Thank you all so much for your patience. This chapter was the most difficult to write because it didn't want to be written. The story was supposed to end in a completely different way, but I couldn't go there, the story wouldn't let me. Had the story gone in another direction the final chapter would have been posted in December and it would have had a very dark ending.

The story screamed at me, demanding a proper ending, and I listened to reader input and with some help from my muse this is what she gave me, I hope you enjoy it. I've left clues and hints as to what the original ending would have been but I deleted every word of everything that happened after Chapter 8 and re-wrote it all.

Again, thank you so much for waiting.

___________________________________________

We're A Wonderful Wife

Chapter 14

All Good Things...

Dr. Carla Schaeffer, the medical genius that made Danh's birth possible, set April third as the official kick-off date of Operation Sue Lin and everybody was excited except for Duong, Ralph, and quietly, Don. Yes, the possibility of overcoming the loss of Sue Lin, a heartbreak that Don still believes that he caused, was tempting, the possibility of losing Lanh in a complication during pregnancy was terrifying. He's reminded over and over that tiny women have babies all the time, that Lanh is in no real danger, but then he reminds himself of their history - how many people get assaulted then run over by the same guy on Christmas Eve? Ralph and Duong had the same worries, but all three men kept their reluctance to themselves when they saw how happy and excited the chance to fulfill a dream made Lanh.

Lanh's endometriosis had been rigorously treated and results looked promising that she could conceivably bear a child. Now it's just a matter of harvesting a healthy ovum from her sister Kim-ly, adding Don's contribution, and planting the tiny fetus in a hormone riddled Lanh. When the big day to start Operation Sue Lin arrived, the three nervously entered Dr. Schaeffer's practice and there Lanh and Kim-ly were subject to an interminable barrage of tests and examinations while Don could only sit in the waiting room and read a magazine. As he nervously waited, his sister-in-law Tam entered the office looking nervous herself. She sat down next to Don who greeted her with his usual, "Nyyaaaa, what's up Doc?"

"That's only funny once you know."

"Yeah, but it's fun to say." He gave an obviously nervous Tam a hug. "You here for normal girl stuff?" He noticed that she was more preoccupied than normal, he was worried about her.

"Yeah, girl stuff."

"If you need something, like an ear to chew or a shoulder to lean on, I'm here for you old girl." Calling Tam "old girl" usually rates a response, at least a punch in the arm, but Tam continued to stare at her hands in her lap with a blank expression on her beautiful face. Changing subject Don asked, "How was dinner on Friday?" Don had cooked a special dinner for her and Jake. It was April Fool's Day and he was sure they were going to prank each other but he left before they finished dinner.

"It was good, thank you." However, she remained silent about what was bothering her.

Don turned her face to him with a finger on her perfectly sculpted chin, this was the first time he had ever touched her face and when their eyes met, he realized that her beautiful, perfect dark brown eyes were filled with tears. "Darling," he whispered, "whatever it is I want to help. I owe you so much, I have the time and now I have the resources. Please, tell me how I can help."

She looked down at her tangled fingers and whispered, "While I'm taking care of this issue can you clean my house, do my laundry and take care of my boys, all four of them?"

"Yes. Yes, I can. Will you need a nurse?"

Tam looked at Don and the expression on his face was serious, she's never seen him more serious. "Maybe," she whispered.

"Done." He took out his phone and started typing. Seeing the terrified look on her face he said, "Please don't make any decisions you'll regret. You have a big family to help you."

Does he know? Does he realize what she's considering asking Doctor Schaeffer to do? Now Tam was having more doubts.

As he typed a medical assistant leaned out from the receptionist's office, "Doctor Campbell? We're ready for you."

"One second please," and he continued to type, then he turned to Tam and said, "Help is on the way, so hold off on any decisions you have to make. I even found a specialist to help you with Jake."

"Doctor Campbell?" repeated the assistant.

Don was smiling again when he said, "Well, I have to go, they need me. It sounds like a pedagogical emergency." He patted Tam's hand. "That's why I'm here. Ta!" and he disappeared behind a door following the medical assistant. As he left Tam searched through her memory for the definition of pedagogical... She pulled out her phone and saw a text message from a house cleaner asking when she can come and start and is tomorrow soon enough?

Then a quick google search revealed, "Pedagogical = the means of and pertaining to teaching." That's when she started laughing with an inelegant snort.

The tests were complete but now came an agonizing wait as the three of them sat in Dr. Schaeffer's office. Finally, Carla came in and smiled and shook their hands each in turn, "How is my favorite menage á troi doing?"

"It's been a difficult winter," said Lanh. The terror of being trapped under a car watching Karole slip away not knowing if she was dead... it still causes her nightmares. A sudden thought hit - will my nightmares affect the baby? Maybe we should stop this now before it gets too far.

"We got to lay in the sun and play on a private island in the tropics," sighed Kim-ly. That was truly a dream come true and she hoped that Don could arrange another visit. Actually, he had arranged another visit but for someone else.

"I'm sure that daddy liked that," said Carla as she poured over the test results on her computer. Don never remarked on that statement and Carla never noticed, she became deeply concerned with what she saw in the test results. "This can't be..." she flipped back and forth between pages of test results on her computer, there's no way that these test results could be true, but there they were. She stared hard and long and nothing changed, so she decided to accept what her tests revealed. "Excuse me," she said, "I'll be right back," and she stepped out of the office leaving the three alone and shocked.

"What the fuck?" said a shocked Kim-ly.

Lanh turned to Don, there was terror in her eyes. "Something is wrong," she said in a tiny, shaking voice. Don put an arm around her and held her hand with his free hand and gave her a kiss on her cheek. He was searching for something to say that would soothe her nerves, but he had a hollow feeling in his gut that she was right.

"This isn't right," whimpered Kim-ly. There was such fear in her voice that Don released Lanh's hand and put his arm around Kim-ly.

"Whatever it is, we do what we've been doing for years, we stick together, support each other, and deal with it," said Don, but there was a hollow, empty pit in his stomach. He wanted to cry also but he tried to keep calm, to be a shelter in the storm for Lanh and Kim-ly.

Carla soon returned to the office with several sheets of paper. "Sorry, I had to grab these off the printer," she said to no one in particular. She sat down at her desk, took a highlighter, and on each page, she highlighted something in neon yellow, then she handed a page each to Lanh and to Kim-ly and she gave two pages to Don. "I'm sorry, but we can't proceed with our plans."

"What? Why!" demanded Kim-ly. She rattled the page that Carla handed to her.

"Not again," whimpered Lanh. "Not again," she crumpled her test results and started to weep.

Don on the other hand actually read the test results. "This can't be true, is this right?" It came out as a gasp.

Carla rose and said, "I'm going to step out of my office and give you a few minutes to read your test results and talk amongst yourselves, then I'll be back to discuss your next steps." She stepped out as Don tried to convince the shocked women to read their test results. In the outer office Carla peeked through the receptionist's window and thankfully her next appointment was early, "Dr. Nguyen? A word?"

Tam had her own reason for being there, a home pregnancy test sat in her purse, ready to show Dr. Carla, and a difficult request in mind that she was now reconsidering. Tam rose and stepped up to Carla, the doctor who delivered all three of her boys. "Can I help you?" Tam asked.

"Could you step into my office for a moment, I think your sisters need you."

Tam heard loud voices from inside Carla's office and muttered, "I knew it was too good to last." It sounded like the peace between her sisters was over. Fully expecting to see Kim-ly and Lanh throttling each other in anger, she stepped into the office.

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

Sandy and Ralph Campbell stepped into Nguyen's Pho restaurant at 2:20, and the place was full of their in-law families, they were almost all there. Huy and Ahnjong, Trung and Karole, Bao and Rosa, Duong and Mai, now Ralph and Sandy. The children were all in school, except for Arlo, Krissy and Danh who were enjoying their reunion and giggling and running around the tables to the chuckles of the few customers.

Ralph spotted Duong and asked, "What's going on?"

"I don't know," he said nervously. "Lanh called us from the doctor's office and said they need everybody here at 2:30. She sounded nervous."

"I got the same call from Tam," said Sandy.

Duong shook his head, how much more pain and sorrow can his little girl take?

Two thirty came and went with no explanation from the girls. This was the quietest time of the day at the restaurant, the lunch crowd was mostly gone, and it was too early for dinner, so the dining room was nearly empty except for a few regulars. Finally, the sound of stamping feet in the attached house portion of the building could be heard, people were stomping snow off their boots as they came into the residence portion of the building.

Without fanfare the five missing family members entered, Tam leading Jake and they were followed by Lanh, Kim-ly and Don. The three women lined up in front of the kitchen, while Don and Jake stood behind them. Before they could say something, a distraught Mai demanded, "What's going on here?"

Tam held up a finger, then glancing at her sisters she nodded her head and at the same time all three women recited in unison, "I'm going to have a baby."

"What?"

Lanh, Kim-ly, and Tam all started to explain something at the same time, and it came out a confused, jabbering mishmash just like when they were young. Finally, their father cried, "Dừng lại! (stop) One at a time!" just like when they were young. He pointed at Tam and said, "Nói chuyện." (Speak) He wasn't angry, he just wanted some order.

Tam smiled, shrugged, and said, "I had to go off the pill because I was having migraines and..." She smiled in joy as Jake hugged her from behind, "we are having a baby in November."

Her family started to rise to congratulate her, but a quick snarl of warning from Duong stopped them with a gesture and pointed to Kim-ly, "Nói chuyện."

Kim-ly gave a nervous smile and said, "I had to go off the pill also... for the procedure, and I'm..." but she was interrupted by Don before she could finish her announcement.

"We," corrected Lanh as she and Don gently touched her shoulders.

Kim-ly nearly burst into tears of joy and relief, she's not alone! She felt Don and Lanh behind her, holding her. "We are having a baby, in November" Don and Lanh hugged her as she sniffed wiped her eyes.

Duong didn't approve of Kim-ly's relationship with Don and Lanh, but she wasn't living a string of one night stands anymore and Don and Lanh loved her. Like Danh, this child will be loved and that's what mattered most. He sighed and pointed at Lanh. "Nói chuyện."

"They were going to take an egg from Kim-ly and put it in me," said Lanh, then she added sadly, "but they can't because she's going to have a baby."

Mai stepped up to Lanh and touched her arm gently. "Maybe after her baby is born..."

"That won't be necessary mommy..." she suddenly turned into a little girl that finally got the gift she always wanted for Christmas. "Because I'm having a baby!!!" she squealed at the top of her lungs. Fifteen years of failure were over! She finally felt like a woman, she did it, she's now whole again, a functioning woman. She and Don kissed passionately then the three sisters gathered in a group hug.

With a shriek of joy Karole flung herself at Lanh, crutches flying, tears of joy streaming as she cried, "Ah'm gonna be an auntie!" Her reaction caused laughter through everyone there and the whole family clustered around the three sisters, hugging and laughing, and Lanh! Everyone knew about her and Don's desire for a child and the horrible disappointments they suffered, and now it can come true.

Mai and Duong hugged and congratulated their daughters, but Mai was concerned, "You're so old!" she exclaimed, especially to Tam who was just past 40.

"I am aware of that mother," sighed Tam, "so is Doctor Schaeffer. She's labeled all of us as high risk, especially tôm." Being the Vietnamese word for shrimp and considering Lanh's diminutive size it's a fitting nickname now that Lanh has gotten over thinking she was being called a "stinky sea bug."

As the women laughed and chattered Don turned to Jake and said, "I didn't ask, how do you feel about this? You're really old too."

Jakes cane shot out catching Don in the shin. "Oops, I am so sorry, it happens sometimes. Did it hurt? It sounded really painful... I'm sorry, you were saying?"

"I was saying let's go across the street and get a drink, you and me." He had forgotten about that cane, for a blind guy, Jake has great aim.

"I heard that loud and clear," said Jake.

Don turned to tell Lanh that he was going to leave, and he saw that she was swamped by parents and well-wishers, so he told Tam that he was stealing her husband then Don led Jake out the door with Bao, Trung, and Huy following. Don led Jake to the Trackside Tap, a little watering hole across the street from the pho restaurant.

The bar was open, but it was mostly empty, it was still early in the afternoon and the bar was populated by a surly bar tender and a couple of die-hard drinkers. The bartender looked up in surprise to see five men stroll into the bar, the shortest one, the fellow wearing a military issue parka turned to the guy with dark glasses and a red tipped white cane and said, "What are you having dad?"

"Scotch please, single malt if they have any, if not I'll have a Dewars on the rocks, water back." As Jake seated himself Don came back from the bar with two glasses for Jake and a beer for himself.

"The bar tender said it's their only single malt," said Don as he sat down. "He told me what it was, but my brain is a bit frazzled today."

"Same here," said Jake as he swirled the amber liquid around in the glass. He sniffed it then took a sip, then smiled. "Glenmorangie. Not fancy but not bad." He leaned toward Don, sniffed his pint, and said, "Hamm's."

"Yeah, I really like Hamm's. You could tell by smelling it?"

Jake just smiled and held up his glass as a toast. When Don tapped his beer glass to Jake's whiskey Jake decided to come clean. He took a sip of his whiskey and said, "To be honest, no, I couldn't tell it was Hamm's by smelling it, I could barely tell it was beer. I do that to everyone when I hear what they order. Please don't tell anyone, they think it's my superpower."

Don chuckled. He really liked Jake; he's got a wicked sense of humor. Before he could respond, the Nguyen brothers joined them at their table. Bao sat directly across from Don and glared at him, Huy sat between Bao and Jake, and Trung sat next to Don and threw his arm around his brother-in-law and hugged him hard enough to rekindle memories of old injuries. "Congratulations! God you must be happy!"

"Happy, yeah. Excited, terrified, overwhelmed, scared... and happy."

"Did you ever think of what this will do to Lanh?" Huy asked.

Don was a little shocked, it's not like their plans were secret. "Well, the original plan was that she would end up pregnant, we just didn't expect it to happen like this."

"I'm sorry man," groaned Huy. "It's just that so much has happened... I'm so worried about her... she's been through so much... you both have... but she's so tiny... I worry that she won't make it."

"I know, same here. It keeps me up at night but I gotta look brave." Don sighed and looked terribly defeated, then he cheered. "Thank you for being there for us," said Don. "You and Ahnjong have been incredible." Then Don looked at Bao, he was angry and had turned red. "Do you have something to say?"

"Yeah," Bao lifted his glass and drained his beer then set his glass down and glared at Don. "What are you doing with my sister?"

"Married stuff."

"My TWIN sister," growled Bao. He was angry and was barely holding back. He's a student of martial arts and he can beat Don to a pulp in a variety of ways.

"That's really not any of your..."

Jake's hand grasped Don's arm, "Let me," he said quietly then said to Bao, "Where have you been for the past fourteen years?" When Bao didn't answer, he asked again, "Where were you while your twin sister sat alone night after night crying herself to sleep?"

"We talked every day," sputtered Bao.

"You talked work, you talked business, what did you say after five in the afternoon when the shadows start to set in? How often did you invite her over for dinner? You know, being her twin brother it's kind of hard for you to forget her birthday but you accomplished that feat fourteen times. You tended to miss Christmas a few times also... maybe a dozen."

"Look. This is between me and Don..."

"No, it's between you and Kim-ly," said Jake. "I'm done drying her tears of loneliness, Tam and I were the only ones she could turn to while Don and Lanh were in uniform protecting our asses. Trung and Huy were out of state, but you were just a few miles away and you wouldn't return a call."

Bao started to sputter, "I... I need..."

Jake was relentless but Bao wasn't going to punch a blind man, so Jake continued. "You need to go over there and beg her forgiveness for cutting her out of your life. Then you need to tell her you're happy for her, because for the first time in almost 20 years, she is happy. You need to tell her that you will be overjoyed to be your niece or nephew's godfather."

When Bao didn't say anything, Don said, "Dude, when I met you eighteen years ago you two were a team, you did everything together, then when you started dating Rosa, it's like you turned your back on Kim-ly. If we knew that you hate her that much, I never would have re-enlisted, she hates being lonely..."

"I DON'T HATE HER!" thundered Bao.

Jake was ice cold when he said, "you sure as fuck act like you do."

"I... I..."

"You need to talk with her and make things right," said Huy sadly. "We both do." He's seen it too and he had no idea what to say. He was as bad as Bao, he and Ahnjong had moved to Iowa for a few years putting distance between them and Kim-ly before moving back to Minneapolis. But now he's back in Grant Valley. He needs to let Kim-ly know he's here for her too.

"Go man," said Trung to his beer. "I had my talk with her back in January. I saw her drop everything and run off to Colorado for Don and Lanh because they needed her." He took a sip but received only silence from Huy and his beer. "She would have done the same for any of you... if you let her."

"Come on," said Huy "let's go back." Being the eldest brother, what Huy said goes, so Bao and Trung rose and pulled on their coats.

"Don and I will catch up with you when we finish our drinks," said Jake. He sipped his whiskey and when he heard the door slam closed, he said to Don. "This morning I had several people come to my house and told me that they were there to clean the house and launder our clothing."

"Isn't that something."

"Later a nurse came by and said she was there to help Tam and myself with our needs. Would you know anything about that?"

Back over at the restaurant, Lanh was still the center of attention. "I don't know what happened," she laughed. "We were treating my endometriosis, but nobody told me this could happen."

"It's that husband of yours," said Kim-ly as she patted her tummy. "Look at me, one time lucky."

"Two times," corrected Lanh.

"It was one time, the first day in the main cabin on the yacht..."

"And the beach," said Lanh. When Kim-ly didn't show a sign of recognition, Lanh tried to remind her, "Honeymoon beach? Our last night there? The moon? The Sangria?"

"Oooohhh yeahhh, that night," grinned Kim-ly. She whispered into Lanh's ear, "he probably got you that night too."

"What! Dish girl! Inquiring minds want to know!" demanded Rosa.

"Speak up!" cried Karole. She was still clinging to Lanh, so excited that her best friend was finally getting her dream come true. "Tell me 'bout that beach. Ah ain't gittin' none, so ah'm gonna live vicariously through yer adventures."

"What's to say?" said Kim-ly. "It was our last night on the island, it was a hot tropical night, there was a breeze coming in off the ocean, a full, silvery moon..."

"The moon!" moaned Lanh dreamily, "it was so bright!"

"...and we were on this tiny, secluded beach..." Kim-ly waggled her eyebrows for effect. "Maybe twenty feet wide, twenty feet deep... there was a wall of brush eight feet high on three sides, isolating us... pure white sand, deep blue Caribbean..."

"The water was so warm," groaned Lanh. "The temperature was so perfect..."

"...it was like a warm bath..." sighed Kim-ly. Unconsciously the women around her crooned with delight as they pictured a hot night on an island beach.

"Ah kin juss imagine," sighed Karole.

"No, you can't," said Kim-ly. "You can try to imagine the perfect night on a beach... we all can try, but it was so much better than anything you can imagine."

"The sangria!" said Lanh almost squealing in delight. "It sure kept Don going." For some reason Lanh was also sure that Don planted his seed in her that night. It had to be the second time, at the edge of the water, face down, ass up, and Don pounding her to ecstasy as Kim-ly watched, her hands roamed over her body...

"You're killing me," moaned Rosa. "I'm not going to get any work done around here."

"I want to hear more," said sweet old Mrs. Terrington, a regular patron of the restaurant and a former teacher at Grant Valley high school.

"Missus Tee!" gasped Kim-ly in false shock. Mrs. Terrington was her history teacher. "Well, let me tell you, Don was a mad man! First me, then Lanh, then me, then Lanh..."

"Ok, enough!" said their mother, hoping her laughter didn't show. "We got to start talking about your future."

"Well..." started Lanh, "I'm hoping to start my own practice..."

"I'm talking about October, November, December..." snarled their mother. Then Mai took Lanh, her baby, into her arms. "Darling, the first one is the hardest, your body doesn't know what to do." Every woman there nodded in agreement, except one year old Krissy, Lanh is the only female there that has never had a baby. Mai held Lanh out at arm's length and stared her little girl in the eyes. "Baby, you're going to be 33 when this little one is born, you were four when I turned 33." She then turned to Tam and said, "You should know better!" then she turned to Kim-ly and sighed.

"I was 33 when Danh was born!" Kim-ly said with a pout.

Mai gripped her middle daughter's chin and said, "Yes, but you were not tiny and just run over by a car!" The grandmother of five, soon to be eight, maybe nine counting Krissy, smiled and said "But I still know what love makes us do..."

"We did have an empty house for a while," said Duong with a smile.

"Hush you." Mai turned back to her girls. "We are going to sit down and talk every time you have an appointment with your doctor, all of us."

"Oh, how sweet," said Karole as she eased her aching body into a chair. "A baby summit."

"That includes you," said Mai, "I know what's on your mind, and you're no teenager yourself." She pointed to Rosa and Ahnjong, "And you two are included! We're family, it's what we do."

"Trẻ sơ sinh dễ lây lan," said Duong.

"What?" asked Karole. She's been here weeks and she's having problems with the Vietnamese phrases that get tossed about.

"He said that babies are contagious," said Don. He and the men of the family returned from the Trackside Tap. Don's understanding of Vietnamese was getting close to flawless. Now that Vietnamese speaking women outnumber him 2 to 1 in his immediate family, understanding the language is a survival skill. He wrapped his arms around Lanh and gave Kim-ly a little kiss.

Duong nodded. "Their smiles, their smells, the little sounds they make, the next thing you know you want one of your own."

"It's true!" said Lanh. Year after year in the family support groups on base, young girls brought their newborns to the meetings with them, and Lanh would watch longingly as the girls tended to their infants, breast feeding was the worst. Her small breasts ached to nourish an infant that she knew would never arrive.

Lanh also found that helping young girls with their newborns while their husbands were off serving their country was akin to torture, she wanted a baby so bad, but she knew she would never have one of her own. Holding and cradling a tiny infant while momma ran the older sibling to doctor appointments or grocery shopping was two or three hours of pure bliss for Lanh, but handing those babies back to their parents became so difficult. It was always followed by bouts of depression. But now, she doesn't have to hand any babies back. The excitement of having Don's baby growing in her womb brought tears of joy to her eyes.

