"So," said Scott, "are they
"Yes," said Simone.
"I'm glad that Geisha kept
the food hot," said Scott Jr. "Now I know why she's been working for Dad for twenty years. She knows her stuff."
To avoid talking about Jill, Jessica and Nicole, Simone asked, "Uncle Scott, are Georgia and Robinson letting you stay here as long as you want?"
"Well, not as long as I want," said Scott Jr., "they let me come over tonight and spend the night just to welcome Jill and Jessica."
"How do you like Jill and Jessica?"
Jill and Jessica were coming down the stairs at that very moment. Jessica was dressed a little finer than Jill. Her shirt looked a lot nicer. "They're very nice," said Junior, "I like them very much.
Jessica's very sweet."
"I agree," said Natasha.
Jill and Jessica were now walking to the dining room. Two chairs were prepared for them, one beside the other, so that Jill was closer to Jessica. They'd heard what Junior and Simone said. They were happy that the family liked them, but they didn't say a word about it. They just walked around the table beside Junior and sat down together. Everyone started to eat.
The dinner was big shells stuffed with ground meat and cheese, and spaghetti with tomato sauce on the top. Jessica grabbed her spaghetti with her hands. She'd never eaten spaghetti before, so she didn't know how to. Chapter 19
The family was amazed. Since none of them were born rich, and none of them had seen anyone eat incorrectly before, they didn't make fun of Jessica or look at her strangely. Jill was very embarrassed as Jessica continued to eat her spaghetti with her hands, and luckily, she didn't get any of it on her clothes. However, they knew what it felt like; thus that's how they ate when they were children. They had to learn to eat, too, so they didn't make fun of her. Instead, Scott got up, took his chair, placed it right beside Jessica's, as Geisha ran to the kitchen to get some moist paper towels for Jessica to clean her hands and her mouth with, let her eat her last bunch of spaghetti with her hand, and very calmly and quietly, he grabbed her fork, wrapped some of the spaghetti around the fork completely so that none of them were hanging from the fork, and put the spaghetti in her mouth, very carefully. Jessica was amazed with everyone's reaction. Anybody else would've laughed at her endlessly and called her names, but these people didn't. Nicole was placing her wheelchair right beside Natasha at that very moment. They understood her.
Geisha gave Jessica the damp paper towel, and very quickly but thoroughly, Jessica cleaned her hands and her mouth with it. She put it beside her plate, took her fork, did exactly what Junior did, and put the spaghetti in her mouth. Jill gasped as she looked at her.
From that point on, Jessica did the same thing with the spaghetti, repeatedly, until she finished her spaghetti. Finally, she grabbed her stuffed shells with the same fork, put them in her mouth one after the other, and finished her main dish. Surprisingly, Scott, Junior, Natasha, and Noah finished up at the same time that she did. Jessica took the small fork, which was the salad fork, and ate her salad with it, very slowly, as she chewed each bite calmly. Five minutes later, she finished it. She drank her soda, and when she was done, she didn't have any room for her dessert, which was a fruit salad, made with dried fruit, from scratch, instead of canned food.
"I don't have room in my stomach for any more food," said Jessica, and then looked at everybody to see how they would react.
"That's ok," said Natasha. "Geisha's going to place your dessert somewhere in the fridge so that you can finish it any time you want to."
Geisha ran back to the dining room and took Jessica's fruit salad. Then, she walked back to the kitchen, opened the door of the side-by-side refrigerator and placed the fruit salad in the rack in the center, right by the chocolate cake that she'd just made for Simone, which no one had eaten any of.
Smiling, Jessica said, "Thank you for understanding, and most importantly, thank you for not making fun of me."
John smiled and replied, "Why would we make fun of you? It would be very cruel, and we're not that kind of people. We never make fun of anyone. Besides, at some point in our lives, we had to learn how to eat, too. I'm seven years old, and I still don't know how to eat some things correctly."
"My mom never takes me out to eat because she's afraid that people will make fun of me," said Jessica.
"Jill, we strongly advise you not to take Jessica out to eat until she learns how to eat all kinds of foods correctly," said Natasha and took a sip of her wine, and put it down.
"I won't, Mrs. Spears.
Thank you for the advice."
"Please," said Natasha, smiling, "call me Natasha."
Smiling, Jill said, "Thank you, Natasha."
"What kinds of foods do you usually eat at home?" said Jennifer.
