Cancelled (30 page)

“It was just a poopie diaper. I changed her, but it got on her sheets and clothes.” Johnathan held up the pile of soiled linen in his hand.

“Didn't you hold her feet?”

“Yes! I held her feet. I talked to her. I cleaned her all up. She's over there.” He marched past Kellie and threw the dirty laundry into the washer. Realizing the load was too small to run, he dashed to his bedroom and grabbed some of his clothes from the hospital. After starting the washer, he took a deep breath and returned to the tag-team of mothers.

Kellie sat on the couch dabbing her eyes.

“What happened? Why are you crying?” he asked.

“You yelled at me.”

Johnathan covered his face with his hand. He slid it down tugging on all of his features before it slid off the bottom. “I didn't mean to yell. But the two of you can't gang up on me like that. It's been a few years since I've changed a blow-out.” As he spoke, he replaced the sheet in the bassinet. He reached out for his daughter, and gently placed the nearly sleeping babe back down in her small bed. He turned on the soothing music, and carefully stepped away.

“Are you going back to sleep?” He sat on the couch next to Kellie. She shook her head.

“I'm up. Why don't you go get some more sleep. I can pump so you have milk for later.”

Johnathan stifled a yawn. He hadn't been able to nap earlier, and the long days and short nights were catching up with him. “Alright. We also have some formula samples. I'll buy some more tomorrow.”

Kellie smiled and turned her attention to the TV Anna just put on. As Johnathan trudged up the stairs, he heard them talking about a reality cooking show they both liked. He shook his head in disbelief. He had gone from independent bachelor to a stay-at-home-father living with three females. Maybe he could talk Eric into doing a manly activity once a week.

Epilogue

A
nna Michaels shifted the groceries in her hands to wiggle her keys and unlock her very stubborn front door. Johnathan kept promising to replace the lock, but he never found the time. She was going to just hire a locksmith tomorrow and be done with it.

Once the door was open, she placed her bags on the floor and fought with the door to release the keys. Locksmith. Tomorrow. She closed the door and lifted the groceries back up. Just as she was about to yell “A little help?” she heard her six-month-old granddaughter's squeals from the living room.

“Is that blue, Charlie?”

Anna walked into her living room to see large blue scribbling on her pristine white wall.

“Change it back to red. She liked the red.”

Her stepson sat on the floor surrounded by wires, a computer monitor, and a projector. He pressed the space bar on the keyboard and the blue scribbles disappeared. He pressed a few more keys, and aimed a laser pointer at the wall. Magically, red writing appeared anywhere the laser point traveled.

“What is this? Are you teaching her to write on my walls?”

Johnathan turned around with a big smile. “Great, isn't it?”

Anna approached the wall and touched it. The red coloring spread to her hand.

“It's just light, Anna. The computer's web camera picks up the laser light and this software saves the data and tells the projector to project it.”

Anna giggled as she played with the imaginary writing on the wall.

“How much?” She reached out for Charlotte and Kellie handed her over. Holding the baby next to the wall, she showed her how the red would show up on her own hands and arms if she moved them in the light. Charlie giggled and flapped her arms wildly.

“Uh, it's just old parts I found down in my old workshop. I just put this together to play with for the baby.”

“Johnathan Michaels. This is a gold mine. A toy that lets kids write on walls and then have it disappear at the touch of a button? Prototype it. Package it. Send it to a toy company.”

Johnathan rubbed his neck. This was just a project he saw demonstrated online. He didn't even write this software, though between him and Eric, they could write a much better program. But he and Eric didn't work together anymore.

“Why couldn't he sell them himself?” Kellie asked.

Anna turned to the mother of her grandchild. “That's an excellent idea. Johnathan, you really are a toy maker. And I'll back you. Another $100,000.” Anna bounced Charlie up and down on her hip, still playing with the red light.

“You can't be serious. I can't make toys.”

“But you made the whirly toy for Charlotte.” Kellie motioned toward the plastic box full of mechanical and electronic components that spun, moved, lit up, or made noise based on the button combinations Charlotte pressed on the outside. Her favorite button was the large red one that spun a hypnotic type wheel in the middle, and made everything else go berserk. The box was a see-through cube on all sides.

“And you're working on a cylinder version downstairs to help her learn to crawl.” Anna pointed out, revealing she had recently snooped down in his workshop in the basement.

“It's not that simple. Toys have to be made safe, there's regulations.”

