Page 46 of Karma Kitty Christmas
Isaac chuckled and rested the thing in his lap again. “Oh, I want this blanket to be hauled around, taken to picnics, used to wipe boogers and change diapers—this thing is going to belurved.”
Roxy laughed softly too and took a sip of her own fruit drink. “That’s my kind of baby gift,” she said. “What’s got you so distracted, honey? This should be your moment of triumph here.”
Isaac glanced at his phone. “Well, for one thing, I was waiting to hear from Luca and Allegra about whether or not their big project was finalized. Apparently there’s money in the bank,and Luca’s business is solvent for the rest of this year, which is pretty awesome.”
“Oh my God! Isaac, that’s amazing. They should be so proud!”
Isaac nodded, resuming the border around the blanket, soothed by their conversation. “Oh they are—and I’m happy for them.”
“You sound as happy as a heart attack,” she said dryly. “What’s the deal?”
“School starts next week,” he said, like this was news.
“I know. This is sort of our last hurrah before we go bake in our classrooms like ratatouille.” Some fucking genius had put the thermostat controls in the hands of the company that installed the HVAC systems. The company was located in Texas, and the sensors for the thermostats werenowhere nearthe mass of thirty-five kids in the center of the room generating body heat by the megajoule. The year before, teachers and students had staged a walkout when they realized they were teaching in ninety-degree heat because some pencil pusher three states away could not fathom why it wasn’t seventy-six degrees in their rooms.
“I think they fixed that?” he said, ending on an “I hope” sort of note, and she grunted.
“We’ll see. I wonder if they remembered to update my computer with the server this year.” Two years ago, they hadn’t, and her grades hadn’t been saved. She’d been pregnant, exhausted, and had recorded her grades sixty-dozen times only to have Paulaandthe principal condescend to her about, “Well, if you weren’t so tired, dear, maybe you could figure out how to work the computer.”
Isaac had needed to hold her back, or she would have committed physical assault.
“I called yesterday and double-checked,” Isaac told her, grimacing at her surprise. “Look, I don’t know who you think is keeping me sane at that pit o’ despond, O Earth Mommy Dearest, but if I don’t have Roxy, I’m going fucking banana dumplings, and I’d just rather fucking not.”
“Aw….” Roxy smiled at him beatifically. “Same with you, my queen banana dumpling. In fact”—and she grew surprisingly serious—“given how many changes you’ve had in your life in the last three months, I’m kind of honored. You know, when you said you were letting Allegra move in, I got kind of jealous. I was like, ‘That bitch is smart, funny, and sweet as hell. She’d better not try to steal my bestie.’”
Isaac chuckled because Allegra and Roxy got along amazingly well, but if Roxy wanted to tell the story like that, well, it was funnier. No, Allegra had fit into his life just fine, and Isaac had felt an awesome sort of excitement as the two of them had prepped the baby’s room the week before. He’d seen Roxy through three pregnancies, and he adored her brood, but this baby… this baby was coming to live with him, and he was so excited he couldn’t stand it.
But….
“I’m going to be a parent,” he said and then shook his head to reword that. “I mean, no, not the baby daddy, and I know I’m Uncle Isaac to your kids—I can change a diaper—”
“And you do a fantastic job,” Roxy told him, saluting a little with her fruit juice and ice.
“Thank you,” he said soberly. “I worked hard to learn that skill. But anyway, this kid is going to live in my house. And I want to help. I mean…. Roxy, Ireallywant to help. But school is starting. You know… school?”
Roxy blew out a breath and fell against her chair as though suddenly exhausted. “Yeah, Isaac,” she said softly. “I know school.”
“That first six weeks,” he muttered, and she groaned.
“Don’t remind me.”
The first six weeks in a school with a percentage of transient students was pretty hellish. It took a while to get the classes balanced in the first place, but when there was an influx of kids in the first two weeks whose parents hadn’t signed them up for school because they didn’t know they were supposed to, or figured they could just show up with a kid and it would all be okay, or who didn’t give a shit, or whatever—well, that made thingsextrafun. The rosters Roxy and Isaac were given on the first day were usuallymilesaway from the rosters they ended up with after that first tumultuous six weeks, and in the meantime? They still had to teach lessons, give quizzes, and make sure the kids learned something, please Godanything, in six weeks of a school year.
It was, in a word,exhausting.
And that didn’t include the whole “coming back to work” thing, which wasalsoan adjustment. Teaching used a massive amount of energy, and teachers usually refilled their reserves during summer break. But coming back was a whole physical/psychologicalthing, and it was hard on the students and hard on the teachers. Roxy was fond of saying that whether you were having a baby or starting the school year, the exhaustion peaked at six weeks. Don’t make any big decisions, don’t give any big tests, and don’t operate any heavy machinery in that sixth week, and after that, everything would get eventually better.
So when Isaac said, “That first six weeks,” he was talking about the ordeal they had to live through to get on with their year, and for Roxy it was worse.
Because she was leaving her kids, and she hated it.
She’d hatenotteaching, but she also hated leaving her babies. Isaac knew this in his bones—just like he knew that shewould feel guilt her husband wouldn’t about leaving them, and it was un-fucking-fair.
And the first six weeks only made that worse.
“So, Isaac,” Roxy said, sounding sympathetic, “did you prepare them? Luca and Allegra, I mean? Did you tell them what it’s like?”
Isaac grunted. “No,” he said, feeling dumb. “It’s just….” Randomly he said, “Did you see my bedroom?”
