23. Betty
23
BETTY
W e celebrated Kaia's release from Sickbay by going to Duke's for dinner.
“I think you will like our new quarters,” Proslo said, addressing mainly me, but not excluding the children. “The layout is much like our old one, but with a playroom between two bedrooms on one side, with a shared bathroom tucked behind.”
“How did they manage that?” I asked, marveling.
“It’s what they call a half bath only - just a toilet and a sink. It has what I am told are jack and jill doors, so access is via either bedroom. The playroom door is in the hall. Then there is a regular bathroom with a tub and a shower at the end of the hall. And on the other side, there is another pair of bedrooms with a second full sized jack and jill bathroom so Kaia and Akoni do not have to share facilities with the twins. There is a small study behind the twins’ rooms, coming off of the living room, which also has a half bath and which can be converted into another bedroom. For now, I had them put the arts and crafts supplies and boxes of puzzles in there. Your desk is in the office space by our bedroom, to make room for the larger table and sideboard we selected.”
“It’s a mansion!” Mo-mo breathed.
Proslo and I smiled at her.
“Not quite, but I will admit the Mylos provide housing a lot fancier than I was used to before I married your Dad.”
“Really?” Kaia asked, looking interested.
“Goodness, yes. I wasn’t poor or anything, but I lived in regular old apartments and my furniture came from the furniture store when there was a sale and flatpack stuff from Walmart and Target.”
“Now we have stuff from Ikea,” Akoni pointed out.
“Yes, well, one stop shopping and the Mylos apparently love the stuff, so it was easy to get.”
“Plus they had really nifty rooms you could just order,” he said, his eyes gleaming as he no doubt thought about the replicated student loft style room he would be coming home to with its double loft bed with a loveseat sofa bed and side table beneath it, colorful abstract rug in the center of the room so he could watch ‘TV’ without the twins interrupting. One of the cool gaming desks and chairs sat to one side, along with a mini chiller unit so he could do school projects in peace and grab drinks and snacks I’d keep it filled with, and turn the chair to face the wall to game using the wireless Mylos gaming controls that would make use of the same viewscreen area of wall as the TV would.
“I can’t wait to see my room,” Kaia confided shyly. “I never had my own room before.”
I was also excited about her room and couldn’t wait to see it in person. Her bedroom wasn’t from Ikea. Instead, while browsing, I’d spotted a vintage French Provincial inspired bedroom set from Sears from the ‘70’s, a four poster one, and knew immediately it had to be hers. That set had come with the bed and two night tables, but Akoni had helped me find a matching dresser in good condition on Facebook Marketplace and the desk with a hutch top and a chair on eBay. That had been up for auction as a new listing, but a quick message to the seller explaining the situation had her agreeing to change it to a Buy It Now at a reasonable price. Akoni had told me that her favorite color was baby blue so I’d gotten bedding and rugs in the color, as well as ruffled curtains to match once Proslo had confirmed there was wall space for four ‘windows’ in the room. eBay and Etsy had also yielded several Barbie Christmas ornaments and even a few actual vintage Barbies which I’d snagged to place on the hutch shelves along with a fashion doll sized sofa and chairs to sit the dolls on.
“”I gots my own room too,” Mo-mo reminded us all, talking with a mouthful of hula pie.
“Wait to talk, honey, until you’ve swallowed your food,” Proslo told her gently. “We don’t want you to accidentally choke on your food.”
“Plus it looks gross,” Maui told her, glowering. “See?” He stuffed a bite of his own pie in his mouth and chewed it up, then opened up to show her.
“Ew!” she replied after swallowing. “Sorry, Daddy, I forgotted that but I didn’t forgotted I have my own room and it’s no boys allowed except for you, Daddy. Mommy and Kaia can come in too.”
“That’s not fair!” Maui said, thrusting his lip out. “If I can’ts come in your room, then you can’t comes in mines!”
“Unless invited, no one except me and Daddy should ever go in someone else's bedroom. And Daddy and I will only go in to clean and check that you’re okay.”
“Xeranos will always be there as well,” Proslo reminded them.
“That’s like Alexa kinda, only more like Data cuz it’s a person only it’s not got a body,” Kaia told them.
“That’s so cool,” Akoni enthused. “As long as it uses its powers only for good.”
“Xero’s pronouns are he/him,” she told him primly. “I asked.”
“Cool,” Akoni said once more.
“What’s my room like, Mommy?”
“It’s a surprise,” I told her. “And so is yours,” I added for Maui’s benefit.
“As long as there’s lots of toys," he replied pragmatically.
“The playroom is full of them,” I promised.
“You’ll love your rooms and the toys,” Akoni promised him. “I helped Mom pick them out.”
“I may have added a few too, with Kaia’s help,” Proslo admitted and I laughed, knowing we both were definitely going to have to rein in our impulse to spoil them.
“Is it Christmas again?” Mo-mo asked.
“No, honey,” I answered.
Akoni smiled. “It’s even better, because it’s all from Mom and Dad. Santa will come later this year though. Remember? The Mylos have Space Santa. We saw it on TV. Everybody did.”
“Space Santa!” the twins shouted, getting amused glances from nearby diners.
“Shh, inside voices,” I said. “Now, let’s finish our pie and go back to the hotel. There’s time for you to watch a movie before bed if you don’t dawdle.”
“Yay!” They cheered and began enthusiastically eating once more.
Proslo beamed at me from across the table. We totally had this.