blood type and if Ian follows the book.’

‘The odds are in her favor except...’

Uri pulled up to one of the gates to leave Viperia and waited until they were through to continue.

‘Except what?’ she prompted him.

‘Except, she’s not really that healthy. You were healthy. There were no concerns when it was decided to bring you into the folds of our society.’

‘She is overweight.’

‘A little too much so, which isn’t that big of a deal, although sometimes it can hamper fertility. However, you can smell too much sugar in her blood and her heartbeat is irregular.’

‘If she has all these issues than why did you let him present this to the Council?’

‘Ian thought if he could just get her away from her family, things would improve. He said there are sweets everywhere and everyone seems compelled to press them upon her. That’s why he bought the condo in Hell. So far she appears receptive to all he is doing.’

‘She did love the shop. Lisa is going to design a wedding dress for her.’

‘Ian isn’t going to marry her unless he knows he can get children. And I’ve already discussed with him that an unhealthy mother isn’t going to give him healthy children. Which means, we can’t start the process until she is pregnant. But we don’t want her pregnant until she’s healthy.’

Natalia eyed him.

‘You want me to help her lose weight and get in shape? Look at what shape I’m in.’

‘I think just befriending her will be enough. There are no sweets in our apartment. Just don’t take her to your bank. Ravi will smother her in cheap suckers.’

Natalia chuckled. ‘He has caramel rolls in his office for the good customers.’

‘Either way, nothing happens until she is healthy and pregnant.’

‘No bites?’

‘I have instructed him to give no further bites.’

‘Uri, this is a monumental task.’

‘We’re not looking at making her a skinny model. Ian likes her heavy. We just need to change her eating habits to get her body at a better state.’

‘Lovely. You men head off to work and I babysit.’ Natalia thought about the situation. ‘We can’t even give her sanguine tea.’

‘Nope. It will be distasteful to her,’ he said.

‘Or grubbies?’

‘She can have grubbies. Grubbie cookies will be good for her.’

‘Has she been checked by an Undent doctor?’

‘Yeah.’ His voice was flat.

‘I don’t like the sound of that.’

‘The doctor wants her to do the same things we want her to do. Cut the sweets. Her weight is the cause of both her high blood sugar and heart beat. Oh, and high blood pressure. She’s on medication, but… Ian says she’s not good about taking it. And she can’t be on those medications when she’s pregnant. They’ll interfere with the baby. They’ll be toxic to a Viperian fetus.’

‘You’re not making me feel any better about this. Hey, where are we going?’

They weren’t heading to their apartment.

‘I thought we’d swing by the house to see how things are going.’

‘Oh, it’s been ages since I’ve seen it.’ She felt a little excitement at the prospect of see how much they had completed of the repairs.

‘Will I have my own room?’ Victoria said from the back. ‘I want my own room.’

‘Yes, you will have your same room.’

‘Will Matilda have her own room?’

‘Yes, we have a room for her.’

‘She needs her own room.’

‘She will have her own room,’ Natalia said, refraining from rolling her eyes.

‘Normal,’ Uri said to her, explaining Victoria’s behavior.

Natalia eyed him but didn’t continue on that subject.

Uri pulled up onto their street.

‘Oh, my word. You changed the whole front yard.’

‘We had to take out more bushes and one tree to make the circular laneway that connects both houses, but we added four trees and some nice flowering bushes in the new landscaping.’

‘The front of the house looks… You bumped out the front of the house.’

‘I added some square footage to the living room, but more importantly, I made my office bigger. Or I should say, the study. I always thought it was a little cramped.’

Uri pulled into the laneway. A huge construction waste bin blocked the section by the front door. He continued around to the garage.

‘That’s six doors,’ she said.

‘They managed to get a six-car garage between the two houses to connect them.’

‘I thought you said five.’

‘We had room for six.’

He hit a garage door opener. The first door opened, and he drove in.

‘This is all finished,’ he said.

Garbage bins lined one wall. Every wall had gotten finished with drywall and painted a light tan. There was a storage nook with shelving. She could see the drains in each stall.

‘Which one opens the secret door?’

‘The second one over, just like before. Over there,’ he pointed, ‘I had them install a chute that goes down to the grubbies in the basement. Instead of the ladies carrying the refuse down to the grubbies, they just have to dump it up here. A push of a button grinds it up and piles it into the chute. Another button turns on an auger to feed the grubbies.’

‘A little too simple. We’re going to get blooms of beetles because no one is checking on them.’

‘And we have a new camera system to watch beetles and grubbies to reduce human interaction. Besides, the new mandate requires non-beetle farm populations get monitored.’

‘You know that is to reduce cleanup operations.’

A cleanup operation was when a dead body got dumped and fed to grubbies in order to hide and get rid of it. She had the feeling his new automatic grinder and grubbie feeder chute bypassed the security cameras.

‘I am aware of that,’ he said, giving her a poke.

‘That was not a recommendation from me,’ she said. ‘However, it would look very odd if I didn’t vote for it. In fact, everyone looked surprised when I did vote for it.’

‘They think I still go out at night can raise hell. Here, let me help you out of the car.’

Uri came around to open her door and give her a hand out.

‘Daddy.’ Victoria climbed over the seat.

‘We need to get rid of these two-door sports cars,’ he said, giving Victoria a hand.

‘Signs that you are a family man,’ she said with a laugh.

Uri led the way through the garage door into the house.

