Context: In a prior submission, you saw not just a sample of one of the character side stories that would make up a sizeable portion of Part 1 in the last book of the A.T.X.D. Legacy Series, but also the birth of a child from the secondary characters Sophia and William. But I figured I would explore the moment when the main characters - Richard and Ashley - have their child. I recently crafted the scene as a flashback which Ashley recalls while changing from her ranch work clothing to some athletic attire. Take a look and tell me what you think. I hope I have appropriately and accurately written this scene.
Side note: There's a little foodie-related easter-egg from my childhood in this scene. I don't expect you to catch it, so I'll reveal it to you after we've finished reviewing it.
In the kitchen, Ashley pulled off her cowboy boots and used a rough-skinned sponge to spread some soapy water over the black leather and thoroughly remove the dirt and grime from the soles and heels. Unlike Richard, Ashley hadn’t brought her tactical boots into exile to be used on the ranch because she saw them as tools for war. With a kid on the way at the time, Ashley felt more inclined to leave the war toys back at HQ - either to be preserved or disposed of if the force never came back together - because she didn’t want their son to see this part of mom when he was still too young to understand the dark complexities of she and Richard’s careers as operatives. But remembering how she always tried to keep her tactical boots spick and span clean regardless of where she traveled or fought in them, Ashley decided to commit the same level of care and attention to her cowboy boots and other footwear.
As soon as her boots were sparkling clean, Ashley took them to the front shoe rack in the hallway. The rack was divided in the middle by a wooden barrier to separate Richard and Ashley’s footwear: on the right stood Richard’s tactical boots, a backup pair of Merrell hiking boots, an empty space where his cowboy boots would be placed, and a pair of dark Asics trainers for athletics. In between the racks on the floor also stood two pairs of snow boots given how long and heavy winter could be up here in the mountains: one velcro-strapped pair belonged to Richard, and a pair of L. L. Bean Duck Boots stood next to them for Ashley. The left, meanwhile, featured a space for Ashley’s riding boots along with two pairs of eight-inch-high combat walking boots: both utilized for casual walking and ranch duties, as well as a pair of grayish-blue Nike Pegasus athletic trainers. At the edge of the row were a pair of shiny red, Converse Chuck Taylor All Star high tops. Being the sneaker fan she was back in the force and before then, Ashley felt that these red beauties were both a good reminder of her city-girl past but also casually fit in with the lush country setting better than some of the other casual trainers she used to wear back on civi-leave.
But as Ashley slipped her feet in and tugged the laces securely into one of her gallant bunny-eared knots in preparation for some basic indoor cardio, the Major felt a shiver in her body: one of both ominous anxiety and sheepish pleasure. Although it wasn’t uncommon for her to have certain tingly or gut feelings as she thought of them when lacing up certain pairs of shoes back in her bedroom in Pasadena or the locker hall at HQ, it was only once Ashley stood up in her red beauties that a flashback helped to clarify the source of this particular sensation.
>>>>>>>FIVE-AND-A-HALF YEARS EARLIER<<<<<<<
>>>>>>>RANCH HOUSE KITCHEN<<<<<<<
>>>>>>>9:00 AM MDT<<<<<<<
God, that was disgusting. Ashley was so used to Richard’s cooking being exemplary. But last night’s macaroni and cheese tasted like rubber and slime. The sensation was so terrible that Ashley had to hurl it all upstairs within minutes of her lips touching the food.
“It’s not your fault, Richard,” she remembered telling him later that evening. “Just this fucking morning sickness. This….” she had to stop herself short of insulting the baby inside her and took a moment to fumble her words before rephrasing, “He is just a very picky eater right now. The sooner he gets out, the better.”
“Well, hopefully I can get back to my old recipes and maybe try some of the stuff Jasorik had me learn in his Club kitchen. And he,” Richard had casually pointed down to the bowling ball in Ashley’s stomach, “won’t be so reluctant to try.”
