Journey

Chapter 22

August 16-19, 2024

"Mr. Tort Oise and Mr. Rabb It stroll down the field..."

Thirty five year old Lisa sat on five year old Jake's bed reading him a story from whatever book he had picked from his bookshelf that night. Lisa was fully dressed in a stark grey suit, matte grey shirt, a red tie, and red suede brogue boots. Her back was against the wall but her body twists at a weird angle as a result of her trying to keep her shoes off the bed.

Jake's head rested against her chest while he bunched the center of Lisa's once perfectly ironed shirt in his hand.

Ever since he was a newborn Jake did this thing where he held on to Lisa or Jennie for dear life as he was dozing off. Jake was a sleepy clinger and he had to fall asleep with their shirts held tightly between his little fingers or he couldn't fall asleep at all. It had become another regular part of the nightly routine. Over the years Jake had stretched all of their favorite sleep shirts with the relentless way he pulled on them sometimes. Getting him to let go once he was asleep was just as difficult as it was trying to convince him not to cling in the first place.

"...discussing their adventure and their discovery of the indestructible shield."

The little boy's beryl eyes were glued on the detailed, hand drawn images surrounding the words Lisa was reading. His lids grew droopy with every word Lisa uttered out loud.

"They hopped and hopped across the land..."

Jennie strolls into the room. She's wearing a form fitting navy blue dress with a deep V cut on the front that more than assured she provided a severely distracting amount of cleavage. Jennie's makeup is done pristinely and she's wearing the highest and most uncomfortable yet incredibly sexy looking apple green heels that Lisa has ever seen her wear. Jennie is two months shy of turning thirty two and has had four kids, but Lisa swears Jennie has never looked this good before.

She endlessly insists there has to be something magical about her wife.

"...in search for the witch's magic wand."

"Honey, we're going to be late."

Jennie interrupts from the door and her two favorite sets of doe eyes look up at her.

"Bedtime isn't over mommy."

"I know baby..." Jennie walks over to the bed and sits next to Jake "...but I can ask grandma to finish the story for you if you want. Mama and I have to go or we're going to miss our dinner." Jennie kisses his head.

"I want mama to finish."

Lisa looks at Jennie pleading.

"If we wait until he's asleep we're not going to make our reservation."

"I was just getting to the good part though." Lisa almost whimpers at Jennie.

"Lisa... I had to basically bribe someone to get us into the books. I have a feeling you'll both survive without the full bedtime schedule tonight. Up. Come on."

Jennie aims to pull the book from Lisa's hand but Lisa resists. Both her and Jake look at Jennie and give her pathetic whines.

"One of the most coveted tables in the city has our name on it starting at 9pm. If we're not there by 9:20 it goes to someone else. It's 8:23 and we're forty minutes away with traffic. He should have been asleep twenty minutes ago anyway. We have to go."

"But..."

Jake and Lisa reply at the same time with their sad eyes looking at Jennie.

"No buts. We're not missing this dinner."