Don thought he saw depression setting in on his wife, he didn't know what caused it, but he knew he had to nip it in the bud before it overwhelmed her. He sat down in a chair and pulled her into his lap then he called Danh over with, "Come here, momma needs some sugar." With a huge, happy grin the little boy toddled his way to Don and Lanh, and this always surprised Lanh. Somehow at his early age he realized the difference between "Mommy" who is Kim-ly and "Momma" who is Lanh. As a speech pathologist this was fascinating to her, but then Don said "Nhảy lên!" (Hop up) the little fellow appeared to know exactly what Don was expecting and he placed his hands on Lanh's thigh and started bobbing up and down. Did he understand the words? Or was he used to being asked to 'hop up' after being called over?

Don helped Danh up onto their laps telling Danh "Give momma sugar." Danh responded by placing wet, open mouth kisses on Lanh's cheek. The kisses caused Lanh to laugh, which only inspired more sloppy kisses.

Just then six school age children entered the restaurant, Chau and Sophia Nguyen, Bao and Rosa's girls, were accompanied by Chip and Liam Johnson, Tam and Jakes boys. Also with them was a pair of second graders, Him-chan and Anh Nguyen, Huy and Ahnjong's twins. Their daily instructions are to walk three blocks from school to Grandma and Grandpa Nguyen's house for a snack and to do homework at the kitchen table until parents come home from work to pick them up. Now that Huy and Ahnjong have moved to the Bemidji office they can live in Grant Valley and their kids can go to school with their cousins. Now that Trung has returned and their adopted sister Karole lives here with Krissy, the family is fully united.

"Day-um!" muttered Karole as the Nguyen family filled the restaurant.

"What's the matter?" whispered Lanh.

"A couple-a months ago mah famly was just me an Krissy, now ah don't have a family, ah have a crew!"

"There really is a bunch of us now," said Kim-ly as she gazed in awe of the crowd. Once the Nguyen family was eight people, now when you include Ralph and Sandy the family is over twenty people with three more on the way.

Tam watched the joyful confusion as a few regular customers came in to add to the fun, and she tried to describe to Jake the chaos of the cousins and their surprise to find their entire family waiting for them. "Why is everybody here?" asked Sophia, Bao and Rosa's younger daughter. "Are we in trouble?"

"I wanted to tell the boys quietly," Tam whispered to Jake. "You know, just us. But they're going to hear it here."

"It's ok," said Jake softly and he snuggled his wife close, "let me handle it." He suddenly released an ear-splitting whistle, a whistle the likes of which can only be created by a middle-school gym teacher or the father of three boys. "Alright! Listen up!"

The entire restaurant went silent. Don found himself sitting at attention even though he had his wife and son on his lap.

Jake continued in a voice that his sons and his college freshmen students learned quickly to obey. "Alright then. Will all women in here who are pregnant please raise their hands."

Kim-ly reacted like the class nerd who knew the answer when no one else did. "Ooo! Me! Me!" she held her hand up high and waved it as her nieces and nephews laughed then realized it wasn't a joke.

"Come on, there's more of you," growled Jake like a drill instructor, "I know there's more." He knew because he could feel Tam's arms had remained at her side.

"Oh, you dick," she muttered into his arm trying not to laugh and without looking up she raised her arm and they both heard their boys gasp "Mom?"

"Is there any more of you?" snarled Jake and soon he heard what he was expecting to hear, Chau and Sophia gasping "Aunty Lanh?"

The restaurant became a cacophony of surprised young voices and Jake laughed at his creation. Chip and Liam ran up to hug their mom as Chau and Sophia peppered their Aunt Lanh with question after question like, "I thought you weren't going to have a baby, what changed your mind?"

As Don laughed the questions off, his mother-in-law Mai turned to Tam and Jake and said, "And I always thought that Don was going to be the one to make trouble."

"You really don't know your other son-in-law at all, do you," said Tam with a chuckle. She cupped Jake's chin, her signal that a kiss was coming, and gave her husband a kiss that daughters rarely give their husbands when mom is standing right there. Even though they have a house full of boys, the thought of adding one more to the family was such a blessing. She was moved to tears every time she realized that Jake agrees with her.

"We need to get going so somebody can get back to work," called out Kim-ly.

"Ok," then Don looked at his watch, it was chirping out a timed alarm, this only said Cows! "It's time we get back to the farm, who's going to help me with evening milking?"

Lanh and Kim-ly looked at each other, they realized why they both had queasy stomachs when it was time to work around the cows lately. "Not it!" they both cried.

"Lanh said it first, Kim-ly you help RJ and me while Lanh gets dinner started."

Ralph put his hand on Don's shoulder. "I will help with milking," he said forcefully.

"Dad, you're retired."

"I'm not retired, and I'm not dead. There's no such thing as a retired farmer."

Sandy grabbed Don by the arm and dragged him away then whispered in his ear, "Either he does it or I will do it, but those girls do not go anywhere near those cows."

"What do you mean?"

"The most dangerous time for a miscarriage is in the first thirteen weeks. She doesn't need to be slipping and falling in cow shit! You've already lost one, maybe more..."

Sandy said shit?!? It had to be serious, and the unspoken consequence of losing this baby hung in the air, unspoken but deadly. "But... I've always heard of farm wives helping with the chores when pregnant..."

"We were in our teens and twenties, we were broke and stupid, but we had years ahead of us," Sandy snarled. "Your mom lost two before you, I don't think Ralph even knows. Lanh is tiny and, in her thirties, she shouldn't even be going to work. Besides with your settlement you can hire a dozen hands."

Don thought for a moment, now it was about saving face for his dad. He turned back to his father and said "Dad, we agreed that I'm managing the farm now... right?" This was a conversation they had weeks ago and Don didn't want to sound like he was "pulling rank" on his dad.

"Yes, we agreed, you and Kim-ly."

That was a stipulation that Ralph would not ignore, he admired Kim-ly's financial skills so much that he insisted that Kim-ly manages the financial side of the operations. Don realized that Ralph looked hurt so he tread lightly. "... so... look... this is... I guess... what I'm trying to say is that you're hired. You can do whatever you want around the farm, set your own hours... we'll talk pay later but you're my head mechanic, ok?"

Ralph chuckled, he just got hired on to his own farm! "Yes sir... boss."

Don couldn't believe that he just hired his father. "Let me know what you're up to... for insurance an' stuff, ok?"

"That will be just fine," Ralph sighed happily and hugged Don.

"I don't want you wearing yourself out before you move into your new house," said Don. "So, make sure you train the new hand properly."

"New hand?"

Agronomist Dr. Trung Nguyen stood behind Ralph and cleared his throat. "I specialized in poultry and row crops but I think I can handle four or five dozen cows."

"Four or five dozen?" Things were changing too fast for Ralph.

"We're keeping the girls," chirped Lanh. She and Don decided to get the herd back up to 50 cows or maybe more, so they plan to keep all females from the annual calving. She had trouble getting her announcement out because Danh was still giving her kisses and she and Kim-ly were being overwhelmed by questions from Chau and Sophia.

"What about their retirement gift?" Kim-ly asked.

"Let's give it to them now," said Lanh as she wiped Danh's slobbery love off of her cheek.

"We were going to..." Don started, he wanted to give them their gifts in a more private setting but Kim-ly was digging in her purse. She pulled out two white envelopes then hoisted Danh to the floor. She gave Danh one envelope and Krissy another.

