Sweet Nothings: Chapter 1
Here's the prologue to my attempt at a Toddler Mayhem Challenge :D Hope you all like it!
"There's an old myth, which has been passed down generations of mother's, that says that if up to four generations of one family adopt 120 or more toddlers, the family's greatest wished will all come true.
This has never been proven, as no one has had the guts, or the capability to take in that many poor, abandoned children. If it was up to me, every single child should have a fmily who loves them; who will be there for them no matter what; will never let the-"
Jessica sighed and held down the backspace button again. She just couldn't get out what she thought in the right words.
"I'm never going to be able to do this. I need coffee.."
Looking wistfully at the phone, Jessica wished she has enough money to adopt a baby. She had phoned again earlier, but was turned down due to "insufficient funds". She didn't have enough bloody money seeing as she blew most of it on the gorgeous bottom floor of this huge house so she had enough space for lots of kids!
That was the one thing she disagreed about with the social services. She could afford babies! Lots of babies. And she would have some of her own to show them she could, if she wasn't infertile. Relationships had fallen appart in front of her as she realised she wouldn't be able to have her own children, but by the time she figured out she could help the more needy, they were long gone. Stupid "genetic defects". It wasn't her fault her mum had fallen in love with an alien.
"I wish I had more money.. This writing job doesn't pay well at all," Jessica whispered as she sat herself down on her mattress. "Buuut.. if I sell my paintings... I could get more money!"
Looking towards her big boxes of paintings, she felt her heart lift. She hoped people would like her art enough to pay good money for it! Her artwork meant a lot more than any of her other possessions. But she knew she would give it all up in a heartbeat to have a big family like the one she wished so hard for every day.
Settling down to sleep, Jessica's eyes wandered to the window before she finally fell asleep. She saw what looked like a shooting star pass overhead, so she wished. She wished harder than she ever had before, and hoped it would come true. The last thing she thought about before her eyes shut out the world, was her own parents and family. How she missed them...
Three years old, and Jessica was just able to talk properly. Her mum was so proud of her, and would praise her at any given chance, while her dad watched amused from the corner. As her brothers and sisters charged in from school, the house suddenly got 10 times louder. Her 3 sisters ran up to their 'secret den' to play with each other's hair and try the newest make up from school; as her 5 brothers ran straight through the house dumping bags, books and clothes as they went. Laugher rang from all four walls of the room they were in. Her mother went over to Jessica, picked her up and cuddled Jessica into her warm body. Her father went over to the glass door to watch the boys throw the baseball about. Her oldest brother suddenly threw the ball a bit too hard, and it came smashing through the window! Her father carefully picked his way across the broken glass, out towards the terrified boys. As he approached them, his stern face crumpled in to a wide grin, and he laughed as he tried to scold the boy. "You'll be paying for it though Sam!" And with that, the boys decided to dog-pile on their strong, alien father. They only managed to get him to the muddy ground because there were 5 of them and only one of him, Jessica's father told them at dinner when they had all been cleaned up. Sitting at the dinner table, Jessica saw all the happy, smiling faces laughing and teasing each other. Her mother fussing around the younger ones. Her father giving tidbits to the dogs 'secretly' under the table. Then a dog barked..
Then a dog barked, waking Jessica abruptly from her dream. As a light sleeper, she was used to waking in the middle of the night. Only, this time she couldn't get back to sleep.
Shakily, she walked through to get her favourite book from the old bookcase. Something about the vividness of her dream had scared her, so she needed something nice to calm her down.
She found her bookmark, and settled down in the not-so-comfy chair to indulge herself in reading about the lives of Morris and Fern yet again.
As the sun broke just above the trees, Jessica found herself still curled up on the chair, with the book sprawled across her cold stomach.
Cursing the dog that woke her, she pulled herself out the chair, and tidied her book away. After a lukewarm shower and a small bowl of muesli, Jessica found herself ready to face the world.
Doodling on her easle, she thought about her revelation the night before. She decided to set up a table with all her paintings and other possessions she wouldn't really miss in the front garden to attract passers by.
Four hours later, and she was desperate for people to walk past her house to see her goods. She hoped she was early enough to catch people coming from work, but if not, she could keep it all out until tomorrow.
The first two hours went by ever so painfully, and nobody bought a thing. She tried to lure them in with bargains, but because she was an unknown artist, no one wanted it.
A man walked past, and looked briefly at the paintings in the corner. He kept walking, but with quick action from Jessica, he paused and looked again.
"Buy one get one half price! Handmade by yours truly, not another like it in the world! Come and find something you like sir, and I'll give you a great deal for it!"
"Oh, well I did quite like the look of the ones on the left, mind if I take a good look at them?"
Jessica, relieved she might have an actual sale today, told him he was free to browse through them all, as long as he didn't break anything.
He asked her how many she had sold before, and what price she got for them, but was very surprised when she said she hadn't sold any before.
"Not one sold?! Wowee.." scratching his chin, the man looked very thoughtful. Jessica let his thoughts process through his brain, while telling herself inside to be calm
"I have a friend, who is an avid art collector, and loves new artist's work especially. It's coming up to her big birthday, and I think she'd buy all this for herself if she saw it"
"Would you like me to help you pick out a piece for her then?" Jessica offered her help, but the man just shook his head at her.
"I think I'll not bother with one actually," Jessica felt her heart drop like a stone to the bottom of her stomach. "I'll take the lot please. How much will you be willing to take, £5,000? No, better make that five and a half thousand? How does that sound?"
She just stared at the man in shock as he rattled through numbers.
"Ok, so £6,300 is my top offer. Deal?" he shot his hand out for her to shake.
Suddenly, her hand flew out to meet his and she heard herself say "DEAL!" a bit too enthusiactically. The man told her he would be back in ten minutes with the cash and his truck to pick everything up. In a daze she started to pack everything up ready to be rehomed with this friend of the rich man who had bought it all. Half an hour later, and she found herself waving off her artwork in the back of a pick-up truck and with a £6,300 receipt from the bank saying she'd put it all in her account.
"I HAVE MONEY!" Jessica finally realised she could now phone the social services again!
She sprinted as fast as she could to the phone - she'd never been this excited before! Telling herself to breath, while concentrating on keeping her lunch down, she punched in the number.
"Erm, yeah hi, I phoned earlier, but I didn't have enough money. I have the money now, I've already had my inspection, and I'm getting the beds later on tonight, is that ok?"
The voice on the other end said that would be fine, but she'd need to check Jessica had the right amount of money. After what seemed like another 2 hours, the lady came back with good news - she did have enought and as long as the social worker checked Jessica had the right things in the morning, she would be a mother by lunchtime tomorrow.
"That's the best news I've had this whole year! Thank you so much!" Jessica exclaimed to the voice.
"Thank you.."
I'm going to be a mum tomorrow. I'm going to have a baby. My wish did come true.
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Authors Notes:
* Sorry if it's a bit short, I pressed the wrong button and I had to rewrite it again ;__;
* It was going to be a longer update than this, but I'm far too tired, so it's split into two I'm afraid!
* This is more kind of a prologue, but shhhh, if we don't say anything they won't either...
* NEXT UPDATE: Monday/Tuesday hopefully if everythin goes according to plan ;D
Thank you for reading, please comment with how you think I could make this better and things! xD
*EDIT* Finally got my header, sorry for it not being too great though! The next ones will be better I promise.