Ashley narrowed her eyes in a daring sarcastic way and slyly informed her husband with a return pointer, “Let’s keep him off the extraterrestrial stuff for now. At least until he can swallow solid food. Then we’ll try something….simple.”
But after having to pass on some handmade waffles for breakfast this morning, a hungering throb in her stomach prompted Ashley to consider maybe pushing the limits she had set that evening. Standing in her glowing red Chucks and some warm PJs to fight off an internal chill despite the house being a mild 74 degrees inside, Ashley proceeded to make herself a light meal of extraterrestrial origin.
An old recipe she had learned from her Autavian comrade Jaijiyang Rishin was Piet’so Mariechado: a tomato paste-style recipe that had the added use of Mariechado Carrots that grew on their homeworld, sporting thick green leaves and a natural acid coating to keep out parasites. When refined at either 200-degrees fahrenheit in an oven or 20 degrees or less in the freezer before being thawed out, the acid coating - which was bitter in its raw state - liquified and absorbed some of the carrot’s flavorful nutrients to become a savory vinegar. It was like being able to grow the pickled carrots from Ashley’s favorite Mexican restaurants back in Pasadena straight from the soil, and the use of a small Stratoponic Grow System on the kitchen counter to her left allowed the Major and her husband to grow these and other unearthly vegetables and fruits in a contained environment with remarkable ease.
While simply practicing the recipe three months earlier based on Yang’s directions, little Jacob had pulsed with seemingly hungered joy at the rich scent which the Earthly beefsteak tomato paste wafted up to Ashley’s nose once the Mariechado Carrots had been cut up and mixed within. And the Major’s first attempt had been such a success when combined in a little burrito recipe she’d customized that Richard had joked that night about wanting to have the sauce on various things every night.
Okay, youngin’, Ashley thought with light hearted pleasure as she sadistically squeezed the tomato’s contents into the pot and then threw the fleshy remains in, let’s hope you’re still eager for mommy’s Piet’so Mariechado.
After ten minutes of stirring, Ashley proceeded to remove the Mariechados from the toaster oven. A tremble in her hip, however, resulted in one of the soft carrots falling off the plate and getting squished under her sneaker. “Dammit. You gotta be kidding me.” Ashley remembered muttering impatiently, but the frustration was short-lived as there were still nine other carrots ready for use. Using a little rapid-chop tool that Richard had gotten from Jasorik just before the exile, Ashley safely diced up the remaining carrots and proceeded to sweep them into the mix. A small puff of rich, spicy steam came up from the pot in response to the sizzling reaction of the sauce mixing with the vinegar-like acid of the carrots, flooding Ashley with a soothing sensation.
“Mm.” It wasn’t a relaxed and long mmm in response to the delicious scent, but rather a short and high pitched squeak in her throat as something else occurred. A wet feeling prompted Ashley to let go of the stirring spoon and take a couple steps back before she looked down at her legs. Vaguely visible on the tan-tiling of the floor, between the reflective white toes of her red sneakers, were a few dots of yellowish-pink. One of her legs felt like it had a wormy creature slithering down it under her PJ, and she felt a warm build up of fluid at the waistline. Her torso started to tremble with an overwhelming ticklish feeling, prompting Ashley to quietly giggle and hiss with sheepish anxiety, and she tried to take a step forward only to collapse towards her knees, reach out and grab the stove top to retain her footing.
Luckily, the Johnsons were using an induction cooktop that didn’t transfer any heat to Ashley’s hands, even into the pure gold wedding ring with the teal-blue Xenarian Gem on her left finger. So she held herself there, giggling with a purely stupid smile and tightly shut eyes while her sneakers pressed their diamond-pattern rubber treads into the floor and tried to hold her up in a standing posture. But as some more of the fluid began to puddle between their soles, her Chucks couldn’t keep her standing for much longer and Ashley began to sag down. As with everything else she’d been through, however, the Major wasn’t going to face this alone.