"Give that to Poppa Ralph, you give that to Poppa Duong... go! Give Poppa presents!" The two preschoolers toddled off to the grandparents as best as they could, waving their envelopes as they went. They got the wrong ones, but the gifts were exactly the same. It took some work, but Don, Danh, Lanh, and Kim-ly were out of the restaurant and heading back to the farm before Ralph and Duong realized what their children gave them.

~~~*~~~

Dinner was simple but delicious, pot roast and freshly baked dinner rolls. Lanh and Kim-ly could tell what the topic of conversation was going to be, Sandy was flush with excitement and Ralph looked a bit angry. Ralph was angry because the gift was too extravagant, but they discussed it and Ralph begrudgingly went along with it.

"Why didn't you two go out to dinner? Shouldn't you be celebrating?" asked Kim-ly as they ate. She even planned to sleep upstairs so Don and Lanh could celebrate the good news together.

"We can go out any time," said Don, "lord knows we have the money for it."

"We decided to spend the night where we loved to be the most," said Lanh, "right here."

They finished eating dessert and were ready to clear the table when Lanh's phone rang. They had a strict "No Phones" rule during dinner but Lanh said, "Sorry, but we have to take this, it's Annie."

Ralph nodded, it was still his house for a few more months, but he knew Annie and was grateful to her and Royce for everything that they did for Don and Lanh. "Let's hear what she has to say."

Lanh turned on the speaker function and there was Annie. "Hi darling, how are you doing?"

"What is all this?" Annie demanded. She sounded angry but they could hear Annie's daughters in the background pleading with her to calm down.

"Let me guess, you got your tickets."

"Has your money gone to your head?"

"Yes, it has. Let me spend some on you," Lanh said.

"Sweetheart, this cost a fortune!"

"We get a group discount, don't worry about it," implored Don. Annie knew about Don's settlement, but she didn't know about Lanh's which was huge.

"You can't be spending this kind of money on me..."

Lanh interrupted her mentor, "My folks and Don's folks got the same thing, it's a thank you gift. All of you have done so much for us, so like I told Ralph and Don told my dad, shut up and let us do something for you."

"Oh honey, this is..."

"It's a down payment on what we owe you," insisted Lanh. "If it wasn't for you and Royce, Don and I would be divorced and probably dead. It's a debt we can never repay. Besides you, our folks are all in the same boat together... which isn't a play on words." They had given their parents airline boarding passes for a first-class flight from Minneapolis St. Paul to West Palm beach where they would sail on Andi's Dream to the private island of Nisi Arcadia for a week in the sun and the surf. Annie and a guest were going to fly from St. Augustine to West Palm Beach and board Andi's Dream at the same time.

"You're not going to be alone, and you can take anyone you want," said Kim-ly. "Tiên or Donna or anyone else."

"Both of my folks have been where you are," said Don softly, "they both lost their other half, and they will be there for you."

"I... I don't know what to say..." poor Annie was so confused. Tours like this were for rich people, a cruise on a private yacht to a private island... It was too much for Annie to wrap her head around.

"Annie, this is Sandy, we met when you were here a few years ago at Don's retirement, I'm sure you remember. Please come with us, Ralph and I miss you, and at this point getting away for a little while will be so good for you."

"I don't know," Annie started.

"You've got some traveling to do this year Annie, look at this as a warmup," said Don.

"What traveling?" Annie demanded.

"You need to be here in June for the renewal of our vows," said Lanh.

"I know..." she said reluctantly.

"Then in November or December you need to come and see the babies," said Kim-ly.

Annie paused a moment then she gasped "Did they... did you do the procedure already? Was it a success?" For the first time in over a year Annie felt excited about something.

"No, the doctor wouldn't do it," said Kim-ly.

"Why not?"

"Well, see Tam was on birth control pills, but they gave her migraines, so she went off them, and I had to go off them because of the procedure..." started Kim-ly.

"And I was only on them to regulate my period," said Lanh, "but I was in the hospital for so long..."

"Oh geez," said Don, "here they go again..." and he took off his glasses and began pinching the bridge of his nose, which seems to help the headaches that come on when Kim-ly and Lanh start chattering like that.

"Wait a minute!" cried Annie as Kim-ly and Lanh's chattering became overwhelming. "Who is pregnant?"

There was a moment of quiet and Don ruined that peace by saying, "all three of them are." The dining room was filled with excited squeals on both sides of the phone conversation. Don and his folks cleared the table while Kim-ly and Lanh talked with their distant cousin. Danh even helped clear his plastic dishes and carried them to the dishwasher.

"Please don't be mad," Don said as he hugged his dad.

"Annie is right, that's a lot of money, too much money to be throwing around." Ralph was scared, this farm had been on the edge of bankruptcy on and off for his entire life. In a way he was glad that Don enlisted, he was lonely without his son, but it was one less mouth to feed.

"Don't worry about the money! I told you about my agreement money, Lanh received a separate agreement, it's... and he whispered the amount of what she received so far in Ralph's ear, it wasn't the entire amount of the settlement, they only received a quarter of the agreed amount so far and it had the desired effect. For the first time in his life, Don heard his father swear which made Don and Sandy both chuckle.

"Why are you here?" Ralph asked. "There's so much better living you could be doing instead of wasting your time, energy, and money on an old dairy farm. You could have your own island..."

"I'm here for the same reason why you are here, it's in our blood, and our women's blood, and our children's blood. We love it here and we love you." Don hugged his dad and said, "Go fishing, enjoy the sun, take some sailing lessons, let Sandy oogle the cabana boys, then come back and complain. Doctor's orders."

When the call with Annie was over, Kim-ly said "We are going to bed, right Danh?" The little boy nodded enthusiastically, and he and his mom headed toward the stairs leading upstairs.

"Upstairs?" asked Lanh.

Kim-ly nodded then hugged Lanh. "You and Don have waited for this night for such a long time, go enjoy it before I change my mind and come join you."

The words caught in Lanh's throat but finally she gasped, "Thank you!" and she headed off to her room as Danh scampered up the stairs, excited to be able to sleep in his daddy's "big boy's bed" tonight, he and Kim-ly were going to sleep in Don's old bedroom, the Yellow Room.

When Lanh got to her apartment, the suite Don built for her from the old bunkhouse, Don was in his bathrobe crouching in front of the fireplace starting a fire. Without looking up he said, "I'll put Danh to bed while you two shower." Only then did he look up to see Lanh standing alone at the door she had just closed. "Where's Kim-ly?"

"She's taking Danh upstairs to sleep in the big boy's bed. It's just us."

"What about the nightmares?" said Don, he was terrified that the nightmares that he and Lanh were still having would affect the baby's development. With Kim-ly there the nightmares barely bother them. Maybe they're gone for good.

"I know her phone number," laughed Lanh, and she headed off to the bathroom.

Not long later when the fire was burning merrily Lanh came out of the bathroom smelling of Don's favorite perfume and wearing a light robe. As Don sat reading in his wingback chair, she curled up in his lap, put her arms around his neck and said, "Donovan à chi yêu em."

He tickled her tummy and replied "Lanh à em yêu chi," and their lips met in a gentle kiss that slowly grew more passionate. Those were their first words of endearment, spoken so long ago in the post storm cleanup of Christmas Day 18 years ago. They were so young and so naïve, so unaware of the pain and terror that lay in their future, but they would do it all over again if it ended up right here, warm and still madly in love with their baby in her womb and their future secure.

"Your boss is going to freak out," whispered Don. When she gave him a questioning look, he said, "You just started working at the hospital and now you have to go forecast maternity leave."

"What about you?" she said as she playfully nipped at his nose, "Don junior is expected to arrive the same night as your first school board meeting."

"No, junior," Don insisted. "Maybe Donovan Aloysius Campbell the second, but not junior. If you do that then everyone calls him junior and soon Junior becomes his name. I would rather that he has his own name to grow into.

"How about Lars?" asked Lanh thinking of Don's grandfather Lars Odegaard, also known as Grumpy Ode. Lanh loved Lars and his tale of falling in love with a Vietnamese girl at the height of the Vietnam War only to be turned away by the girl's family. Lars returned to Vietnam over and over and was turned away every time. His love story touched Lanh and every time she thought about it, she was overjoyed that her dad let her and Don marry.

"Settled, we'll give a little Asian boy a Viking name," grinned Don. He had a feeling that they'd change their mind down the road, they still don't know if their baby is a boy yet.

"We still have to plan the renewal of our vows," said Lanh. "We haven't even talked about that."

Don gently put his finger on her lips. "Shhh, not now. We will have time for other things later..." and he gave her a kiss then he scooped her up and carried her to the bed and crawled in next to her.

"Their houses! We have to start..." Again, her protests were stifled by a gentle finger.

"The contractors are going to clear the lots next week," followed by a tender, loving kiss and he started to reach into her robe. His hand slid up her flawless skin, enjoying the trek from her stomach up to her chest where he cupped her marvelous little breast. Her mind drifted back to their 18th summer when she sat down on his lap in the warm, dark hayloft, and he touched her breast for the first time. Two nerds so nervous, so terrified that they would get caught, she was amazed that sex would be so good, that pleasing each other came so naturally.

In the midst of her reverie Don's mouth closed over her breast and he trapped her nipple between his teeth and his tongue flicked over the nipple. "Oh God!" she gasped in surprise as the unexpected sensations rocketed through her. She had stopped paying attention to Don of the here and now and was dreaming of Don 15 years ago when his teeth and tongue shocked her back to the present. For a moment she was torn, hold him tight? Push him away? He stirred up desires in her that were lost on Christmas as a car crushed the life out of her friend. He successfully resuscitated those desires on Andi's Dream and with a growl her arm curled around his head holding him tight.

She was again the happy, willing to explore, young girl that Don had turned her into during their courtship. Her head rolled back and she groaned in pleasure as he switched to the other breast and his hand began to slide up her thigh growing closer and closer to her burning, aching pussy. She fought the urge to grab his wrist and move his hand up to her pussy, instead she just groaned and enjoyed the slow ride.

Don trapped her nipple between his teeth and flicked his tongue over the sensitive nubbin causing her back to arch and her breath to suck in quickly. Then he began suckling on her nipple causing her to writhe and groan. She looked down on him and their eyes met. Don kissed her nipple and started suckling on it the way Dr. Carla told them the baby would suckle, then he looked up at Lanh and asked, "When are you going to start feeding me?"

"Feeding you? What about the baby?" He had Lanh laughing in bed, it's something he loves to do when she's nervous, it breaks up the source of her fear.

"You're going to be feeding me before Sue gets here," and he began suckling on her breast again.

"Doctor Carla says a few more weeeeksssss..." Lanh's back arched as she groaned in pleasure, pressing her much larger breast into Don's mouth. Two of Don's fingers slipped into Lanh's sopping wet pussy, then he began to lightly circle his fingers around and around her clit causing her to shiver and groan in boneless ecstasy.

Lanh now did something unusual for her, she grasped Don's head, a hand over each ear, and pushed him lower. Don didn't struggle, he allowed her to push his face down to her steaming pussy. As his mouth closed over her cunt she gasped, whimpered, and cried out. "Oh daddy!" she gasped. Ever since she found out that they were going to have a baby, Don has become "Daddy" and Lanh has become "Momma." Even though they've been using those titles with Danh since he was born, now they are calling each other "Momma" and "Daddy" at all times, and now during sex? Don was still learning to deal with the fact that Lanh is pregnant, but Lanh isn't just comfortable with the notion, it completes her.

Don wanted to spend his time, slowly bring Lanh to a sweet orgasm and relishing her changing body, but along with her body her sexual responses were changing also. She held him to his task by the ears and she planted her tiny feet squarely on daddy's back as his mouth made love to her pussy. "Yesss," she hissed as he licked and suckled on her clit, at the same time he eased two fingers into her snug pussy twisting and fucking her with his fingers. His other hand reached up and began to pinch and twist her right nipple sending jolts of erotic electricity straight down to her overcharged pussy.

While one of Lanh's hands held Don to his task, her other hand roughly grasped her left breast, squeezing and twisting much more aggressively than Don would ever do it. He took the hint and tried to match her aggressiveness but the idea of hurting her was so repulsive to Don. He started pinching her nipple and her hand left his head, clasped his hand, and started squeezing his fingers together hard, pinching her nipple. "Like this," she whispered hoarsely.

If that's the way she wants it... he pinched as hard as he could and started finger banging her cunt as hard as he dared. Lanh groaned and hands fell away from Don. She forced her hips up as she lost control and let the pleasure wash over her body. Before either of them realized it, Lanh was shrieking as her orgasm hit. Her tiny feet were planted just below his shoulder blades and she forced her hips up, driving her pussy into his mouth, shuddering and trembling as she came.

Don was aching for his own release and as her orgasm started to wane, Don crawled up between her legs and placed the head of his cock at the very wet entrance to her vagina. Lanh grabbed Don's ass as tightly as she could and pulled him into her. So hot! So wet! Don wanted this to be slow and romantic, but Lanh wasn't having any of that. Like a rider spurring on her mount, Lanh's heels dug into his ass and she spurred him on; harder! deeper! faster!

Lanh's orgasm didn't end, the moment Don entered her, it was rekindled and she urged him on to use her for his own pleasure, to fuck without consequences. With a growl Don started driving his cock into her as hard as he could, he was sure the sound of their groins slapping could be heard throughout the house. And before he knew it, he was cumming. Lanh had slinked a finger up his asshole which set him off and with a roar he began to cum. He fired volley after volley, grunting with each brutal thrust.

It was the most powerful orgasm in his life, it was brutally intense yet at the same time it was so loving because it was on Lanh's terms. As the shuddering stopped and Don could focus on Lanh, her smile said it all. Don rolled off of Lanh feeling both fully satisfied and profoundly guilty for using her like she was some street whore. As he rolled off of her, she rolled back on him and gave him that goofy, cutesy look she has when Don does something that makes her happy and she said, "that was so nice."

"You like having sex like that?" Don felt that he was being rough on her, he didn't want to hurt her or give her a 'hate fuck.'

"Well, yeah, when it's you. If it was someone else, I would have shot him."

"Even Chris Hemsworth?" Don asked as he waggled his eyebrows. Chris Hemsworth had been Lanh's Hollywood crush for several years now. Every time a new Thor movie came out, Lanh had to be the first in line at the theater, and the DVD was theirs the moment it came out. A replica of Thor's hammer Mjölnir hung in the mudroom. "You would have shot Chris Hemsworth?"

Lanh thought about it for a moment then nodded. "Yes. If he came in here, threw me down, and did it like that? Yes, I would have shot him." Then Lanh rose up on her arms and her happy/cutesy smile spread across her face as she said, "just as soon as he was finished."

Don stared at his darling little wife then snorted as he started to laugh. "Ok, so you like it when I'm rough on you."

Lanh thought for a moment then finally said, "Not rough so much as I finally got you to let go, you're so uptight most of the time."

"I'll be right back," and Don gave her a kiss between chuckles then wormed out from under her and went to the bathroom. As he pissed, he wondered why he always has to urinate after sex, is sex a natural diuretic? He returned to the bed with a warm, wet cloth and washed Lanh up as she drifted off to a warm, satisfied slumber and he soon joined her in sleep.

Don polled his Jon boat through an alien landscape, there were streams, creeks, lakes and ponds everywhere, and the water was as black as crude oil. He soon neared a familiar cabin which already had a rowboat tied up to the porch/dock. "Hi mister farmer!" called out a tall, skinny, intensely blond girl with glowing green eyes.

"Hi there neighbor," said Don as he stepped onto Grandma Noah's dock/porch.

"Are you my reward? Grandma Noah says ah have a prince charming' in ma future."

"That's enough, hush you," said the elderly black woman, "adults need to talk." With a wave of her boney hand, ten-year-old Karole curled up in her rocking chair and fell asleep. "Now then, what can ah do for you Mister Doctor Farmer," smiled Grandma Noah.

"I don't know, I thought you summoned me."

"Yes ah did. Ah jess wanted to ask you if you would kindly take little miss Karole and her hockey player with y'all when you and those two wives of yours sail off to your love island next year."

"I suppose we can find someone to watch the kids..."

"Ah suppose you can take those little darlin's with you! A week of playing in the sand and splashing in the ocean will be better for them than some ol' 'musement park with some college kid in a giant mouse costume!"

"Point taken ma'am."

"Now you git back to that little girl of yours. It's gonna be a while before she stops seein' this one here git'n crushed to death in those dreams of hers."

"I wish there was something more I could have done when Karole..." he couldn't finish the sentence, it was still too soon, the wounds were still too raw.

"You did plenty. You raised such a ruckus that they actually bothered to reach under that car and they saved my lil' blondie. And then you sat in the hospital and read from th' good book for my lil girl while she was here with me gatherin' her strength to return to your world." Grandma Noah looked at young Karole with a sorrowful smile. "Po thang has so much hurtin' to go through before she can git to her prince charmin'." Grandma Noah looked up like she heard someone in the distance calling for her. "Y'all better git goin.' Your woman needs ya."

Don was awakened by Lanh whimpering in her sleep, she began kicking and twisting, trying to get out from under that bastards car. Lanh's whimpering was growing louder as she pled with her memories to get that car off of Karole. About that time Kim-ly eased into bed with Don and Lanh, sensing that the third leg of their triad was there, Lanh began to settle down. "Thank you em yêu," Don whispered.

"I couldn't sleep without you guys either," whispered Kim-ly.

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

The next evening, Karole and Trung came by the farm for dinner. After dinner Krissy and Danh were in their "feet jammies" and they watched videos while the adults talked in the living room. Karole was exhausted from her day working at the restaurant, but she felt she was improving with all the walking around that she was doing. At the end of the day her body ached but she had graduated from the wheelchair to a walker, to crutches, to a cane in rapid succession. "Where's Ralph and Sandy?" Trung asked.

"They're down in my office ordering swimsuits for the cruise," said Kim-ly.

"Didn't y'all tell them about, the uh... the rules down there?" asked Karole.

"Yeah, we did, but they didn't believe us," said Lanh with a frown.

"What rules?" Trung asked Don quietly.

"There are none," whispered Don.

"Ah kinda wanted to know why ah couldn't participate in the vacation plans for mom 'n dad," said Karole.

Lanh thought for a moment then finally said, "It's not like we were excluding you, it's that this was a thank you gift to Ralph and Sandy, Mai and Duong for raising us. They've never really had a vacation before, and Don and I wanted to give them one."

"We didn't do it to make you feel bad," said Don. "We weren't sure if they would go for it, we weren't sure that it wouldn't blow up in our faces. If you really want to give them something, they're moving into new houses in June, I'm sure we can find a list of new things they would like, along with movers."

"I can do that... what did they think of the cruise idea?" asked Karole.

"Sandy loved the idea, I don't know about Duong and Mai, but my dad didn't like the idea at all."

"It was the same with mom and dad," said Trung. "Dad was going on about all the improvements they could make on the restaurant with that money and Mai eventually said, "Quit your whining, we're going!" and that was that."

"If you really want to treat them," said Kim-ly, "you can send them somewhere next year."

"Just be warned that they may want to take Annie with them," added Don as Lanh nodded in agreement.

"I'll get them some recliners," said Karole with a chuckle. She turned to Lanh and said, "we come to ask if you would be my matron of honor."

"Wait!" gasped Kim-ly, "He asked you already? It's only been a couple of months."

"No, he hasn't," said Karole, "but he will before autumn."

"How do you know?"

Karole shrugged. "He said he would. And we've been talking about a Christmas wedding, so I'm hoping he'll ask at a proper time."

Lanh laughed and said, "You guys are so weird... of course I will," and she gave Karole a warm hug and whispered, "I'm so happy for you."

"Would you give the bride away?" Karole then asked Don.

He thought for a moment, then said, "Provisionally. I'll do it only if you don't find someone more appropriate. My dad or Lanh's dad would be more than happy to do it. They've been more of a father to you than anyone else in your life and Ralph considers you his third daughter."

"You're the sixth one for Duong," said Trung.

"What if they say no?" Karole looked truly worried, the closest things she had in her life to a father were her mother's "boyfriends" and they weren't the Ward Cleaver types.

"After what you've done for us, they wouldn't dare say no," said Lanh.

"Why not both?" asked Don. "Ralph has never marched a daughter down the aisle and Duong is an old hand at it."

"They wouldn't... would they?"

"They would never say no," said Kim-ly as she wheezed like Marlon Brando in The Godfather, "and if they did, Mai and Sandy would correct their error."

As they chuckled at Kim-ly's imitation of a mobster, Lanh asked Karole, "you're going to be there for our renewal of our vows, right? I get to wear a maternity áo dài! I always wanted to wear one."

Don nodded when he saw Trung's questioning look. "We really wanted to have a start on our family when we said our vows. We really wanted to be ahead of the game, only fear of Duong's shotgun kept us chaste."

"What is a maternity ow die?" asked Karole. She made a face that showed she thought an áo dài was something poisonous.

"It's an áo dài you wear when you're pregnant. They're really roomy." Lanh looked up an áo dài on her phone and showed the picture to Karole.

"That's so purty! It's pants and a long blouse, and it looks comfy. That's what you wore at your wedding, right?" Karole stopped there, trying to remember when Lanh showed her wedding pictures.

"I wore two," said Lanh. "First a pure white áo dài, then a western wedding gown, then Tam's red and gold wedding áo dài."

"All the wedding pictures I saw were you in a white 'merican gown..." Karole was searching through her memory but she was getting confused.

"Let me show you," said Lanh. She ran to the parlor where Sandy had wedding photos of her own girls and photos from Don and Lanh's wedding lovingly hung on the wall. Lanh plucked four pictures off the wall and brought them out to Karole. "Here's me in my white áo dài," and she showed Karole a picture of her in front of the tractors in the áo dài along with the gold embroidered vest that her Grandma Tri made for her. Then she showed Karole the pictures in her western wedding gown, she wore the white and gold vest with the gown and posed in front of the tractors also.

"How did you find a wedding gown that matched your ow die?" asked Karole as she pointed out the gold dragons and flowers on both the white áo dài and the white gown. Her pronunciation of áo dài was getting closer.

"It was a vest that I wore on both. On the wedding gown it hid a stain that no one could get out, and on the áo dài it hid my nipples," said Lanh.

"She said that without blushing!" whispered Trung to Kim-ly.

"I've been working with her," said Kim-ly with a grin.

"Here's me in Tam's red wedding áo dài," said Lanh as she showed Karole the picture of her and Don, again in front of the tractors.

"Red?" Karole's brow wrinkled as she studied the photo. At first she recoiled... but as she studied it, the concept grew more appealing.

"Yes, in Asia, red means good health and fortune and is very popular in China and Vietnam. This is my favorite picture," said Lanh and she handed Karole the picture of the head table at their wedding reception with everyone smiling and laughing and paired off with who would soon become their partners. They were all there, Bao and Rosa, Trung and Angela, Ralph and Sandy, Huy and Ahnjong, Sydney and Craig, Mai and Duong, Tam and Jake, and in the center was Don and Lanh with Kim-ly behind them, hugging them both, and a white blob over Kim-ly's shoulder...

Karole looked at the blob and started to feel dizzy... and she began to remember...

Everyone at the head table had finished eating but many of the guests were still getting their dinner from the Odegaard brother's BBQ and Karole was there watching everything, she drifted in and out of the crowd listening to the conversations, an invisible spirit enjoying the party. She heard and understood every conversation even though there were several languages she didn't understand, Vietnamese, Norwegian, and that strange version of English spoken by Norwegian Minnesotans. The photographer was using the break in the program to snap pictures of the guests eating, guests in line at the BBQ table and the beer tap, and the wedding party at the head table, relaxing and laughing together now that the pressure of the ceremony was over.

There was the ceremonial first piece of cake and Karole watched in glee, but Lanh didn't do what the women expected, they urged her to shove a piece of cake into Don's face, but Lanh was adamant against doing that, so Kim-ly took a small daub of frosting on her finger and put it on Don's nose. Lanh then kissed it off causing all the women to say "Awww" in varying degrees of appreciation of Lanh's sweetness and disappointment.

"Back off!" hissed Past Karole. "We're here to observe, not participate."

"Ah'm diggin' this," said Karole. "Ah ain't never bin to no weddin.' Ah wuz always the outcast nerd or slut dependin' on whutcha wanna hate me for that week. Ah ain't never gonna have me one ah my own, so I'm gunna live it up." Besides, Karole was falling in love with these two kids from a far-off foreign land where winters are cold enough to kill you and you have to wear a sweater on summer evenings.

"There's more to see, we need to go," whined Past Karole.

"You' the one that needs to back off," said Karole. "Ain't no such thing as a southern girl that can walk away from a party. Besides, you're quite a pushy thang for a ghost."

"I'm a SPIRIT," snarled Past Karol, then with a long-suffering sigh she intoned as if reciting a formula in class, "A ghost is the nebulous image of a dead person manifest to their final animate condition, a spirit is the noncorporeal personification of the earthly essence of a living person..." She rolled her spirit eyes, which were identical to ghostly eyes. "It's not like I haven't explained this like a thousand times over!"

"You need to calm down, you're taking this too personal," said Karole as she examined the snack table. The trays were covered with a mingling of traditional Norwegian and Vietnamese delicacies. "If ah ever get married ah'm havin' Lanh's mama fix me up with these Vietnamese snacks."

"Can I get the head table to gather together?" called the photographer. "Let's get a nice happy picture of you folks with the guy or girl of your dreams, shall we?"

"Don't you dare!" threatened Past Karole knowing exactly what Karole was going to do.

"Oh, come on!" said Karole as she drifted back to the head table. "It's not like they can see me!" The participants gathered up with what would soon be for many of them their future life partners, all centered around Don and Lanh sitting in the middle, their faces aglow in love and the rush of a little opportune lovemaking back by the pond. Mai and Duong sat nearby smiling joyfully at their baby's happiness as Karole drifted into position. "Wouldn't it be a riot if this turned out?" she said as she lined up next to Kim-ly who hugged Don and Lanh from behind.

"Karole pulleeze!" groaned Past Karole.

As the photographer cracked a few jokes to get people smiling Karole took a long appreciative look at Trung who was right next to her. "He even made a cheap rental tuxedo look good!" she thought as she reached out to touch him. Just as she did touch him, she felt a snap like a jolt of electricity travel up her arm at the same time the photographer squeezed the shutter and the flash unit on the camera flared...

"I was there!" Karole gasped.

"What?"

Memories of what happened just before she ran across the parking lot to push Lanh out of the way, memories of Past Karole and Future Karole in the parking lot, showing her Don and Lanh's past life, then showing Karole views of her future came flooding back...

She remembered Don and Lanh's first dance... their first date at the ice-skating rink... their first kiss... their first time... "You really did wait!" gasped Karole as she remembered seeing Lanh's blood from their first-time making love, they were on the picnic table back by the pond, she remembered how Don was so concerned...

"We'll get an áo dài for you too... are you ok?" Lanh was still focused on the áo dài but then she noticed that Karole wasn't paying attention, she was looking up at the ceiling, her eyes were flickering side to side as if she was reading a book or watching a wide screen movie and she wasn't responding. "Karole? KAROLE? We need to lay her down, Trung, can you help her upstairs?" Lanh asked.

"Yeah," and he helped Karole to her feet but as she rose her legs turned to Jell-O, so he got her up on his back and carried her piggyback up the stairs with Kim-ly, Lanh, and Don following. Trung eased her into a bed in one of the four empty bedrooms, the yellow room.

"This is where Karole and I crashed Christmas before last," whispered Kim-ly. She sat down on the other bed in the room and whispered, "I'll stay here with her, you go call Tam, this is right up her alley."

Karole continued to "read the ceiling" while Trung continued to pat her hand and gently shake her shoulder. "She'll be ok," whispered Don.

Out in the hallway Lanh tried dialing Tam's number for a fifth time, her nervous hands were shaking so badly that she misdialed four times in a row, and finally got through on the fifth attempt. As she tried to describe to Tam what was happening, in the bedroom Karole suddenly sat up.

"I saw it all," Karole gasped. She felt like she had been held underwater for hours, and now she can breathe.

"What?" said Kim-ly, "What did you see?

"Everything, I saw it all..." Karole's voice trailed off and she looked at Kim-ly with glazed eyes. "It started with a dance... a bowl of pho..."

"What?" Kim-ly shifted over to Karole's bed and sat next to Karole then pulled her close just like they were back in December just before Danh and Krissy were born. "What did you see?"

"Everything... I saw Don and Lanh meet... at a school Christmas dance... so sweet... but they beat him up because of Lanh, they hurt him so bad he couldn't eat for days... he had no money for school cafeteria soup... Lanh took him to the restaurant, and they gave him pho..." Then a broad grin spread across her face. She looked at Kim-ly and said, "you brought it to him!"

"You got beat up?" Trung whispered.

"They beat the living crap out of me," Don winced remembering the pain and humiliation of that night.

"What... what are you talking about?" asked Kim-ly.

"I'm talking about you!" Karole twined her fingers in Kim-ly's hair and said "I saw you take Lanh to the school dance where she met Don! I saw them beat Don so bad that he couldn't eat so Lanh skipped class and took him to your restaurant, and you brought him pho, and he said he couldn't afford it."

By silent agreement they never told anyone about that day, Don didn't like being reminded of his high school beatings and Lanh refused to admit skipping class. "Oh my God!" gasped Kim-ly, "that was eighteen... almost twenty years ago!"

She grasped Kim-ly's hand and hoarsely said, "I saw it all, I saw their first kiss, I was there when they found out she couldn't have a baby... I saw it all..." her face suddenly went pale and she gasped in horror. "I saw him crushed, dying from the purple fumes. It was horrible... I followed him in the ambulance... then on the airplane to Germany..."

"Karole?" asked Kim-ly. "Special K?" Karole looked horribly shaken.

"I saw it all, his recovery, his retirement," Karole said with a tear, "everything up until the day I moved in and Lanh brought me brownies." Exhausted, she leaned her head on Kim-ly's shoulder and fell asleep. Kim-ly lowered Karole to the bed and Krissy climbed into bed and snuggled up with her mommy and Danh joined them because it seemed to be the thing for him to do.

Kim-ly led a shocked Trung and Don out of the room leaving Krissy and Danh behind with Karole and found a shocked Lanh in the hall. "You heard that?" Kim-ly asked. Lanh only shook her head dumbly; all she saw was Karole fainting, which scared her. "Come on," whispered Kim-ly, "Let's let her rest," and she led everyone including a saddened Danh downstairs to wait for Tam leaving Karole to sleep with Krissy.

When the psychologist arrived, she asked what the problem was and a terrified Lanh said, "She had a fit or something, we were talking and her eyes started shuddering back and forth, then she slumped over. We took her upstairs to lay down and she continued to do that, then she passed out."

"Did she say anything?" Tam asked.

"No," said a tearful Lanh.

"Yes," contradicted Kim-ly as the guys nodded. "While Lanh was calling you, her eyes stopped moving and she said, "I saw it all, from their first dance to the day that Lanh brought her brownies."

"She saw what all?" asked Tam, now she was as confused as Lanh.

"She saw Don and Lanh I guess," said Kim-ly with a shrug. "She talked about the day you and I met Don at the restaurant when he was beaten up so bad and we gave him pho."

"I had forgotten about that," said Tam.

"I didn't," said Lanh quietly. That memory was so precious to her, the man whose child she is now carrying took a beating for her on the day they met... and Karole remembers it? She was 10-years-old living in Georgia, how can that be? With a little gasp Lanh dashed out of the kitchen and upstairs.

"Honey!" called Don, but despite her injured leg Lanh was quick as lightning and Don was terrified of her slipping and falling down the stairs and losing the baby. Don was much slower and reached the top of the stairs wheezing and gasping for breath and he found the doorknob on the yellow bedroom locked, but he could hear Lanh and Karole talking. Karole was telling Lanh everything she saw, leading up to that spring day when Karole opened the front door of her new house and watched Lanh faint.

"She locked the green bedroom door too," whispered Kim-ly as she slumped down next to Don. The bedrooms are in pairs with a Jack and Jill bathroom between them and Lanh hit the privacy lock on both bedrooms.

They listened through the door to Karole as she told Lanh about her visions, "Ah saw the pain in Kim-ly's heart as you and Don suffered through your trials, it was horrible, she cried... oh she cried when you lost your chance to adopt... but ah saw the love grow in her for you and Don. Y'all coulda chased her away an' y'all had every raht to do so, but y'all opened your hearts to her and in return she gave you lil' Danh..."

"Let me show you a secret," said Don softly. He stood up and reached up to the top of the molding above the door. "Every door with a privacy lock has an emergency key," and he found the emergency key on the upper molding, a slim piece of steel, a thin flathead nail with the point ground down flat. He put the flattened point of the nail into a small hole in the doorknob and pushed on the flat head of the nail and a click was heard as the door unlocked.

Karole and Lanh sat side by side on the bed and they barely looked up as the door opened and Don and Kim-ly walked in. Lanh looked up at her big sister with tears in her eyes and in a tiny voice said, "You cried when we lost Sue Lin?"

Kim-ly bit her lower lip and nodded sadly. "She knew you were hurting," said Karole, "so she begged Tam to go with her to Germany to be with you."

Lanh stood and clung to Kim-ly and soon they were both crying over so much past pain. As they wept Tam appeared at Don's shoulder with a notepad, pencil, and a box of tissue.

"I see you come fully armed," said Don.

Tam shrugged, "I'm a professional." And she joined her sisters to find out what Karole was talking about.

Kim-ly and Lanh sat on either side of Karole and joined the conversation while Tam sat on the opposite bed and started scribbling notes in her pad. Don and Trung stayed and listened to them chat then decided to leave and let them chat. "This may go into extra innings," said Don, "you guys can spend the night if you want."

"Ok, just don't get any ideas," whispered Trung, "The blond is mine."

Don started chuckling and he scooped up a sleepy Krissy, "Don't worry about it," he said with a smile and led Trung down the stairs leaving the sisters with Karole. "The blond is safe from me."

"How can I be sure Mr. Babymaker?"

"Well, for one thing, she's not related to you..."

Sandy and Ralph came up from the basement and peeked into Lanh's sitting room and were surprised to see Trung sitting with Don in the wingback chairs each drinking a beer as they watched the fire in the fireplace. "Oh, I didn't expect to see you Trung!" said Sandy. "Is Karole here too?"

"Yes, she's upstairs with Lanh, Kim-ly and Tam," said Don.

"Tam's here too?" said Ralph and he headed upstairs to talk to the girls.

"How's Dad doing with the vacation now?" asked Don quietly.

Sandy leaned over the back of Don's chair and kissed his head. "He's warming up to the idea, but you know your dad, he'll grouse about it all the way there."

"Just so you know, Karole and Trung will be staying the night in the yellow bedroom. Krissy is already asleep with Danh," and Don pointed to the crib.

Sandy tiptoed over to the crib and peeked in. "She's getting so big! She's going to be tall, like her mommy and her stepdaddy," she said with a pat on Trung's shoulder. When Sandy first saw Trung caring for Karole the day they arrived she made no secret of the fact that she was planning to play the organ for their wedding. "Good night boys don't stay up too late; we have work in the morning."

"Yes mom," said Don and Trung in unison.

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

Winter slowly began to release its hold on the north country and one by one the calves were born. Luckily there were no complications and soon there was a pen full of "baby cows" for Danh, Krissy, and Lanh to coo over and name. All of the calves were born without any problem, which was a good omen that cheered Don's heart, and he prayed that their babies would be born problem free and healthy also. Lanh's morning call of encouragement, "there's a new baby cow to name!" got Danh and Krissy motivated enough to eat breakfast quickly, put on a fresh pull-up, get dressed then head out to the cow pen to see the baby cows. They helped name the baby cows and with Lanh's help they soon had Candy, Puppy, and Fishy (the toddlers had been watching Lanh's fish tank when Fishy was born).

Every morning Trung, Karole, and Krissy would show up at 4:00 AM to help with milking. While Trung, Don, and RJ milked the cows, Karole and Lanh and sometimes Kim-ly would make breakfast and let Ralph and Sandy sleep in for the first time in their lives. "Any new cow babies this morning?" Lanh asked eagerly one warm spring morning. It was vitally important to name a calf before they got more than two days old because... just because. "Deal with it," was Lanh's only explanation.

"Nope, got the last of them yesterday, besides, it's raining today," said RJ, "not a good day to be calf watching." He sipped his coffee then turned to the kitchen crew. "That was a fine breakfast, Miss Lanh. Very fine."

"Karole made breakfast," said Lanh as she helped Kim-ly clear the table.

"You told me you can't cook," said Trung in shock.

Karole innocently said, "No, I said I don't cook. Besides, why should I admit to being able to cook if you're going to do it for me?"

"What are you two up to today?" asked Lanh as she came up behind Don and wrapped her arms around him.

"Trung and I are going to head over to the high school and check out the facilities, then we'll take Krissy and Danh over to the elementary school to read Uncle Jakes new story book to the kindergarten class. Do I have any errands to run?"

"We need you to swing by Earl's Plen-T Good Grocery," said Kim-ly and she handed Don her shopping list.

"Sardines?" muttered Don, scanning the list.

"Get the ones in mustard sauce," insisted Lanh.

~~~*~~~

Coach Mach's office was exactly the way Don remembered it, with the exception of a few pictures on the wall featuring Don and Rosa wearing their medals and several other student athletes with their own trophies and medals. "Looks like you've added a few more trophies to your wall," said Don.

"You're late Campbell," said Coach Mach without looking up from his clip board. "You're never going to graduate at this rate."

"I'll just let my wife support me in the manner to which I would like to become accustomed," grinned Don. "How ya doin' Paul?"

"Outstanding," grinned Coach Mach as they shook hands. "Are you truly done globe hopping now?"

"Completely done. I'm going to stay home and raise cows and kids. You remember my sports crazy brother-in-law Trung I hope."

