David and Brie left for Israel the following day as planned. Before leaving town they stopped at the hotel that they’d dropped Kimmy off at the day before and made sure that she was ok and had enough money to survive until she was ready to go back. She informed them that she missed her little boy, but she knew what was happening was for the best.
Once they were out of the country and on the ground in Jerusalem, Ben picked them up like he had the last time they paid a visit.
Though they were on vacation, it was still a business trip. They were looking at places that could possibly be their future home after he retired. Neither of them could have been more excited.
The first house they looked at was a big house set on the side of a hill. They walked the inside and looked around. Brie’s face said everything that she thought about the house as the real estate agent told them about how it was steeped in history and all of the historical figures that had called it home. “Yeah, you can tell”, Brie said. Her tone held the disdain she had for the building.
“What’s wrong, baby?” David asked.
“I don’t like this house, David”, she said bluntly, not caring if the real estate agent was in the room or not. “It sets me on edge.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know how I’m always going on about energy and stuff like that.”
“Yeah.”
“This house has a really bad energy to it. I’ve had a creepy crawly feeling since we stepped on the property.”
“What do you think is causing that creepy feeling?”
She cleared her throat and signed to him, “There was evil done here. Real and true evil.”
He nodded. “You know what? I feel it too. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t crazy.” He looked at the agent. “Where’s the next house?” The agent gave him the address of the next house they were considering and agreed to meet them there. They loaded into the rental car they’d gotten the day after they arrived and headed to the next location. “What do you think could have gone down there?” he asked as they drove.
“I don’t know, but I certainly don’t want to find out. I’m glad we got out of there when we did. It was getting to the point where I just couldn’t stand being in that house anymore. I was about to walk out and off of the property if we were in there any longer.”
“Was it really that bad, Brie?”
“Yes, David, it was really that bad. That place gave me the hebbie jeebies.”
“Well, it was the first on a long list of places for us to look at while we’re here. Hopefully, there won’t be any others that creepy.”
---------------
Kimberly sat in the hotel room and really thought about what was making her act the way she was. She wasn’t usually a confrontational person. She was emotional, but not nearly as emotional as she had been. Then a thought occurred to her. She grabbed her calendar out of her purse and looked at the dates. She recorded every aspect of her life on that calendar. When she bled, when she ovulated, when she and her Jay- jay made love. Her jaw dropped. “OH MY GOD!” she gasped. “I need a pregnancy test.” She grabbed her purse and ran out the door, making sure that she had her room key with her before she left.
She ran down the sidewalk to the nearest drug store. Once she was in, she looked for the pregnancy tests. She was almost positive that she was pregnant, but she wanted something solid to show James when she called him. She wanted to talk to him about what was going on and to apologize. Until the moment before she ran out of her hotel room, she’d had no idea why she was acting the way she was. She found the test she wanted and paid for it before going to the bathroom and taking the test right there. She didn’t want to wait any longer than she had to. She had the test and she wanted answers.
She waited with bated breath as the two little blue lines came up on the little stick and her heart sank. For the love of GOD, did this really have to happen NOW? , she thought to herself. She picked up the little stick and slipped it in her purse so that she could leave.
Once she was on the other side of the entrance to the drug store, she pulled her phone from her purse and called James. She got his voice mail. “What’s up? This is James Draiman’s phone. I’m probably preoccupied seeing as you’re getting my voicemail. Just leave me a few lines stating who you are, what you want, and how I can get back in contact with you and I’ll get back to you as soon as I’m untied. Later, gator!”
“Jay- jay, this is Kimmy. I hope you haven’t deleted my number from your phone yet, but if you have, I probably deserve it. I’ve been an unbearable bitch as of late, but I now know why and I really need to talk to you. If you could call me back as soon as you get this, I’ll be forever grateful and relieved. I love you, Jay- Jay. Bye.” She sighed a heavy sigh as she walked into the lobby of her hotel. Ok, here’s what I’ll do. I’ll go back to my room and get some room service and maybe watch a little bit of TV. If he hasn’t called me back in about an hour, then I’ll try again. And, with that determination, Kimberly Elaine Goodman went to her room and tried not to focus on the little stick in her purse that said that she was about to ruin James Matthew Draiman’s life even more than she already had.
---------------
James had spent a good portion of the morning either playing with his son, and niece and nephews, or helping his brothers and sisters in law try to get the house in order. His parents had only been gone for a few days and the house looked it. His mother would have cringed if she had seen it. Then, everyone in the house, including the grandkids, would have had to sit and listen to her bitch about how she didn’t raise a bunch of swine and how her house shouldn’t look like a pig sty.
