Ok, here's the final edited rough draft I had Dr. Lyons look at on Thursday. He says the reader still doesn't know who Joey is, and now he says I'm missing a lot of good things from my original piece that could be used in this piece. So confused. Anyway, any help would be awesome.
In her dream, Alexandria swam naked from on coal black reef to the next, spanning nearly a football field. Puffs of white smoke pumped from buildings about half a mile from the water. She saw a ripple in the water near the reef across from her. Strange, she thought. She didn’t remember seeing anyone else with her. Perhaps it was a bird dipping for a quick meal, but there weren’t any she could see.
A figure beneath the cool water swam close to her. There was nothing near she could defend herself with, but Alexandria was quite capable of taking care of herself. The figure looped around her before a man emerged from the water in a swift motion. Joey, the man she had been secretly dating, stood before her. His cinnamon brown skin and long, coal black hair heralded to his Native American heritage. His body wasn’t like that of Fabio’s, but he wasn’t a couch potato either.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said, a mischievous smile spread across his square jaw.
Though dating wasn’t her forte, she much liked the cat and mouse game she and Joey played. Alexandria wanted a more peaceful life and decided to sell her condominium near the coast of Virginia for a three bed, two-bath vacation cabin sitting on ten acres of mostly wooded land and a private lake in Timber Lake, Washington. Mostly, it was to be rid of her ex-boyfriend, Bryan, after he broke her heart several times. She would no longer be his doormat, nor would Langley, their eighteen-year-old daughter.
Joey was different, though. Alexandria didn’t intend on dating him; it just happened. She had lived in her new home for several months before he asked her out on a date. Langley had already left for college in the Puget Sound, leaving Alexandria feeling lonely. Joey quickly filled that void with talk, dates and trips to places she had only dreamed of visiting but never had the chance to.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for you, Alexandria.”
She longed for Bryan to say those words. He gave her almost everything she ever wanted, but he wouldn’t commit. Instead, he played her like some cheap harpsichord and she allowed it. Joey was right in front of her, if only she could let go and really move on; though, that was no longer choice.
There were faint sounds of birds and waterfalls coming from around her, but it sounded like echoes. Alexandria closed her eyes, taking a deep breath of lavender and rosemary. A dim light pulsed behind Joey’s body, gradually increasing what seemed like the sun peeking out from behind the puffs of white smoke.
Reality clicked at her in the form of digits on her alarm clock, a triangle shaped device that awakens the owner with peaceful progression aromatherapy and nature sounds.[M2] Groaning, Alexandria silently mocked her predicament. There was plenty of literature on how to deal with certain changes that were expected during pregnancy, but the one she never thought she would have to deal with were the strange sex dreams. According to one author, “a woman’s dreams will reflect how her body is discovering the new life it is creating, relishing in the pleasure, excitement and power she has never experienced before.” What Alexandria feared the most was how the dreams could be of any person she sees on the streets or in the building, a sort of goodbye to promiscuity, though she never cared to in such a manner.
Alexandria crawled out of bed to attend to her typical morning routine. At home, she would have a quick bite and take a shower, attempting to maintain her Tawny Kitaen-like hairdo, which she never did on purpose but the humidity was different in the Pacific Northwest from the East Coast. Her hair literally looked like a great ball of fire, wavy, long and a giant mess.[M3]
Her cellular made a loud thud as it vibrated off her nightstand.
“Hello?”
“Meet me for a morning smoothie or should I bring you one?” Joey asked mockingly.
“Professional—Joey, remember?”
“Two people come in separate vehicles that just happen to like the same smoothie stop before work. What’s not professional about that?”
Alexandria couldn’t help but smile, ending the call. She really liked Joey, but he tested her patience at time. She wanted their appearance to be as professional as possible, though Joey mentioned to her, once or twice before, that everyone already knew. Still, Alexandria liked to remain as professional as possible; more or less and attempt to prove she was as great an asset as she sold herself to be.
With many accommodations in her file, Alexandria was one of the best Investigators to leave Timber Lake could have hired, next to Joey, that was. However, Joey, born Joseph Whitecloud, was more on loan from the local Indian reservation than he was a full pledged employee. He told Alexandria he was tired of working both on and off the reservation and told the police chief he needed to either promote someone or find someone who could share the large workload. Law Enforcement on the reservation meant dealing with the federal government, when the crime warranted it, which meant more paperwork than he was willing to deal with.
“Professional also means not showing up at the same time,” Alexandria said as she climbed out of her jeep.
“Does it really matter if I’m paying?”
She could never say no to him, especially when he stared at her with his pale-blue eyes. It was odd to see a man with a dark complexion having eyes that were normally seen on an Englishman or Scotsman. He had given her a long history of his background, named two “pale-faces” that entered his bloodline giving the result of a ruggedly handsome Indian with pale eyes.