"I sure do, we talked forever a few weeks ago. Hey, it's almost time to greet the troops, would you like to say hello?" Paul asked Trung as they shook hands.

"Sure, the worst they can do is laugh at me," grinned Trung.

"This bunch doesn't have the mental horsepower for that kind of activity this early in the morning."

A few minutes later they were standing in the gym where the boys' class was lined up. It looked like they would be doing gymnastics this week, the big gym was filled with parallel bars, uneven parallel bars, vaulting horses, springboards, even a trampoline. At Coach Mach's invitation the morning girls class joined the boys, and they circled around Don, Trung, Krissy, and Danh. The one-year-olds were in awe of the crowd of students, they had never seen such a big crowd of people before.

The girls' class was the freshman class and there was a lot of ogling and swooning over Trung, then Don noticed an embarrassed little wave from the girls class. "Our niece is here," whispered Don. Trung looked and there was Rosa's oldest girl, Chau lined up with the freshmen.

Trung waved to her and softly said to Don, "She sure is Lanh junior." With Chau's glasses and a mouth full of braces she looked exactly like her Aunt Lanh when Don first met her 18 years ago. The resemblance to the love of his life almost broke Don's heart.

Krissy noticed her too and cried "CHOO!" and she let go of Trung's finger and sprinted toward the girls' class with Danh in tow. "Looks like your class is growing a little, Coach Voeller," joked Coach Mach and the girls class teacher went to investigate. Paul Mach continued, "This is Doctor Donovan Campbell, he was a student of mine a few years ago. He was on the swimming team and set the state record in the 200-meter free style. He went on to a career in the US Air Force. He's back here in Grant Valley where he's hoping to be elected president of the school board."

"What's he a doctor of Coach? Being short?" The mouth that said that was attached to a slightly athletic looking slacker who reminded Don of the bullies that prowled these hallways fifteen years ago.

"Ericson!" bellowed Coach Mach.

"Oh, that's ok Coach," said Don who stepped up to Ericson and he continued with a grin. "I've found that the class clown is usually making up for other shortcomings." He saw that Ericson didn't miss the accusation that Don made. While his peers laughed and Ericson experienced a slow burn Don continued. "I was probably one of the worst students this high school ever saw, until Coach Mach took me under his wing and helped turn me around and he turned me on to education. That's a blessing that should be bestowed on a few students." Standing right in front of the troublemaker and ignoring him while speaking to the class intimidated the kid more than addressing him directly, a trick Don learned when training groups of hardheaded young airmen.

Don noticed that the girls in his audience were paying attention to Trung, a muscular, handsome fellow, so he decided to wind it up quickly. "I went from a D minus slacker to top ten in my class and number one in the state thanks to Coach Mach and the sister of this big guy behind me. I'm not here to talk your ears off, but if you have questions, I'll answer any questions you might have later. Personally, I'm just here to see an old friend and show my little boy where I went to school. The fellow you want to pay attention to is my brother-in-law, Doctor Trung Nguyen. He'll answer any question you may have."

"Remind me to thank the living hell out of you later," whispered Trung in Don's ear, then loudly to the students he said, "Hi, I'm Mister Nguyen, I actually went to school here for one year, I graduated early and went on to UND where I played defense on their hockey team for five years. I also ran marathons, threw shotput, and played lacrosse. My primary background is in agronomy, and agriculture is one of the things I want to concentrate on. I want to become involved with your Future Farmers of America club, I hear that your FFA needs a little bit of help, and I think I can provide that help."

He continued to talk about his first love, agriculture, and if anything, he won over the girls. Their teenage eyes shifted to Trung and he was sure that he felt their eyes on his body as he spoke about his second great desire, hockey.

A blond freshman girl whispered to the girl next to her, "He's so hot!"

"Ewwww!" cried the girl, "He's my uncle!" then covered her mouth in embarrassment as the girls class laughed at her.

"Love you too, Chau," laughed Trung. "Small towns, gotta love 'em, right?"

Even though she was dying of embarrassment Chau looked at her blond friend in shock, Uncle Trung? Hot? She never thought of Uncle Trung as anything but her dad's brother with the blond wife. Ewwww!

"He is! Look at his arms!"

"Ewww, stop!" shaking her head and waving her long wavy black locks Chau led Danh and Krissy back to Uncle Don who was standing over by the foam block pit where the students land after bouncing off the springboard.

"What's the matter sweetie?" he asked. "Did we embarrass you?" He picked up Danh and set him in the block pit where he sat in a huge pile of soft foam blocks and marveled at the magnificent toys.

"No. Kayla did," said Chau as she hoisted Krissy into the block pit. "She thinks Uncle Trung is hot."

"A lot of people do. You just see him as Uncle Trung, but other people see him differently. You see your mom as mom, but when we were in high school a lot of people thought she was hot."

"Like who?" Chau demanded as she tried to keep Danh from biting a foam block. She was shocked that anyone would find her mom hot.

"Well... your dad for one."

"Mom was hot?" Chau wrinkled her nose.

"Oh yeah, but she scared guys away, she was a tough chick. Just like Sophia." Sophia definitely took after Rosa while Chau took after her Aunt Lanh. Just then the guys and girls of her gym class started running laps with Trung shouting encouragement. "You better get going," said Uncle Don.

"Ok." Chau turned to join the run when she stopped and said, "Are you really going to be our principal?"

"No, that's just a silly rumor. Don't you worry about that."

"Whew!" said Chau as she was about to join her classmates.

"I'm going to be your principal's boss... Go! Run!"

~~~*~~~

"Hello?" Bao opened the Campbell's kitchen door and poked his nose in and called "Hello?" again but there was no answer. He headed back to the barn but the blond fellow he spoke with earlier was no longer there. "Well shit." Then he heard a loud 'clank!' from the tractor shed and headed over to the large steel building where the tractors and implements are stored and maintained. The ground was a bit muddy and there were a few snow piles left slowly being eaten away by the gentle rain, but the gravel driveway prevented his shoes from getting too muddy. He found the blond guy RJ in the shed with Ralph, they were working on a wooden towbar for an antique hay rake. "I poked my nose in," said Bao, "but nobody answered."

"She's in her office in the basement," said Ralph without looking up, he was clearly unhappy with Bao.

"Just go in," said RJ. "But don't be tracking mud across the floor or Mrs. Campbell will have words with you."

"I can't picture Sandy having words with anyone," chuckled Bao.

"There's more than one Mrs. Campbell," grunted Ralph as he freed a rusted bolt.

"They tend to gang up now," said RJ nodding in agreement.

"Gotcha," said Bao and he headed back to the house where he kicked off his muddy shoes in the mud room and crept down the basement stairs. Down there he found Kim-ly hard at work, reading glasses on, hair tied back, her fingers dancing on the keyboard. Her laptop was plugged into a docking station with two large screen monitors, full keyboard and mouse. She had mentioned that she had a nice set up, he didn't realize how nice it was. This corner of the basement, behind the washer and dryer and hanging laundry was separated from the basement with curtains and the two walls that she faced were paneled like an office in a lavish office building. He stepped up to Kim-ly and watched as she typed up an email to a client reporting her success at untangling an issue with his taxes.

"Um, Kimmy, I uh... I was hoping we could have a talk."

"I'm just finishing up DiGregorio's taxes, I sent you a copy of the email."

"I want to talk..."

"There's nothing to talk about." She took off her glasses, rose, grabbed her laptop out of the docking station and walked past Bao without meeting his eyes and disappeared up the stairs.

Bao paused to see if she would come back down but there was no sound of her moving around upstairs. He looked around the basement and found a small room packed with radio equipment, next to that was a large room with what looks like a large train layout that was under construction. Three rail track made out of parallel steel tubes, Bao was sure this was a Lionel layout even though there were no trains, just a box car or two.

Bao headed upstairs and looked around the ground floor and didn't see Kim-ly anywhere. "Kim?" he called a few times, but he didn't hear a reply. Eventually he saw Karole's truck pull into the driveway and Don hopped out and he pulled out a sleeping Danh from the back seat, a diaper bag and infant car seat. As Trung backed the truck out of the driveway Bao helped Don carry his load into the house.

Don gestured for silence as they carried Danh, his car seat and bag into the sitting room and placed Danh in his crib and covered him up. "I didn't expect to see you here," said Don.

"I came to see Kim-ly, but I guess she didn't want to talk."

Don placed a few pieces of kindling from the kindling box in the fireplace along with some crumpled newspaper and got a fire started. "She can be like that," Don said as he placed a few logs on the irons. As he stood up he said, "She will come around, you need to believe that, but she hurts."

"Did she talk to you?"

"No, the only one she talks to is Lanh, and she's not going to say a word to anyone else until she settles with you."

Bao's head spun, his life was so full of Rosa, she quickly became his spicy Mexican treat, then came Chau and Sophia, that he didn't realize how much he left Kim-ly out. It's like the moment that he introduced himself to Rosa, "Hi, I'm Bao," and she responded, "Hi, I'm interested," that his life switched over and headed off in a new direction and he left everything behind. He wanted to blame it all on her goodbye, but he realized in the end it was him. He opened his mouth to respond to Don and he realized he was home, back in his home office staring at the wall.

"Are you ok?" It was Rosa asking, not Don. How did he get home? He looked around the apartment they had lived in for the past fifteen years like he'd never seen the place before. Slowly it came back, leaving Don's house without a word and driving home like a zombie, his mind filled with what he did.

"Oh baby, I fucked up so bad."

Rosa knew exactly what he was talking about. He was a good, loving father and a wonderful husband. He gave his girls everything they could want on an accountant's salary, pinching pennies until they screamed for mercy. He could have taken on bigger clients that would have paid more money, but that would have taken time away from the time he spent with his three girls. If he had a failing it was that he was a lousy brother and son. She sat in his lap and put her arms around his neck, "I know papi, but don't give up."

"It's like I cut off my arm and didn't realize it..." He realized that he was going to have to tell Rosa now, while he had courage. "We were so close..." He had to tell her. He should have told her years ago, but he was terrified, this isn't the kind of thing that happens in Minnesota but... "We were lovers," he whispered.

"I know," she said softly.

"How did you know?"

"Your eyes miho, when you look at her you don't look at her with brother's eyes, you look at her with lover's eyes."

"How long have you known?" Bao was shocked that his wife knew his deepest, darkest secret.

"Since the day I first saw you with Kim-ly. She looked at you the same way."

~~~*~~~

Lanh arrived home just as Bao was leaving. She got out of her SUV as Bao walked past and got into his beat-up old Toyota Tercel. Lanh tried to get his attention, but he never even looked at her. Confused, she went into the house and found Danh asleep in his crib, a fire just started in the fireplace, and Don sitting on the floor in the bedroom looking at the closet. "What's going on? Danh's asleep, you're sitting on the floor and Bao walked past me and he didn't even say hi."

"He's had a rough day," said Don as he eased Lanh into his lap. He kissed Lanh, pointed to the closet, and said softly, "So has she."

Lanh squinted at the closet, the sliding doors were open, and she could see in the dark corner a glimmer of Kim-ly's eyes. She was crouched down in the back hidden behind the stacks of shoes and other items. "Oh honey!" Lanh gasped and crawled over to the closet on her hands and knees. "Was he here to see you?" Kim-ly just nodded her head, still embarrassed that she couldn't bring herself to talk to her twin brother. "Oh sweetheart," pouted Lanh. "Let me give you a hug." The girls cuddled together, for once in her life Kim-ly was leaning on Lanh for her strength.

The girls hugged each other, and as Kim-ly's tears subsided, Lanh reached out to Don and said, "You can come join us."

He shook his head sadly and said, "Can't get up. Back."

"Come on Kim-ly," sighed Lanh. He's been working too hard, and his back gave out again. "We need to help the old man get up off the floor."

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

It was a warm spring with warm evenings, perfect for camping. Don, Lanh, and Kim-ly headed back to the pond on the John Deere tractor hauling their John Deere hay wagon loaded with improvements to the camp site. On the hay wagon was a load of firewood, food, clothing, and a new picnic table.

As they pulled up to the pine grove near the pond Lanh stopped the tractor, then Don hopped down from the hay wagon, helped Kim-ly down off the wagon, then helped Lanh off the tractor. They were only 15 weeks along but Don wasn't going to take any chances. "Here we go you hot busty thing!" grinned Don as he helped Lanh down.

"Whoo hoo! Baby got boobs!" taunted Kim-ly as she led Danh up the path to where the tent was set up. "Can you say boobs Danh-Danh?"

"Boots" said the lad as he carefully stepped over sticks and twigs.

"Close enough."

"Leave my boobs alone!" demanded Lanh as she carried a cooler to the camp site. "It's the first time I've ever had any." Which was an exaggeration, but Lanh's breasts are starting to get larger as are Kim-ly and Tam's breasts.

"Y'all gonna catch up with me any day now!" They didn't have to turn around to see that Karole and Trung snuck up on them with Sandy's electric golf cart.

The family campground was set up, Don, Lanh, and Kim-ly have a big Army surplus canvas tent which is rapidly becoming their retreat. It's set up on a raised wooden platform and has three rooms separated by canvas walls plus an awning out front that they can sit under when it's raining. On the other side of the firepit, campsites were cleared for people to throw up their own tents. Huy and Ahnjong had their tent up and Bao and Rosa had a tent set up, In the big green canvas M*A*S*H style tent Don, Lanh, and Kim-ly were in one room of their tent, Karole and Trung in the other room, and the big room was set up for Tam, Jake, and their boys.

While tents were going up Don turned to Karole and asked, "Are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," she sighed and they walked over to the hay wagon where a burlap sack waited for them. He put the heavy sack on the golfcart and they wheeled to a spot where Karole said, "Stop!" Her head was spinning, so much had been revealed to her, so much to dredge up. "Yeah, this is the place, put it here." She indicated a point on the grass not far from the campsite.

Don pulled a large chunk of rose quartz from the bag and placed it where Karole indicated. "I remember this place," said Don. "It's where we buried Marissa, and the day we were married I came out here for a walk and I thought I saw Lanh's angels, they were right here." He also remembered standing here watching Lanh, Tam, and Kim-ly skinny-dipping years ago.

Karole however remembered burying Lanh's ashes here... then Grandpa Noah told her that this is where she and Ralph found Don's body a year later. She sighed sadly, the piece of Rose Quartz the size of a basketball came from Colorado, so did Lanh's ashes. But that timeline was broken, she shattered it when she saved Lanh. Her thoughts were a thousand miles away when Don said, "Are you pregnant?"

Karole was shocked, why would he ask that? "What... me? Oh, hail no!"

"Good, let's go get a beer, I feel like someone just walked over my grave."

Soon the kids were playing at the "beach" a flat area where the edge of the pond was shallow, and the little ones could play in the shallow water naked. With Huy and Ahnjong being lifeguard for the kids, Don took Bao and Kim-ly out for a rowing lesson. Don leaned into the oars, his lungs now supplying oxygen with each breath after several balloon angioplasty treatments that he had throughout the spring. He propelled the old wooden Jon boat the length of the lake as he explained the necessity of needing to roll the wrist and concentrate on how both arms are pulling with the exact same effort. "It's an exercise of harmony between the left side and the right side."

Reaching the far end of the lake he spun the boat around and smiled at Bao and Kim-ly who sat in the back seat. "Ok, your turn, Bao, you come sit here." Being very careful because Bao is a weak swimmer, they changed positions, but Don had Bao sit right of center. "Now Kim-ly, you come here and sit next to Bao."

"What are you doing?" hissed Kim-ly.

"This is an exercise in teamwork," said Don as he took a length of rope and tied Bao's left leg to Kim-ly's right leg. Then standing on the aft fishing platform he said, "It takes communication and teamwork to do something as simple as row a boat." As he said that, Lanh came up behind them in their little 12-foot-long sailboat and bumped into the stern of the rowboat. The moment she bumped into the rowboat, Don stepped onto the sailboat, sat next to Lanh and gave her a kiss. "See you at the dock!" and they sailed silently away.

Bao and Kim-ly sat there staring at the stern of the rowboat in silence. "I don't know how to say how sorry I am," Bao finally said. "I got so involved with Rosa that I forgot the whole world."

Kim-ly simply glared at him. It's been fifteen years since he's been this close to her this long. Both ached to untie the rope around their leg but both were stubborn and left it in place for their own reasons. Bao left it because he truly wanted to be next to Kim-ly, and she left it because it was one of Don's crazy ideas, and she's grown to love his crazy ideas, no matter how much they hurt at first. She finally took a deep breath and said the first words to him she's spoken to him in person since his wedding. "Row."

"Can't we talk about this?"

Talk? She wanted to scream in his ear so loudly that he'd lose hearing in that ear for decades. Instead, she decided that actions would speak louder than words, she leaned back and slapped him as hard as she could. Unfortunately, a good slap requires elbow room, but it was a start and for some reason it hurt them both, it was like stepping on your own toe.

"I deserve worse than that," said Bao sadly.

"At least you're honest."

Don and Lanh sailed around and around the rowboat, he sailed as much as he could at Nisi Arcadia and picked it up quickly and he made good on his promise of getting a small sailboat and according to the emails he exchanged with Josh Gravely, Josh and Veronica were considering getting a larger sailboat to sail on Lake Erie. As soon as Lanh gets up to speed, he intends to take their boat out to a larger lake, like Lake Itaska, headwaters of the Mississippi.

As Don watched Bao and Kim-ly take a few faltering swings with their oars, the sailboat lurched, and the jib swung and smacked him in the back of the head. "Jibe ho!" called Lanh brightly.

Don turned to her with a sigh. The order is to call, "Ready to Jibe," then you call "Jibe ho," then you turn and let the jib swing. Properly warned, the boat crew can avoid the swinging jib. Don looked at Lanh and her playful, impish grin told him everything he needed to know. He leaned over and kissed her deeply, and as they kissed, he reached over the gunnel, scooped up a handful of cool lake water and dribbled it down her back. Her shriek of surprise echoed across the lake followed by their playful, "We're even now."

"No, I owe you."

"We're even."

"I owe you!"

Bao and Kim-ly watched Don and Lanh's playful bantering evolve into a loving tickle fight sadly. "We used to be like that," said Bao sadly. "Is there a chance we can be that way again?"

Kim-ly looked at Bao for a long time then leaned forward and kissed him. It wasn't a brother-sister kiss, it was sweet and gentle, a reuniting lovers kiss. "Does that mean...?" Bao started to ask.

"It means thank you for trying. I haven't been ignoring you, I know you're trying... but it really hurt that much."

"What can I do?"

"Just keep trying. We'll never be lovers again, but we can love each other... again." They watched Don and Lanh orbit them in their tiny sailboat, then Kim-ly said, "Let's get back to the dock." They began trying to row together but they were horribly out of time with each other, finally Don sailed past and said, "Singing helps."

Bao and Kim-ly looked at each other confused but Don said, "Throughout history when men worked together at difficult jobs they would sing rhythmic songs to keep their efforts together. That's what sea shanties were all about."

Bao and Kim-ly looked at each other again, when they were young, they would sing old sea shanties when shoveling the snow off the driveway. They thought the songs were songs of protest to let the captain know they were angry. Might as well give it a try. They started off with a sea shanty that's used in almost every NFL Films production.

What will we do with a drunken sailor?

What will we do with a drunken sailor?

What will we do with a drunken sailor?

Early in the morning!

And soon they were rowing in time with each other - the ancient magic of the rhythmic song took over and guided their efforts and they were laughing and trying to pick a bar song to help with the job. They eventually found one from their 21st birthday bash when a raucous piano player from Buffalo nick-named "Doctor Dirty" appeared in Minneapolis. He sang some crude, disgusting, and insanely fun bar songs that they sang all night long.

There's a skeeter on my peter whack it off.

There's a skeeter on my peter whack it off.

There's a dozen on my cousin,

I can hear the fuckers buzzin.'

There's a skeeter on my peter whack it off.

"I thought you were crazy when you came up with this idea," said Lanh as she leaned back against Don who was now at the tiller.

"Working together heals a lot of wounds," said Don as he finished a final orbit around the laughing twins. "It's too early to cut hay, and look what that did for you, Tam, and Kim-ly. Lanh smiled fondly at the memory of the summer that Ralph let her and her sisters cut hay and let them keep some of the profits from those days of cutting. It was long hard work and it seemed like a hundred years ago but the togetherness it fostered remains strong today over a decade and a half later. They did one more quick downwind leg, then whirled around and headed back to the dock. Just in time too, Pastor Loomis and Father Steinbach were just pulling up to the campsite to go over the preparations for next week's ceremony.

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

The old wedding gazebo was still in the apple orchard and Lanh felt the same excitement she felt fifteen years ago for her wedding. The crowd of guests was smaller than it was fifteen years ago, but the number of participants in the ceremony was much larger than before. Father Steinbach celebrated a mass and Pastor Loomis gave a sermon on marriage then they asked those that were renewing their vows to step up. By agreement no one told their invitees that there would be multiple couples renewing their vows. First came Duong and Mai.

"My goodness," grinned Father Steinbach, forty-three years, and you truly don't look sixty, not after six children."

"I'm not," said Mai. "I just turned fifty-eight."

Father Steinbach was stunned, and Pastor Loomis said, "You were fifteen when you got married?"

"It was my fifteenth birthday," said Mai as a collective gasp ran through her children. "Duong just turned eighteen... His family was going back to Vietnam, so we gave him the ability and a reason to say no, I'm staying." The children of Mai and Duong all knew that much of their father's family went back, but there was some creative math going on when Mai and Duong's ages were mentioned.

Tam did a little math in her head then whispered to Jake, "Now I know why there's no graduation pictures of my mother, she was pregnant with me!"

"I normally don't encourage early marriage," said Father Steinbach, "but in your case, I'll make an exception."

Then one by one Father Steinbach and Pastor Loomis took turns introducing the couples that were renewing their vows in order of their date of marriage. Don and Lanh were next, followed by Bao and Rosa, Ralph and Sandy, Tam and Jake, and their friends, Syd and Craig all were married in September following Don and Lanh's wedding here in the apple orchard. That was because that's when Don got leave after basic training and tech school before she shipped off to Germany. Trung and Angela followed two years later and six months after that Ahnjong passed the bar and she and Huy were able to wed.

If there was murmuring when Kim-ly joined Don and Lanh, it was quiet. Everybody knew that Kim-ly carried Don and Lanh's son Danh, and had agreed to carry one more for them, so her presence there next to them wasn't a big surprise, however Tam, Kim-ly, and Lanh were all now beginning to show baby bumps.