The living room was noticeably larger and so were the front windows, which were finished with new oak molding. Fresh paint perfumed the air. The colors on the walls were neutral. There was also the fresh smell of wood.

‘I love oak flooring,’ she said, noting there was still a lot of dust and construction debris.

The big empty room echoed.

‘This looks completed,’ she said.

‘They haven’t completed the flooring in my office, yet.’

She walked over to look in. His office also smelled of fresh paint, but there was no flooring or molding.

‘Is my room done?’ Victoria said.

‘Yes, they finished your room.’

Victoria ran upstairs.

‘I locked the one bedroom door, so she thinks it’s the new nursery,’ Uri said, barely moving his lips. ‘Because of the smoke damage, they had to repaint the entire house.’ He said this in a louder voice.

‘I hardly smell smoke anymore.’

‘My office flooring and a good cleaning is all they have left, then we need to get some furniture.’

‘I’m sure we’ll get some good deals from the furniture store across from my clothing shop.’

‘I was thinking a little more upscale. We’ll go shopping some weekend.’

‘If we’re back in the house in a couple of weeks that puts some distance between Rene and myself.’

‘It will still be a few weeks,’ he said. ‘We’ll deal with it when the time comes.’

He stretched as if he had a kink in his back.

‘I definitely want the good mattress I had last time. That one in the apartment is horrible.’

Natalia nodded in agreement.

‘Victoria. Come down. We’re going,’ Uri said.

‘We’re not staying here?” Victoria said.

‘Do you see a bed up there?’

‘No.’

Natalia barely caught the movement in Uri’s face and body. He did a faint movement of his lips and shoulders, and a twitch of his ears. The gesture caused Victoria to obey immediately and come down the stairs.

‘You need to teach me more of that,’ she said.

‘Now that you’re noticing it, I will,’ he said.

Natalia knew that the Viperian voice, when they spoke normally, didn’t register within the range of usual human hearing. Their hearing was much more acute. However, she had noticed communication that she never heard. She was now just catching on to the body language of Viperians. It was subtle, allowing Viperians to communicate in plain sight without gaining attention unless you were Viperian, and even then you had to be looking at them.

‘Is the backyard the same?’ she said.

‘Pretty much.’

He took her hand and led her to the car. She knew something had changed in the backyard and wondered if he had put in his second grubbie area like he once wanted to.

‘We should go look at new cars this weekend,’ he said, pulling out of the garage.

‘Are we doing dinner with Ian and Rene on Friday? Do you have a bank cocktail party?’

‘Those died out with the last board members,’ Uri said. ‘Instead, we have meetings at the bank, and only hold them once a month. And we pick a night during the week. Board members only. No wives or girlfriends. And no drinking.’

He pulled out onto the street to head for Hell.

‘That didn’t answer my question,’ she said.

‘Are you feeling up to it?’

She shrugged, knowing he would interpret it that she was okay. Shrugs had multiple meanings.

‘I’ll call Ian and let him know Friday is fine.’

Uri pulled onto a major street.

‘Rush hour should be over. Why all the traffic?’ she said.

It was Uri’s turn to shrug.

He pulled up to a light. A car pulled up alongside him, revving its engine. All the other cars hung back.

‘Go, Daddy,’ Victoria said from the back seat.

Natalia looked at him hard.

‘You haven’t done this before, have you? With Victoria?’

‘She’s just feeling the adrenaline,’ he said, showing no signs of excitement.

However, Natalia could smell the adrenaline, and it was coming from him.

‘Don’t you dare,’ she said to him, knowing his reflexes were better than whoever was driving the other car.

Uri pressed the gas pedal moments before the light changed. He was almost in the middle of the intersection before the other car reacted and surged forward.

‘Uri!’ she said in a sharp, reprimanding voice.

She felt the engine roar and the car speed up. The roar of an engine behind them got her to turn to look. Victoria was clapping her hands in excitement. The scenery outside the window whipped by. The other car was level with their rear bumper, but that is as close as it got.

‘Uri.’

He sped through a red light. However, it was disconcerting to see that people had blocked the cross street.

‘Uri,’ she said. ‘This is a planned race. They’re setting you up.’

He smiled, and their car accelerated more to keep the other car no closer than the rear bumper.

‘You want me to go into labor early?’

‘Turn around. Enjoy the view,’ he said, as if they were out for a Sunday drive.

Victoria giggled in the back. ‘Matilda likes it. Faster, Daddy.’

‘Are they catching us?’ he said.

Natalia couldn’t believe what was going on. She groaned from a kick by Matilda.

‘No, Daddy.’

Natalia faced forward. Uri was almost going a hundred miles an hour.

‘There’s a curve ahead,’ she said in warning.

‘Yep,’ he said

She braced herself. ‘Hold on, Victoria. Hold Tail.’

‘Hold on,’ Uri said.

Moments before they reached the curve that went up and over a bridge, he braked. The other car surged ahead.

Natalia didn’t know how he did it, but he slowed the car without a tire screech or skid. By the time they reached the peak of the curve and the bridge, he had the car’s speed down to the speed limit.

‘Oh, my.’

She could see the downward side of the curve and bridge. The area was a mass of police cars and flashing lights. Smashed into cement barricades was the car they raced. Police with huge lights and signs, waved them off the road and around the accident. Traffic on the other side of the bridge was getting detoured another way.

‘Hell,’ she said, feeling pissed at him. ‘Did you know this?’