"Jack?" She asked gently, nudging the small bump underneath the covers. Slowly, two crystal blue eyes peeped out at her. "Are you scared of the thunder?" He shook his head feverishly, but she knew that he was trying to put on the 'tough guy' attitude. "Come here," She said, smiling as she opened her arms and let him snuggle up to her side. She took off her reading glasses and placed them on top of the book.
"Tell me a story, please?" He begged her. She pondered for a moment, and decided to tell him a story that she knew quite well.
"Okay, I'll tell you a story," She said, brushing back a loose strand of hair from her face, "Once there was this young man. He was very handsome, and he was blessed with the talent to sing. He and his friends could sing like no one in this world could, and people were always around them, trying to get a glimpse of him and their magical voices."
"The people always followed the young man and his friends, and the man couldn't handle it anymore. One day, he ran off from the rest of his friends and went to sit underneath the shade of a tall tree so he could sort his thoughts out." She smiled at the memory, "as he was sitting beneath the tree, this enormous spider dropped down and landed on his shoulder, like this," She said, tickling Jack softly, making him giggling.
"It wouldn't have been so bad, it was just a spider, but spiders were the one thing in the world that the young man couldn't stand. The minute the spider dropped on his shoulder, he panicked and didn't know what to do." She said.
"What a wimp! He's scared of a stupid spider!" Jack said, disgusted. Nicole only eyed him, not pointing out that a moment ago he'd been scared of the 'stupid' thunder.
"Anyway, out of nowhere, a girl appears. She had a magical wand," She smirked at the creative word she used for 'magazine', "and she made the spider disappear and saved the man from deep embarrassment."
"He got saved by a girl?" Jack said.
Nicole eyed him, "hey watch it," She warned, "girls are not weaker than boys." She cleared her throat and continued on with the story. "Well, the man was very grateful to the young woman for 'saving' his life, but he hadn't realize then that he had fallen in love with the young woman. The young woman accepted his thanks and got ready to leave, but the young man stopped her. 'You're just going to leave me?' he asked her in disbelief."
"The young woman eyed him strangely, 'what did you want me to do?' she asked, and the young man noticed then how green her eyes were. 'But don't you know who I am?' he asked her, expecting her to study his face and act like the rest of the people who chased him. The girl shrugged, 'I know who you are,' she answered confidently, 'but I don't really care.' She turned around and walked away, leaving the man very confused and very intrigued."
"What happened next?" Jack asked, interrupting her for the third time.
"I'm getting there," She said with a grin. "That night, the man is with his friends and they are singing to a large group of people. As they rush back to their bus to escape the crowds of people chasing them, the man spots the young woman who had saved his life earlier that day. Abruptly, he turned from the bus and headed into her direction, risking getting mobbed to get her phone number."
"Did she give it to him?"
"After much hesitation, yes. The crowd got to him, and it took them a while to get him back to the bus. The young lady went home, thinking that he wouldn't call her, when he did that very night. The two of them became very close, and the young woman finds herself falling in love with the man more and more with every passing day. One day, when the two of them are together, she admits how much she loves him. The young man, shocked and surprised, got angry. He said mean and hateful things, things that people should not say to anyone, and why is that?"
"Because you shouldn't hate people, because you're only hurting yourself as well as them," Jack piped up.
"Exactly," She agreed, "and the girl was indeed very hurt. She was so hurt by his accusations that she ran away, crying that she never wanted to see him again. At first, the man was perfectly happy with this. The endless swarm of people who chased him had made him immune to some things, he thought. Well, it didn't make him immune from loneliness. He couldn't think of anyone but the girl, and realized quite a bit too late that he was in love with her too. Well, it was too late to talk to her, she wouldn't talk to him at all."
"One day, she was at the mall shopping, when she seems him there. She remembers all of the hurtful things that had happened again and starts to flee from the mall, but the man gets up quickly to follow her. Fortunately, he tripped over one of the chairs, spraining his ankle badly. The young woman turned around, and seeing him on the ground hurt, she dashes back to him. After that, they live happily ever after," She said, ending the story.
"Was he still scared of spiders?" Jack asked, a bit sleepily.
"Yes." She answered, "you know," She added, "it's not a bad thing to be scared of something." She told him, smiling down at him. "It's not weak, we all just have different fears and doubts."
"But Daddy's not scared of anything," The boy replied, with such conviction that Nicole laughed.
"How do you know that?"
"Because he's so big and when something scary happens, he just laughs!" The boy said with such conviction, his eyes wide, that Nicole had to smother a laugh.
"Well, maybe Daddy's the exception," She said, not wanting to break the boy's sweet image of his father, "but I bet your little brother is scared of something too, feel how he's jingling around in there?" She asked, placing Jack's small hand on her rotund belly.
"Yeah!" Jack said, smiling brightly as he felt his unborn brother kick. "Maybe he'll play basketball with me and Daddy!" The prospect appealed to him greatly.
"Maybe," She said, smiling fondly at her small son. "Now, go on to bed. If the thunder still scares you, just come right back here, ok?"
"Okay," The little boy said, hopping off of the bed, "but I don't think I'll be scared of the thunder anymore," He kissed her cheek, "thank you Mommy." He ran off to his own room, his mother watching him with a content smile on her face. Her eyes widened with pleasure when she saw another familiar face peek in.
"Hey, I thought you'd be asleep by the time I got home," He said, smiling as he tiredly collapsed face down onto the bed next to her and crawled under the covers.
"Jack was scared of the thunder," She told him, running a hand through his hair. "I told him a story to get his mind off of it."
"I know, I heard it," He said, raising his eyes to hers, "and I still thank God every day for spraining that ankle of mine." He said, his eyes shining with all of the love he felt for her.
"And what about the spider?" She teased, enjoying his playful grimace. "It was romantic of you to risk getting mobbed by a bunch of teenage girls just to get my number, Justin."
"Well, what can I say?" He joked, sliding up next to her and wrapping his arms around her, "it was worth it." He kissed her on the cheek, his hand on her belly and their unborn child, and the two of them drifted off into a deep, contented sleep.