Don actually bristled at Pastor Loomis and Father Steinbach when they questioned Don and Lanh's decision to include Kim-ly. He didn't reveal that they considered Kim-ly part of their union but insisted that Kim-ly was important to them especially considering how much help and love she gave them in the medical and emotional trauma over the past four years. Father Steinbach took Tam aside and asked privately what she thought of Kim-ly being included in the ceremony and she shook her head.

"Please don't question it, Father. I have three young boys, a blind husband and a baby on the way. Don hired a social worker to help with Jake, a nurse to help with me, a cleaner to clean my house and do my laundry, and he calls every night to see if my boys need help with their homework and he will come to help any time one says yes. As far as I'm concerned, if he wants the Rockettes to be part of the ceremony, I'm all for it." After that no one questioned Kim-ly's presence in front of the crowd. In fact, Karole was there also, standing with Don and Lanh while Trung was standing with Huy and Ahnjong.

"I'm not going to blame any of this on Don and Lanh," said Father Steinbach as he started the ceremony. "I was getting ready to put in the paperwork to start my retirement."

"Personally," injected Pastor Loomis, "I'm blaming the whole thing on Sandy Campbell. It was a blustery cold winter afternoon when my receptionist informed me that she scheduled me for a wedding right here in this apple orchard that June fifteen years ago."

"Funny, same thing happened with me," said Father Steinbach. "A wedding which opened the flood gates of love for the Nguyen and Campbell families." Father Steinbach and Pastor Loomis went back and forth with funny stories about the families gathered together. "Did you hear the one about the childless couple who couldn't have a baby via in vitro fertilization because she was pregnant?" asked Father Steinbach. The gathered crowd chuckled because everyone heard it... well almost everyone.

"Who?" asked Sydney Lewicki, Lanh's former debate club teammate. It took a moment and a whisper from Craig, Don's best man, before she noticed that Kim-ly and Tam were pointing at Lanh. With a shriek of joy Syd dashed over to Lanh and suddenly they were chattering and laughing like they were 18 years younger and sitting in the corner of the cafeteria at the table reserved for nerds.

"Ah HEM!" said Father Steinbach rolling his eyes.

"Missus Campbell? This little soiree was your idea..." said Pastor Loomis.

"Geez mom," groaned Syd and Craigs son but their daughter was laughing along with them.

Finally with the laughter quelled Don turned to Lanh and said, ""My dearest love, as we stand here today, I think back to all the wonderful memories we have shared. There is no greater feeling in life than having your best friend by your side every day. Though we have had our struggles, our love has been strong enough to conquer it all. I am thankful for you being in my life each and every day..."

The renewed vows were lovely if not a bit long. After the vows and a kiss, the couples renewing their vows returned to their seats, Father Steinbach and Pastor Loomis stepped up to say their closing remarks but noticed that Tam and Karole were still standing in front of the assembled crowd. "Can I help you?" asked Pastor Loomis.

"If 'n you were a Baptist then maybe," said Karole causing Father Steinbach to break up into laughter.

"I asked her to wait a moment," said Tam. The eldest child of Mai and Duong Nguyen turned to the assembly and said, "Karole Krigbaum saved my baby sisters life and my mother's life on Christmas Eve. She risked her own life by throwing herself in front of an out-of-control car on an ice-covered parking lot and she shoved mom and Lanh out of the way, saving three lives that night, mom, Lanh, and my future niece or nephew."

She turned to Karole and took Karole's hands in hers and said, "Sweetheart none of us can ever thank you enough for what you did. You will probably bear the scars of that night forever and all I can say is thank you." They hugged and the crowd clapped and once the applause ended Tam continued. "But that's not why I asked you to stay up here. That is," and she pointed behind Karole.

Karole turned around and there was Trung looking more nervous than anyone had ever seen him act before. "Karole dear, I love you more than I could ever know, I can never put into words the love I feel for you, all I can ask..." and he sank to one knee and opened a jewelry box, "is will you marry me and save me too?"

Karole stared at the tiny diamond in disbelief and shrieked in joy. "YES!" she cried and begged him to get up, "Ah can't git down there, yer gunna havta stand."

~~~*~~~

Don and Lanh looked at the crowd that gathered for their renewal celebration, the big tent they had for their wedding was set up but the crowd wasn't as big as the crowd that gathered for their wedding. However, this year many children were there dashing between tables and feeding "cow babies" handfuls of hay through the barbed wire fence with Lanh and Kim-ly teaching them all how to be farmers. Another big difference was that more of the Vietnamese guests from Minneapolis spoke English than those at Don and Lanh's wedding.

"So, you really don't hang out with anyone from the old high school?" asked Craig as he and Don shared a beer for the first (legal) time in their lives.

"We've been gone," said Don. "I got myself blown up, survived rehab, moved to Colorado where Lanh got herself blown up, and now we're home with her in rehab and we just found out she's going to have a baby."

"Why the late start? too busy in the Air Force to fuck?" he asked quietly.

"Uhhh... no." Don realized that his only real male friend from high school didn't hear what happened to him so he brought Craig up to speed on Lanh's medical issues and his jet blast injuries.

"Holy crap! Why did you stay in? It sounds like the Air Force was a nightmare," said Craig.

"Actually, we had a lot of fun, we both earned our doctorates and there was time to..." Don chuckled. "I was stationed at an unaccompanied location, in Korea which means no wives and families. I had a local woman cleaning my dorm room and doing laundry. One day she walked in and found a skinny little Asian girl in my bed and thought I brought a hooker home. It was Lanh, she flew over and walked on base with her ID card, she even got my friend to open the room." Craig was laughing so hard his side hurt when Huy's twins Him-chan and Ahn came up and interrupted.

"Unka Don!" cried Ahnnie, "Him-chan says you're going to be principal; Chau says you're going to be the principal's boss." She pouted then putting her hands up in confusion and demanded, "what are you going to do?"

"You should listen to your cousin Chau," said Don as he pulled Ahnnie up on his lap. "I told her several days ago that I was going to be the principal's boss." Don tickled his tiny niece then noticed that there was only one child over by the calf pen with Lanh and Kim-ly. "Why aren't you two feeding the baby cows with Auntie Lanh?"

Ahnnie and Him-chan's eyes opened wide at the opportunity to feed Aunt Lanh's cows, Ahnnie wriggled off Don's lap then she and her brother dashed off to feed the cow babies.

"Principal's boss?" asked Craig with a smirk.

"Well, if I win the election. I'm running for school board supervisor."

"Currently running unopposed," said Rosa as she and Syd sat down with Don and Craig. "The other candidate pulled out when the school system said that they couldn't afford to pay her what she wanted.

"No shit?" gasped Syd. "Is the current superintendent breaking him in? Y'know, giving him some OJT?""

"The current superintendent quit months ago," said Rosa. "He had a heart attack and decided that there was a better way to spend his life than arguing with parents and teachers."

"So, you're the superintendent?" grinned Craig. "Way to go!"

Rosa slugged Don in the arm and said, "Oh no, Mister Play By The Rules reminded them that by the school system bylaws he has to wait for November to be sworn in."

"That's DOCTOR Play By The Rules, thank you very much," grinned Don.

"You jerk," laughed Rosa.

"Love you too sis." It's been ages since Don and Rosa taunted and teased each other. God, it felt good to be home!

~~~*~~~

The party was a good one, there were only two speeches, the collective anniversary speech started by Don and the mic was passed to Bao, then Jake, then Huy. But this was also Sandy, Ralph, Mai, and Duong's retirement party. Ownership of the restaurant was still in Duong and Mai's name but it will be purchased from them soon by their children with Rosa and Karole managing. Rosa and Bao were moving into the big house on the back of the restaurant and Karole and Trung were moving out. The ownership of Ralph and Don's farm was transferred to Don and Lanh while next door Karole purchased the old Gustafsson farm, a dairy farm on the west side of the Campbell farm.

Don and Lanh's house was on the northwest corner of their property, and Karole was building her new farmhouse on the northeast corner of her property which put it a very short walk from Don and Lanh's house. Karole and Trung also insured that their new dreamhouse contained a lot of extra bedrooms to ensure room for future Nguyens and room for sleepovers for the nieces and nephews, because if the birth of Don and Lanh's child allows them to adopt again, they are planning on adopting several children.

Karole wasn't sure what she wanted to do with the farm, but according to her personal agronomist (Trung) another year of sitting fallow will help the field and it gave Karole and Lanh a tract of land to practice their tractor skills. As far as Karole is concerned their marriage will be perfect, he likes chickens, she likes eggs; a match made in heaven. He wants to raise several species of chickens and ducks, which made the Nguyen restauranters happy because they have several recipes that require fresh duck meat and the children consider the farm a petting zoo.

Soon all the Nguyen children and their families gathered up with their parents. All the guys were wearing suit and tie, all the women, including Sandy, Rosa, and Karole, were wearing an áo dài. Pictures were posed for, then children were added and more pictures were posed for. Then Tam turned to her father and said, "We weren't planning to make a big deal out of this, but you can if you want..." and she handed him two key rings with the keys to a new house. "You worked hard for us, now you can relax.

"Ditto dad," said Don. "We love you," and he handed his dad the keys to a new house and as they hugged, he whispered, "let me know if you need help with the house." Ralph and Sandy had recently entered their sixties and for some reason Don was treating them like they received bad news from their doctors.

"Not having to climb stairs is all the blessings we will need," chuckled Ralph tearfully as he hugged his daughters Lanh and Kim-ly. The far back end of Don's property, which is mostly woods, fronts on a state road. They cleared two small plots of land and had two modular homes built there for their parents who were getting tired of climbing stairs.

"Does this mean I can finally hunt on your property?" said Duong as he shook Don's hand. Duong often cursed himself and congratulated himself for letting Don marry his baby, Lanh. This time was a hearty congratulations. Duong and Mai will be close enough to family to ensure visits from grandchildren and enjoy the privacy that living in a forest provides. Also, Sandy and Mai will enjoy a walk through the woods on a mile long path that Don, Bao, Huy, and Trung cut for them through the trees and into the woods on Karole's land. The path also skirts the south end of the lake where Duong and Ralph can go fishing anytime they like on a dock the boys built for them. If they want a boat or an ice-fishing hut they'll have to provide their own.

~~~*~~~

As the sun set and the lights were turned on in the tent, the folks that hate speeches and sermons but love good barbeque and cold beer began to arrive. The music played and the guests soon began dancing. Music from the 50's and early 60's drew the biggest numbers of dancers to the dance floor that was placed in the center of the big tent.

Don and Lanh sat by the dance floor chatting with guests, many of whom wanted to know about Don's plans for the school board and what plans he had for their children's education. Knowing that their friend, a guy that they went to school with, will be head of the school board, Craig and Sydney Lewicki began considering returning home to Grant Valley. "Can you do that?" gushed Lanh.

"Hell yeah," said Craig, "I'm a captain now and I can pretty much write my ticket with the state police where I want to go."

Syd frowned, "Craig and I didn't do a very good job selling Grant Valley to the kids, but they're not happy with Mankato, so maybe..."

"Really?" asked Lanh. "Lenny, Kimberly, and Heather spent much of the afternoon feeding the calves and Lenny, helped RJ with afternoon milking."

Craig chuckled and nudged his wife. "Tell them what you call Kimberly."

Syd mumbled something and Lanh had to say "What?" Syd rolled her eyes and mumbled again. Lanh had her ear right next to Syd's mouth but she didn't hear it. "I didn't catch that."

"Kim-ly! We call her Kim-ly!" Syd shouted.

When Syd shouted that, both Kim-ly and Kimberly peeked out of the barn and said, "What?"

"You named her after my sister?" Lanh laughed.

"Kim-ly was the coolest person I knew!" gushed Syd. "When Kimberly was born, she was the coolest baby I ever saw so I almost named her after Kim-ly." As they talked they almost missed the DJ when he made an announcement.

"This one is going out from Don and Jake to Lanh, Kim-ly, and Tam," and a song from back in 1975, practically prehistoric, started playing and Paul Anka started singing,

Having my baby

What a lovely way of sayin' how much you love me

Having my baby

What a lovely way of sayin' what you're thinkin' of me

Jake and Tam started dancing immediately as it was Jake who requested the song, and Don got Lanh out on the dance floor soon after, but Kim-ly, hearing her name, came out of the barn and stood by the side and looked sad. She was about to leave when Don noticed and gestured for Kim-ly to come and dance with him and Lanh. Kim-ly looked unsure but she stepped out on the dance floor and looked nervous, but soon the three were dancing together.

"What is that all about?" asked Syd.

"That is what happens when you fall in love but can't have a baby," said Rosa. "Lanh discovered that she couldn't have a baby, and when Don got injured, they lost their chance to adopt, so Kim-ly was a surrogate for them. She agreed a second time but Lanh somehow was fixed and now she's pregnant too."

Craig started laughing, "Poor Don, in school he couldn't get a woman to look at him, now they're lining up to have his baby."

"You're not forgotten and you're not alone," Don said to Kim-ly.

"I know, it's just..."

"We understand what you mean," said Lanh. "Don't forget, we're nerds, we know exactly how being ignored and rejected feels."

"If we do that to you, let us know!" insisted Don. Soon the song ended and the couples returned to their seats, but the next song started, it was Elton John singing this time.

It's a little bit funny, this feeling inside...

Eighteen years and somehow the feeling of togetherness that this song still generates comes ringing through every single time. Don leaned way over and kissed Lanh and she felt that flutter that's been happening on and off for the past few weeks... the flutter that mom, Kim-ly and Tam told her to look for, and it was back. Lanh took her hand from Don's back and placed it on her tummy, exactly where Kim-ly showed her and her eyes shot open wide - she could feel it! "Em yêu! Give me your hand!" gasped Lanh. A little confused and a lot concerned Don stopped dancing and let her direct his hand to her abdomen and he held it there. After a long moment, he felt it, a gentle movement from inside Lanh. A look of miraculous wonder spread over his face. "Is that...?"

Lanh giggled and nodded her head, it was that same smile that Don first saw 18 years ago, when they danced to this same song. He had pronounced her last name "Nu-guy-en" and was dying of embarrassment, but she just smiled and giggled that happy little laugh that told him that he was no longer alone. Now it said that their dreams were coming true. Lanh gave him that girlish giggle that makes his heart leap with joy and said, "It's Sue Lin, she's dancing with us!"

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

As November drew near, Sandy and Mai continued to have a gathering with all of their daughters, a nice dinner where they could talk, relax, and exchange complaints. Meanwhile the guys could gather together in Don's huge basement, and now that Kim-ly has moved her office into what used to be a parlor, downstairs the guys could have a beer and a cigar, and cheer each other up. In the basement they occasionally played with Don and Danh's toy trains, a large Lionel layout that filled a ten foot by ten-foot room, or his model trains, an HO scale layout in another room, or with the Ham radios.

"Damn!" gasped Trung as he scanned the various radios in the radio room, "I didn't know you put in this kind of equipment!"

"This isn't me; this is all Lanh and Kim-ly. When they get on the air, old hams from all over the world trip all over each other to say hi to them."

"No," joshed Huy. "Really?"

Don glanced at his watch and smiled then said, "Check this out, it's time for the forty-meter statewide net..." He turned on a radio and a laptop and tuned to a specific frequency near 7.29 megahertz, fiddling with knobs until voices started to come in from the ether. He waited for Net Control to call for check-ins from their county and when he did ask Don called into the microphone, "November Four Alpha Foxtrot Victor."

"Hey Don, how's the XYL and her sisters doing?"

"Fine business," Don replied. "They're upstairs with mama-san having decaf and cursing the male of the species."

"Real good Don," they could hear Net Control chuckling. "Tell them we miss them, the forty-meter net just isn't the same without them."

"They'll be back on the air as soon as I can watch the babies and they can climb the stairs." Then he turned to his brothers-in-law and said, "Was I right?"

From the other room Jake laughed, and said, "That was cold. Seriously cold... it was like you're the girls' answering service."

"Exactly," said Don to a chorus of chuckles.

"What's an XYL?" asked Huy.

As Don sat down next to Jake and Huy he grinned and said, "In ham radio parlance, a young lady is a YL, a Yankee Lima. The minute you marry her she becomes a former Young Lady, an XYL."

'It's quite an interesting hobby, are there blind hams?" asked Jake.

"Yes, but not many," said Don. "They say the hardest part is training your guide dog to tune the radio to the proper... OW!" Don was interrupted by a stinging blow from Jake's cane to his shin. "I keep forgetting about that damn good aim of yours."

"I'm beginning to think you like it," said Jake to the chorus of laughter in the basement room. "How are you doing Doctor Campbell, are you holding up? Only a couple of weeks to go."

Reminded of the immanent birth of two very important babies, Don's hands began to tremble. He was so worried about Lanh, she was so tiny and her belly was so huge now, he was terrified for her. Yet Lanh was taking it all in good humor and he had no idea how she did it. When Ralph and Sandy moved into their new home, Lanh and Kim-ly spent two weeks arranging the master bedroom to their desires, then they had moved into it and moved Danh into his Big Boy bedroom, then two weeks later they moved back downstairs to Lanh's apartment so the girls didn't have to climb the stairs.

"To be honest, I'm terrified."

"In that case, make sure that Kim-ly is in the delivery room with you," and Jake proceeded to tell Don and all the other men in the family, including his own sons, the story of how Kim-ly came to assist Tam's delivery on the day that Arlo was born. "She strolled into the delivery room and changed into scrubs in front of everyone and Tam went ballistic. She screamed "My husband is right here" and Kim-ly said, "He's blind, he won't see anything."

When the guys started laughing, Jake said, "she took my hand and moved it down Tam's body and said, "Down south we find that your wife shaved, this is called a landing strip..." but when she said, "here's the fun button..." Tam went out of her mind!" The guys were laughing so hard that their sides hurt. Then Jake reached out and fumbled around a bit and found Don's hand. "It was all worth it when I touched Arlo for the very first time."

"I can't lose Lanh," whispered Don.

"Give us a moment here guys," said Jake. Only Duong had as much experience as Jake had with childbirth and what a father goes through. When he felt they were alone in the radio room Jake leaned over and softly asked, "What if it happened?" Jake was trying to get Don to realize that no matter how bad the outcome there would be light at the end of the tunnel.

Don spoke softly so that only Jake could hear what he said, "Huy has power of attorney, he can find the baby a home. I'm going to follow Lanh."

Jake's blood ran cold, he realized that Don was being honest, if his wife died, he was going to commit suicide and join her in death. Jake tried to convince himself that the moment Don saw the baby that he would change his mind about suicide, but there was a tone of commitment in Don's voice, this was the voice of a man who has made up his mind. Jake realized that he needs to talk with Karole.

~~~*~~~

After the guests had gone home and Karole, Lanh, and Kim-ly cleaned up the kitchen and got the dishwasher running, it was time to turn in. Don and Trung work on Farm Time, their morning will start at 3:30 AM when they go out and do the morning milking. They'll finish up about 5:00 AM and will head back to the house with RJ where Kim-ly and Karole have breakfast ready. Lanh will get up in time for breakfast then head off to work while those remaining at the farm got out and did their chores, which now was to prepare for winter. It was early November, the babies were due in three weeks, just in time for Thanksgiving.

"Lanh honey," Karole pulled Lanh aside as she was heading off to bed. "Jake is worried," she whispered. "He's sure that if something happens to you when the baby is born, he's going to k... uhh, he's going to follow you and let Huy decide what to do with the baby."

Lanh frowned and nodded. "He would do it; he's told me that he would... I'll have a talk with him," and she sighed. This wasn't something she wanted to think about.

Later that evening Don woke up to Kim-ly's soft purring snoring and Lanh sat at the end of the bed wearing a huge old t-shirt as a nightgown. She had a few pieces of paper in her hand and as she read, she sniffed back a tear or two. "What's the matter?" Don asked. "Are you ok?"

"Oh, I'm just reading a letter you wrote to me when you were alone in Germany. It's sexy, and it's so sweet." She lay back between Don and Kim-ly and Don pulled the covers over her. "I remember back then when we thought that I was going to get pregnant every time you touched me."

"Silly us," agreed Don. The years of heartbreak came rushing back.

"Em yêu," implored Lanh as she gave Don a gentle kiss, "you have to promise me, when the baby is born and I don't make it, you have to stay with the baby. You can't come with me." She saw in his eyes that he was going to disagree with her, so she put a small finger on his lips and continued. "I will be in the baby. That is a part of me that will stay here with you, she's also a part of you, she will be us and you can't throw that away." They don't actually know the sex of the baby, they asked Carla not to tell them, they looking forward to an old school surprise in the delivery room; they just use whichever pronoun that comes to mind whenever they talk about the baby. Suddenly Lanh's beautiful dark brown, almond shaped eyes flew open wide and she gasped.

"What! What's wrong?"

"No, promise me you'll raise the baby... please promise me!"

"I... I..."

"Oh, for Christ sake!" growled Kim-ly without opening her eyes, "just promise her so we can get some sleep around here! I'll help you with the baby!"

"Ok," said Don, totally defeated. "I'll stay and raise our baby."

"And Kim-ly's baby," added Lanh.

"And Kim-ly's babies."

"And Kim-ly," she sounded desperate now.

"And I'll care for Kim-ly."

"Promise?"

"I PROMISE! Now tell me what is wrong!"

"Nothing. Here, feel my tummy."

Don felt Lanh's tummy and it was rock hard. Lanh's tummy was always soft to the touch, but now it felt hard, like she was wearing a flack vest. "Are you having a contraction?"

"Uh huh," Lanh smiled a huge smile of accomplishment. "Our baby is getting ready to join us."

"She's going to be doing that for weeks," groaned Kim-ly. "It is happening to me too. Now can we get some sleep around here?"

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

The auditorium at the high school was full, the crowd couldn't wait to see Dr. Donovan A. Campbell and hear his plan for the school system. Academic scores had fallen and so had athletic achievements, and during the campaign in interviews and in letters published in the local paper, Dr. Campbell had promised to address both issues, parents, staff, and faculty wanted to hear his ideas.

On the stage sat three rows of chairs that were filled with school board members, school principals, and other administrative staff and their wives or husbands. Don had won the election by default and by vote tally as his opponent had dropped out of the race leaving Don as the sole candidate. After a speech from Danni Sheridan, the vice chair of the board, and another speech from the secretary, a town judge stepped forward and administered the oath of office to Don and like magic, Don was chairman of the school board and he was invited to make a speech.