They ordered, had a quick chat and left for work. To aid in her endeavor of professionalism, Alexandria stopped for gas before continuing her normal routine. Tapping her nails against her lips, she pondered how she would tell Joey she was pregnant. She knew he wanted to be a part of a family, a dream he told her once since he had no family of his own. His story was sad and brought tears to her eyes as she finished pumping gas.
Joey was barely a teenager when his parents died in a car accident. They were sober, but the one survivor, the driver of the other vehicle, blew well over the legal limit. His parents left everything to him, the land their family had owned since the wars surrounding the Oregon Treaty, a log cabin built sometime in the 1860s, and whatever equipment was used to maintain the land. His grandmother had taken care of him for some time until her death, shortly after Joey had graduated from college.
Alexandria didn’t know how to tell him. He was different from Bryan. He was kind, gentle, and always concerned about her. It irritated her at times, more so because of his views on pregnant police officers. He often repeated to her his dislike of pregnant women and guns. The thought brought about an image of patriots living on a compound, the mother and father armed to the teeth with their umpteen amount of children standing in front of them.
The day had gone by smoothly. Alexandria made it to work a few minutes after Joey, no smoothie in hand. She made a beeline for her office, knowing there were plenty of cases to work on and no doubt plenty of messages from the citizens of Timber Lake that needed her expertise as soon as possible. Timber Lake was a small town, but the crime quickly made up for what it lacked.
Timber Lake had everything a person needed, with the exception of a mall; you had to travel the five and loop around the Sound for any decent shopping. Most of the crime involved land disputes, but there was the occasional breaking and entering to residential and commercial buildings, domestic violence, selling of drugs, etc. It didn’t matter the location, there was still plenty of work for Alexandria to attend to.
Making a few phone calls, going over statements and pictures, and doing some footwork Alexandria was able to close half a dozen cases by the end of the day. She barely saw Joey, which gave her plenty of time to decide how she would tell him why she had been avoiding for the past few weeks. Morning sickness, in her case all day sickness, was only supposed to last through the end of the first trimester, giving Alexandria another week or two of saying she still wasn’t feeling up to company.
“How about dinner tonight?” Joey asked, meeting Alexandria in the parking lot.
“I’m still not feeling all that great,” she hesitated.
“Alex? Is something wrong?”
“I’m not a boy, Joseph.”
Alexandria disliked it when people called her by a nickname. She may not have been that girl who wore pink and had her nails done and her hair in cute pigtails, but she was still a girl. Joey had only remarked once or twice he was named after his great grandfather, a proud man with a strong name, but he often stated they weren’t the same.
“Then give me a reason why you have been avoiding me for the past few weeks.”
She wanted to tell him at that moment, but there were too many people around. No one needed to know their business. It was a private matter that she wanted to explain to him, she just didn’t know how.
“Joey. I’m not avoiding you on purpose. I seriously haven’t been feeling very good. Haven’t you seen me tossing back the antacids?”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. Are you seeing someone for that?”
“Let me go home and take a nap. If I’m feeling better later we can make some dinner plans.”
Alexandria waved him goodbye and headed for home. She was in serious need of some rest and relaxation, but she had to make a quick stop by the doctor’s office before anything else. One of the messages sitting on her desk was an urgent message from her obstetrician. To avoid any misunderstandings and possible office gossip, she asked the nurse to call her cellular, but her requests had constantly gone unheeded.
“You’re cutting it a little short aren’t you dear?” The nurse chirped.
“Well, you can never cut time short when dealing with keeping the community safe.” Alexandria attempted a joke, but it sounded funnier in her head.
“Dr. Goldie is waiting for you in his office,” she stated.
Alexandria made her way back to Dr. Goldie’s office, finding him sitting behind his desk in a leather chair reading over a few notes. She sat down, waiting for him to acknowledge her presence. His bedside manner needed a little work, but his record had proved remarkable, especially in cases of emergency.
“The ultrasound technician tells me you ran out shortly after she finished taking measurements of the fetus,” he stated.
“There was an emergency,” she stated, hardly feeling she needed to give him anymore than that.
He handed her the printouts that showed a black hole with what Alexandria thought was the head and possibly feet, but it was hard to tell without any proper training in radiology.
“Is there a history of multiple births in yours or the father’s family?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Multiples. As in twins, triplets, quadruplets…”
“Stop right there.”
A wave of nausea came over Alexandria and she had to place her head between her knees. She was barely showing, still just a tiny bump, but she couldn’t imagine she was carrying more than one child. She looked at the print out again, taking note of the two white blurbs that seemed to merge. It wasn’t one baby but two.
