Love or Money

"Lynn!" Natalie said.

"What?"

"You're pregnant!" she squealed.

Lenora's hands went to her mouth as she stared at Natalie and then at me.

She went to the nightstand by the bed, grabbed her phone, and dialed a number. When the person answered, she told them to come to her room.

A couple minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Lenora hollered for them to come in. Thankfully, I had just pulled on a pair of silk boxers. Natalie was still wrapped in a towel. Mrs. Wellington walked over by the hot tub, scooped up the test, and took it to Greta.

"Madam?!" the maid gasped, as she looked at it. "Is this...?"

"We'll test again - in a day or two to be sure - but according to that thing, I'm pregnant."

Greta threw her arms around her employer's neck, hugging her tightly and beginning to cry. Soon, Lenora was crying as well. Reggie leaned in, caught my eye, and gave me a wink. I smiled back at him.

"Blessed news, madam," he said. "I'll call the physician. I believe they'll want to confirm the results right away and get you started on some medicines that will help the baby."

"Oh!" Mrs. Wellington gasped. "Yes! Yes, Reggie. Thank you!"

"No problem at all, madam," he said, disappearing from the doorway.

Greta helped Lenora get dressed while Natalie and I did the same.

Once we were properly clothed, the maid convinced Lenora to move to a sitting room. Reggie had already informed us that the physician was on the way.

The doctor and an attendant arrived and Reggie brought them to where we were waiting. By that point, every employee that was at the house had gathered to learn the news. The physician took a sample of blood and handed it off to the woman who was with him. She disappeared.

"Where is she going?" Lenora asked.

"We brought the mobile lab," the doctor told her. "She's going to check your blood. While she's doing that, let's get you set up with some prescriptions. If you're serious about getting pregnant, you should be taking these now - to give your body the best chance to help itself - and the baby."

Over the next few minutes, he laid out what she should be taking and when. Natalie accepted a notepad and a pen from Greta, with a nod, and began scribbling down the information.

The nurse returned. She was beaming.

When every head in the room turned to look at her the doctor said, "You don't have a very good poker face, Maxine."

"Sorry, doctor," she said, giggling. "This is so exciting!"

"I know why I'm excited, miss," Lenora told the young woman, "but why are you excited?"

"Well, madam," she said, "for a woman at your advanced..."

The girl froze, mid-sentence.

"I'm a little old to have a baby?" Lenora asked, laughing.

"I'm sorry!" the nurse exclaimed.

"Natalie," Lenora said.

"Yes?" Nat asked.

"Hand that notepad to Nurse Excitable over here." She looked at the doctor and said, "Is that okay with you?"

"You want her full-time or just for morning and evening visits?"

"Your call," Lynn told him.

"She's still learning etiquette, obviously," he said, grinning broadly, "but she's top-notch - and you're no spring chicken."

"So they tell me," Lenora said, grinning back.

"She'll probably badger you to death," he warned.

"Just try to keep up with me," Lenora told the nurse - who was bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Maxine," the doctor called, getting her attention.

"Yes, doctor?"

"You are hereby assigned to watch over and care for Mrs. Lenora Wellington until the successful delivery of her child. Medically, you answer to me. In every other way, she is your director and employer."

"Yes, doctor. Thank you, madam!"

"Maxine?"

"Yes, doctor?"

"You'll need to run home and pack. You will be living here for the next several months. Don't you ride the city bus to work?"

"Yes, doctor," she said.

The physician turned and looked at Lenora. I pulled out my keys and held them up.

"Can you drive - or should I drive you?" I asked.

"I can drive," she said.

"Ever driven a Jaguar?" I asked, grinning.

The doctor laughed and shook his head.

"Fuck, no!" the nurse gasped.

The doctor looked like he was going to reprimand the girl for her language. I threw her the keys.

"Go," he told her. "Grab your phone and whatever else is in the van. Run home and get your things. Call if you need anything but I'll leave everything here that you should require."

The nurse ran out of the door and down the hall. Two minutes later, she was back, panting, holding her phone and a small wallet. She looked at me.

"Come on," I said. "I'll show you where it's parked."

The doctor shook Lenora's hand and began carrying in the medical equipment that the nurse would need. The employees queued up to congratulate Mrs. Wellington and give her hugs. Lynn was beaming like the midday sun.

Natalie was sitting in an armchair, holding her pregnancy test, scowling at me. I winked at her and went to show the nurse where my car was located.

When I got back, I pulled Natalie up, dropped into the chair, and pulled her on top of me. She was pretending to be grumpy. Instead of consoling her, I kissed her cheek, and whispered in her ear.

"You know what I think is the most incredible part of all of this?" I asked her.

She turned to look into my eyes, brushing the hair off of my forehead.

"Your symptoms," I told her. "When you described your pain, this morning, I immediately knew that you were having sympathy pains for her. I wouldn't be surprised if you end up with morning sickness instead of her."

Natalie looked over at Mrs. Wellington - still accepting congratulations from her many employees.