As Don stepped up to the podium Lanh fought the urge to jump up and shout "YES!" They finally won at something! They fought their way home, Don's lungs were fixed with several rounds of pulmonary balloon angioplasty, he won his election fair and square when his opponents name remained on the ballot and the hundreds of yard signs remained, she got a wonderful job that she loves, the house and farm are theirs, they have several million in savings, and she's going to have a baby! As Don started his speech the woman sitting at Lanh's right leaned over and quietly asked her, "Are you all right darling?"

"Me? I'm fine, I'm a bit overwhelmed with everything but..." suddenly she was confused... she felt like she was sitting in a warm puddle. Just as suddenly she was the center of attention, people all around her were leaning in, asking if they could help, which confused her more.

Kim-ly who was sitting next to her realized what was going on and said, "This is her first, she doesn't understand."

"Understand what?" Lanh looked left and right for someone to explain to her that everyone was so worked up about.

At the lectern Don was starting his speech. He had practiced it time and time again, it was going to be the keystone of his administration, he had a ten-point plan to address all the issues that were facing the school system. "The first issue facing our students that I plan to address is sagging academic scores. I intend... hmmm?"

Just as he was about to address the issue, Mrs. Harrington, the school board secretary, rushed up to him and whispered in his ear. "Thank you, Elisabeth." He looked up at the audience that was hanging on his next words. "Gotta go. Thank you for coming out." And he turned around to Lanh who was still confused.

"Let's get your coat on," he said and helped her into her coat without standing up. "Here, grab your purse..."

"I have it." She looked up at him with those big, innocent black eyes and said, "What's wrong?"

Don scooped her up in his arms as if she were light as a feather, and he carried her off stage as the audience started to murmur in confusion. "Nothing is wrong," he said to his worried wife, "your water broke. We're having a baby." He then looked at Mrs. Harrington and said, "Elisabeth, please tell them not to worry we're going to the delivery room." And with that he stepped off the stage with his little wife in his arms.

Danni Sheridan met them at the door and held it open, at the same time they heard applause from the auditorium. "Good luck Doctor Campbell, Doctor Nguyen."

As they stepped outside, they used the same exit they used to skip class so very long ago, almost exactly eighteen years and eleven months ago. Now it was snowing which lightened Don's terrified heart, he always thought the nicest things happened when it was snowing. "Got your phone honey?" When she pulled it out of her purse and nodded brightly, he said, "Call Carla, tell her we're on the way to the hospital and Kim-ly is with us."

"Where's Kim-ly?"

"She's warming up Gertie." Gertie is the Three on the Tree GMC. Finally rebuilt from the ground up, Gertie waited in the parking lot in all of its late 1960's glory. Most farms would use a truck that old as the wreck you'd use to head to the feedlot, or haul hay in. For Don and Lanh, it's their "Sunday goin' to meetin'" truck.

Don gripped the wheel tightly to quell his trembling hands and drove quickly through town, the back end of the truck sliding a little bit as they wheeled through traffic on the slushy streets. The big snowflakes spiraled down from the sky and began to stick on the ground as the temperature dropped. "Good things happen when it snows," whispered Lanh then suddenly she doubled over in pain.

"Who said something that stupid?" demanded Kim-ly.

"Me," insisted Don. "It wasn't snowing when I got jet blasted, it wasn't snowing when Lanh, mom, and Karole got squished.

"It was raining," gasped Lanh through the pain.

"Do your breathing!" insisted Kim-ly, "He, he, hoo, hoo, he, he, hoo, hoo..."

"Come on baby, follow along with Kim-ly," Don encouraged Lanh.

Lanh clung to Don's arm and said, "I don't want to daddy, it hurts."

"It's ok babygirl," whispered Don. "You listen to Kim-ly, Tam, Sandy, and Mai, they've made fourteen kids, a whole hockey team with three offensive lines. They've got experience." He patted her thigh and said, "shift."

"K daddy," and Lanh grabbed the shifter and pulled it into third gear then clung to Don's arm and started her breathing the next time a contraction hit. "He, he, hoo, hoo, he, he, hoo, hoo..."

As they traveled swiftly, but carefully to the hospital, Kim-ly was trying not to laugh. No matter how many times she had seen them drive this truck in the past it still amused her to watch him drive while Lann shifts the column shift transmission. "You're doing great baby."

Suddenly Lanh screamed as another massive contraction hit. Lanh tried to be brave but the contraction was too strong, the pain was too much, it was so much worse than having a car sitting on her. "He is coming out!" cried Lanh.

Now Don looked panicked also, but he tried to sound calm. He turned to Kim-ly and said, "Call the hospital, tell them we'll be there in 3 minutes, we'll pull into the ER entrance, tell them Doctor Campbell believes a gurney will be necessary." When Lanh looked terrified at that, Don just smiled and said, "That's so you can lay down and relax." With his arm around her he hugged her tight and said, "Won't that feel nice?"

"It hurts, she's coming out," whimpered Lanh on the edge of tears.

"Here we are em yêu, they're ready for us." They wheeled up to the door and the EMTs came out and ran up to Kim-ly's door and almost put very pregnant Kim-ly on the gurney.

"Not me, you want Doctor Campbell," said Kim-ly as she twisted out of the orderly's grip.

"I'm Doctor Nguyen," gasped Lanh between hoo hoos. "He's Doctor Campbell."

Don came around the nose of the truck and tossed the keys to Kim-ly, "Can you park this? I'm going with Lanh."

"I can't drive a stick," said Kim-ly as she looked at the keys like they were poisoned. Soon the Kim-ly of old returned. "You look like you can drive a stick," she said to an older orderly. "Here," and she tossed Don's keys to him. As they wheeled Lanh into the building she glared at the orderly. "Not a scratch!" The orderly looked at the old school General Motors ignition key in his hand, then at the gleaming new fifty-five-year-old GMC pickup with the Minnesota Antique license plates and considering the glare in Kim-ly's eyes, he decided that a test drive was out of the question. A decision he came to hate when he discovered that the pickup had a 21st century five speed manual transmission with a column shift.

As they wheeled Lanh into the delivery room her howls of agony grew louder and more urgent. Don finally demanded, "Can somebody check for dilation, please?" but Dr. Schaeffer was still enroute and there was no one with OB/Gyn training available. "Then get me a nurse damn it!" snarled Doctor Campbell, "A PA, an NP, mid wife, someone with a credential in anything!"

As Kim-ly stripped down and pulled on a set of scrubs, the transport team eased Lanh onto the delivery table and set the table up for the OB/Gyn if one ever shows up. "It's ok baby, I'm right here," said Don gently as he eased Lanh's tiny feet into the stirrups. "Let's make a baby."

Lanh looked up and saw Don take the position that the doctor would normally take and smiled, Don was there, he was always there in her dreams of having a baby, this was right and perfect. He took a scissors and cut her panties away to reveal her shaved pussy, they shaved her a few days ago, laughing and playing in the shower, all three of them, not realizing this moment would happen so soon in their future. "Let's get her undressed and into a gown," said Don softly to Kim-ly, then to Lanh he said, "We're going to get you undressed, is that ok em yêu?"

Em yêu is the Vietnamese term for darling or sweetheart and the first term of endearment he ever used for her. It calmed Lanh down a little and Don and Kim-ly was able to pull her dress and bra off and partially put a hospital gown on her. As Lanh screamed through the next contraction, Kim-ly doubled over in pain. "Are you ok?" asked Don.

Kim-ly looked at Don with a terrified look in her eyes. "I think Duce is on his way."

"No, that's just sympathy pains," said Don nervously.

"It doesn't work that way for me, I have no sympathy for anyone..." and her face became a rictus of pain. Unlike Don and Lanh who decided to be surprised, Kim-ly knew that her baby was a boy, and she insisted that his name was going to be Donovan Aloysius Campbell the Second, and her pet name for him has been "Duce" or "Eye-eye" ever since Dr. Schaffer told her that she was carrying a boy. She sagged into a chair and started her breathing exercises while Lanh howled in pain. "You need to check her dilation," gasped Kim-ly, ""He, he, hoo, hoo, he, he, hoo, hoo..."

Don knew the basics, he knew what he was supposed to look for, but he never reached into Lanh to intentionally touch her cervix... well... maybe with his dick, but never with his fingers. Nervously Don eased a pair of fingers inside of Lanh and Kim-ly saw his eyes open wide in surprise. "Well? What is it?"

"I think it's a girl," Don gasped. His fingertips encountered the top of their baby's head.

Just then an orderly stepped into the room and in a cheery voice asked, "How's everybody doing in here?"

"Get someone in here STAT!" snapped Don. "We have two women in labor and this one is dilated to twelve centimeters!"

The orderly might not have known how to read a room, but he did know how to read a dilation chart. He shouted something to the nurses station and suddenly people in scrubs and masks poured into the room. Medical equipment appeared like magic as the hospital staff converted the room from a comfortable den to a high-tech delivery room in a matter of moments. "Here you go doctor," said a nurse as she wheeled a stool to Don. That caused both Lanh and Kim-ly to start laughing. "What is so funny?" asked the confused nurse.

"He's not that kind of a doctor," said Kim-ly with a smile between her on contractions.

"What kind of doctor are you?" The nurses pretty eyes looked startled above her mask.

"I have an Ed. D in Forensic Pedagogy."

"What?"

"I know how teachers teach."

"I NEED TO PUSH!" cried Lanh.

Kim-ly reached out and grasped Lanh's hands as Don watched the baby's head appear. Just then Carla Schaeffer appeared at Don's side and whispered, "You're doing good, right now all you have to do is catch."

"Ok, BIG PUSH!" cheered Don. Lanh clenched her teeth and bore down as hard as she could and she felt the baby slide out and the desire to push was over. She heard Don happily call, "It's a girl!" and through half closed eyes she could see Don cut the umbilical. Moments later there she was, Sue Lin Campbell was laying on her chest. Sue Lin's bright brown eyes were eagerly looking at her momma, her tiny mouth drawn up in a smile of recognition as Lanh's trembling hands finally caressed her daughter.

"You're late," whispered Lanh. "We were expecting you fifteen years ago."

"She's so beautiful!" gasped Don as he wept with joy. He wanted to run through the halls shouting, "She's here!" He wanted to hold his wife and his daughter forever. His hands shook as he took photo after photo of Sue Lin and mom.

"She's so tiny!" gasped Kim-ly.

"Look at all the hair!" said Carla as she attended to Lanh's post-partum needs. "We're going to have to get a stylist in here for her pictures."

Kim-ly slowly gathered up cell phones and took pictures of Dad and Mom until she suddenly looked shocked and said, "Eww." A stream of water running down her legs let her know it's her turn. "Doc, we have an issue here."

Carla looked over at Kim-ly then turned to one of her assistants. "Get another bed in here, and see if Doctor Nguyen is in the waiting room, she's got a patient waiting."

"That's just cruel doc," groaned Kim-ly as she climbed into the new bed.

Don patted Kim-ly's arm and said, "Em yêu, I'm going to go with Sue Lin, then be right back with you."

"Don't leave me alone with Tam!" she gasped. Kim-ly remembered everything she did to embarrass her older sister in three previous visits to the delivery room, Tam is due some payback and Kim-ly had a reason to fear her.

Don went with his daughter into the side room where they measured, weighed, tested, and inoculated the tiny newborn. "Six pounds two ounces," said the nurse. "Wanna keep her or toss her back and try for something bigger?"

