Changes Continue (standard:drama, 3563 words)
Author: Hopes	Added: Mar 22 2003	Views/Reads: 3556/2302	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A new season brings more changes. As David receives a special surprise, Jim faces a crisis. (Reads well alone or as the final chapter of LIFE CHANGES.)

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story


“No, not yet.  I don't think I want to know until he or she arrives.” 

“I can understand that.”  His words were ok but something was definitely
wrong. 

“Jim, this baby will change nothing between us.  You are my son.  I am
not your biological father, but I feel that I am your father.  Jan sees 
you as her son also.  This baby will be our second child and your 
brother or sister.  I'm not just saying this, we truly consider you our 
son.  We love you.” 

Jim had closed his eyes as David spoke, trying to hold the tears back. 
He failed and they coursed down his cheek.  He began to shake and soon 
the sobs came.  David pulled him up and held him.  It didn't matter 
that Jim was 17 and almost as tall as David; he was a young man who was 
hurting.  David was there to help the hurt go away. 

When he calmed down David asked softly, “What's this all about, Jim?  Do
you doubt our love for you?” 

Jim miserably shook his head.  “I know you both love me, but I'm not
really yours, you just took me in.  This baby is your own flesh and 
blood.  I'll graduate soon and be out of your lives.  I'll have no 
where to go.  I don't blame you, it's only right.  You've done enough 
for me.  I just feel like I've lost my parents all over again.” 

“Jim, Jim, you have it all wrong.  You are our son.  We love you. 
Period.  Now and forever you have a home with us.  If you go to 
college, you will come HOME, here for the holidays and weekends.  
Summers will be spent here at your home.  When you finish college you 
will live here until you marry or find a place of your own like I did.  
Like I said, you are our first child.  This baby will be our second 
child and your brother or sister.  Do you understand?” 

Jim looked up and nodded. 

“Do you believe everything I've said?”  David wanted to make sure this
was settled once and for all. 

Jim hesitated as if he just couldn't accept what David was saying.  By
now, tears were coming down David's face.  Suddenly Jan was there with 
them; her eyes were filled with tears of love. 

“Jim,” she said, “Look back at these years, how David has treated you,
what you know and feel in your heart for and about David.  Has he cared 
for you out of duty or love?  You may not know me quite as well, but 
you know me enough to know that I would never mislead you in any way.  
I love you, son.  David loves you.  Listen to your heart.  It knows 
this is true, doesn't it?”  She smiled and reached to hug him and kiss 
his tears away. 

David spoke again.  “Jim, do you believe us?  Will you accept forever
your place as our son in our hearts as well as our home?” 

Jim finally gave in to his fear and doubt.  He grabbed David as if he
would never let go and said, “Yes, sir, I'm your son, and you are my 
parents.  This is my home, forever.  I love you.  I love you.” 

Tears of joy and hugs abounded as hearts were made clear.  Finally, they
tucked Jim back into bed and kissed their son good night.  Exhaustion 
and peace took him to sleep immediately.  With light hearts for Jim and 
excitement for the coming child, they snuggled together in bed and were 
soon asleep themselves. 

Jim came down to breakfast a little sheepish.  Jan and David paid no
attention to this and acted as if nothing had happened.  He was soon 
his old self and asking questions about what needed to be done for the 
baby and how he could help.  There wasn't much just now, but later Jan 
would need lots of help.  Jim was willing to do whatever she needed. 

There were a lot of things to get ready for Jim's graduation.  The local
home school group was having a formal celebration for the high 
schoolers and a graduation program planned. Much of the stuff from 
Jim's parents' house was in storage.  They needed to go through it to 
find pictures of his younger days.  There were also announcements to 
choose and send, a class ring to order, senior pictures, year book 
senior page to design . . . the list went on. 

This year Jim was dually enrolled in the local junior college during his
senior year.  He paid for the college classes, but got high school and 
college credit.  It was a great program to give him a jump on college 
as well as help with the heavier high school classes.  It was tough, 
but he was doing well. 

Christmas was quickly approaching.  The family celebrated all the
holidays, but Christmas was a month of celebrations.  They all enjoyed 
decorating inside and out.  A number of traditional activities were 
looked forward to. 

Each year the church put on live scenes of the nativity story.  David,
his brothers and his dad usually supplied most of the animals and 
helped build the backgrounds.  Some of them actually became actors in 
the scenes.  There were six scenes and people would drive through the 
parking lot and view the Christmas story from their vehicles.  The 
townspeople flocked to it. 

There were lots of whispered conversations and secrets in the house. 
Though a big deal was made of the holiday, gifts were not the main 
focus.  They never had been, even when growing up.  When gifts were 
mentioned it was in the context of what was being given rather than 
wanting.  David had continued this theme in his home.  Oh, they did get 
nice gifts, but the emphasis was on the giving. 

