Chapter 17 #4
She leaned down to also kiss her on the belly. “And this little one too.”
At the mention of Meadow, April let out a long sigh.
“What is it, honey?”
“This was all easier when Cris didn’t know. Now that he knows, he’s going to fight. Not just for this baby boy, but also for
Meadow.” She grimaced, a pang of guilt suddenly rippling through her. “It’s going to break his heart, actually.” For some
reason, she kept thinking of the neat little school lunches that her husband lovingly packed for Meadow each morning in her
Chang’E lunchbox.
Chinoiserie cleared her throat. She was not there to sway her lover in any direction other than what was best for April. “You’re
going to need to talk to him when you go back” was all she said.
Wearily, April closed her eyes. She wondered what it would have been like to have a normal family, free of hungry ghosts and patriarchal lineages. She wondered what it felt like for motherhood to be a cherished experience, instead of one rife with palace politics and backstabbing.
And as April thought about her very abnormal family, she suddenly remembered what Wayward had said to her in their last conversation
together. They had been walking back to the RV after Felicia had rescued them, and Wayward had pulled her back until they
were out of earshot from their cousins.
“We can talk because there aren’t any phones,” Wayward whispered out of the corner of his mouth, the only other sound the
crunching of their shoes upon the dense sand of the Mojave Desert.
April had ignored this nonsensical statement; they had been tripping all night, after all. “What is it, Weiwei?”
“The only reason why I’m having this baby is because your mom gave me no choice. It’s the only way I can become president
of Sunfang.”
“Whoop-de-doo. You pulled me aside to gloat?”
“C’mon, April, just listen to me!” Wayward was hoarse with urgency. “You should go after the Sunfang Trust. Yes, I’m going
to have a baby, but I promise that I will be completely out of your way if you have one too.”
April wondered how exactly Wayward could promise such a thing. She did not reply, staring straight ahead as she quickened
her pace to move past him. Even back when they had been close allies, Wayward had never suggested that she have another baby,
let alone pressured her the way Roses and Cristiano had.
“You have biology and time on your side,” Wayward had said in response to her silence. “Not to mention a husband who is a
great dad and truly loves you. And who looks like a Disney prince, by the way.”
At this, April finally turned around. “You men are all the same,” she had said before leaving him behind to catch up with
the group. But since that night in the desert, she had regretted not asking him to elaborate further.
“‘Completely out of your way,’” April repeated quietly, as she and Chinoiserie watched the storm turn the ocean and the sky into one furious mass of swirling gray.
“What did you just say, honey?”
“Yes,” April agreed, “what exactly was Wayward saying?”
“What was Love has been consummated by Courage, and what has sprung from the alchemical hotbed of their intentions is the
idealized Eve, the Mindful One, the Mother of the Sun, personified in this lifetime as the Shannon!”
Standing to the side of Shannon Shoo as she luxuriated under the warm-toned artificial sunlight, SANTI gestured grandly, his
voice as sensuous and commanding as ever. Though somehow his overall effect did not quite have the same majestic aura it once
did.
As the tracksuited women of his human potential center looked on politely, SANTI shifted uncomfortably, feeling rather drafty.
This was likely because of what he had on: a dramatic scarlet robe with a curious gold belt, one that exposed his flaccid
genitals for all to see.
“Dear SANTI,” Shannon called out, waving at him. “Could you lead my sisters in a sacral plexus release? I feel that many Shannons
here have much trauma stored in our wombic centers, a side effect of the discontinued practice of Whispering, no doubt.” She
ran a hand through her luxuriously long hair, which was now back to its natural shade of shiny black.
SANTI let out a defeated sigh as he hoisted up his robes. “Shannons, follow me as we do some squats.”
“I love the new focus on fitness these days,” Hyacinth said to Iris as they crouched forward on the balls of their feet. “My
butt has never looked better!”
From her vantage point behind him, Shannon Shoo watched with amused satisfaction as SANTI’s dangling scrotum swung back and forth upon each squat, like low-hanging fruit on a breezy day.
When she had subjugated this grody creeper, Shannon at first considered burning all of MiNT Wellness’s old uniforms. SANTI had vehemently protested this, so she compromised by burning all of them . . . except for one.
Shannon snickered to herself. Not only was everything going to plan, but it was pretty damn entertaining too. She patted her
rounded belly, very pleased indeed.
Then she felt someone’s eyes upon her. She looked up, and made eye contact with Iris Sun-Kwok. Caught, Iris immediately snapped
her head back down, and resumed airily chatting with Hyacinth as they did their squats.
When Iris had unexpectedly entered the picture at MiNT, Shannon had been wary of the reputedly shrewdest of the Sun sisters.
Yet Shannon also knew when to piggyback onto someone else’s intelligence, and Iris had ultimately served her well, even if
the elder woman did not know it.
When the ceremony was over and the other women had dispersed, SANTI approached Shannon timidly. “How many more of these ceremonies
do you think we need to do?”
“SANTI,” Shannon replied in mock surprise, “our sacral release ceremonies are not just great for core strength, they are also
great for morale and community building. Here at MiNT, women know that when they sweat together, they heal together!”
“We had plenty of morale and community before you arrived,” SANTI muttered.
Shannon stared pointedly at his gold-wreathed crotch. “I prefer this new morale.”
Exasperated, SANTI tried to cover himself with his long sleeves. “Listen, lady, haven’t I done everything you’ve asked of
me? You’re going too far with this!”
“Oh, the rapey cult leader tells me that I’m the one who’s gone too far!
?” Shannon jeered in delighted disgust. “SANTI, never forget that you’re just one phone call away from becoming someone’s third-rank concubine at Terminal Island.