"We'll keep her, she weighs three times what her mom did at birth." Every time the tiny girl cried, Don gently rubbed her cheek and whispered. "Daddy's here," which seemed to calm the petite angel. Off to the side in a corner of the room, two nearly invisible blond apparitions, one with a she-mullet, her blond hair tips died purple, watched in slack jawed amazement. Unseen tears of joy ran down their spectral faces before they faded completely.

~~~*~~~

The pediatric waiting area was filled with Nguyens and Campbells, both Ralph and Duong looked terrified, when their first child was born, they were excluded from the event and sat just like this in a waiting room not knowing what was going on. Now with grandchildren they are reminded of that first child, waiting in mute terror. As more and more Nguyen children were added to the family, Duong was allowed to participate a little more each time, however for the last two births Duong was excluded, the twins were born via Cesarean and poor Lanh almost didn't make it, every moment was another emergency. It was so much safer with Duong in the waiting room with his family supporting him and Mai unconscious.

Tonight, the kids were getting anxious, the older ones were reading, Chau brought her homework, the younger ones were playing with the baby toys provided by the hospital in the play pen, but the middle ones, Sophia and Liam, moaned and whined that there was nothing to do. "Keep your eye on that door there," said Grandpa Ralph finally, "Tam will come out and tell you about the new baby."

"Is that how they did it in the old days poppa?" asked Sophia.

That's how they told me the love of my life was dying, thought Ralph. "Yes, your grandpa Duong had to wait in the waiting room for your Aunt Tam, I had to wait for your Uncle Don."

"She's not my aunt," Liam informed Sophia, "she's my mom."

Duong and Ralph both worried greatly, poor Lanh was so tiny, what if... Karole was worried about Lanh too. It took so long for her when Krissy was born; would Lanh survive a day long ordeal like that? Karole didn't let her worries bottle up, she had a method of surviving emotional quandaries like that, she talked. She turned to Duong and asked, "Would you mind if Kim-ly named her baby Duong?"

Duong smiled. "Not at all, Duong is a proud Vietnamese name, it means virile, manly! And my middle name Hieu, it means respectful. Duong Hieu is a perfect name for a Vietnamese boy."

She turned to Ralph and said, "Would you mind if they named their baby Ralph after you?"

Ralph chuckled, then started laughing. "That's funny," was all he would say, so Karole turned to Sandy, "Would he be ok if they named the baby Ralph after him?"

"Ralph is a good Norsk name," said Sandy. "It means Wolf-Consul, someone who speaks with wolves."

"That's pretty cool." Karole nodded, she never thought Ralph had such a masterful meaning.

"But it's not his name, that's just what folks call him," continued Sandy. "His real name is Reginold. Folks just call him Ralph."

"Reginold? His name is Reggie?"

"Yep," sighed Ralph. "I don't think even Don remembers that. I haven't been called Reggie or Reginold by anyone except maybe a lawyer in dozens of years."

Suddenly the name had a meaning for Karole. Now she knows why her dream baby is named Reggie, he was named after Ralph, the only father she's ever had... how could she have known that so long ago?

As Karole pondered that mystery the door to the waiting room opened, but it wasn't a nurse behind the door, it was Tam and their Uncle Don holding two tiny bundles. He sat down on the coffee table so everyone could see, "This is Sue Lin, she weighs six pounds two ounces, and this is Donovan Aloysius, he is seven pounds six ounces. I would have been out here sooner but as soon as Sue Lin was ready to come meet you, little Donovan wanted to come out with her so Kim-ly went into labor." When little Danh stepped up and looked in amazement at the babies, Don said, "Danh, this is Sue, your little sister, and this is Don, your baby brother, and now you only have one birthday to remember."

The entire family clustered around to see the tiny, squinty little faces peeking out of their receiving blankets, everyone was amazed, everyone except Arlo. "What's the matter?" Grandma Mai asked.

"I thought they were going to name him after Unka Don," pouted the little guy.

"Donovan Aloysius is a pretty good name; what do you think they should have named him?" asked Sandy.

"Shoulda named him Unka Don," pouted Arlo to the laughter of his relatives.

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

Christmas Morning

Don returned from morning milking hoping to enjoy a nice hot breakfast. It was 30 degrees below zero and the cows were not happy, neither was Don, nor RJ, nor Trung. Merry Christmas Minnesota style. Somehow, he ended up spending the night wrapping Christmas presents for children too young to open them yet he loved every minute of it. He and Lanh sat up and wrapped while A Christmas Carol played on a Canadian TV station. Kim-ly was oddly sad but she stayed up with them and served egg nog while they wrapped.

Danh is almost two, but Sue and Don aren't even two months old yet but they have tons of gifts. They don't even notice the traditional train under the tree. Don will keep working on them until all three are foaming at the mouth model railroaders with ham licenses, but at five AM they were all sound asleep.

He yanked off his boots in the mud room and pulled off his Carhart coveralls before heading to the kitchen. Trung headed off to spend the morning with his bride of 20 hours who was waiting at the motel they spent their wedding night in, and Krissy was sleeping in Danh's room upstairs. RJ headed off to celebrate with his parents so this morning it's just Don and the girls and the babies.

"Merry Christmas daddy," purred Lanh as she handed him a cup of coffee and popped a piece of Danish in his mouth before she sealed it with a kiss.

"Merry Christmas momma - where is Kim-ly?" asked Don around the pastry.

"Where else? Sleeping." Lanh went back to rolling her hair up in a bun, then she pulled a blond wig out of a box and put it on. "Well? What do you think?" she asked as she brushed the long platinum locks straight.

Don chuckled and said, "You look like a lovechild between you and Karole."

"Maybe this is what Karole and Trung's baby is going to look like," grinned now blond Lanh as she studied herself in a mirror. Karole and Trung were married on Christmas Eve in what they hoped was a quickie little ceremony, but the word got out and before they knew it their relatives all invited themselves to the event.

Don studied Lanh with a lecherous eye. With blond hair she's cute, sexy, and very different, but to Don, her raven black hair is perfection.

"So, what would you like to do before we delve into that mountain of goodies under the tree?" asked Don. He wanted to play with his train, and to do that the mountain of gifts must be opened. He was getting a new steam locomotive for the Lionel set, he couldn't wait.

"We have to wait until Ralph and Sandy and Duong and Mai and Trung and Karole get here at nine so we can have breakfast, THEN open that mountain of goodies." Lanh's nightgown slid to the floor revealing her tiny, sexy body.

He took his tiny blond wife into his arms. She looked odd being blond, but damn sexy. Her milk filled breasts were bigger than ever now... damn she looked hot! They were so much larger than they were before Sue Lin came into their life and Lanh has commented a couple of times that she's really enjoying having boobs finally. "What would you like for Christmas little girl?" and he waggled his eyebrows at her.

In response she grabbed his crotch cupping his cock and balls. "Dick. I want lots of dick."

Don started to laugh, even though Lanh was serious about wanting his cock, she sounded funny when she said it. She's not crude and even pretending to be a sex demon in her blond wig, she's still Lanh. She pulled off his thermal lined flannel shirt, then his blue polyethylene thermal undershirt (AKA Blue Poly), then his cotton t-shirt and she attached her mouth to his nipple like a leach. She sucked and licked his nipple, sending high voltage shocks of erotic energy through him.

He tried to let her have his way, but it soon became too much and he pushed her back. Her eyes were spinning, her breathing was coming in pants, that blond wig has turned her into some kind of succubus! Without a word she dropped to her knees, opened his jeans, and pulled them down, then the blue poly pants, then the boxer briefs that hugged his cock so tightly. She growled comically as she peeled away the layers of insulating cloth that kept her favorite cock from freezing. She pulled down the briefs and his cock sprung up and tapped her chin. "Mine!" she growled and began to suckle on the head of his cock.

"Oh, dear God honey!" Don groaned as his petite little lover suckled and slobbered on his cock, trying to get his sperm out of him as fast as possible. He held her head in both hands and began fucking her mouth, something he would never do before, he loved and respected her too much to treat her like a five-dollar whore, but she took him from zero to sixty in three point two seconds and he couldn't hold back anymore, which was just what she wanted.

She let him pillage her mouth, then without warning he pulled her mouth off his cock and hoisted her up and sat her on the table. He lifted her legs and shoved his cock in her pussy. He waited for a reaction, and the only reaction he got was her twisting her nipples and groaning, "Gawd yes!" so be began fucking.

What a fuck! It had been so long, they were both terrified of hurting the baby that they were afraid to make love for the last six months of her pregnancy, and sadly they treated Kim-ly the same way. Now they were afraid she was going to leave them, to take her babies and go.

Don took out his frustration on Lanh's cunt as he fucked her senseless, her orgasm was insanity personified, she squawked and screamed as she came while his cock pounded away at her slit. Don hasn't cum in months and he needed this bad.

As Lanh recovered from her orgasm she began chanting, "cum in me!" over and over. "What if I knock you up?" he sneered as he said that and he stopped and waited for an answer.

"I dare ya!"

"Challenge accepted," and he began fucking wildly and soon he was cumming hard, pouring his pent-up semen into her pussy in spurt after spurt. When he pulled his softening cock out of his crazed wife, his sperm flowed freely from her gash. "I didn't hurt you, did I?" Lanh just laughed causing Don to ask, "What? What was so funny?"

"I finally get you to fuck like a madman... how many years has it taken me?"

"I don't want to hurt you. I don't want you to hate me."

Lanh gave him a gentle kiss, blond Lanh kisses differently that Asian Lanh. "I'll tell you if you're hurting me." She loves Don more than life itself, but sometimes he's too sweet to her, if that makes any sense. "You haven't spanked me in a long time."

"If you end up pregnant again, I will give you a spanking."

"Promises, promises. Get your underpants off, let's go wake up your other wife."

Kim-ly was rousted out of her sleep on this icy Christmas morning by two of her most favorite people on earth and before she realized what was happening, they stripped her of her nightgown and proceeded to use her body in ways that even her lustiest dreams were milquetoast in comparison. "Why?" she gasped, "Why now?"

Barely awake Kim-ly found herself kneeling upright on the bed and was sandwiched between a beautiful, platinum blond and one of the most loving men she's ever met. Their hands roamed over her body without mercy, stroking and petting, their mouths kissing and suckling on her neck, she could feel his hard cock pressing against her back while his hands drove her out of her mind. He reached around and sought out her pussy and fumbled through her silky pubic hair and dove for her clit. Contact! "Too much," she groaned.

The blond stopped suckling on Kim-ly's nipple long enough to say, "We're just getting started darling."

"No..." gasped Kim-ly, "not without coffee, I need... ulp!" a finger soaked with her own juices was put in her mouth.

"You seem ready already darling," sighed the blond. "I am too."

Kim-ly's beautiful black almond shaped eyes rolled in pleasure as the four hands and two mouths touched her everywhere she's been aching to be touched for so long. Always the wiseass, Kim-ly never revealed her feelings when a crude joke would suffice. "What is this? Fuck the Asian day?"

The platinum blond held Kim-ly's face still and gazed into her eyes, dark brown almost black Asian eyes met dark brown almost black Asian eyes framed by platinum blond hair. "Yes! And you're our grand prize winner!" and their lips met. In a morning of shocks, this was the top shock, that girl can kiss! thought Kim-ly. Lanh always held back her kisses, even at their height of pleasure where they were no more passionate than kissing a maiden aunt hello. Not this morning! As Lanh's tongue probed deep into Kim-ly's mouth, Don's hands became gentler, gently stroking her clit and teasing a nipple, then she felt his lips at her ear.

"We love you Kim-ly, you're a part of us and we can't bear to lose you," he whispered.

Lanh broke off the kiss leaving Kim-ly stunned, she's never been kissed like that by man or woman in her 35 kink filled years. The Lanh's eyes were softer now, tears filled her eyes. "He's right, we love you. If you want to go, we won't stop you, and if you want us to stop, we will, but we want you to stay... we love you Kim-ly, we need you."

Kim-ly pulled the blond to her and silenced her with a kiss. "No decisions like that before coffee!"

Lanh grinned as relief coursed through her body, she didn't say stop! "Coffee or not, I'm going to try to sway your vote."

"I dare you," grinned Kim-ly, but inside she was screaming in joy, "They want me!"

The Lanh started kissing her way down Kim-ly's soft, curvaceous body paying attention to her large, hard nipples, and round milk filled breasts. "She's right, we've wanted this for a long time," he whispered in her ear.

Kim-ly arched her back and groaned trying to push more breast into the blond Lanh's mouth, "Why didn't you say anything? OhGodThatsGOOD!" Blond Lanh left Kim-ly's breasts and started to kiss her way down Kim-ly's narrow waist and tummy getting nearer and nearer to Kim-ly's pussy.

"You know, life. We've been through hell and we never felt like we were worthy of you..." he choked up but Kim-ly twisted in his arms and brought her lips to his and silenced him with a kiss. Their tongues were tentative, gently probing, reaching for each other and when they finally connected, the kiss beaconed Kim-ly to heaven. It went on forever, a kiss that she had waited so long for, one she never dared dream was possible. They were only interrupted by Lanh pushing Kim-ly's legs apart.

"I wanted this too," Kim-ly gasped as their kiss ended and Lanh's tongue began to flick her labia gently. "Oh God how I need this," she gasped then fell forward, catching herself on her hands, staring at a pussy shaved clean of pubic hair. "God damn!" thought Kim-ly, "she is really getting into this!" and she lowered her mouth to the pussy set before her and Lanh guided Don's long, thick cock into Kim-ly's cunt.

Kim-ly was kneeling over Lanh in a perfect 69. She discovered that Lanh had the most delicious pussy she had ever encountered, and she found herself addicted to the juices that flowed from Lanh's pussy. But blond Lanh started pushing her way out from under Kim-ly. Kim-ly's lips and tongue were becoming a sweet torture to Lanh's pleasure ravaged body. "No more," she gasped, "please..."

Kim-ly stopped her oral loving on the pussy set before her and just concentrated on the cock that was pounding her into sensual oblivion. Lanh twisted out from under her, her blond wig coming free in the tangle of bodies, but she remained licking the back of Kim-ly's neck which turned Kim-ly on even more. Head down, ass up, the hot 35-year-old Asian beauty was in heaven. Her fucker was pounding her with a nice steady rhythm, his hands gripped her hips, owning her, and she gave Don full control. This was a fuck for the ages, a fuck she had waited years for, and now she was being rewarded for her patience. As her orgasm ravaged her mind and body, she could hear Lanh say, "He's nowhere near coming, I drained him earlier, so this is all for you. Merry Christmas honey."

Kim-ly's coal black eyes rolled back in her head as she groaned "Best Christmas present ever!"

The sun was just starting to come up, the sky she could see outside the bedroom window was starting to lighten up, and his cock was relentless. It was so long since she had a cock in her pussy, and even longer since she had someone who could wield a cock properly. She first spied on this cock slamming Lanh's pussy years ago as she diddled herself to an incredible orgasm. Oh god, just thinking of that night back then caused another brain rattling orgasm! "Fuck! Me! Fuck! Me! Fuck! Me!" She chanted this mantra in time with his pounding rhythm, another orgasm was building and the previous one hasn't finished yet!

"Harder! Harder!" she gasped, "You can't hurt me... I won't break..." His strokes became more forceful, the sound of their flesh slapping together filled the room. "Fuck that pussy!" she groaned into the mattress. Lanh wriggled free then reached under Kim-ly and her fingers searched for a nipple to twist, meanwhile another finger probed for her asshole. Her fingers found their targets at the same time and as she twisted Kim-ly's nipple she began to fingerbang the Asian's asshole hard.

Oh God! That did it! The strongest orgasm in Kim-ly's life hit her like a freight train and Kim-ly started yelling in her first language "Đi đi mau! Đi đi mau!" Vietnamese for "Go! Go! and Kim-ly knew it would spur him on, the chant that urged him on to a state championship, now urging on his dick. His hips were a blur as he pounded her pussy into a foaming lather. Kim-ly bit the blankets and screamed a muffled scream as hard as she could. This was fucking!

His piledriving hips ram fucked her as he pounded his way to his own climax. "C-C-CUMING!" he roared as he slammed his hips forward and his cock began to spurt his semen into her vagina, splashing against her cervix. With a very unlady like grunt, Kim-ly collapsed on the bed, that marvelous cock still imbedded deep in her body squirting what seemed like a gallon of sperm into her, her lover collapsed on her back, pinning her to his bed. She relished in the feel of his cock going soft inside of her, she wanted to shout, "Mission Accomplished!"

Exhausted he rolled off to one side of her and held her tight while Lanh snuggled up on the other side. She rolled to face Lanh and they kissed gently. She felt her hair being moved to the side and Don began to gently kiss the back of her neck. She's waited her whole life for this moment, not just the mind-bending sex, but cuddling in post coital bliss with lovers who really, really cared for her but would also let her up to do her own thing. Maybe that's what she wanted for Christmas most, a caring lover, and now she's sandwiched between two. Her heart leapt with a joy she didn't know was possible. The three of them snuggled closer as they absorbed the knowledge that their lives have been inexorably changed forever.

Two thoughts popped into Kim-ly's mind, first she came into this knowing that she didn't use birth control, his sperm could be reaching her egg any time AGAIN. The weeks just after childbirth is a woman's most fertile time... Her OB/GYN, Carla, is going to kill her. And What about Tam? Her second thought was:

I hope I didn't wake the kids!

THE END

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Epilogue

Christmas Eve, two years later...

"Aww... y'all didn' have ta do all this!" Karole's eyes filled with tears at the mound of gifts and baby accessories she and Trung received for them and the baby. It's been three years since Karole saved Lanh and Mai, two years since she married Trung, one year since their Christmas visit to Nisi Arcada on Andi's Dream with Lanh, Kim-ly and Don, and three months since their baby was born. Trung and Karole's big, beautiful house was packed with relatives and friends from work, it was a combination rescue anniversary, wedding anniversary, baby shower, and a Christmas Eve gathering.

"It's our way of helping," said Tam as she patted her sister-in-law's leg. "You, Don, Lanh and má have helped me so much with Jake and Amy and the boys so much more than I could believe." She watched her two-year-old daughter Amy Mai running and laughing with her cousins, all under the watchful eyes of big brothers Chip, Liam and Arlo. They became her guardian angels, and sweet Arlo who day by day is turning into a clone of his Uncle Don, is Amy's guide and mentor through toddlership. Giggling and cooing Amy ran to Jake and climbed up on his lap and was soon wrapped in the arms of the man who loves her more than any other man ever will in her entire life.

Even though he will never see her, she will always be Daddy's girl and he fervently thanks a God that he spent his life cursing, for bringing her to him.

Since that day twenty-five months ago when they first laid eyes on their baby sister named for all of her grandmothers, Amelia Mai Sandra Johnson, Tam's boys started to become men. It's hard for Tam to believe that she almost ended Amy because she didn't think that finding the time and money to raise her would be possible. All she had to do was ask for a little help, and her family provided; Don and Lanh came up with a nurse to help with the baby, a house cleaner who does the mounds of laundry that a family of six can generate, and an aide to help with Jake. Karole and Trung came up with an entire nursery with bassinette, crib, dressing table and dresser. Now Tam is able to pass that largess on to the newest members of the Nguyen family including Trung's wife, adopted daughter, and newborn son.

Karole and Trung have plenty of money, but Karole grew up in poverty, she isn't aware of so many things that she missed out on, and living in the south most of her life, she discovered that she needed a full education on how to dress, and how to dress her children, for six months out of the year. Karole still has a post-it note on her dashboard reminding her to unplug the block heater on her SUV before backing out of the garage. Before the first full winter after their house was completed, Karole insisted on installing a heater in the garage, because as anyone who lives in the upper Midwest will tell you, frozen springs and shock absorbers are hell to drive on.

Trung never got that full time position at the high school, he took a part time job as a gym teacher two days a week, plus hockey team coach and FFA Advisor. (FFA used to stand for Future Farmers of America, now it stands for FFA. Seriously, it does.) He also works with the county as a 4H extension agent and he teaches agronomy at the Grant Valley community college several classes each semester.

"Ah swear Mister Win!" exclaimed Karole on one occasion, "Are you gonna be able to schedule some time for a blowjob tonight?"

"We can work that into the schedule," said Trung with a grin.

"Good, then you have time to help me with the new curtains."

They originally planned to have their wedding in their new farmhouse with just Don and Trung's families in attendance, but Karole didn't realize how big the "Win" family really was. Because it wasn't just the Nguyen relatives of Duong, it also included the Pham relatives of Mai and the Odegaards and Campbells from Don's family, plus Sandy's daughters who were quickly becoming friends with Karole. They ended up renting the local American Legion hall which worked out quite well considering the number of veterans in the families.

At her mommy's wedding, Krissy along with Danh were the ring bearers, she had an áo dài made for her to match her mommy's red and gold áo dài. After delivering the rings to Karole and Trung, Danh dashed back to sit with Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Ralph. Krissy was supposed to dash back to Grandma Mai and Grandpa Duong, but instead she remained in front of Pastor Loomis who acted surprise then leaned over and said, "You can go back to Grandma Mai now."

Krissy looked up with her huge green eyes and said softly, "Ok." Then she turned to Trung and demanded, "You be good to my mommy!"

Shocked, Trung sputtered and said, "I will be good to her until the day I die."

Krissy just nodded and said, "Ok," then to Karole she said, "You be good to my daddy!"

"Ah will honey chil'." And with that Krissy stomped off to Grandma Mai's lap knowing that all the laughter from the sea of guests was for her. Pastor Loomis took being upstaged with dignity and aplomb.

"There's really not much more that I could add to that," but he continued the service with a few chuckles.

Krissy loves her new daddy. Four days after their wedding, Huy's wife, family law specialist Ahnjong Nguyen, came over to Karole and Trung's house to fill out the necessary documents for Trung to adopt Krissy. Annie even brought a bottle of champagne to celebrate when they got the paperwork filled out and ready to submit. The Korean legal genius sat down and started to fill out the application. "Ok. How do you spell your first name?"

Before she could answer, Don rang out with "Same as Karoke but with an L."

Karole thought about it and when she realized what he said was right, she dropped her forehead to her folded arms on the table. "That drunk ol' witch," she groaned. Her mother probably got herself knocked up on Karoke night at the Okefenokee Tavern and named her daughter Karoke but spelled it Karole. Her mother was notorious for her bad spelling.

There was no father on Krissy's birth certificate so the application sailed through family court and in a little time Krissy Krigbaum became Krissy Nguyen. Not only does he give her the love she returns, but also the direction and strong, loving guidance that she needs. Best of all, Krissy and Danh were home schooled by the chairman of the school board.

As the party guests started to head to their homes, Lanh stayed back to give her dear friend a hug. "When we met in Colorado, I couldn't imagine we would end up sisters!" gushed Lanh.

"Of course not, you wuz passed out on mah front step," drawled Karole as the women hugged their goodbyes. It was a bit of a difficult task because of the height difference and both had their arms full, both carrying newborn children. There's something about a night on Honeymoon Beach...

But now supper was done, the dishes were in the dishwasher, it was time for their second Christmas in their beautiful home. Trung, Karole, and Krissy stood on their front porch and waved goodbye to Lanh, Kim-ly, Don and their kids Danh, the "Irish twins" Don and Sue Lin, and their new baby sister Karole Ann. Karole laughed in joy and humor when Lanh explained that the new baby was named after both of them Karole and Lanh. It's spelled Karole Ann, but it's pronounced Karole-Lanh.

Snowflakes spiraled down from the heavy Minnesota sky as the Campbells climbed into their large ATV and putted home to their farm next door, the multitude of Christmas lights on both houses glowed softly, guiding Karoles dearest friends home to their own farm next door.

"What's the matter?" Trung asked.

It was then that Karole realized that she was crying. "Ah jus' never knew. Ah couldna' realized that it would all come to this..." She turned and kissed her husband, a man that she realized was the only man she ever loved like this. He's the tallest person in his huge family, but like most men, he's still shorter than she is. When their lips parted, she whispered, "Ah never knew ah could feel this way."

"That's because you never froze to death before," grinned Trung. "Let's go inside."

"It's a Christmas wonderland!" exclaimed Krissy as she stepped off the porch to catch snowflakes on her tongue. "Can we make a snowman?"

Trung chuckled, it was far too cold for the snow to stick together. "Let's try that tomorrow, we have things to do tonight. We have to get ready for Santa!"

"Yaaaaaaaayyyy!" cried Krissy as she zoomed past Trung and Karole to get into the house to get ready for Santa's visit.

Karole sighed another happy sigh that verged on the edge of tears. When she was a child being raised by a drunk slut, Christmas Eve was a night spent alone while her mother and her newest "Uncle" were at the bar. Christmas meant an outfit bought at the Goodwill and maybe a pair of socks, generally they were new socks, but not always. Karole once swore that Krissy would never endure anything like that... but Karole wasn't even conscious for Krissy's first Christmas, she was in a coma and Krissy spent Christmas in the hospital, waiting with Don, Kim-ly, and Grandma Mai for her mommy and Lanh to recover.

In the huge living room fireplace, a merry fire crackled and nearby was one of the scraggliest looking Christmas trees that anyone has ever seen. Karole didn't have the heart to complain about the tree, because it was picked out by Krissy and cut down by Trung on their own land not far from Grandma Mai's house. It dominated the front windows and was covered by multicolored lights and many beautiful ornaments, but it was also covered in inexpertly made green and red paper chains, strings of popcorn, and little dolls with angel's wings made from paper. At the base of the tree, Krissy's pug puppy Barkley lapped at the water filled base of the tree.

"My letter to Santa!" gasped Krissy.

"What's the matter sweetie?" asked Trung.

"We forgot to mail it!" The little girl was in tears.

Thinking fast Trung said "Let's send it to Santa up the chimney." When Krissy asked him how that is done, Trung said, "We'll put the letter on the fire and it gets burned up, the smoke goes up the chimney to the North Pole where Santa gets it and puts it back together." When Krissy looked skeptical, Trung said, "It worked every time for me."

Still skeptical Krissy found her letter to Santa that she worked on with Uncle Don not realizing that it was a valuable early writing exercise that took her through the entire alphabet. After helping Krissy sign the letter, Trung said "I'll go find an envelope," and soon he came back with an envelope that he sealed up, then after helping Krissy address the envelope to Santa at the North Pole, he placed it in the fire and he and Krissy watched it burn and head up the chimney on its way to the north pole.

Karole watched the entire subterfuge from the couch, her heart swelling with love for the man that helped her daughters Christmas dream come true. She sat on the couch with a snoozing baby on her lap watching Trung handle the mini emergency with such skill and caring. "Where did you learn all that?" Karole whispered as Trung leaned over to kiss her.

"I have five brothers and sisters; I just watched my folks."

"Mmmm, come here you," and she tugged his collar pulling him in for another kiss.

"Ok, those two packages under the tree, the red and white ones. You and Krissy can open them tonight."

"Thank you, Santa."

Just then Trung's phone rang and with a muttered "gotta take this" he disappeared to the bedroom to take the call. Meanwhile Krissy was flitting around the living room like a butterfly on speed explaining how Santa Claus was going to hop out of the fireplace and see the tree she made for him, and the cookies, and the milk... and from somewhere, just on the edge of hearing Karole thought she heard a woman gasp, "Krissy! you're ok!"

Shaking her head, she pointed to the tree and said, "See those two boxes with red and white paper? Read me the tags on those." Don has been working with Krissy and Danh and they're starting to read now. A lot of Krissy's reading is word recognition, but it's still reading.

"It says... Froooom Krissy..." she realized her mistake and giggled. "I mean, Toooooo Krissy, Froooom Daddy!" She grabbed the package, ran with it to the tree, and set it on the floor in front of the tree.

"What about the other box?"

Krissy glared at the box. "It's probably for the BAY-BEE, everything is for the BAY-BEE!"

"That BAY-BEE is your brother, and not everything is for him. Now what does that tag say?" Karole took a look around; she swore she heard a woman squeal in excitement.

Krissy sighed as only little girls can sigh, got up and stomped over to the coffee table as only little girls can stomp. "It says Tooooo... I don't know that word."

Karole leaned over to look at the tag which said To: my blond sex goddess and smiled. "Ummm, don't worry about that word, it's a word that adults use when they want to kiss."

"Eeewww"

Karole continued unwrapping Reggie, he was happy and healthy, his little feet waving around in the air when she got him unwrapped from the blankets that she had wrapped him in to see Don, Lanh, and Kim-ly off for the evening. Reginold Duong Nguyen, named for the only men in her life that loved her as a father should love a daughter. Reggie for short. Every time she used that name, she teared up in joy remembering Grandma Noah's prediction that she would have a son she would call Reggie.

"Yeah, don't worry about it honey, who is it from?" Karole produced a small bottle of formula and uncovered the sleepy baby's face. She rubbed the nipple of the bottle on the baby's lips, and he began to suckle for a while. "Look at the tag, who is it from?"

"Unka Huy!" smiled Krissy.

"Really? With a kissy word on it?"

"It's from daddy, I was kidding on you."

"Well, daddy said we can open them, they're for tonight."

Krissy tore her box open in record time then exclaimed "Oooo!" as she held up her gift for inspection. "Looka what I got!"

Karole opened her box and unfolded a red robe with white faux ermine trim, a black belt, and faux black buttons, an identical match to Krissy's gift. Santa Claus robes... and a memory of a memory stirred in Karole's head. "Mommy has one too," said Karole as she looked at her phone which just chimed. She got a picture from her sister-in-law Ahnjong, she was wearing the same robe. Karole suspected (correctly) that Tam, Kim-ly, Rosa and Lanh would be wearing the same robe this evening also. All these brothers and sisters! Four brothers and five sisters and a couple of years ago she was all alone in this world. All Karole had to do to get this huge happy family was say "I do" to the right man. "Your daddy and Uncle Huy must have been talking when he bought these for us. Your Aunt Annie has one like it too."

"Daddy and Uncle Huy, they're always talking," said Krissy, trying on her Santa robe.

"Well, they are brothers. Come on, drink up your milk, it's well past bedtime. Santa has no legal obligation to bring presents to little girls that are still awake."

"What about little boys?" pouted Krissy.

"He's already asleep, now let's git going!" whispered Karole and she rose, laid the baby on the couch and took off her pink bathrobe and put on the Santa robe. A sudden wave of déjà vu washed over Karole and the image of a carrot came to mind. Karole shook off the feeling and scooped up Reggie then hustled Krissy off to her room where, fortified with the small glass of warm milk, Krissy soon dropped off to sleep. Karole then bustled around the house ensuring that the lights were off, the fire was safe, and the tree was lit. She then went to the nursery, placed Reggie in his bassinette and tucked him in.

"They're both asleep," Karole said as she poked her head in the master bedroom.

"Let's get to work," said Trung as he finished up his phone call then rose off the small love seat. Don, Jake, Bao, and Huy were constantly chatting with Trung making sure he and Karole were doing ok. It got a little annoying at times, but Trung has never felt so close to his family in his life. Don said it was because they felt guilty that they lost touch with him. Maybe they have a point, but Trung wants to make sure he doesn't lose touch like that ever again.

Trung and Karole bustled around the house collecting presents from the various closets and cubby holes where they were stashed over the past few months, then hauling them out to the living room where they sipped wine and wrapped box after box for Krissy and Reggie.

"I almost forgot!" said Trung as he pulled out Krissy's letter from his pocket.

"What did she burn in the fireplace?"

Trung smiled as he took a lighter and singed the edges of her letter to Santa. "An envelope containing a blank sheet of paper." Having singed the edges of Krissy's letter he folded it in thirds and eased it into her overstuffed stocking. "Wait until you see her eyes tomorrow morning." Then he chuckled and said, "I don't think that Lanh ever figured this one out."

"Thank you for doing that," said Karole, then she punched Trung in the arm.

"What was that for?"

"For being mean to Lanh!"

As Alester Sim played Scrooge in glorious black and white, the lovers finished their wrapping, cleaned up the scraps and flotsam from wrapping the packages and sat curled up in each other's arms as they leaned against the couch and basked in each other's warmth. "You're looking mighty pretty tonight, ma'am," said Trung trying to imitate Karole's accent.

Karole thought back to a hot December night on a secluded beach on a private island. Krissy was asleep in their cabana and Lanh had shown them earlier where "Honeymoon Beach" was located. Under the star filled sky Trung had complimented Karole's appearance like that. "Mmm, you said that a year ago and look what it got you."

When their lips parted Trung growled deep in his throat. "Yeah, it got me a son," he smiled.

Karole smiled and snuggled closer and looked around their living room. Lanh helped her decorate and except for the scraggly tree it was Christmas perfect, every horizontal line in the house was decorated with pine boughs and tiny lights. Last year Don and Lanh gave them hand carved picture frames like they have now filled with photographs of their growing family around the Christmas tree. Last year Lanh gave them a hand carved nativity set made by the German wood carvers that Lanh loved so much. "We're missing something," Lanh muttered. What was it?

"A train around the tree," said Trung chuckling at the memories of Don, Lanh and Kim-ly every year for two decades setting up Don's train.

That was it! Karole had gotten Trung a Lionel train set to put around the tree with Krissy and Reggie but was it wrapped and under the tree? She didn't remember wrapping it. She got up and crawled over to the tree and started checking packages. As Karole bent over to arrange presents under the tree, her robe rode up exposing her bare bubble butt and her glistening shaved pussy.

Trung didn't miss the opportunity. He quietly crawled up behind his wife and slowly slipped his finger into her moist pussy. "Mmmmmm," Karole spread her legs wider, surrendering her pussy to her man. Her eyes closed in bliss, and she lowered her cheek to the carpet and let him have his way with her most private parts.

"This is the carrot you guys, our lucky husband is going to get the kinkiest Christmas present ever, a ménage à cinq, and he's not even going to know. Everything he does to her, we all enjoy."

She remembered! The carrot was her future self's reward that she used to convince Karole to ignore what was going to happen to Lanh and go steal Don before Lanh's corpse was cold. She remembered everything now and she remembered that they claimed to save a life, but who were they trying to save if she did it their way and Don was found dead on Lanh's grave a year later?

Trung added a second finger and slowly began to slide his digits in and out, in and out, in and out, inch by slow, delicious inch. The sensation of being penetrated and stretched by Trung's powerful fingers was overwhelming now as it was the very first time, he touched her down there. "Oh, you wonderful fucker," Karole gasped. Now she felt hands on her breasts, groping and squeezing, it was her future self, she was fondling and grabbing her past self's breasts, now pinching and tugging at her nipples and somehow, she could feel it.

"Oh my God, what are you doing to me?" groaned Karole as she felt invisible mouths close around her nipples as Trung continued to stroke her pussy. Were those his fingers on her clit also? Then Karole froze; delicious, wet, warm, snaky thrills started emanating from her asshole as a tongue began to wiggle and push, seeking to penetrate her. Karole began rocking her hips back at the fingers and tongues, visible and invisible, that were teasing and taunting her to ecstasy.

Karole felt her legs slide out from under her and she slid to the floor taking Trung with her. They moved and lay on their sides facing each other, exploring each other with their hands. As the couple kissed, Trung's fingers slid in and out of Karole's pussy while Karole stroked his hard cock. Karole has long slender fingers but they barely close around Trung's thick cock and she realized that she now has something she unconsciously always wanted for Christmas.

"Come on honey," whispered Karole when her lips were unoccupied. "Krissy still sleepwalks."

Trung eased his fingers out of Karole's twat and delicately licked her juices from them, then Karole leaned forward and kissed his lips then she tugged the waist band of his sweatpants down a little and kissed the head of his cock which was shiny with his pre-cum. Then he rose and helped Karole to her feet and they climbed the stairs to their master bedroom suite where Karole dropped her new robe on the love seat then turned and yanked Trung's sweatpants down. His cock sprang up and flicked Karole in the chin. "I'll never get tired of that," she grinned. Then she swallowed his cock.

"I'll never get tired of this," sighed an elated Trung. For a hockey player and a college professor he was a good boy, but he still had his share of blowjobs, and by far Karole was the best he ever had. Karole was kneeling in front of Trung and he began to slowly fuck her mouth. His hands held her head still as he slowly slid that big thick cock in and out of her mouth. Karole was overwhelmed by the feeling of the thick stalk of flesh sawing in and out of her mouth, that cock was big, hard, and so very, very masculine, the flavor of his precum was an aphrodisiac to her.

Blowjobs in the past for Karole was a different story, at 18 the only cock that ever penetrated her was attached to the quarterback for their high school football team. At the time Karole thought it was a pretty good size cock, but she eventually learned it was, as they say in South Georgia, "no big thang." Now Karole's mouth felt like it was being skewered by a baseball bat and she was loving every stroke. Trung occasionally used her as his personal sex toy, which was ok, she used him for the same purpose on occasion, like after chatting about sex with Lanh and Kim-ly at the kitchen table. Their conversation would get Karole so worked up that she would throw Trung to the bed and use him any way she wanted.

Somehow Karole felt fingers gently stroking her clit, fingers that couldn't possibly be there because his hands were on the sides of her head and her hands were tightly gripping his firm ass cheeks. She was gagging a bit as the spongy head of his cock struck the back of her throat, she also whimpered being so turned on by this man that she married, and the invisible clones that were touching and teasing her. Karole stood up and led Trung to the bed where he laid her down and started to nip and suckle at her breasts. "No," whispered the statuesque blond, "Enough foreplay, I can't wait. Let's do it now."

Still hurt from years of being pushed away by his first wife, Trung grinned and took his place between Karole's legs and rubbed his cockhead up and down between her folds. Karole purred with pleasure and when Trung eased his cock into his wife, she groaned as his thick cock stretched her cunt wide open. Karole loved the feeling of blissful sex, she squealed with joy as the dick of her dreams stretched her pussy like never before.

Karole hooked her arms under her knees and held her legs wide open. "God damn it, fuck me!" she growled and Trung obeyed his wife's demand. As the fucking increased tempo, Karole dug her heels into the bed and grabbed Trung's ass cheeks and pulled him into her with each thrust. Her heavy breasts wobbled around on her chest and Trung gloried in the sight of seeing his wife revel in thrust after thrust, the sound of their bodies slapping together filled the air as did the scent of their love making. Karole was loving every inch of cock that stretched her out and tapped at her cervix and as she felt her orgasm strike she thought she could hear the echoes of her past and future selves joining her in this incredible fuck.

Karole wrapped her legs around Trung's back and hooked her feet together and hung on tightly as she encouraged her lover to greater efforts. "Cum with me!" she gasped in time with his strokes as her orgasm crashed over her.

He was close at one point but her fingernails dug into him, and while it was hot, it pushed his own orgasm away. "I'll try, but..."

Karole grinned an evil grin, she remembered how this played out when she was an invisible spirit on the love seat in the corner, she's going to go off script and see what happens. She reached for the end table drawer and pulled out a rarely used but sometimes needed product - Astro glide lubricant. She handed the bottle to Trung. "Is this for what we... y'know, talked about?" His mouth went dry at the prospect.

Karole got on her hands and knees and waggled her ass at her husband. This is something she's wanted to try since she was a teenager but at the same time she wanted to save it for the right guy on the right night. "Merry Christmas. You get my remaining virginity. Be nice!"

"I sure will," he said, his voice hoarse. With trembling hands, he prepared Karole for her first anal sex. All the touching and foreplay and interrupted sex this evening got his nuts aching, but now the prospect of sodomizing Karole's perfect round ass got his balls truly aching. "Relax," he said as he lubricated her asshole carefully.

"I'm trying," she said as two slippery fingers eased slowly into her sphincter. He's placed a finger there on occasion as foreplay but never really penetrated. It hurt a little, but this was payback, she remembered watching this scene play out as a spirit so long ago, teasing and tussling with two other spirits of herself convincing themselves that it wasn't lesbian sex, since they were all spirits of the same person, they decided that it was masturbation.

As a spirit she could feel everything the Karole on the bed felt and it was so good! But now she's the Happy Karole on the bed and she knows something they don't know; she knows that those spirits are there and they can feel everything that she does. What if she's crazy and it's all a dream and those spirits aren't there? Well then Trung gets to have anal sex with his wife. But if they are there, those spirits that tried to convince her to let Lanh die, she gets to fuck them in the ass with her husband's dick. It's a win-win as far as she's concerned. She's truly Happy Karole now!

Trung pressed the head of his long, thick cock against her asshole and she sighed, "Nice and easy..."

"Ok, here we go..."

At first, she thought he was pushing his arm in, it was so big, it stretched her poor little anus so wide but she was sure she heard squawks of outrage from over by the love seat. "Easy baby," she breathed as he reached the halfway point. Tenderly she reached down and started rubbing her clit and began to stimulate herself. She got Lanh tipsy on wine one night and Lanh admitted to Karole that she liked this, but she needed a finger on her clit to make it more palatable, and her little buddy was right! A spirit finger joined her and soon she felt Trung's crisp pubic hairs tickling her ass cheeks and the urge to scream "Take it out!" had passed.

"Yessss," she hissed, it was starting to feel good she grinned inwardly. "Hold there, let me." Karole began to rock forward, easing her ass off of his cock. "Little more lube baby," she crooned as her spirit fuckers groaned in agony... except her future self who was really digging this. Now she began easing back and forth and it eventually did start to feel better, in fact it started to feel good. Not everyday fucking good, but special occasion good.

Trung was in heaven, the feeling of her impossibly tight sphincter stroking up and down his cock, her cloying guts wrapped around his cock, the slow back and forth pistoning like a creeping steam locomotive was driving him out of his mind. The urge to grab her by the hips and start fucking like a madman was overpowering but that would end this and any future attempts at anal sex. He knows Karole better than any man has ever known her and he knows that's exactly what would happen.

Trung began to shudder and he gasped, "Oh God, it's coming... gonna be soon!"

Meanwhile those spirit fingers drumming across Karole's clit has brought her to the edge too. "Do it!" she gasped, "Ah'm with ya!"

And his orgasm hit. The sensation of explosive release was overwhelming and he shoved his cock deep into Karole's guts and he fired burst after burst of semen deep into her body. The combination of pain and pleasure of Trung's thrust was throwing gasoline on Karole's fire and she joined her man in a shuddering release of pent-up tension. Wave after wave of pleasure ravaged their minds and bodies and little did Trung realize but he helped bring four Karoles to orgasm.

Trung got up and got a warm, damp washcloth from the sink and cleaned up Karole and himself then collapsed behind her and held her tight. "I'm going to get up and make some tea, would you like some?" asked Karole.

"Yes please, that pepperminty Christmassy kind. And a glass of water please."

Karole laughed; he earned it! A night of rigorous love making leaves her mouth dry as a bone too. Holy crap can that guy fuck when inspired. I don't know what got into him, she thought, but I sure know what got into me. "Yes master, your wish is my command," Karole said.

"Master, I think I like that title," he said waggling his eyebrows at her.

Karole patted his wilted cock, then leaned over and gave it a kiss. "You keep that up and I'll wear a see through I Dream of Jeanie outfit and call you master in public."

"I'm going to love that," Trung grinned.

Karole sat up at the edge of the bed and pushed herself up to a standing position and stretched, then made her way over to the loveseat on wobbly legs. She grabbed her brand-new Santa robe off the loveseat and pulled it on. Then, almost as an afterthought she whispered to the loveseat "Love you guys, thank you!" and waggled her fingers at the love seat before heading to the kitchen.

"What was that dear?"

"Just talking to myself dear."

She walked through the living room to make sure that the fire in the fireplace was burning down and the fire screen was closed. Then she made sure that the tree had plenty of water also, that little dog of theirs seems to enjoy tree water better than the water she put out for him. Karole looked again at the "Charlie Browniest" Charlie Brown Christmas tree she had ever seen; it was thin and scraggly and had barely enough branches to be considered a tree, and yet it was the most beautiful tree Karole had ever seen. That husband of hers took Krissy out into the woods, and he let Krissy pick out the tree. They cut it down then dragged it back to the house, then dined on hotdogs and hot chocolate next to a campfire out on the patio in the snow. They were so happy.

Karole knew Trung loved her before they got married, but hot dogs and hot chocolate in the freezing cold? That had to be Krissy's idea, and he could barely walk for two days after that, but he never complained. Krissy said she had a lot of fun, and he was so happy to do it, they're even talking about a camping trip this summer back on Don and Lanh's pond.

In the kitchen Karole put some water in the kettle and as it heated up, she got a small serving tray and loaded it up with two holly decorated teacups with holiday tea bags at the ready, and two huge glasses of ice water, one of which she drank and refilled. What is it about incredible sex that makes you so thirsty? A sudden thought came to her and she reached into the fridge, pulled out a pealed baby carrot, and took a bite. While crunching on it Karole smiled and said, "I know you're in here."

Slowly Future Karole took form, two Karoles in identical Santa robes. One Karole with long straight blond hair in a brand-new robe, another Karole with shorter permed hair and her robe a bit faded and a little worn at the edges. God how Karole hated her for what she put her through! Yet at the same time Karole missed having a guide through life. Karole wanted to hug her and punch her at the same time.

"You want to punch me, don't you?" Future Karole started.

Karole was about to ask, "How do you know?" but then she remembered that she was Happy Karole not long ago. Or maybe she was Happy Karole a long time ago and she just aged nicely. Moving about in time confused Karole. "Where's the youngster?" Karole asked, she almost hoped to see Past Karole, there was so much she wanted to tell her.

"She's in the bedroom recovering with the other you. She's never had anything close to the show you guys put on tonight," grinned Future Karole.

"God! When you two started sucking on her tits, I could feel it! I started expressing milk all over the bed!" said Karole.

"What about when you and Trung decided to try anal?" grinned the Future Karole.

"That was payback," Karole said with a sneer.

"Don't forget I am you," said Future Karole, "so is the purple haired kid upstairs on the love seat who is pretending to be mortally wounded. You never EVER considered anal in your life until..."

"No," interrupted Karole, "I always wanted to try anal, I was waiting for a man I could trust."

"No, you didn't, you never considered the idea. You gave yourself that idea tonight when your past self was invited to give it a try." Future Karole glared at Karole and said, "think about it, you never considered it before that loser you first fucked because your past self who gave it a try tonight came from after that loser."

Future Karole was right, Karole never considered anal but suddenly when she was about 19 with purple tipped hair the idea came to mind, and it sounded sexy, but only with the right man. Tonight, with the spirits of her past self and her future self here to show Karole of three years ago how great life could be if she did the right thing, the carrot after the stick, she gave her ass to the man she loves if only to piss them off. She butt fucked her past and future self with Trung's dick.

The thought of an idea that crazy coming to her after she gave it to herself of ten years ago just a few minutes ago, then have the idea come rattling back across the decade to meet her tonight where she gave it to herself blew her mind. "Who the hell was that loser anyhow," Karole muttered.

"Ah fergit," muttered Future Karole. They both rubbed their chins in concentration then at the same moment said "Mickey Fields!"

"Worst quarterback in Folkston High history."

"Old three and out Mickey."

"In more ways than one." They laughed and then paused, then Future Karole said, "The residual memory of tonight is why we dumped near every man we ever met, we knew that there was better, and the status perk from dating the starting quarterback didn't begin to scratch the itch we put in our psyche tonight."

"Ol' Needle Dick the Bug Fucker, I haven't thought of him in ages," Karole sighed. "What's he doing now?"

"Politician in DC, what else?" As Karole took another bite of the carrot Future Karole grinned. "You like them carrots, don't 'cha?"

"I love the carrots, but God Dawg I hated that stick. I still have nightmares over that stick."

"Good," Future Karole said with a self-satisfied smug that Karole wanted to wipe off her face with a well swung cutting board. "Those nightmares will keep us out of trouble. You notice that we never have more than one glass of wine anymore, right?"

"Oh, hell no, not after watching me chug an entire bottle of schnapps." Karole almost pukes at the memory of that possible future. "No more sticks?" Karole begged.

"Maybe an occasional little one," she smiled.

"At least I saved him," Karole sighed.

"Hmm? Saved who?"

"Don, it was Don you said I had to save."

"No, we never said Don. I said you have to save a very, very important life, and you did. Believe me, it was all worth it, all twelve tries, but I didn't say Don. No matter whether you saved him or not, he still would have died a year after Lanh. I told you that, remember? If you had saved him, you would have buried Lanh back by the pond and Don would have overdosed and died back there on Christmas Eve a year later. If you didn't save him, Ralph would have buried both of them back there."

"Then it was me I saved," Karole said.

"Hardly." Future Karole shook her head sadly. "We would have ended up a bag lady in Denver, not a great future, but it was a future. We lived to a ripe-ish old age, for a bag-lady, and were found frozen to death in an alley at the age of 69."

"That wasn't me in the urn? All this time I thought it was me. You let me freak out in front of everyone when I saw Lanh's urn. Were you even in the area?" Karole was getting pissed.

"Don't forget, we never got to that point before, I was freaking out too," said Future Karole. "I was on the floor freaking out right next to you!"

Karole felt nauseous. "Did I save anyone?" Future Karole simply nodded. "Who did I save?" Karole demanded.

Just then Krissy, half asleep, walked into the kitchen, her little bare feet slapping on the tile floor followed by the click-click-click of Barkley's nails. Krissy put her Paw Puppy cup to the water dispenser on the fridge and half-filled it then took a sip. "Who are you talking to mommy?"

"I'm talking to myself baby, now get back to bed or Santa won't come."

Krissy looked at Future Karole then shrugged. "She looks like you," and Little Blondie wandered back to bed.

Both Karoles looked at the doorway Krissy walked through in shock; could she see Karole's spirit? Future Karole shrugged and said, "I got nothing."

Pressing right along Karole finally asked, "So who did I save?"

Future Karole simply nodded her head in the direction Krissy took as she headed back to her room.

"Krissy?"

Future Karole nodded and gave Karole a sad smile. "Yeah, remember the future when she was fifteen and ran off with that junkie? About four days after she left with that greasy piece of shit, he sold her to a pimp in Los Angeles."

Karole's jaw dropped in shock but Future Karole continued, "she never made it there; she was found dead in Denver with a needle in her arm and the greasy piece of shit was found dead with a bullet in the back of the head. The cops blamed his murder on Krissy just to close the book on the case, then ruled her death a suicide. What really happened was that when Krissy found out about being sold, she tried to escape, but her boyfriend, that greasy piece of shit beat the ever-loving crap out of her, so she took his heroin and died of an overdose. She was a pretty skilled addict at that point, so she knew she was killing herself.

"The LA pimp demanded his money back, but her junkie had used it to buy the heroin that Krissy killed herself with, so the pimp tortured the greasy piece of shit for uhmmm, I think it was three days before he died. Pretty gruesome stuff too. He didn't get the bullet until after he was dead, and the bullet was just the pimp's way of saying goodbye."

"Oh my god," all Karole could do was gasp, the carrot fell from her fingers and bounced on the floor to be snagged up by Krissy's pug Barkley. "My baby... I let that happen to her..."

Future Karole took her past iteration in her arms and held the trembling woman, Karole was one wrong word away from a long, extended, window rattling screech that would have been impossible to explain in a way that would have kept her out of the psych ward. "Shh... shh... shh... it's over now. When you married Trung you guarantied Krissy's safe, happy future. He was the best, most perfect thing you could have done, and you're going to love being a grandmother..."

"B-b-but how did this happen? How did you get here?" the trembling new mother asked Future Karole.

But Future Karole didn't answer, instead Karole heard a familiar voice saying, "Now y'know why ah did all-a this. Ah couldn't lose mah favorite pupil."

Karole whirled around and there, in her kitchen, was Grandma Noah. "Grandma!" she hugged Grandma Noah for the first time in decades and was shocked at how skinny the ancient woman was under her frock. Karole now understood what "skin and bones" really meant, Grandma Noah felt like a sack full of wire hangars. "How? Why?"

"That image of you dun tol' you why," said Grandma Noah, "an ah'll tell ya how when you're ready."

"When will that be?"

"You will know. Someday when the grandchildren strike out on their own, you're going to tire of winter an' come home." Grandma Noah gave Karole that all knowing smile and said, "Every swamp must have its witch, it just ain't right any other way." then she and Future Karole faded and were gone. As they disappeared from sight, Barkley raced into the kitchen sniffled around the floor then wuffled his pride at scaring off the intruders and trotted back to the bedroom to curl up with Krissy, satisfied with a job well done.

The shriek of the kettle startled Karole and she shook, she felt as if she was waking from one of those deep, all-encompassing dreams. With shaking hands, Karole poured boiling water over the teabags, placed a few Christmas cookies that she and Lanh made on the tray and with a touch of sorrow knowing that she (and Lanh) would never see Lanh's angels again, headed back to the master bedroom. When she got there, she was greeted by the sight of daddy Trung holding Reggie who sleepily slurped at a bottle of formula. "Awww," she crooned, her heart swelling with love for her guys. She put the tray down and took out her phone and took a photo wishing she had a mother to send it too. It's a shame that Grandma Noah didn't have a smartphone.

"Merry Christmas darling," said Trung without looking up from his child. "He was hungry, so, I grabbed a bottle from the fridge and warmed it with the particle accelerator." The nursery has a small fridge perfect for keeping formula for Reggie and juice boxes for big sister Krissy. There's also a bottle warmer that Trung calls the "Particle Accelerator" because it works so quickly on the small bottles.

Karole chuckled softly and slipped into bed next to Trung and kissed him with a passion that she hopes never fades. She needs to talk to someone but Trung doesn't know about Grandma Noah, it would take too long to tell him the whole story. Some day she will tell him.

