Things with Matt weren’t getting any easier. He just seemed to get worse with every day that passed. The coughing fits got worse and worse. It was all that Jenn could do to keep from crying every time he started coughing. Those were the times when David or Brie would take over for a little while to give her a moment to herself so that she could get her head together. One night, Matt stayed up a little later than his wife and had a little heart to heart with his sister and brother in law. “Brie, I think Jenny needs a spa day of some sort.”
“What do you mean bro?” she asked.
“She spends so much time taking care of me and making sure that I’m ok that she doesn’t get much time for herself. I think she needs a day to just relax and not have to worry about me.” As he finished, one of his coughing fits started.
Brie got up from her seat and did what she called “cupping” on his back. She’d taught everyone that was helping take care of her brother how to do it so that they could do it when he started coughing. When he finished, she sat back down and looked at him. “What do you need from me, Matty?”
“Do you think you could clear your schedule to give her a day to relax? Give her a massage, one of those wraps that you do, an ear candling, a foot detox… you know, the spa stuff you do.”
She smiled at her brother. “And who’s going to look after you?”
“I’ll keep an eye on him”, David said. “Do it on a weekend so that I’ll have the help of the older kids and give her a day to just clear her head.”
She smiled. “Hold on, boys, let me check my book so that I can see when I have a weekend open.” She stood and went to the living room to grab her appointment book. When she sat back down she opened it to the weekend that was coming up. “Well, boys, we’re in luck.”
“What do you have open sis?” Matt asked, leaning in toward the book to see what was going on.
“I don’t work Sundays so I’m not going to do it on Sunday. However, Saturday is open. I’ll just tell my clients that I’m closed this weekend.”
“You’re open this Saturday?” David asked.
“Well, accept for your weekly massage, but I’m sure you’ll let me move that up so that Jenn can have a day to herself, right?”
David chuckled. “Of course, it’s for Jenny. Why wouldn’t I?”
She smiled and patted David’s hand. “Good boy.” She reached up and rubbed his head.
He moved out of the under her hand in a jerky movement. “Ah, damn it! You know I hate that.”
“And that’s exactly why I do it. To screw with you.”
He rolled his eyes. “That’s ok, I’ve got you number. Remember, I know where you sleep.”
“Because it’s right next to you, jack ass. And, remember, if you screw with me too much, I’ll plant a bow in your ass.”
He looked at her like she’d grown a second head. “You wouldn’t.”
“I believe she would, brother in law. She’s merciless”, Matt teased
“You’re just jealous that I get massages and you don’t”, David said.
“Please. I’m sure that if I asked her, she’d give me a massage.”
Brie had to interject. The men were acting like her seven year old sons. “Boys, how about you both grow up and stop bickering like children or NEITHER of you will get a massage.”
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The next morning when the kids got up for school, David and Brie told them what the plan for the weekend was. “You Aunt Jenny needs a break from taking care of your Uncle Matt, so your Mom is going to treat her to a spa day on Saturday. I’m going to be taking care of your Uncle Matt. Jordan, Jacob, Madison, I’m going to need your help. When Malachai comes in I’ll tell him the same thing. Jordan, I understand that you and Malachai will need to take some time for rehearsal. All I ask is that you help as much as you can while you’re not rehearsing.”
“Dad, if you need help taking care of Uncle Matt, then I’ll talk to Malachai after school this afternoon about canceling rehearsal on Saturday. Helping you with Uncle Matt and the younger kids is slightly more important”, Jordan said.
“Thank you, Jordan, but you guys also have a performance coming up and you need to be on your ‘A’ game for that. You never know where there will be a record executive in the audience that will want to talk record deal.”
“And I’ll tell him or her that I’m only 14 years old and should they want me to sign any kind of contract that they’ll need to talk to you and Mom. Anyway, I’m not worried right now about a record contract. I’m worried about taking care of things at home. Uncle Matt being comfortable is more important than some idiot in a suit that thinks he needs to sign an awesome rock band with a cute little girl at the forefront.”
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While his younger siblings were in school, Malachai tried to focus on finally getting the nursery set up. They needed to get the cribs up and the dressers put where they wanted them so that they could start putting away all of the baby clothes they’d gotten for Hanukkah. As he cranked the socket wrench to tighten the bolts that held one of the cribs together, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He cursed under his breath as he pulled it free to check the text message he’d just received. “’Chai, have Mom and Dad talked to you about the plan for Sat.? Jord.”
“Yeah, what did you want to do about rehearsal that day? I say we just say screw rehearsal; Uncle Matt is more important.” He went back to working on the crib until he got a response.
“That’s what I was thinking. Dad’s going to need help with Uncle Matt and the younger kids. We need to be free to help him out. Jake’s going to stick his nose in his med books. You and I both know it.”
“What about Maddie? Did Dad tell her she needed to help too?” He finally got the bottom of the crib attached while he waited on a response.
“Yeah, and she’ll help, but I’m not sure if she’ll complain about it or not. I think she wants to stay on Dad’s good side so she might keep quiet and complain later. Then again, she might not complain at all and enjoy helping out with Uncle Matt. Who knows?”
“Who knows? We’ll have to wait until Sat. to find out. Now, shouldn’t you be in class?” He put the side rails on the crib as he waited to see if Jordan would respond.
“I’m going, I’m going. I’ll see you at home.”
Malachai didn’t bother responding. He had too much to do at home to worry about this little sister at the moment. He had another crib and two bassinets to put together, as well as two dressers to get situated in the little room for his twins that were on their way. He had finally decided that he was excited to welcome twins into the world. He was actually excited to find out what sex the twins were so that they could really start preparing and buying them clothes. He had already chosen one name for a boy: Isaiah David. He’d bounced the idea off of Amanda and she loved it. She had come up with the name Miranda Jayde for a girl and Malachai had already thought of a nickname for his little girl should he have one. He would call her Miri. Anyone that didn’t like it could kiss his ass.
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That afternoon at rehearsal Malachai and Jordan told Logan and Caleb about their decision. “Dude, tell Uncle David if he needs more help not to hesitate to call me and Dani. We’ll be here in a heartbeat”, Logan said.
“We’ll be sure to let him know, Logan”, Jordan said.
“You guys can count me in too”, Caleb told them. “If you guys need my help for any reason, give me a holler and I’ll be here with bells on.”
“We appreciate that, Caleb. I’m sure that Dad will take advantage of the offers should he need you.”
“You know what?” Logan said.
“What?” Malachai asked.
“When we go on break I’ll give Dani a call to see if she might want to just come on over that day to offer our help.”
“That might not be a bad idea. And, if you guys want, I’ll talk to Mandy and you guys can crash on an air mattress in our living room out back on Friday night.”
“You boys are geniuses”, Jordan said with a laugh. “Now, how are we coming with music for that song for Uncle Matt?”
Malachai and Logan strapped on acoustic guitars and Caleb pulled a large string instrument out of a case along with a bow. Malachai and Logan counted off and started playing what they’d worked on for a few days together over the phone. Caleb started pulling the bow across the strings. Jordan loved the sound and feel of the music and started singing what was in her heart. She didn’t want to get on the piano. She didn’t want the distraction of trying to make her fingers work at the same time her voice was working. She’d had this melody in her head for awhile and made sure that she didn’t put anything but what she was feeling into the lyrics. She wanted her uncle to know how much she loved him. He was her Uncle Matty .
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