The triplets all had spiky hair, but Cosmo’s was green, Matt’s was blue and Duke’s was bleached blonde with black tips. Carmen had long purple hair. Rogue had red hair with black tips and Storm had black hair with red tips. Jack found Rogue and Storm the hardest to remember, because he constantly had to stop and think who had which combination.
Isaac and Babsie had left on their second Honeymoon only two days before. When they came back, they were going to start construction on the new music wing. So Jack was moving the instruments and related musical items from the music room into the ballroom, which was the only room they could safely store them. Fortunately there weren’t any parties planned!
After the instruments were moved, the room had to be cleaned and painted and then the furniture from the downstairs bedroom would be moved into it. Then it was only a matter of waiting for the construction to begin.
As Jack moved the instruments he got constant reminders from the kids:
“Be careful with the keyboards!”
“Don’t forget instruments are very expensive! And delicate!”
“Did you know that sometimes guitars can get out of tune when you move them to a different room? Maybe if you’re really, really careful, we won’t have to tune it again!”
He mentioned it to Lori as he ate lunch.
“Lori, they’re pretty much telling me ‘you break it, you buy it’!”
“Music is practically a way of life in this house.”
“They’re kids. They don’t pay for the instruments, or anything else in that room.”
“Yes, but they have an appreciation for how much they cost. Isaac and Babsie are always very strict about money around here, and they make sure their kids understand that. After all, you wouldn’t want your children to live their lives simply taking a source of it for granted.”
“They don’t need to remind me.”
“Well, that aside, they love playing the instruments. And I don’t think they know you well enough to know that you’re always careful,” Lori leaned over then, and gave him a kiss. “Don’t worry about it.”
**********
Meanwhile, on a beach somewhere in the world, Isaac and Babsie were lying around on towels on hot sand, with the waves gently washing against the shore.
“Listen to that,” Babsie said.
“What?” Isaac asked.
“Exactly.”
Isaac laughed.
“No kids, no fans – screaming or otherwise –, no media. Just you and me and the beach.”
“We should do this more often.”
“Yep.”
“Oh wow, I just got a straight answer. And a one syllable answer at that.”
Babsie laughed.
There was silence. The pleasant nothing-needs-to-be-said-because-we’ve-already-said-it-all-and-besides-we’re-enjoying-each-others-presence kind of silence.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”