Jared
“Staying strong isn’t always easy but sometimes, it is the only choice you have”
I knew walking into the house that it was going to be a mess. Not even just the house, but the inhabitants, too. There were two sets of triplets- six and two- in there and a baby that missed and needed their mom, who had only been dead for a few weeks. I knew my brother was a mess and Alexus, Trinity’s best friend, wasn’t in much better shape. She had lived there most of the time, but she had an apartment of her own the past month or so but was moving back in today. Trinity’s sister Ruby also lived here half of the time- half of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
These kids certainly wouldn’t be lacking any love.
Just their mother.
I shook off the thought and pushed open the front door. The living room was empty, although a Barbie movie was playing on the television. “Hey!” I shouted into the seemingly empty house. Immediately, there was a scurry of feet on the wooden floors upstairs.
“Uncle Jared!” My oldest niece- Braylynne- shouted down the stairs. Braylynne’s twin sister Stella was right beside her, Trinity’s blond hair free and loose over each of their shoulders. The first set of triplets had two girls and a boy- they looked just the same (the girls were identical) and the other was the exact opposite- two boys and a girl- just fraternal ones in that group.
“Raye! Stell!” I called back to them. Standing here in the house, I could almost see Trinity, watching her daughters with a small, exasperated smile on her lips.
They ran down the stairs and hugged me tightly. Up close, I could see the stain of tears under Stella’s eyes and the bags that were under Raye’s.
Poor kids.
“Where are Will and Christopher and Jack and Juliette and…” I struggled for about two seconds trying to think of the baby’s name. Stella and Raye didn’t say anything, smiling smugly at my struggle and giggling. Finally, the stupid name popped into my head. “Jase!”
“Will’s out shooting hoops with Christopher on the little hoop in the backyard,” Raye said. “Jase is asleep. Juliette and Jack are with Dad.”
I nodded. “What were you munchkins doing before I got here?” Stella and Raye shared a heavy look.
“We were playing with our Barbies,” Stella said morosely. “And then I started to cry. And so did Raye.”
“Why?” I asked, already knowing the answer- Trinity had loved Barbies and had always told her daughters that. I gestured them towards the sofa and they sank to the cushions like limp pillows.
“I miss Mommy,” Stella whispered.
“But we’re trying to be strong for Daddy and Christopher and Juliette and Jack and Jase. Because us and Will agreed that when we cry, the others cry, too even when they don’t know why,” Braylynne interjected. “So we only cry at night or when nobody else is around.”
I just nodded. My parents were still alive, so what could I tell them? Luckily, Daxter walked in, holding Jack in his arms. “Jared!” He said in evident delight. He set the sleeping Jack down in the easy chair next to the sofa and hugged me. My older brother looked just as bad as his children, although it was evident in all of them that they were trying to pull the pieces together and keep them together.
“Hey, man,” I said, slapping his back. Daxter’s eyes had bigger bags under them then Raye’s did and he looked like a man who had just lost his sense of purpose, his life’s motivation.
“Did Stell and Raye talk your ear off?” Daxter joked, rubbing his eyes.
“Not as much as usual,” I replied, “I interrupted their Barbie game.”
Daxter laughed, but I saw the pain flicker through his eyes and show on his face. I could only imagine what it was like getting up in the morning and having to look into the eyes or face of someone who looked similar or- in Will and Juliette’s case- just like the person you were missing the most. Or even worse- when they acted just like her.
I loved Trinity, not even close to the extent of these people, but even for me hearing the word Barbie nearly made me burst into tears.
“They have killed people for less,” Daxter said, moving to the bottom of the stairs. “Will! Juliette! Christopher!”
There was the same scrambling upstairs. Juliette was the first one to reach the stairs and I could sense the small amount of agony it caused Daxter to see her face- it was literally Trinity’s face twenty years earlier. “Uncle Jared!” She cried, running down the stairs and nearly tumbling over her Queen Maloa dress. Queen Maloa was a new Disney princess and the girls were obsessed with her- I had taken them to the theater to see it for Stella and Raye’s birthday. Will and Christopher weren’t far behind her. Will also looked a lot like his mom, but it was easier to bear because they had been made masculine. Then there was Christopher. He had Trinity’s blond hair, but that was it- in the most obvious ways, at least.
“Hey, guys!” I called, trying to be more enthusiastic and failing.
It just hurt.
Eventually, Daxter was able to get the crowd of kids away by telling them that they were able to have ice cream treats while he helped get Uncle Jared settled in. My room was upstairs across the hall from Spencer’s, who was still fast asleep in his crib.
“Sorry, this room used to be the girls’,” Daxter said, opening the door. “But I moved Stella into the biggest room up here besides the master with Juliette and Braylynne. Jack, Will, and Christopher share the other big room and Jase has the smallest one. The room you’ll get was Stella’s room, but it’s not like she’s slept in here lately, anyway.”
Daxter turned on the light to illuminate Barbie paintings on the walls and pink, glitter paint- there was even a Barbie Dreamhouse in the corner by the circular window. I was immediately horrified that this- this- was where I was going to be living. “Like I said, this was Stella’s room. You can cover the Barbies with posters and pictures- heck, you can even paint over them if you want.”
I nodded. “Thanks, Dax. It’ll be fine.”
Daxter clapped me on the back and left the room, leaving me to sink to the bare mattress. “Oh, Jared?”
I turned to see my brother still standing outside the door. “Yeah?”
“Stella and Raye have been sleeping together since Trini died, but they have a tendency to seek out an adult to sleep with. If either of them crawls in, don’t be surprised. You can move them back to their beds if you want after they fall asleep or just relocate them right away. Of course, they can also cuddle with Uncle Jared.”
“Okay. Thanks for the heads up.”
I put my head in my hands and ran my fingers through my hair. Before I could do anything else, the Barbies had to be covered. I had plenty of posters that could cover them until I got some paint. I put up my posters over the vast majority of the Barbies and had moved the Dreamhouse to Stella’s room. I was just about to sit down on my freshly made bed and admire my handy work when Stella walked into the room, her hair wet from the shower, wearing purple pajamas that had Queen Maloa on the front, and clutching a stuffed purple turtle.
“Where are my Barbies, Uncle Jared?” Stella asked. She sat down on the edge of the bed and squeezed her turtle close. She seemed so much smaller in her pajamas, clutching her stuffed animal.
“They’re under my posters, see?” I lifted the corner of my Duke basketball poster up and showed Stella the Barbie underneath it.
“Mommy painted those for me,” Stella said, squeezing her turtle even closer to her; her knuckles were white from squeezing it so tight.
“Oh.”
I couldn’t think of anything else to say. “Uncle Jared, are you really going to cover up my Barbies?”
“Ah, Stell, this is my room now,” I said uncomfortably. A large tear dripped from underneath Stella’s dark eyelashes.
“Please?” Stella whispered. “It’s one of the only things left in the house that I can look at that don’t make me really sad about Mommy. It made her so happy to paint them for me.” I sighed and groaned, pulling down the poster. Stella managed to weakly smile and she crawled underneath the blankets on my bed.
“Hey, little munchkin!” I complained, pulling back the blanket. To my dismay- a little bit- Stella was already asleep, sucking her thumb and still squeezing her turtle.
I sighed and crawled in next to her.