Jill smiled at Jennifer and said, "Well, we eat all kinds of foods, well almost all kinds. We eat rice, chicken, pork, fish, beef, but we don't eat pasta because of the heavy carbohydrate content."
"We eat pasta from time to time," said Corey, "and we're not fat."
Everyone laughed at Corey's innocent comment. "Well," said Nicole, "that's because we don't eat fattening foods regularly, and we exercise a lot. Natasha does one-thousand sit-ups every night when she comes home from work, and Scott lifts weights and does sit- ups, too."
"I heard you have a baby," said Jessica, smiling. "May I go upstairs to see him?"
"Yes," said Natasha and got up, and Jessica got up right after she did, "I'll go with you." The two women walked out of the dining room, passed by the third living room, walked to the stairs and started going up.
Blushing, Jill said, "Jessica loves babies, but I never let her hold them because she doesn't know how to, and I'm afraid she might hurt a baby."
"Well," said Junior, got up, walked up to Jill and placed his hand on her shoulder, "in order for her to know how to do the things that other people do day in and day out, you've got to teach her to do those things," and left.
"Uncle Scott's right," said
Corey.
Jill swallowed and replied,
"I'm afraid if I teach her, she won't learn."
"She will learn," said Noah. "Didn't you see just now when Scott taught her how to eat spaghetti without saying a word to her and she did it correctly? She learned how to do it immediately. If you teach her things, she will learn. Some people learn by watching other people doing something, and to some people, you have to explain how to do it as you're doing it. People learn in different ways. Jessica learns by watching you do things."
"I didn't know this before tonight," said Jill, "from now on, when I want to teach her how to do something, I'll just do it in front of her. Thank you for everything that you're doing for us, you guys," and gave Noah a big hug. Everybody else smiled sweetly at her.
Jessica and Natasha arrived at Natasha, Scott, and Michael's room. Natasha opened the door and went in. Jessica went in right after her. Fortunately, the baby hadn't fallen asleep yet.
Natasha walked to the crib, bent over, and carried the baby out very carefully. She then turned around. Jessica smiled at the baby.
Assuming that Jessica would learn how to hold a baby just by watching Natasha hold Michael, just like she did when Junior taught her how to eat spaghetti, she positioned Michael correctly in her arms, as if she was learning how to hold a baby. Then, she gave the baby to Jessica. Jessica took him in her arms very carefully. Then, she positioned him correctly in her arms, placing her arm right under his head and holding his legs with her other arm. Jessica sat down on the rocking chair that was right by the crib. She started rocking in the chair as she smiled sweetly at the baby. Natasha was amazed with how Jessica learned. She realized that Jessica would learn most of the things that she had to learn this way, by watching other people doing them. Surprisingly, Baby Michael didn't cry while Jessica was holding him. Jessica was big- breasted, so the baby felt comfortable as he rested his head on her breast. Just like Natasha's breast, Jessica's breast was a pillow. Jessica caressed the baby's tummy as she held him. He observed her attentively with his little left hand in his mouth. His eyes were widely open as he looked into her eyes. Natasha got on her knees in front of them and watched them silently as they formed a strange bond; a bond of friendship. Jessica was a total stranger to Baby Michael, so he watched her very closely, her every wink, and her every gesture. "Aren't you beautiful?" Jessica said, and Natasha smiled.
"You love babies, don't you?" said Natasha.
"Yes," said Jessica as she looked up at Natasha and then looked down at the baby once again. "I love them so much that I wish I had one of my own."
As she looked Jessica in her eyes, Natasha said, "This is my first baby, and having a baby is not easy. Conception's not easy because sometimes, you don't get pregnant at the first attempt; however you're trying to get pregnant, whether it is by having sex or through artificial insemination."
"Did you conceive Michael the first time that you tried?" said Jessica. What Natasha had just told her had awakened her curiosity greatly.
"Yes, I did," Natasha said, "but not all of the women are that lucky. Some try, and try, and try, through both methods, and either they never get pregnant because they're barren, or it takes them several years to get pregnant.
Besides, once you have the baby in your arms it's not easy because you lose a lot of sleep. The baby wakes you up in the middle of the night, crying, either because he's hungry, because he needs his diaper changed, or just because he feels lonely, and he needs you to hold him."
"I'm an only child," said Jessica, still holding the baby and the baby was still looking at her attentively, "and Mom and Dad always told me how hard it was to take care of me and raise me."
