Chapter Eleven

The Aliens Return

Jessica's pregnancy went smoothly and this time when Jessica went into labor it was the middle of the night. She woke William up to drive her to the hospital. They got there in time to deliver a healthy, bouncing baby boy, whom they named Robert. As things went so well William was able to bring them home in a few a hours.

 

"Sydney meet your baby brother, Robert."

"No!" Sydney shook her head vehemently.

"Don't you want to meet your baby brother?"

"NO! NO! NO!"

Begining to feel exhasparated at Sydney's reaction, William asked her "Why?"

Sydney shrugged her shoulders, refusing to look at him as she said "I want a sister not a brother". She turned her face into his shoulder and cried.

"Honey you'll come to like your baby brother." William told her.

Shaking her head she said "No, send him back" Squirming out of Williams arms she left the room.

Chuckling to himself, William reufully turned to Jessica and said: "Well that could have gone better. I guess it's a good thing we built onto the house so that Sydney could have her own room."

"Yeah I don't think she's in the mood to share. Just wait when she realizes her swing is no longer hers but Roberts. That's not going to go over well I'm afraid."

"But she's too big for it and she'll have to get over it."

"We'll see" Jessica said on a yawn.

"Why don't you go to bed before you fall over and let me feed Robert?" William offered.

"I'll do that, thank you" Jessica gently leaned over and kissed William on the cheek.

"So little man are you hungry?" William asked turning his attention to the baby in his arms. Once Robert had drained the bottle dry, William put him in the swing. He stopped to watch him swing his arms in sync with the slow motion of the swing. When he was satisfied that Robert would be suitably entertained for a while William went to find Sydney to put her to bed. He was yawning the entire time and could barely keep his eyes open by the time he was able to crawl into bed.

 
Jessica was up before William and decided to let him sleep late. While he slept, she took the opportunity to clean house and made sure the kids were occupied. As she suspected, Sydney was not happy seeing Robert in her swing and promptly demanded that he be taken out. Trying to reason with her was impossible and decided that she would just have to get used to the idea of Robert being in the swing. Jessica also tried to keep Sydney from disturbing William while he slept but wasn't quite quick enough to keep Sydney from getting into their room.

"Morning Daddy" Sydney called from the floor by his head. William groaned in response not ready to be awakened yet. "Daddy get Robert out. It's my swing." Sydney demanded.

William opened his eyes to see his little princess staring up at him from the floor. His heart melted as he looked into her deep brown eyes, so much like her mothers. "Daddy isn't awake yet, princess." Jessica said hurrying into the bedroom.

"Yes he is. Daddy's eyes are open." pointing at her daddy as he began to stir and get up. Jessica mouthed to him "I'm sorry, I tried." William shook his head and said "I know but I may as well get up."

 

After playing with Sydney for an hour or two, William was able to put her down for a nap. Afterwards he got busy carving the pumpkins he had gathered from the garden. He wanted to have them ready in time for Spooky Day, which was only a couple days off. He hoped he would be able to complete them before Sydney was up from her nap. The last thing he wanted was to have her playing in the pumpkin guts spreading them all around the house.



He was just finishing the last pumpkin when he heard the unmistakable sounds of Sydney stirring in her crib. Before going into Sydney, he took the pumpkins outside so that they could light them later that night.

William had received an invitation to a costume party from one of his co-workers on Spooky Day. He hadn't planned on going until Jessica encouraged him to go.

"Honey, why don't you go?"

He shrugged his shoulders and said "Parties really aren't my thing."

"William I know better. You love parties. You don't want to go and leave me at home with the kids."

Not able to deny it William said: "Yeah, why should I be able to go have a night of fun and leave you here alone with the kids?"

"Honey don't worry about it. Go! Have some fun. Sydney and I will have fun handing out candy"

William gave in, realizing he was looking forward to a night of fun. He decided to go as a fireman.

William stayed later than he had planned as there were so many people there he knew and he enjoyed the chance to have a little fun and being away from the house for a few hours. The downside to the night was that it was mostly an out door party and it was raining. He was glad he had brought extra clothes to change into as he didn't want to go home soaked.

Meanwhile Jessica was delighted at all the costumes the kids had on as they came to the house for candy. Sydney had fun helping hand out candy, although Jessica tried to get her to hand the candy to the kids not throw it at them. She delighted at taking a handful of candy and throwing it so she could watch the kids try to catch it. Each time she did it, she would squeel in delight.

Towards the end of the night, Jessica decided it was time for Sydney to go to bed. She had let Sydney stay up later than normal to enjoy the night. As she was getting Sydney ready for bed, the doorbell rang. By the time she was able to get to the door, Jessica expected that no one would be there. However when she opened the door two kids were patiently waiting. One was even doing his homework in the dark in the rain. Jessica was sure he wasn't the brightest student in the class, at least she hoped not.

As she cleaned up and put away the candy for the night she started to worry. She had an uneasy feeling that something was wrong. She wished that William would get home soon. She kept glancing at the clock and wondering why William wasn't home yet.

She was getting nervous and it wasn't just the storm outside. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Had William been in a car accident? Should she call?
 

 

Then she heard it, the unmistakable sound of a car door shutting. She ran to the window to see William running from the car towards the house. As she watched bright lights descended down from the sky and enveloped William, then he was gone.