Jacob
Father:
Come and see me. I need to talk to you.
Isigh tiredly. “Brilliant.” One text from that man and I’m already gritting my teeth. Classic; he’ll never waste words being pleasant when he can be demanding and vague instead.
I don’t need this right now.
My niece’s fifth birthday has already started, and I can’t spend the entire afternoon psyching myself up in my car outside my sister’s house.
I hate this about myself. There’s no real reason to be so agitated, but my brain doesn’t care about anything as trivial as logic in moments like this. Smaller groups, I can manage; crowds clamp my jaw, and my insides are twisting horribly at the thought of bringing this energy to a little girl’s birthday barbecue.
But on the flip side, I’ll also meet my new nephews, newborn twins, born two weeks and four days ago. Silver lining: I have the option to hold them, and to lull them to sleep in my arms as a tactical move. Then people will understand if I’m quiet, because I’ll be holding a sleeping infant. The perfect cover.
Feeling a little more reassured, I exit the car and lock it behind me.It’ll be OK. You won’t make any huge mistakes. Go and hug your niece. Go and meet your nephews.Walking round the house to the back garden, I am greeted by several voices talking over theMoanasoundtrack, which I remember from previous visits when my niece would shout the lyrics at me while resting her hands on my knees and bouncing on the spot.
Rhiannon spots me first, and it’s flattering that she beams happily from ear to ear when she sees me. “Uncle Jaaaaaaacob!” She lets go of her mother’s hand and runs to me like joy with elbows and knobbly knees.
“Hello, angel.” Rhiannon always likes it when I lift her up and twirl her around, so I oblige this time, relieved to hear the expected sweet giggle.
“Do you like my costume?” she asks me as I hold her. Inexplicably, she’s dressed as one of the Ghostbusters in a beige boiler suit, but with an added tiara in her dark auburn hair.
“You look terrific,” I assure her. “Happy birthday.”
“Thank you!” Her party is a simple affair: a barbecue outside in the sunshine, a unicorn bouncy castle - I mentally reroute the extension cables - with a small scattering of other children. I assume they’re her friends from primary school. There are several adults chatting in small groups, and fortunately, most of them are familiar faces: my brother, Tim, and his wife, Natalie; Eleanor, myother niece, taking a break from exam season; the other tattoo artists where my sister and her husband work and their spouses.I can handle this.
Rhiannon takes the tiara off her head and waves it in front of my face. “My new baby brothers gave me this for my birthday, because Mummy said they think I’m a princess, but the thing is…” I keep careful hold of her as she wriggles while she talks; I dread dropping her. “They, um… They don’t have money because they’rebabies, so I think prob’ly Mummy and Daddy bought it.”
“Do you like your new brothers?”
“Uh huh.” She is non-committal, which is surely better than explicitly disliking them. “They cry alot. But Daddy says that’s because they’re hungry. So I said they could have some of my birthday cake, but Mummy says no.”
“Big bad Mummydoessay no,” Sadie says, walking over and giving me a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for coming.”
“My pleasure.” I know she can see through my polite fib. Sadie is my polar opposite, gregarious and confident where I’m diffident and awkward. She knows this sort of event is difficult for me as a card carrying introvert, and her kind eyes and a sympathetic squeeze of my forearm make it clear to me that she appreciates the effort.
“Can I get down?” Rhiannon asks me.
“Remember that word we talked about, Sugarpop,” Sadie reminds her, and the child’s eyes light up with remembrance.
“Pleasecan I get down?” she tries, and scampers off as soon as I let her go.
My expression softens as I turn back to Sadie. “How have you been?” She has tired eyes, and I’m keenly aware that the twins, at only eighteen days old, must be a handful. Still, there’s no mistaking the genuine happiness in her face.
“Shattered beyond my wildest dreams and desperate for a gin and tonic, but loving every minute. Come and meet the boys.”
I’ve been looking forward to this moment; I’ve only just come back from an extended business trip in California, or I’d have visited long since. She leads me over to the grill, where her husband, Leo, is flipping burgers and sausages one handed while he cradles one of the babies over his right shoulder. “Hey, Jacob, great to see you,” he greets me happily, his voice hushed out of consideration for his son, and I return the greeting. I like Leo. He’s boisterous, but he’s also patient and accommodating. And asSadie’s brother, I appreciate the fact that he also looks exhausted; he’s not leaving all the work with newborn twins to her.
“So, this is Toren,” Sadie murmurs to me, rubbing the baby’s back. “Any luck?” she asks Leo.
“Not so far - ” On cue, a rather impressive belch emanates from young Toren, and we all chuckle. “Four out of five for that one, fella.”
Sadie walks around to a large Moses basket, where the other baby wriggles peacefully. “And this right here is Ezra.” She reaches in and picks him up, his legs bunching underneath him in his baby jeans as she lifts him. It warms my heart to see the way her face lights up as she looks at her other son’s face.My younger sister is a mother of three.It still blows my mind. “You don’t have to, but if you’d like to hold him…?” The shrewd look on her face as I nod makes me suspect that she knew this was my plan all along.
I’m extremely careful as I take Ezra from Sadie and settle him so that his little head is supported. It was far more nerve wracking to hold Rhiannon when she was this age; downright terrifying when Eleanor was born, and I was not quite eighteen with no previous experience of babies. But now, with my nephew looking up at me with unseeing dark blue eyes, I’m comforted by his presence. My sister and her husband certainly make sweet children.
Ezra wriggles fitfully, his face starting to crease, so I bounce gently from side to side, and it seems to calm him again.
