Page 121 of Rune
We’d been in the baby name trenches for weeks. Nothing ever felt quite right.
“I did.”
“Nothing, huh?” she asked, sighing. “I know. I don’t even know why I left it. I knew nothing was right. But we’re getting close and this baby needs a name.”
“I was thinking,” I said, putting my hand on her stomach as well, feeling the little fluttering sensation of a kick that never ceased to amaze me.
“I’m on tenterhooks.”
“I was thinking maybe something like… Vita or Via or Tori…”
“For Victoria?” Carmen asked, eyes wide for a moment before they flooded.
“Yeah.” In a twisted way, if it hadn’t been for Victoria, Carmen and I never would have met. And I couldn’t fucking imagine my life without her.
“Vicky would have loved that.”
“It’s settled then.”
And just six weeks later, our daughter came into the world—loud, demanding, the center of attention. Just like her namesake.
Carmen - 20 years
“Give it back!”
“It was on my side of the room again. I told you to keep it on your side, or it’s going in the garbage. So, now it is.”
“Boys,” I called, though the censure was half-hearted at best.
We’d planned on three kids.
But that third pregnancy came with a little surprise… a twin. Two little boys instead of one.
The whole family had been watching in fascinated delight as the boys proved to be little carbon copies of Rune and their Uncle Croft—except in reverse. With them, the older one was as Type B as you could get: messy, disorganized, flighty, laid back. Meanwhile, the one that was younger by eight minutes was strict, serious, and meticulous about being tidy.
They even had tape down the center of their bedroom like Rune and Croft did as kids. But not even that tape could prevent their never-ending arguments.
“I thought twins were supposed to be really tight,” I’d complained as we heard a crash in their room one night, followed by lots of yelling. “A special bond and all that.”
“It’s there,” Rune assured me as we both actively avoided stepping in on the argument. It rarely helped anyway. Sometimes, they just needed to work it out among themselves. “But there were seasons where Croft and I fought like crazy. Especially at that age, at the end of elementary and the beginning of middle school. I swear we were always pounding on each other.”
“What did your parents do about it?”
“Mostly ignored it. Let us figure it out. They only stepped in if we couldn’t seem to find a way back to civility.”
So, yeah, that had been our parental choice as well. I figured if Rune and Croft wound up as closely bonded and well-adjusted as they did, then that was the evidence we needed to know being hands-off about their arguments was likely the way to go.
“He’s gonna throw out my laptop!”
Damn.
This was one of those intervention moments, I guess. That thing cost too much money to let it get thrown on top of this morning’s breakfast leftovers.
Before I could jump up, though, Rune walked through the doorway, snatching the laptop out of one set of hands and putting it into the other set. “Keep it off his side of the room or I won’t save it next time,” he warned.
“He’s gonna do it again,” the younger twin grumbled.
“Probably,” Rune agreed. “But if he doesn’t have his laptop to fuck around on, he’s gonna ask to use yours all the time.”
