WHISPERS IN THE DARK

Awoke way before the alarm this morning to what I thought was the sound of those really loud kamikaze blue jays outside my window, or maybe it was those equally annoying mommyjoggers who pop out of their minivans at 5:30 every morning to speedwalk past my house sharing way too much information over and over and over again, or maybe it was that family of roosters with the screwed up internal clocks, or, no...wait a minute...

It's just the monsters. Whispering, giggling, then shushing one another.

I roll over and look at the clock. 5:45. Ugh. It's not even daylight yet. And I was tempted, so tempted, to yell at them to go back to sleep, but then I thought -- I could be wrong -- but I really thought I heard him say, "I love you, Saia." And then, if you can believe it, I thought I heard her say what sounded like, "I love you, too, Santiago."

What? It couldn't be. Not MY monsters. Not the Saia and Chago who, just yesterday, BOTH got in trouble for being cruel and mean and inconsiderate to one another in front of all their friends -- AGAIN.

So, I waited. For the inevitable blow up. For the inferno. For the mother of all fights. Because it always comes. Always.

Doesn't it?

I mean, doesn't it???

But nothing. Nothing happened.

And for the next thirty minutes they just laughed ...and whispered ...and chatted ...and giggled.

And when I finally got out of bed to officially get them up, I found him in her bed, and they were snuggled up next to one another, surrounded by a handful of stuffed animals and a pile of pillows, all smiles and wiggles, all friendship and brotherly love.

And in just that moment, I reached to touch my tummy, still and forever battlescarred from their world debut, and could've sworn, for just a second, that my belly moved.

...