Chapter 443) The Good Times and Bad

“There is no footprint too small to leave an imprint on this world.”

– Unknown

Windenburg Isle
Hayes Estate

Staring blankly at the three toddlers playing noisily on the playground equipment in the backyard of the sprawling estate that was their home, Sophie didn’t realize she was crying again until she tasted her salty tears on her lips. She wiped her face.

They were the silent tears, the most painful ones.
Bravely, Sophie did her breathing exercises while imagining her happy place as she closed her eyes. Her happy place was with Stryker, at a beach in Sulani. Yes, soon she could feel the warmth of the sun on her skin, caressing it just as Stryker’s lips were, the mild balmy breeze engulfing them to the sounds of the waves of the turquoise seas crashing ashore around them.

She and Stryker had lost their triplets, late-term, well into Sophie’s third trimester.

The worst part was that the issue hadn’t been noticed until sepsis had already set in, making Sophie very sick, and resulting in an emergency surgery during which all three babies and one of Sophie’s ovaries were removed. None of the babies could be saved. And her chances of becoming pregnant again were halved.

Devastating news to any mother, but especially a maternal person like Sophie. She lived and breathed being a wife and mother. It was her true calling. She fell into a deep depression, barely slept or ate. Having been on the stouter side all her life, her resulting rapid weight loss was alarming, turning Sophie into a shadow of her former self. Months of therapy followed, eventually she was able to see the light at the end of this tunnel again, with Stryker by her side, always, day and night. Everyone had feared he’d take it too hard and fall off the bandwagon with all his many addictions, instead he surprised everyone, including himself, by being the rock Sophie now so desperately needed.

They cried together, mourned together, he saw her through, lovingly and patiently. He put his career on hold indefinitely, consequences be damned, to tend to his children in a manner they deserved, and to be the partner Sophie now needed, never leaving her side. Family first.

With Stryker’s and her entire family’s help Sophie began to heal, it took many months, but now her pain was now no longer constant, instead it came on in waves, usually without any warning, like right now. But she now could handle it, breathe the hurt away and live again, rather than just exist. She even managed to smile again. Sometimes.

Watching her happy, healthy, active children play like there was no tomorrow made her feel ungrateful for mourning after three babies she never really met, while three living ones were thriving right before her eyes, needing and deserving their mother, a real mother, one worthy of them. There had been a time in her life when she would have never thought she’d ever even have one child, let alone three, not to mention their hunky father, her husband. ‘Count the blessings you have, not cry after what you think you might have had‘, her dad had always told her. True words, but at times hard to remember.

“Mommy, mommy – Keanu is mean!” Phoenix, Sophie and Stryker’s youngest and only daughter came running, her lip trembling suspiciously, then big tears started falling down her puffy toddler cheeks. Once she reached her mother, she broke out into full on crying.

Sophie caught the little girl and picked her up, kissing one of the wet cheeks, before drying them with the sleeve of her cardigan.

“What did your brother do now, honey?” she asked patiently.

“I baked a sand cake for you, so pwetty and sooooo big … then Keanu ate it. Mean!” the little girl grumbled, forgetting all about crying for the time being to be sufficiently angry, which would have been funny, but Sophie knew better than to laugh at her daughter’s perceived misery, not to mention her words were disconcerting.

“He .. what?! Oh my God, Keanu! NO!”

With her daughter in her arm, Sophie watched in horror as her middle child now purposefully removed his binkie to shovel in a load of sand, rolling it around in his mouth only to plug it with his binkie in an attempt to keep it contained.

Sophie set the girl back down and ran to the sandbox, to pry her middle child’s mouth open in mid-munch, in a desperate effort to remove all the sand he hadn’t eaten yet, which startled the little boy making him cry. This reminded Phoenix that she was also very sad, so she started in on it too. With now two screeching babies, Sophie looked to her oldest, peacefully playing by himself in the ball pit, but looking over mildly concerned with his younger siblings’ latest antics, while his mother wondered if he could be trusted with a task.

“Spencer, baby, could you run inside and get daddy please like the big boy you are?” she asked as calmly as she could.

