Cristofer warmly smiled as he played with his daughters. “No need to worry. They’re not heavy,” he assured Estelle, brushing off her concerns. “Besides, I’ve been using the walking stick as the doctor advised. I’m doing fine now.”
Cristofer leaned his walking stick against the arm of the sofa. Despite its elegant appearance with its red paint, only those who relied on it for mobility understood the effort it took to take each step.
Estelle blinked. She clearly looked concerned in her fluttering eyelashes. After a moment of hesitation, she finally asked directly, “How have you been lately?” Her eyes revealed a mix of emotions.
Curling up his lips into a smile, Cristofer uttered, “I feel much better. Seriously. I’m not lying to you. And I’m able to carry you downstairs. When we were watching the stars on the rooftop last night, I noticed you had fallen asleep on the bench, so I gently carried you on my own. Well, I didn’t want to wake you up. So, I didn’t ask for anyone’s help.”
With her face reddening, Estelle still said with worries, “You should have woken me up. I could go downstairs by myself. Then you didn’t have to go all the way to carry me downstairs.”
She put the strays of hair behind her ears to conceal her chagrin. But her red earlobes still gave her away. Then Cristofer naturally lowered his voice and explained, “I just wanted you to sleep longer. You look exhausted recently.”
Somehow, Estelle’s heart started racing when she heard Cristofer’s words. And when she stood there all bewildered and hesitated about what to say, the children suddenly became excited.
Yvonne asked, with her eyes popping in surprise, “Dad, when did you carry Mom downstairs?”
“Last night.”
“Really? I didn’t see that.”
“That’s because you were asleep.”
“Dad, did Mom and you look at the meteor shower together last night? Yohan said it was beautiful, but I didn’t see it because I had fallen asleep. It’s such a pity.”
“It’s all right. You will see it in the future.”
“Can you carry Christina and me the next time we look at the stars?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Dad, is Mom heavy?”
“No, not at all.”
“Mom is so thin. She doesn’t eat much because she is too busy with work. Mrs. Moorsum said that we couldn’t grow tall if we didn’t eat properly. And Mom should eat more to gain more weight.”
“Yeah, Mrs. Moorsum is right. You and your brother and sister should eat enough food so that you can grow stronger and taller in the future. Rest assured, I will ask your Mom to eat more in the future.”
Christina, who was also there, said with a smirk, “But Dad, what if Mom eats too much and gains much weight? Then you can’t carry Mom.”
“I can always carry her no matter how much weight she gains.”
“But what if mom has another baby?”
Blinking her big eyes, Christina asked with curiosity.
Estelle didn’t want to stop this touching conversation between father and daughters, but she just felt that the topic became weirder and weirder as it went on. Thinking that she should interrupt the conversation, she awkwardly said, “Ahem! I’m happy enough to have you guys. I’m not planning to have another baby.”
Hearing that, Christina jumped off Cristofer’s leg and scurried to Estelle. Christina mumbled with her chubby face buried in her arms, “But Mom, I want a younger brother. I don’t want to be the youngest child in the family.”
“What’s wrong with it? It’s great to be the youngest child of the family. You see, you have your older brother and sister to love and protect you,” Estelle said awkwardly.
“But I still want a younger brother. My classmate, Mia, has three younger brothers! They are triplets! They are very cute! She told me her Mom talked to a man and soon had babies! Mom, can you talk to that man?”
When other people were thinking about what man she was talking about, Yvonne added, “Oh! Mia also told me that man is far away from us….”
While Yvonne was still wondering who that man was, Cristofer asked, interrupting her, “Do you mean her mom prayed to God?”
“Yes! She prayed to God!” With that, Yvonne clapped her hands happily. “Then she had three cute babies! Mom, you are so brilliant. If you pray to God, maybe you can have five babies. No, eight!”
Estelle didn’t know what to say, though she knew her daughter was trying to praise her by saying so. And she wondered, ‘Aw… Yvonne, you’re so cute. I know you wanna praise me by saying that I will have a lot of babies. But it doesn’t work like that.’
Noticing that Estelle’s face looked funny, Yvonne turned around and asked Cristofer in puzzlement, “Dad, did I say anything wrong? Isn’t Mom super good?”
Cristofer tried not to laugh out loud and nodded vigorously. “Yes, your Mom is super good,” He replied.
“Then she can have ten babies!” Yvonne pouted and said, “Are ten boys too many? Dad, can you earn enough money to raise so many children? Mia’s Mom said raising three boys costs much money.”
Trying to keep a straight face, Cristofer said, “No matter how many babies your Mom has, I’ll have enough money to raise them.”
Upon hearing Cristofer’s words, Estelle was extremely embarrassed. She stuttered, “You…” At the same time, she exclaimed secretly, ‘Giving birth to 10 babies?! Are you guys serious?’
As Cristofer looked up, he saw Estelle’s reddened face. At that moment, Estelle looked both awkward and nervous. And Cristofer loved the way she was. Then, when he moved closer to Yvonne, Cristofer whispered to her, “Look, your Mom is shy.”
Yvonne turned around to look at Estelle.
“Why does mom feel shy?” She said in bewilderment.
“Because she can’t get pregnant with your baby brother by herself. She needs dad’s help.”
“Oh, I understand now. Mom is too shy to ask for dad’s help, right?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“It doesn’t matter. Yohan, Christina, and I can help her.”
“Well, I don’t think you can help with that.”
Right after Cristofer finished his words, Yvonne opened her mouth in surprise. “What about Grandpa Luke and Mrs. Moorsum?”
“They can’t help your mom either.”
“Then what about grandma? And Auntie Eva and Uncle Vincent?”
“No.”
Yvonne scratched her head in annoyance and looked at Cristofer seriously, “Dad, please try your best. Our teacher told us that we should work as hard as a bee and we can’t be as lazy as a turtle. And you reap what you sow. You have to try hard so that Mom can have three babies. Please?!”
Yvonne wanted to use everything she had learned in kindergarten to persuade Cristofer, and Cristofer couldn’t help but pull his little daughter into his arms and laugh out loud. “Okay. I will try my best.”