“I have some dietary menus for women who are pregnant with multiples. There isn’t much difference between a woman who is only carrying one fetus, but you will need to pack on extra vitamins and nutrients. Also, you will start feeling the need for more sleep, which may begin to interfere with your job.”
“Thank you doctor.”
Alexandria left before he could say anything else. The one problem with being in a small town was how quickly news spread. She hoped the Hippocratic Oath still meant something or Joey would no doubt be hearing the news from some unlikely source before Alexandria has a chance to say something.
She made it home and decided to make some chicken soup from scratch. Adding what ingredients she had to her crock pot, Alexandria called Joey and asked him to join her, bringing a few ingredients along with him to finish the soup. She wasn’t sure how she would tell him, but he had every right to know what was going on with her, why she had been acting so strange for the past few weeks and what her plans were.
Alexandria hadn’t thought that far ahead yet herself. What was she going to do when she really started showing? How was her boss going to react? Did she want to keep her job while raising twins?
Twins were rare in her family, as far as she knew. While in college, one of her professors asked the class to do research on their family tree. It was more science based as the current topic was on the human family tree; the idea that every man and woman could be traced back to Scientific Adam and Eve from Africa some sixty thousand years ago. While pursuing the information, Alexandria came upon her private family tree and discovered less than a half dozen twins on the matrilineal side.
“The soup smells good,” Joey smiled, waiting for Alexandria to invite him in.
“It’s still going to be a while, but I thought I would get started on it now.”
Joey followed her to the kitchen, putting down the bags of food on the chopping block and donning an apron. Alexandria laughed at how comfortable he felt wearing a purple-plaid, frilly edged apron.
“Just don’t be taking any pictures to the guys at work. I have a reputation to keep.”
She giggled at his attempt at sounding macho. He was a very masculine, but Joey wasn’t afraid to show how domestic he could be either. It was his grandmother that made him respect how a woman could do anything a man could do, but a man couldn’t do everything a woman could do.
“Like what?”
“What do you mean “like what?””
“What did your grandmother tell you a woman can do that a man can’t?”
“A man doesn’t know how to make good fry bread.”
“Don’t ask me to. I didn’t grow up on the reservation like most of the women you know. Ask them to make you some fry bread.”
“My cousins could teach you if you wanted to learn.”
That was the first mention he ever made about her meeting his family. She was a little stunned at the thought. [M4] It shouldn’t have frightened her, but for some reason it did.
“What else can a woman do that a man can’t?”
“A man can love a woman, but only a woman is able to sustain life.”
“Smart woman.”
“On the reservation, we’re taught to respect our women as we respect our elders. The elders have lived for a long time and have much wisdom, but the women are able to give the gift of life.”[M5]
“Ouch.”
Alexandria ran to the sink with a bloody finger. She hadn’t paid attention while cutting up some celery while listening to Joey. It wasn’t deep enough for stitches, but she was sure it wouldn’t stop bleeding until the cold water made her finger numb and she could bandage it.
“I envy you and Bryan.”
She gave him a hurtful look.
“He may have hurt you and you may have strong feelings against him, but that doesn’t change what happened between the two of you.”
“You mean Langley.”
“I heard from Loretta last week.”
The change of subject was like a slap to the face. One minute they were talking about how she was lucky enough to have bore a child and the next was his ex-something or other. Alexandria wasn’t clear on the details of Loretta.
“She asked me if I wanted to come for a visit.”
“Why would she ask you that?”
Alexandria felt a surge of jealousy, but she didn’t understand why. They had been dating for over a year now, he had just mentioned about her meeting his family. Why would Loretta pose a problem?
“I think Loretta’s brother may have said something to her.”
“Oh.”
“I’m not fooling around, with anybody. I just thought you might want to know before you heard something from somebody else.”
Wasn’t that her line? Wasn’t that how she was supposed to break the news to him? Alexandria could barely keep her thoughts straight, but she needed to be smart about this.
“You don’t have to explain anything to me. You know about my past and I know about yours, sort of. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter, right? You’re here right now and that’s what counts.”
“Not just right now, Alexandria.”
She wasn’t afraid [M6] He wasn’t Bryan and that had to count for something. She couldn’t compare the two of them anymore, no matter how this turned out. Joey was a responsible man that just proved no one else mattered, so why couldn’t she get passed it.
“I know how close you were to Loretta, and then there were the other two women. Even you told me you couldn’t handle being alone.”
Joey fidgeted.
“There was a time in my life I couldn’t stand to be alone, yes. When I was tired of Loretta I moved on to Tanya. When I was tired of Tanya I moved on to Caroline. The cycle continued between the three women until I was completely tired of the drama and the same repeating crap. I wanted a change and I knew none of them could give me what I wanted. None of them shared the same desires and plans I have.”[M8]
“But because of Langley I somehow fit that mold?”