"Well," said Natasha, and Jessica gave the baby back to her, very carefully, and Natasha got up, "taking care of you is a little harder," she said as she walked the baby back to the crib, "because you're special. You're not like Michael, Simone, Noah, Junior, Corey, John, Nicole, and Jennifer, for example. You've got special needs. They don't."
"I know," said Jessica with her head down, "I know it's harder to take care of me or a child like me than taking care of a normal baby." Jessica started to cry as Natasha walked back up to her after putting Michael in his crib. "I feel badly because I'll never be independent." Natasha held her hand as she shed tears. She was sensitive and she couldn't help crying when she saw someone crying, especially someone as sweet as Jessica. "They're forced to take care of me for the rest of their lives." Natasha gave Jessica a big hug as she cried in her arms.
Two hours later, Natasha and Scott were in their bedroom, listening to some slow music in a low volume to help them relax and fall asleep more easily. They sat beside one another, under the covers, with their pajamas on and ready to go to sleep. Scott was holding Natasha in his arms, as always. "You know," said Natasha to Scott, "Jessica broke my heart today."
Surprised, Scott asked, "How?" as he looked in her eyes.
"She told me that her parents were forced to take care of her for the rest of their lives, as she cried bitterly. She feels very badly about that."
"It's not her fault," said Scott. "She was born with a mental disability and most of the children that are mentally disabled have to stay with their parents for the rest of their lives."
"I don't want Jessica and Jill to get out of our lives when they go back home. I want to help them the best way that I can and be there for them."
"We will be there for them," said Scott and gave Natasha a big hug. "Don't worry."
Jessica was in her room taking her clothes off to put on her pajamas. She only took of her shirt, her shoes, her socks, and her pants. She kept her underwear on although it wasn't made for sleeping with it, like sleeping bras were. She took a set of pajamas from the same dresser in which she found her underwear, in the third of five drawers. The top was a buttoned sleeveless 100% cotton shirt and the bottom was a soft and very comfortable set of cotton pants. The pajamas were white, but she didn't care. Red underwear looked nicely with white pajamas. Jennifer, John, Corey and Simone were very curious about Jessica. They'd never lived with or been around a special person before, not even in their school. There were physically, mentally and emotionally disabled children in their school but they'd never been close to them because they were in ESE groups, and of course, the Spears kids took normal classes and always were among normal groups. There was one physically- disabled girl that wasn't in ESE, but she was in the fifth grade, and they'd never been anywhere around her. They wondered how much they could learn from a mentally- disabled adult like Jessica. They arrived at her room and Simone knocked the door. Since they were on their summer vacation and they didn't have to be in summer school, they could stay up late and spend some time with her, hopefully.
Jessica said, "Come in."
Simone opened the door, and she went in, then John, then Corey and finally Jennifer. Jennifer closed the door behind her. They smiled at her. "I hope you don't mind us spending some time with you before you go to sleep," said Jennifer.
Jessica smiled and said, "Of course I don't mind. Sit on the bed." They sat on the bed, and then Jessica sat on the bed right beside Jennifer and put her arm around her. "So, how are you guys feeling?"
"We're happy to be back with our dad," said John. "We missed him so much."
Surprised, Jessica said, "I thought that you guys had lived here from the very beginning. What happened? Tell me your story."
"We've only been living here for a few days," said Corey. "Our dad's only lived here for a few days. Our story's very sad. Our mom died almost seven months ago and we've been in foster homes ever since."
"I'm sorry about your mom," said Jessica. "Why couldn't you stay with your dad when she died?"
"We couldn't stay with our dad because somebody framed him by putting drugs in his car," said Jennifer. "The police thought that those drugs were his, illegal drugs, marihuana, crack, cocaine; and they put him in jail. He was in jail for quite some time, and then he got out and he couldn't get a job anywhere because of it. Our mom started supporting us financially, and then she was killed, and we couldn't stay with our dad because the police thought that we weren't safe with him because of the drugs."
"So, the police thought that your dad used drugs," said Jessica, "and they didn't think it was a good idea for you to stay with him."
"They thought that he used and sold drugs," said Simone.
