Sudden Babies

            Although Trish was happy to live in my fortress, she sometimes pestered me for attention. I didn’t mind as much when she offered to put on a little concert. Her nimble fingers created pleasant enough melodies, and it was interesting to watch how quickly she could improve.

            One afternoon before work, Trish played the piano for me. I pretended to listen while the voices panged off the sides of my head, all alerting me of what was taking place underneath the earth.

            Theresa had gone into labor in the room I had created for her. I did not have the time to go and watch her struggle though. Work was fast approaching, and Trish would complain if I left her early.

            Several hours into my shift, Mom flatly declared, “You have another son. What will you name him?” I’d been hoping for a daughter, but had the name James picked out just in case.

            James’ birth was pushed to the backburner in favor of sweet talking an elderly woman into buying one of my corporation’s ‘spyware free’ computers. I had nearly sealed it when Mom butted in again. “Your butler is picking up a blue baby from the entryway. I believe your genie had twins.”

I told the sucker to scram and then turned my back to her. “How did it get there? Did she break the lock?” I asked, not bothering to conceal my voice. I could faintly hear the old woman call me crazy.

“I am not sure.”

“How can you not be sure?”

“I was not watching.”

“What do you mean you weren’t watching? What the hell else can you be doing?”

Grandma scoffed, presumably at my tone. “Yeah, you raised much better children than me.”

“Be quiet Mother!”

“I’m just saying—I made you and you could only make him.”

“He’s simply going—”

“Shut up!” I snarled. “What is going on over there?”

“You were dumb enough to mess with a genie, a free one at that. What did you think was going to happen?”

“So she’s out?”

“Not yet, she’s inexperienced. It’ll only be a matter of time though. Managed to teleport the girl, yet she doesn’t seem to be able to do it again.”

            I pissed off the boss enough with my turning away a target, so I had to stay the remainder of my shift. I sped home as soon as I could, mind full of scenarios that could have happened while I was away. When I barged through the door, a butler stood by and started to ramble about how he discovered a crying infant and blah blah blah. Something about the numerous cribs I had set up and putting the baby into one. Brushing him off, I found Trish working out in front of the TV. She didn’t seem perturbed at all. I had been half expecting to find her with Theresa holding a knife to her throat. Or the magical equivalent to that. More likely, I thought maybe she’d be demanding an explanation about the sudden baby.

            I entered my lair, ears flooded with high pitched wails of a newborn. “Take this thing away from me!” Theresa demanded.

“What?” I chuckled. “You don’t like kids?”

“I had your spawn; don’t punish me further.”

            Before I could respond, my phone rang. I held a hand up to silence her before listening to the butler tell me that Trish was in labor. “I must get going. Trish needs escorting to the hospital,” I said after clicking off the phone. I went to ascend the stairs.

“What about this?” she pleaded more than asked, holding James out towards me.

“You’ll be fine for a few more hours.”

            While Trish’s labor was short, it brought back terrible memories of my own experience with childbirth. She begged for me to stay in the room, but I couldn’t do it. I remained in the sterile hallway until Hans was born. By early morning, we were returning home.

            I left Trish to the babies upstairs so that I could return to my unhappy genie.

            “What of our arrangement? I fulfilled my duties, you will be letting me leave now.”

“Can’t do that yet, Darling. What if one of the kids has a problem that only a genie would know how to fix?”

“What? You’ll be keeping me trapped for longer?”

“I’m afraid so.”

            Her mouth flattened tightly, but for only a moment. “I need rest. You will be taking the thing away now.” Sure enough, she hovered past me and lowered into the small bed.

“Well, that was easy,” I muttered to myself while scooping James into my arms.

“You do not want a genie as an enemy, no matter how new they are.”

“I can’t just loose some magical being in this town. That would be irresponsible.” I openly laughed as the witch growled and my dead family members shared a heavy silence. It’s like they expected me to keep my word.