“You’re not about partying and wanting only a good time. You have lived through responsibility and have matured because of it. I may not have known you before Langley, but some of those pictures you’ve showed me paint a great picture of rebellion and independence.”
Alexandria laughed at his idea of her when she was younger. She fought her parents every step of the way when she was sixteen going on thirty. Langley did change everything, and while she tried to make it work with Bryan, Alexandria had grown from both the experiences. Her parents tried to warn her about life and how things wouldn’t always turn out how she wanted them to, but Alexandria assumed once a baby was involved people stayed together.
“I know they aren’t part of your life anymore and that’s not why I’ve been pushing [M9] you away. Actually, I’m not trying to push [M10] you away at all. I seriously haven’t been feeling very well at all.”
“I can figure a cold or flu lasting a couple weeks, maybe three weeks. Whatever is wrong has lasted much longer.”
“Stay the night with me, please. I’ll explain everything in the morning, if you wish.”
They enjoyed dinner a couple hours later. The night had ended, both of them finding comfort in each other’s arms. Laying there, Alexandria didn’t think about the next morning or what the future might bring. She only thought about how warm and safe she felt in Joey’s arms.
The next morning, Alexandria grabbed the ultrasound printouts and lay them on the pillows while Joey was taking a shower. [M11] It was the beginning of the weekend, giving Alexandria ideas on what she could do before Joey made his decision. She left without a word, knowing Joey would stop her before she made it out the door, and drove to the local bookstore. Much of the literature she bought came from the local bookstore, but most of it did have to ordered.
By the time Alexandria gave up looking for a book that could help her understand pregnancy with twins, Joey had called her nearly a dozen times, left her a few messages and texted her in-between. She knew he was furious and knew dealing with him later wouldn’t be easy, but being barraged with, “why didn’t you tell me sooner,” or “why would you hide this from me” wasn’t ideal.
Alexandria didn’t know what she was thinking when she sent a quick message to Joey telling him what she was doing, though she left out the detail about her heading to the bookstore near the capitol. She was determined to find any book that explained in big bold letters what she was supposed to do. Was she supposed to retire? She did have nearly twenty years in as an investigator. Money wasn’t an issue if she did decide to spend her time at home; her condo had sold for nearly double what she paid for it originally, slightly less than the actual appraisal estimate.
There were a few selections at the other bookstore to choose from: Having twins, Two at a Time, Emotionally Healthy Twins, Twinspiration, and one that struck her as particularly odd, Adventures in Tandem Nursing. The cover showed a cartoon mom dressed as a superhero flying through the air with a toddler on her hip and a baby in a sling. Alexandria remembered nursing Langley, some days were good while others were a challenge; she couldn’t imagine how difficult it would be with two babies demanding sustenance and her attention.
She couldn’t think about that at the moment. The thought of how to actually deal with and care for twins was still far enough in the future. A wave of fear and the sudden need to throw up overwhelmed her. Alexandria chewed a couple antacids, bought a couple books on dealing with the pregnancy, and headed home.
“I can’t do this alone.”
That was all she said when she called Joey and quickly hung up. She didn’t want to hear the hurt in his voice, nor the anger. He had every right to be angry at her, and Alexandria accepted that, but she hoped he would understand why she did things the way she had. Hoping their time together gave them both a better perspective on each other, Alexandria eased her worries knowing Joey would be happy. Not just happy, but thrilled everything he dreamt of having was coming to face.
His truck was gone. Only Alexandria’s jeep was parked in the driveway of her home. Perhaps Joey was on his way to the bookstore she had just left, she thought, knowing he would try to catch her there before waiting for her to come home. Her home felt empty without Joey waiting there for her, his arms waiting to embrace her, no yelling, and no questions.
Alexandria sat on the edge of the couch, resting her head in her hands. Her actions caused her the greatest heartbreak she would ever know. As quickly as the tears started they stopped. There was a book and note on the coffee table sitting in front of her. After opening the note, Alexandria immediately recognized Joey’s handwriting.
You’ll never be alone. I wished you didn’t keep this from me, but your reasons are your own. I will be back tonight so we can talk. I hope you don’t mind, but one of my cousin’s is familiar with twins and gave me a book that she said will help teach you how to care for twins while attempting to manage everything else. I hope it helps. I love you.[M12]
That was the first declaration of love. Alexandria assumed the feeling was mutual between them, but the words were never said. She put down the note and picked up the book. There was a picture of woman dressed as a superhero holding a toddler in one arm and a baby in a sling.
[M3]Let the hair paint imagery of feistiness. Some Native American lore believe a white woman with red hair is feisty but also a witch.
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