"I see," said Jessica. Noah had been looking for the kids all over the house when he knew that they weren't sleeping in their rooms. He was looking for them all over the first floor, in all of the three living rooms, in the bedrooms downstairs, in the kitchen, in the dining room, in the bathrooms, and he didn't find them. His legs were hurting and he walked upstairs, very slowly, because with every step, his legs hurt more and more. This house was gigantic and walking all around it was literally torturous. He walked all over the second floor looking for them, in all of the bedrooms and the bathrooms. He looked everywhere except the guest rooms. The places that he least imagined that they could be were either Jill or Jessica's rooms. Jessica's room was right by Jill's so when he stood at Jill's door, he heard the kids' voices in Jessica's room. He knocked the door. Jessica said, "Come in!" and Noah opened the door and went in.
The kids started to laugh hysterically when they saw him. Smiling evilly, Corey said, "Hi, Dad!" and they laughed crazily again.
"Hi," said Noah, smiling strangely. "What are you doing here?"
Jessica smiled. "We came to have a little fun with Jessica," said Simone. "That's nice of you, trying to entertain Jessica, and I'm sure that she appreciates it, but it is twelve twenty, and we all have to go to sleep. Jill, Natasha, Dad, your Uncle Michael, Nicole, and your Uncle Scott are asleep."
The kids got off the bed and went up to Noah, and held him by the waist. He was so tall that he had to get on his knees for them to be able to look in his eyes. "They're so sweet!" said Jessica.
"Thanks for not kicking them out, being that it's so late, and you have to get up early to go to work later today," said Noah, smiling.
Jessica smiled and said, "Aww, of course I wouldn't kick them out! They're so sweet, and we were talking about something very interesting. Besides, I love kids."
"I'm glad you do," said Noah. "They can play with you and you guys can do everything you want together on the weekends, Saturdays in the afternoon, and the whole day on Sundays. Well, we have to go. I'll see you later today." Noah turned around, opened the door and he and the kids walked out. Jessica lied down on the bed; pushed her body up with her hands to accommodate her head on her pillow got under the covers, turned off the light, and went to sleep. Just then, the phone rang. It was Hayley. Scott had never bothered to change his phone number because she hadn't called there since three days after Scott divorced her, and he thought that she'd never call again. Luckily, all of the phones were turned off---except for the phones in the guest rooms. Jill woke up, but instead of answering her phone, she just folded her pillow over her ear so that she couldn't hear it. Jessica didn't ignore the phone. She answered it. "Hello."
Hayley kept quiet for a few minutes. She didn't recognize this sweet voice. Then, she said, "Hello, who am I talking to?"
"This is Jessica Hague," said Jessica. "Who am I talking to?"
Hayley smiled and said, "Jessica Hague," she was a total stranger for her, but just because she lived at the Spears mansion, she decided to give her a hard time. She had no idea who she was messing with; thus besides being a savant, Jessica suffered from borderline personality disorder, and when she became angry, euphoric, or sad, she couldn't control herself. She couldn't control her emotions. "So you're Noah Spears' new fling, and you're living with him at his father's house."
"Lady, I don't know what you're talking about," said Jessica. She was getting angry already. "There's nothing between me and Noah. We're just friends, and I'm his guest."
Hayley insisted on getting on her nerves. "Why are you ashamed of admitting that you're his lover? There's nothing wrong with that, you know? I was his father's lover once, and then I was his wife, and you're not doing anything wrong because Noah's widowed."
"I am not his lover," said Jessica.
"All right then," said
Hayley. "Would you please tell Scott that Hayley Johnson wants to talk to him?"
There were two men named Scott in the house right now, and Jessica didn't know which Scott Hayley was talking about, so she put the phone down, walked to the door, opened it, walked out of her room, went to Junior's room, which was three doors down, and knocked the door. She was going to put him on the phone, and not his father, which was the one that Hayley really wanted to talk to!
Although Hayley had told her that she was Scott Sr.'s wife, she didn't know better to put him on the phone. Her brain wasn't wired correctly, and sometimes, she had a hard time understanding things.
Junior turned on the light, got up, walked to the door, and opened it. "Hello, Jessica. Is something wrong?" he said.
"Yes," said Jessica, angrily, "something's very wrong." Junior noticed that she was upset, but he knew that he wasn't the reason why because she was very nice to him since the moment that she came into his father's house. "This bitch," she said loudly, "named Hayley Johnson told me to come get you. She wants to talk to you."
Scott kept quiet for a few minutes and then said, "Hayley Johnson," he knew who she was. Georgia and Robinson had told him everything that they knew about her. He knew that she wanted to talk to his dad, and not to him, but he was willing to take the call and give her a hard time. "Thanks Jess. Please go back to sleep and don't worry about her. I will take care of this."