"You think so?"

"We'll see," I told her, snuggling against her neck.

"Is it weird that I'd be okay with that?" she asked.

"I love you so much," I told her.

"I love you, too," she said, squirming against me.

~~~ Epilogue ~~~

Mrs. Lenora Wellington was 62 years old when she gave birth to her little girl - OUR little girl. It was still difficult for me to believe that I was a father. Flora Natalia Wellington was blonde-haired and blue-eyed and she stole my heart from the first moment I laid eyes on her.

Her mother, Aunt Nat, and Miss Maxine were the ones to tell her 'no' - or to tell me 'no' when I told her 'yes'. I was not the disciplinarian; I was Daddy Warbucks.

Lynn never conceived again but not for lack of trying. Her favorite position was lying prone on top of me - sliding her body back and forth across mine - as my cock slid in and out of her grasping channel. My favorite - for both of my lovers - continued to be flooding their wombs after getting mauled by their writhing bodies as the two of them pleasured one another.

Lenora lived until our little girl was 32 years old. By that point, she had trained the Wellington heir in everything she needed to know to carry on the business and the estate.

A week before she passed, she had me get the limousine (Reggie couldn't drive any more). We drove through Candletree. Aunt Natalie and I showed my little girl where we grew up. From there, we drove three blocks over - to Snakewood. There were only two trailers still standing. The rest had crumbled into nothing. A rust-pocked tank - on metal legs - that had once served as the water-tower for the trailer court, still stood. Someone had sprayed "Snakewood" on its side at some point in the past - the only indication of the name of the desolate place. The scribbled writing was faded so badly that it was barely readable. In a few more years, there would be nothing left here.

"Why did you bring me here, momma?" our "little" girl asked.

"You need to realize you have something special, my love," Lenora told her. "Your daddy, Aunt Nat, and me - we escaped this hell-hole by the grace of God and the man whose name you bear."

"Daddy Gerald?" she asked.

"Yes, sweetheart. He rescued me. Granny Wellington cursed us..." Lenora said, swallowing to make enough saliva to continue.

"I remember the story, momma," Flora told her, pressing her forehead to her mother's cheek.

"Your daddy and Aunt Nat broke the curse," she finished.

"She's lying, of course," I told my daughter.

Lenora hissed at me.

"Your mother broke the curse when she saved me and Aunt Natalie," I said.

"Your father and I grew up together and never admitted we loved each other," Natalie told her. "Your mother saw through our facades in an instant and brought us together. Daddy Gerald loved your momma but could never give her a baby. When your momma shared that love with me and your daddy, THAT broke Granny Wellington's curse."

"If I have all of this love," she asked. "Why haven't I found someone special?"

"You will," Lenora and Natalie said at the same time.

I drove us back home. Lenora passed a week later.

At the graveside, Natalie and I held each other and bawled our eyes out. Flora held us, kissed our foreheads, and comforted us.

A week later, Natalie got pregnant. We discovered this when Flora complained that her breasts and nipples hurt. Nat and I looked at each other, shocked. Sure enough, the test showed that we were finally going to be parents.

To celebrate, Flora bought the properties that had held the trailer parks where her mother and me and Aunt Natalie had grown up. She helped what residents remained find someplace else to live, and razed the grounds.

As she stood, holding her sketches for the greenspace she intended to create, a college kid approached her and asked her what she was doing.

"Why do you care?" she asked him.

"I used to live here," he said.

"So did my dad, my mom, and my aunt," she told him.

"What are they gonna do with this place now - do you know?" he asked.

"No clue," she said, "what do you think they should do?"

"A park maybe?" he said. "You'd have to be careful how you designed it though - to keep the drug dealers from using it to hide from the cops."

"Any idea how you'd do that?" she asked.

"A few," he said. "I'm studying to be an architect."

Flora handed him her sketches and a business card and told him to come see her when he had three designs - for each of the two spaces. She would pick the ones she liked the best.

James Whitmore showed up at #22 Concord Boulevard the next day with a sketchbook filled with images, rough maps (drawn mostly to scale), and twice as many ideas as Flora had asked for.

I stuck my head in long enough to ask the young man who his mother and grandmother were. I nodded to my little girl that his story checked out and went back to talk to Natalie.

By the time Flora and James broke ground at Snakewood and Candletree, the two of them were engaged to be married. Flora had asked him out almost as soon as I had nodded to her and left the room.

The designs they settled on were unique to each space - and yet tied the two together. The public spaces were practical, safe, and fun. The first event to take place in the public space that used to be Snakewood was a wedding - between the man who designed the space - and the woman who made it happen. The ceremony was open to the public and lots of former residents - who came to see what had become of the places - enjoyed the refreshments and the fellowship that followed.

Plaques, at each location, dedicate those spaces to Gerald and Lenora Wellington.

Natalie and I named our little boy after the man who made it possible for us to enjoy all that we had.

~~~ The End. ~~~

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