Since the boys had gotten into photography, everyone's tables and walls
were filling up with pictures.  It wasn't that they weren't good, 
because they were great.  Their talent, especially Jim's, of finding 
simple and mundane scenes that turned out wonderful was impressive.  
They didn't want to give up giving their gifts of pictures, but needed 
a new use for them.  One day while thumbing through a stack of 
favorites, Pete got the idea of putting their pictures into a book form 
in some way.  The local printer agreed to help them put it together in 
an inexpensive but presentable fashion.   He liked their work and their 
idea and was eager to help them.  He was charging them nothing for his 
labor except a copy of the book. 

David and Alex were working together to get a new, expanded computer
system with the works for Andy and Jim.  Gran was getting improvements 
for Pete's.  David was busy making a book case for each household.  
Pete, Jim and Andy were also getting a smaller one for their own rooms. 
 Alex had told no one, but his adventure book was ready and he had 
copies for everyone.  Gran and Gram always had a basket for each family 
filled with jams, jellies, meat, flower seeds, breads and anything else 
they thought of, along with a few personal things.  It was an expected 
gift that their children dearly loved.  Most of the things could be 
frozen or kept for use all during the year, if any was left after the 
holidays. 

Christmas dinner was always at Gran and Gramps' house.  It wouldn't feel
right to have it anywhere else.  It was fun and homey to crowd everyone 
in.  The sons gathered the Saturday a week or two before Christmas to 
go out in the woods to cut a huge tree.  The ladies would decorate the 
tree while Gran baked cookies in the kitchen with the grandchildren.  
They helped by cutting the cookies out and decorating them.  Even 
though the boys were big teenagers, they still were herded into the 
kitchen.  Although they complained that they were too big to help with 
the cookies, they really wouldn't have given this activity up for 
anything in the world.  They had as much fun as their two younger 
cousins. 

Everyone forgot the trials and trouble of the world when they gathered
early on Christmas Eve for the holiday meal and celebration.  Each 
family had brought gift baskets of food and practical items to carry to 
needy families in the area.  The men and kids delivered them as the 
ladies got the meal ready.  The table was full of steaming bowls and 
plates of tantalizing aromas when they returned.  In the middle of the 
table was a huge stuffed turkey.  Needless to say, the meal was 
wonderful. 

After relaxing while watching a Christmas movie and then singing all the
Christmas carols they could think of, the Frank's kids passed out one 
gift to each person.  One by one the gifts were opened and everyone 
shared in the pleasure of each person's gift.  This tradition took a 
while, but it was instituted when their children were small.  In their 
excitement the children would tear into one gift after another and lose 
some of the excitement of each individual gift.  Besides, it was fun to 
see what everyone got so it became a tradition even as they grew up. 

Each family would have their own traditions Christmas morning and then
go to their spouse's family Christmas Day.  Everyone realized that it 
was unusual to have all of your family able to get together for most 
holidays and tried never to take their pleasure for granted. 

As they moved on after the holidays, graduation plans came to the
forefront.  Jim was as nervous as he was excited.  Once in a while his 
‘senior jitters' would take hold of him to the point that David would 
bring Jim into his study and ‘take him in hand' to get him back on 
track.  This was something he had done occasionally with both boys when 
they hadn't gotten in trouble, per se, but greatly needed an attitude 
adjustment.  While being very understanding, David insisted that they 
learn to control their emotions and thoughts.  A very different and 
happier boy always emerged. 

Graduation day arrived and no graduate ever had a family who was more
proud of one of their own.  In addition to the family, the friends of 
his dad who had kept in touch also came and brought their families.  
Jim was greatly impressed. 

A home school graduation is quite different from a regular school one.  
The dozen graduates marched in dressed in caps and gowns and sat on the 
first row of the church.  There was a brief address by the pastor.  The 
parents then walked up and sat on the platform.  As each graduate's 
name was called, pictures of them as they grew up and involved in 
various activities were shown on a screen behind them.  The area 
coordinator called out Jim's name and David and Jan stood and stepped 
forward.  As they handed Jim his diploma he gave both of them a big hug 
and handed Jan a long stemmed rose he had kept hidden under his robe.  
The sweet, unexpected act brought the moisture in her eyes to real 
tears. 