You’re going continue to do exactly what I want, and you’re going to thank me in your prayers every night. ”
SANTI clenched his fists and punched at the air in vain. “I already remade MiNT Wellness—my life’s work—completely in your
image, you crazy bitch! What more do you want from me? I’ve done everything you want when it comes to Hyacinth’s money! Why
won’t you just leave me alone?” He was begging by the time he got to this last question, kneeling before her with his hands
clasped before her. “Why can’t you just go?”
Shannon stood up finally, her robes billowing around her like the Birth of Venus. As she cradled her stomach, she looked as
though she was thinking. True, SANTI had caved on everything she wanted; he was a lowly coward who self-destructed the moment
a woman had bested him. Magnanimously, she leaned forward until her lips were next to his ear, as though to whisper clemency.
“No, SANTI . . . I’m having too much fun!” With a giggle she bounded away, leaving him stooped over in his fake underground
garden.
“You could at least let me turn the heater up,” he muttered under his breath, looking down at his sad retreated member.
“Sure,” Shannon called over her shoulder. “Blame the temperature.”
In front of UCLA Ronald Reagan Hospital, Wayward and Jamaal were brushing the remaining raindrops off their shoulders when
they saw Bessie and Kat approaching. They reassembled into their usual duos: Wayward and Kat bear-hugged while Bessie and
Jamaal linked arms, all of them chatting merrily and noting how quickly Bessie’s new curve was growing.
As the four friends walked into Reagan, a rainbow formed over the dead president’s building, promising futures more fascinating
than he could have ever imagined.
“How did you handle Roses?” Jamaal asked once they were sitting in the waiting room.
“What do you mean?” asked Bessie. “Did she ask to join us again?”
“We’re already living with her! These appointments are our only break from each other,” Kat said. “I think I’m slowly driving
her crazy, anyway. I bet after we leave she permanently seals our bedroom.”
Wayward grinned at Jamaal. “So she only asked you! Cuz you’re her fave.”
“Teacher’s pet!” crowed Kat.
A nurse called out Bessie’s name, and they all followed her down the hall. In front of the ultrasound room, there was a cubby
into which they happily surrendered their phones as per hospital policy.
Once the nurse left, they shut the door. Away from tapped phones, Bessie let out a sigh of relief.
“We can’t hold Roses off forever,” she said in a markedly different tone. “She’s chomping at the bit to see this baby in person.
She’s going to keep asking to join us here.”
“Don’t let her intimidate you,” Wayward said. “We set this situation up perfectly. As long as y’all stay at the Malibu compound,
that will be enough for her, even if she fusses. Just say she’s stressing you out if she becomes too demanding. Trust me,
she’ll back down.”
“I just squeeze a lot of lemon on top of Bessie’s food,” Kat chimed in. “She always watches me cook, and whenever I add lemon,
she practically has an orgasm.”
Wayward pondered this a moment, then began to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Jamaal asked.
Sour for boys, spicy for girls, Wayward said in Mandarin. “It’s an old Chinese superstition that pregnant women crave sour food when they are carrying boys,
and crave spicy for girls. Keep adding lemon to everything and tell Roses that it’s all Bessie wants to eat.”
Kat nodded. “Pickles, vinegar, vegan kimchi—I’m on it. Roses will be in sour nirvana.”
“How’s work going?” Bessie asked Wayward.
“Oh, it’s going,” he said. “Right after the baby shower, I’m flying down to S?o Paulo to check out the construction on Sunfang
Promessa.”
“Our work baby.” Bessie smiled. She patted her belly. “Leveraged by this real baby.” She sighed. “I hope it’ll all work out
in the end.”
Jamaal whistled, reminded once again of the gravity of their undertaking. “I know I say this every time we’re together, but
we are absolutely nuts for thinking we can pull this off.”
“What’s more nuts was when my grandfather bribed governments in order to plunder the rainforest in the eighties,” Wayward
said. “Though what we’re doing is just as innovative, if I do say so myself.”
Kat rolled her eyes. “This kid is going to need a lot of therapy.”
“Group therapy,” Jamaal corrected her. “We’re all going to need it.”
The door opened and the sonographer walked in as Bessie assumed the position on the examination chair. In a hushed awe, the
quartet watched as the transducer ran over Bessie’s abdomen, transmitting the live feed of the growing baby within.
“Look at those sturdy limbs,” the sonographer said with a smile. “I bet this one is a kicker.”
“Roses is gonna to want a picture, at least,” Jamaal whispered to Wayward, “of the sonogram.”
“We’ll use AI,” Wayward murmured back.
“Clocking in at around twenty-two centimeters,” the sonographer continued. “Growing at an above-average pace for the five-month
mark.”
“Love that,” Kat said, beaming. “I was a big baby too!”
“Hopefully not too big,” Bessie said with a wince.
The sonographer paused the image on the machine as she turned to the couples. “Everything looks to be in order! And I assume are already aware of the gender, given that this was IVF and you got to choose in advance.”
“Oh, yes,” Wayward said with a small smile. “We are very aware.”
Wayward, Bessie, Jamaal, and Kat looked at one another, each of their faces expressing a whole litany of wild emotions. Ever
since Wayward told them of his plan to assume control of Sunfang Global on his terms, they all swore to secrecy—a secret that
had them each balancing on a tightrope between revelation and catastrophe.
Wayward placed an affectionate hand upon Bessie’s stomach. He looked over at Jamaal, their eyes mirroring one another in solidarity
and affection, before turning back to the image on the sonogram machine of a perfectly shaped fetus.
“Yes,” Wayward said again. “We can’t wait for our little girl.”