“Okway …” the boy decided, then immediately started making his way out of the ball pit, once out, he hurried away, leaving Sophie to hope he didn’t get distracted on the way and would really return with his father. Sophie would have just called for Stryker, but knowing he was in his soundproof studio, it wouldn’t do much good.

Moments later Spencer returned in his father’s arms, crying loudly.

“Oh no …not him now too …” Sophie groaned, when Stryker reached her, setting down a very discontent Spencer, then turned to address the little boy.

“Sorry again, buddy, but you know the rules. You cannot come into daddy’s studio when the red light is on, right?” Stryker told Spencer calmly.

“Mommy made me doooooo iiiiiit!” the little boy howled out all the wrong he felt had been done to him, pouting, pulling away and dropping to his knees defiantly when Stryker tried to snuggle him.

“I did. Sorry babe, I sent him in to get you, I need help.” Sophie said.

“I see that. What did you do to my kids, woman?” Stryker wondered mildly amused.

Toddler meltdowns weren’t anything that fazed him or Sophie too much anymore at this point, a daily occurrence in their lives, if one kid started, all would end up doing it sooner or later. Usually sooner.

“What did YOU do to my son, man!?” Sophie clapped back, smiling.

“I guess I snapped at him a little for busting into the studio like the Kool-Aid Man, but I apologized right away. All right let’s see which trick will fix the mess this time. HEY – who here wants ice cream?! A really BIG bowl of pure sugar so you can bounce off all the walls? Huh? Any takers?” Stryker called out the last part, clapping in his hands joyfully.

No change, the same collective pouts and sobs from all three toddlers.

“Oh boy, looks like we are dealing with an F4 strength toddler tornado emergency. That means only one thing … who here wants to go see grandma and grandpa?” Stryker attempted.

Silence, only a few stray sobs here and there, while the toddlers evaluated the offer, then all seemed to decide unanimously that grandma’s cookies, fun games, snuggles and absence of most rules was worth the truce. The sobbing seized and excited claps and cheers started.

“Stryker! We can’t keep dumping those kids on my parents whenever we feel like it.” Sophie giggled.

“Not dumping, they are saving our sanity, and they both always tell us to come to them for help. We need help now! You want me to take them to my mother instead? Those kids will NEVER trust me again. You know we will still hear about that when they all turn 18, one by one, needing therapy for the rest of their days, right? One look at how screwed up I turned out will tell you everything you need to know.”

“Oh Stryker, your mom really isn’t that bad. But you’re right they do prefer my parents, and honestly, so do I. Fine, lets’ get them cleaned up and ready to go. Sorry about your recording. I take full responsibility. I did make Spencer do that; he was just being a good boy listening to mommy.”

“Yeah, I know. I think once we got rid of the moody munchkins, I will take you to lunch at the Rhapsody. We both earned it and I am still determined as fuck to fatten you up a little more. Last thing I need in my life is another skinny chick! I like my wife with a few more curves and you know what they say, never trust a skinny chef. You are bad advertising for yourself.” Stryker teased.

“I know … I always wanted to lose weight, but not turn into one of those science skeletons. I don’t really like myself this way either. I’d love to go to the Rhap with you, that really sounds lovely. They have new menu items I have been dying to try, I may get a few new ideas. I’ll be sure to dress up. And you be sure to bring plenty of plastic, mommy needs a drink – or ten. Mommy juice!” Sophie sighed.

“Careful with that. We can only handle one addict at a time and that spot is filled by yours truly. That’s how I got started once upon a time. Just a few drinks to forget my many problems, forgetting that alcohol preserves not eradicates, so all I ended up doing was marinate the problems in booze, they all came back bigger than ever demanding even more booze. Voila, an alci is born. Problems are the only thing that grows bigger the longer they are left unattended.”

“Babe, I promise you; I am never gonna be an alcoholic. Just need something to drown out the ringing in my ears YOUR children have caused.”

“MY children, huh? Great, more shit to blame on me.”

“Well, I didn’t make them by myself …” shrugged Sophie and started corralling the children into the house.

“Nope. I sure did my part helping with that.” Stryker winked at her as they rounded up the kids.

They cleaned up the kids, Stryker took a shower and got dressed, then it was Sophie’s turn.

Stryker only got distracted for a brief moment taking a call, and that was all it took for him to be reminded how much havoc three toddlers can cause.