~~~*~~~

The sound of Karole Ann's squeaky little cry woke Lanh early on Christmas morning. Even Don and Kim-ly getting up for morning milking didn't wake her. They were up late last night at Karole's house throwing her and Trung a wedding anniversary party and baby shower for Little Ralph. She changed Karole Ann's soaked diaper (how can a baby convert three ounces of formula into six ounces of piddle?) then wrapped up Don's newest darling in a receiving blanket and headed off to the kitchen where Kim-ly was putting breakfast together. "Did we wake you?" asked Kim-ly as Lanh put the hungry baby to her breast.

"No, I really didn't notice," said Lanh. "Squeaky woke me though."

Kim-ly leaned over and kissed Karole Ann's head. "I didn't hear her. Oh, by the way, there's a surprise for you on the couch in the living room."

"Surprise?" The greatest surprise she ever had was still snoozing away in the nursery. Sue Lin is a terrific sleeper as is her Irish twin Donny Duce in the other crib. Yes, it's difficult having three children under two in a house full of cripples, but Lanh and Don gladly suffer every ache and pain because they madly love the babies, each other, and Kim-ly.

What could the surprise be? It was in fact her very best friend in the world, the woman that saved her life which in turn saved Sue Lin, Karole Ann, and Little Don, her next farm neighbor and sister-in-law Karole Nguyen. "Hey!" she cried softly, "what's up neighbor?" and she eased herself down into the couch next to Karole who was holding a sleeping Little Ralph... Reggie. The little tyke has a different nickname depending on where he is, he's also known as Duong at Grandma and Grandpa Nguyen's house.

"Ah see y'all are doin' whut Reggie an ah spent the mornin' doin'."

"They're hungry, hungry babies," said Lanh. "So, you're just joining us for breakfast?"

"That and..." Karole looked around furtively for any hints of Lanh's angels. "Have I got a story for you!"

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for joining me in this adventure, it's been an amazing journey that started on a dairy farm, traveled around the world and returned home. This is not the end of Don, Lanh, and Kim-ly; I plan to write more about Nisi Arcadia and Andi's Dream and maybe send Don, Lanh, and Kim-ly to Buffalo to visit Andi, Paul, Josh, and Veronica, and as always I am open to suggestions from readers. As a matter of fact, everything from chapter eight to this point is all from reader suggestion. But this is the end of the story that brought them to the here and now, if you have any requests I'm open to anything.