Different Circles

Jake carried her to the master suite of the house. The suite had a huge walk-in closet and they had set up a bedroom for her in there. A portable crib sat in the middle of the walk space and a mobile of stars, planets, and musical notes hung directly over the top of it. There was a small dresser with her clothing and her diaper supplies in and on it. Jake put her down on the mattress and stripped her out of her onesie. He changed her diaper—this one was soiled liberally but it was the relatively inoffensive breast milk poop—and then dressed her in white footie pajamas that had the motto TREBLE MAKER on it above a graphic of a treble clef and a wavy line of musical notes (these PJs had been a gift from Celia). Through this all, Caydee looked up at her father in contentment, not fussing or fighting or crying. For the most part, she really was a good baby, much easier to take care of than they had any right to expect.

“Good night, little Caydee,” Jake whispered affectionately as he leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Sleep tight and sleep long.” He knew, of course, that she would sleep tight, but it would not be long. On a good night she would stay down for three hours maximum before waking them up for changing and feeding.

He made sure she was firmly on her back and then covered her with a blanket and tucked it around her. He gave her one last kiss and then turned off the closet light, plunging the room into darkness. He left the closet, leaving the door open, and then left the suite, leaving that door open as well. They had no baby monitor for her since such devices were absurdly easy to illicitly monitor from several hundred yards away. They most certainly did not want some reporter using a scanner to overhear conversations and goings-on in the Kingsley bedroom.

Jake made his way back to the family room. Celia and Laura were sitting next to each other on the couch, both enjoying their glass of wine while Jeopardy played on the television set. The Nerdlys were on the computer, fiddling with their website and talking amongst themselves. This was just as well. The Nerdlys were persona non grata when it came to watching Jeopardy with others because they knew all the answers and would shout them out before anyone else had a chance. Eric had already retreated to his room for the night. Liz was out in the hot tub, relaxing with a glass of wine of her own. Everyone knew she was missing Little Stevie.

Jake mixed up a rum and coke at the bar and then carried it over to the recliner next to the couch. Jeopardy had just gone to commercial and Celia had muted the sound.

“Did Caydee go down okay?” Laura asked.

“Yep,” Jake said, reclining the chair and putting his feet up. “Just like that.”

“And you changed her, right?” she asked.

“Yes, I changed her,” he said patiently. “I’m a veteran now, remember?”

Laura giggled. “We both are at this point in the game,” she said. “I can’t believe it’s already been four weeks now. We have her one-month appointment next week! Can you believe that?”

“The time is flying,” Jake agreed. “I still remember that first day home with her.”

Laura laughed warmly. “Wasn’t that insane?” she asked. “Thank God Elsa was there. You too, C.”

“I will remember that day for the rest of my life,” Celia said with a laugh of her own.

Nothing terribly dramatic had happened on that first day home for little Caydee (they had started calling her Caydee while still in the hospital with her) it had just been a bit on the surreal side. Less than twenty-four hours after she emerged into the world, Dr. Niven and Dr. Michaels had told them to take her home. Take her home! By themselves! With no instruction manual or training classes! And they had done so, both of them feeling decidedly strange that the medical community was just letting them take this little life home to take care of. And then they arrived there and carried little Caydee inside the house in the carrier part of her car seat. And they sat her on the coffee table in the dining room. And they just stared at her, wondering what they were supposed to do next.

She was sleeping at the time, her little eyes closed, her respiration regular, her little body bundled up in swaddling blankets and her little hat on her head.

“What do we do now?” Jake asked. “Should we put her in her crib?”

“Maybe you should feed her, Teach,” Celia suggested.

“But she’s asleep,” Laura replied. “Dr. Michaels said there is no need to wake her up to feed her. She’ll let me know when she’s hungry.”

“Maybe her diaper needs to be changed,” Jake suggested.

“Shouldn’t we let her sleep if she’s sleeping?” Laura asked.

“I don’t know,” Jake said. “I thought you women were supposed to know about this shit.”

“I know as much as you do,” Laura said testily.

“Which would be very little, apparently,” Jake shot back.