When he finally had a chance to catch his breath, he had just gotten Hunter down for his nap. He sat and ate a little bit of lunch before cleaning any more. As his sister in law made him and his brothers a little bit of lunch, he checked his phone. He had a missed call and a new voice message. His listened to Kimmy’s voice, near tears, as she told him that she loved him and need to talk to him. He sighed. “Jake, ‘Miah, I have a dilemma”, he said with the sigh.
“What’s wrong little brother?” Jake asked. ‘Miah just looked in his direction.
“I just got a call from Kimmy. She said that she needs to talk to me and that she realizes she’s been an unbearable bitch. I think it’s a trap for her to start an argument over Dad’s decision to put her out for a little while.”
“Did she apologize for being a, quote, ‘unbearable bitch’, unquote?” ‘Miah asked his twin.
“No, but she was on the verge of tears.”
“How often does she cry?” Jake asked.
“Not often.”
“And you’re wanting to know if you should go?” ‘Miah asked.
“Well, yeah. I mean, think about it, ‘Miah. Every time I turn around, she’s picking a fight with me. Can you blame me for being cautious?”
“No, I don’t, but I still think you should go. Maybe she’s not trying to fight with you over Dad telling her to pack her things and leave.”
“But, should I really risk it?”
“What did the message say other than she knows she’s been an unbearable bitch?” Jake asked, interrupting the twins arguing.
“That she needed to talk to me. She asked me to call her back as soon as I got the message.”
“Then, call and see what she wants rather than sitting here discussing the could be, should be with ‘Miah and me.”
James nodded and dialed Kimmy’s cell number from memory. “Hello?” she asked after the second ring.
“Hey, Kimmy. It’s Jay. What did you need?”
She sighed. “I’m so glad you called. I was starting to get worried that you never wanted to speak to me again and I would have understood. I’ve been so terrible to you.”
“Is this your version of an apology?”
“No, Jay- jay. I’d rather do that in person. I also have something that I need to tell you. I know why I’ve been so bitchy recently.”
“And why might that be?”
“That’s something I’d rather talk about in person too, please. I don’t want to drop this kind of bombshell on you over the phone.”
He nodded. “Ok, let me see if my brothers and sisters would mind watching Hunter and I’ll be there as soon as I can be.”
“Ok, Jay- jay. I’ll see you when you get here.”
---------------
The other houses they looked at that day were a lot better. None of them set off the ‘creepy- ohmmeter’ Brie seemed to come ‘off the lot’ with. But, Brie still didn’t like any of them. That night, she sighed as she got into bed next to her husband. “I think we need to look at smaller houses”, she said as she settled into bed next to him.
“I think I’m with you on that. Yeah, most of the houses we looked at today are nice, but maybe we should look at something small enough for the two of us rather than looking for something that we’re going to have to take care of year round and we’re only going to be seeing the kids once a year.”
“You took the words right out of my mouth”, she said with a laugh.
“So, my thoughts are these: I’ll let the real estate agent know that we’re looking for something smaller and let her compile a list. While she’s doing that, we can go to Egypt for a couple of days so that we can dive in the Red Sea. How does that sound?”
“I like the way you think, David Draiman. Now, will your friend Captain Joe be taking us out or will it be another friend of yours?”
“No, it will be Captain Joe. He’s has a boat out there and he said he’s more than happy to take us out on the water this time around as well.”
She nodded. “Alrighty then”, she said with a smile. “It all sounds like a plan to me, baby.”
“Good. So, a smaller place it is. Besides, we have passports for a reason. We can go to them for Hanukkah. Not like it will kill us to get on a plane once a year to go see the kids.”
“Very true. Anyway, it will be nice to be the expected guest for once and have the kids scrambling to make sure that everything is perfect for us rather than you and I having to plant a foot in all ten kids’ asses to motivate them.” She paused. “I wonder what our house looks like now that we’re not there.”
“Probably like a fucking tornado tore through it.”
“Not that that’s a surprise. I just hope they try to keep it looking half assed decent. I’d hate to give my ‘I didn’t raise a bunch of swine’ speech again.”
“Oh, GOD. The memories. And then there was the ‘Were you all born in a barn?’ speech that you would periodically go off on the guys with. That was funny.”
“Well, when Nikki, Tina, and Kristen were coming to me saying that their men didn’t tow the line as well as you when it came to keeping the house clean, I took that seriously. I made them clean up after themselves under threat of being shot.”
“That would have been funny as hell. I’m just saying.”
“Of course you would have thought it was funny. It wasn’t you getting a nine millimeter round in your ass. And that’s right where I would have planted those rounds had they pushed me; right in their asses.”
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