The reception was great.  Each graduate had a table where the family
displayed things relative to his life; pictures, hobbies, talents, etc. 
 Jam had found scout badges and a couple of sports trophies in the 
things stored as well as a number of pictures.  Of course she added a 
number of pictures that had been taken since coming to live with David, 
especially the book of his photos.  Jim had no idea what was going to 
be there.  Jan wouldn't tell him.  What brought tears to his own eyes, 
was an 11x13 framed picture of him with Ellen and Roy taken a few 
months before his dad died.  This was on one end of the table and on 
the other end was a framed picture of him with David and Jan.  At one 
time, when Jan became pregnant, he had felt that he had lost parents 
twice.  Now he realized that he was very fortunate in have two 
wonderful sets of parents. 

While all three boys had gotten into photography, Jim had decided to
make it a career.  While attending the local college in the fall, he 
would be the junior photographer for the local newspaper.  The family 
was very proud of him and he was excited. 

For Gran and Gramps anniversary, they had arranged for a professional
photographer to come out to the house and take a family picture on the 
front porch.  It would be a wonderful heirloom for generations.  
Afterward they would go out to eat at an exclusive restaurant.  Gramps 
complained half-heartedly that he didn't know how to act in a fancy 
place.  Gran told him just to keep quiet that she looked forward to 
dressing up and going out! 

By now Jan was quite ready for their child to come.  It had been a very
good pregnancy, but at this point there's just no way to get 
comfortable for long.  The baby's room was ready and waiting.  Andy had 
moved downstairs across from Alex.  His room became the nursery.  Jan's 
parents would come and stay for a week or two when the baby came.  A 
bed had been added to the nursery for them. 

The baby decided to put in an appearance right on the due date.  After
breakfast David was about to leave for a lecture nearby when Jan had 
the first labor pain.  He was about to arranged a substitute for him, 
but Jan told him to go on.  It would probably be a while before she 
needed to go to the hospital and Jim was there to drive her if 
necessary.  Alex and Andy were there also.  He could come home after he 
spoke.  He knew she was right, but left reluctantly after calling him 
mom to come over.. 

David returned a few hours later.  By the time he finished lunch; Jan
decided it was time to go to the hospital.  They made the call to her 
parents and then the doctor.  Jim, Gran and David helped her to the car 
and then into the hospital.  She was getting closer but was doing fine. 
 David and Jim were wrecks.  After the initial procedures, they were 
allowed to stay with Jan.  Gramps arrived with Andy and Alex an hour 
later.  In less than three hours Christopher Mark made his way into the 
world.  David was with Jan the whole time and was filled with pride for 
his healthy son.  They let the family come in for just a minute to see 
the baby before they took him away and left Jan to rest.  David had 
definitely joined the ranks of the proud papas! 

As proud as they were, they quickly realized that a new baby was a lot
of work.   As babies go, he was a very good baby.  They were very glad 
Jan's parents were there.  Of course, Gran was over every day to help 
out too.  Christopher Mark was named after both grandfathers.  David's 
dad was Chris and Jan's dad was Mark.  They decided to call him 
Christopher. 

Gran and Gramps put off their anniversary date a week so that Jan would
be able to come.  Although expected to come, Alex asked if he could 
keep the baby that night.  It had been a long time since he had cared 
for a tiny one, but had not forgotten how, he assured them.  They 
finally agreed and left for a good evening.  It was Jan's first time 
out in a long time and so the celebration was two-fold for her. 

Their 4th of July cookout was bigger this year.  The entire church was
coming.  David outdid himself again by having roast beef and pork on an 
outdoor pit for a couple days before.   It was delicious.  There were 
adults gathered in groups here and there talking and laughing.  The 
older kids were talking and playing or watching a volleyball game.  The 
younger children were playing in another area or visiting a group of 
small animals David had gathered for a ‘petting zoo'.  Jan had invited 
the ladies with little ones inside where she had a nap-time area.  All 
in all, it was another great time. 

Just before everyone began to leave, David walked around greeting
everyone and then leaned back against a tree.  He looked around.  He 
had a good home with a beautiful view of the countryside.  His family 
was all there and healthy.  The turnout was a tribute to his arena of 
friends.  He watched Jim take Christopher from Jan as she came out the 
front door so that she could relax and mingle freely.  Jim proudly 
showed his little brother off to his friends. 

Five or six years ago he could never have imagined how happy he would be
now.  Many changes had occurred in all of their live.  Tragedies had 
come and brought grief.  Lives had been rearranged unexpectedly.  
Though seemingly negatives, these things had transpired to create a new 
arrangement of happiness.  How could this be?  David could not begin to 
understand.  It was a form of serendipity, the gift of finding valuable 
or agreeable things not sought for.  All he knew was that he was 
blissfully happy and that it had all come about because of the changes 
in their lives.  He didn't know what changes the future would bring, 
but he didn't fear them.  David leaned back and said a prayer of thanks 
and said, “I have nothing to wish for.  My life is complete.” 


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