Jessica blurted, "Tell her that I said that she's a bitch!"
Jill heard the voice of a very angry Jessica. Although Scott and Natasha's room was three hallways away from their bedrooms, Jill was worried that Jessica would wake them and the baby. She turned on the light, got up, walked to the door, opened it, and walked out. "Yes, I will tell her that and a few other things," said Scott, smiling evilly. "Go back to sleep." Jessica turned around to leave and he closed the door. Jill walked up to Jessica and they walked to Jessica's room together. They went in and Jill closed the door behind her to stay with her, talk to her for a few minutes, and try to calm her down. Hayley was still waiting on the line, surprisingly. When she wanted to talk to her ex-husband, she'd wait as long as necessary. Meanwhile, Scott sat on the bed and picked up the phone. "Hello."
"Who is this?" said Hayley, surprised.
"This is Scott," said Scott with the most evil smile on his face.
"You're not the person that I want to talk to," said Hayley.
Scott's voice was very different from Noah's, so she didn't realize that she was talking to his little brother.
"I know," said Scott, "but you said you wanted to talk to Scott. You didn't say which one." "It's your father that I want
to talk to," said Hayley, angrily. "Well, I'm sorry, but
you're not going to talk to him because he's sleeping and because I don't feel like it. Go back to sleep and don't waste your time. Oh, and before I forget, Jessica says you're a bitch."
"I don't care what Jessica--
-"
He interrupted her and
said, "And I say that you're a nasty whore," and hung up on her.
Chapter 20
The next morning, at 8:15 PM, everybody was working at Spears International. Jessica was at the lab, finishing up her formula for her anti-acne scrub. There was a call for her on Noah's phone. It was from Hayley Marie, Hayley Johnson's older daughter. Since Hayley Marie and Brandy didn't live with Hayley, they could do anything that they wanted to behind their mother's back. Hayley's three daughters didn't love their mother, although they didn't hate her, either, because they loved their stepfather dearly and she constantly hurt him. She'd taken away their real father, but they were in touch with their real father when Hayley married Scott, so they forgave her for that. Fortunately, they were still in love with Mr. Riley, their father. They didn't forgive her for what she did to Scott because Scott gave them many more things than Mr.
Riley. Mr. Riley and Hayley, they got divorced abruptly because of an infidelity from her, and he couldn't give them anything for a long time, not even his love. He was back in their lives and this time, he wouldn't leave. He was here to stay, and he was willing to make up for all of the time that was lost. He would rebuild his relationship with his daughters, although they were all grown up. He was willing to take care of his grandchildren now, and he baby sat for all of their children while they worked. Since his granddaughters looked very much like their mothers, he felt as if he was taking care of his own daughters, and this made him indescribably happy. Noah took the call. Since the caller ID displayed only Hayley Marie's first name, he wasn't too happy about it. "Hello."
"It's not Hayley Johnson; it's her daughter, Hayley Marie Daly."
"Oh," said Noah. He didn't hate his stepsisters. On the contrary, he loved them as if they were the sisters that Scott and Barbara could never give him. "Hayley Marie, how are you?"
"I'm doing great, Noah," she said, smiling. "How are you doing?"
"I'm doing great, even though I just started working at Spears International," he said as he typed a report on his desktop computer. "I am working as if I had started working here a long time ago, so I'm fantastic. I'm sorry if I was rude. I thought that your mom had changed her name so that I mistook her for you and took her call."
"Well, my mom would never change her name. If she did that, my second stepfather would think that she's cheating on her, too, and that she's showing signals that she wants a divorce. Let me tell you, Noah, my stepfather is no Scott or Nick. He's dangerous. He would kill her if he found out that she's cheating or that she wants to leave him. She finally found the sole of her shoes," said Hayley Marie and laughed.
Smiling, Noah asked, "You hate your mom, don't you?"
"I don't hate her, but I don't love her," replied Hayley Marie and lay back on her recliner chair with wheels, and placed both legs on her desk. "She's hurt me too much for me to love her, but I can't hate her because she's my mother. Noah, this is a very nice conversation, but I'm hoping that we can continue it at a later time. I don't have much time in my hands, and I'd like to speak to Ms. Jessica Hague. I understand that she works there."
"Yes, she does," said
Noah.
calls?"