“Then we'll hire a good lawyer to go through all of that.” Anna handed Charlotte back to her mother. She interlaced her fingers in front of her and stepped out of the blinding light of the projector so she could see her stepson's face. “What are you afraid of?”

He blinked. He wasn't sure that he was afraid of anything, but he never thought of becoming a toy developer. And he would like to go back to work, even just part-time. He didn't want to work full-time and lose out on time with Charlotte, especially not now that Kellie was working full-time at a call center.

Johnathan twisted around to look at the new home of the perpetual clock. Kellie was going to be late. He pushed his feet into the ground to stand up from his crossed-leg position on the floor.

“You need to go.”

Kellie scrambled to hand Charlotte back to her grandmother as Johnathan walked her to the door. Anna had bought Kellie a late-model commuter car as things between her and her own parents had deteriorated.

“Are you going to do it? It would be good for you to build again.” Kellie grabbed her keys and purse and stood awkwardly by the door.

“I don't know, I'll think about it.”

She lifted up on her tiptoes and gave him a soft kiss. He smiled and opened the door for her. “Have a great day.”

She wrinkled her nose and smiled. “I'll call you on my break.” He nodded and closed the door behind her.

Standing by the door, Johnathan pulled his cell phone from his pocket and stared at it. If he was going to move forward on this insane plan to make toys, he needed help. He pressed a familiar speed-dial number and waited through the rings.

You’ve got Eric. Or actually, you don’t. Leave a message and if you’re cool, I’ll catch up with you.

“How would you feel about being the mad genius behind Uncle Eric's Toys? Call me, I have a backer.”

With a smug smile he returned to the living room, and scooped up his daughter from where she was sitting on the floor with her whirly toy box. She giggled as her father tossed her in the air. “There's my lead tester,” he said, spinning around to settle her back into his arms. “You'll probably cost me and arm and leg. Won't you.” He tickled his daughter's belly before placing her back on her blanket on the floor.

“We're going into the toy business.” He grinned at Anna, finally feeling the excitement of starting up a new company.

“Well let me know if you need a good painter.”

“I was thinking more of Creative Director.”

Anna peered up from the hardback she was reading in the glider. “You asking me out of retirement?”

Johnathan nodded. “If I have to go back to work, so do you.”

Anna laughed. “I'll give it some thought.”

Johnathan sat back down on the floor and fiddled again with the digital graffiti setup. He was inspecting the software code when a little hand reached up and began banging on his keyboard.

“Whoa, there, little lady. How did you get over here?” He glanced over to her blanket that was two feet away from him on the floor. The blanket was no longer spread out in a neat square. Instead, it was bunched up on the side closest to Johnathan. “Nana, look. She scooted over here by herself.” He looked down at his little Charlie with a determined look on her face, hitting the keyboard's number pad with her right hand balled into a fist.

“Let's see you do it again.” He scooted her back and held the keyboard on the floor in front her. His little girl tightened her face in anger and squawked out her frustrations. Even Johnathan could recognize her fussing over her cries for food or a diaper change.

Charlotte writhed and wiggled, pumping her arms and legs furiously by her sides. She grabbed at the alphabet carpet in front her and rocked on her belly before finally rolling over towards her father. She flopped her arms and legs towards the keyboard, just another rollover away and cried, trying to roll back onto her stomach.

“Alright little Rollie-Pollie, you've earned it.” Johnathan helped his daughter onto her stomach and placed the keyboard in front of her. He cringed as drool ran from her mouth to the keys, but she was too delighted with the banging for him to take it away. Besides, he had a box full of them downstairs from when AJE updated to laptops three years ago. “Wait until Mommy gets home and hears about this.”

Johnathan leaned down and kissed the top of his daughter's head. Maybe balancing a company and a baby wouldn't be too bad...

###

Final Farewells

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed the story! I'd love to hear how you felt about the novel, good or bad, on my reader site
http://eawestwriting.com
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Thank you again, and I look forward to meeting again in my next novel.

About the Author

Elizabeth Ann West is a jane-of-all-trades, mistress to none. After spending three years selling her non-fiction articles to websites and marketing firms, she is finally making the jump to fiction writing. Before choosing a career in writing, she made magic at the Walt Disney World Resort and performed as a Quality Technician for Alcoa. Armed with a B.A. in Political Science of all things, writing fiction is her next mountain to conquer. Originally from Virginia Beach, VA, her family now moves wherever the Navy sends them. Currently, the Navy needs her family in Connecticut.