“RICHAAARD!” she remembered hollering with a heart throbbing mix of excitement and bewilderment, clutching her eyes tightly.
“What’s wrong?” Richard’s protective warrior instinct superseded the more anticipated question of “Is it time?” which any other husband would have posed in this situation. And when he saw Ashley kneeling against the stovetop and giggling with a now almost frantic sound, Richard was prompted to ask if the Major had hurt herself.
“No….it’s…oh God, it’s ti….oh fuck, he’s coming.”
“Okay, sailor,” Richard calmly joked in response to his wife’s Navy mouth being forced open, “I’ll get the bags and spare change of clothes.”
“The truck, oh,” Ashley groaned, pushing herself back into a standing position as she narrowly avoided slipping on her own fluid, “I’ll….start the truck.”
“No, no, I’ll do that too.” Richard quickly proceeded to switch off the cooktop to avoid a kitchen fire in preparation for their urgent rush to the town hospital.
“Then I’ll get my change of clothes,” Ashley insisted. “First floor closet,” she let out a long moan as a contraction clenched up inside and Richard supported her outstretched right arm, “by the stairs. I remember.”
The contraction had just ceased by the time they made it to said closet, where Richard briefly left and hurried up the stairs to grab a small bag of supplies along with a baby basket Ashley had picked out in town. He had just made it back down when the Major let out another groan and grabbed the closet door frame, indicating another contraction taking place. Shoving the screen door open, Richard carefully walked his wife down the steps to the truck, which he had parked right by the porch as a precaution following a prior false alarm last week.
“Oog, can’t you go any faster?” Ashley begged, flexing back a bit in the passenger seat as Richard sped down the road into town at almost 45 miles per hour - ten units faster than stated on the sign which blurred right past him.
“I’m going as fast as I can and making sure we arrive in town instead of in the lake,” Richard replied, keeping his cool as said lake sped by scenically on Ashley’s side of the truck.
For most of the trip though, Ashley was a remarkably quiet passenger, resorting to simple grunts or relieving exhales as she tussled with the contractions. This was at least a reassurance to Richard that things were going well and the Major was holding her ground as always. And lucky for them, the small hospital here was situated on a small hill just above the town itself, so it took only another ten minutes and bearing three more contractions on Ashley’s part before they arrived. Two nurses quickly helped Richard get Ashley out of the car and into a hoverchair before pushing her through the emergency room’s automatic doors.
All through the operation, Ashley had kept her sneakers on, pressing their treads into the bedsheets while letting out repeatedly long, determined groans through gritted teeth as she pushed to get Jacob out. And when the little tyke finally came out, he wasn’t just crying: he was screaming.
“Oh ho my God,” Richard remembered laughing with overjoyed relief, and Ashley couldn’t tell if she was laughing or crying as she smiled and tasted the saltiness of her tears following the harrowing experience. “He’s just like his mother: a real fighter.”
Flopping back against the pillow with a tearful giggle and sliding her now sore thighs and ankles out into a straight resting pose, Ashley recalled the story she’d shared with Richard on their honeymoon of how she had been the loudest screaming babe in the ward at the time of her arrival. And looking at little Jacob, screaming and struggling himself even after being wrapped up, it was clear that his mother’s fighter gene had indeed blossomed in their child.
>>>>>>>5.5 YEARS LATER<<<<<<<
>>>>>>>PRESENT DAY<<<<<<<
Even after that messy experience, Ashley had simply cleaned up her sneakers and continued to use them while either swaddling the baby, helping Jacob learn to walk, doing yoga and tai chi, or just to wear around the house. Like her husband, Ashley’s high tops had literally supported her through the experience of bearing then deploying Jacob into the world, and she would be damned if she was gonna toss them or Richard aside any time soon. And because she almost never wore them outside of the house and took very good care of them like other footwear she bought, the Major’s Converse had lasted this long with very little signs of wear besides a tad bit of scuffing and a little dirt on the soles.
Looking up at the clock in the hallway and verifying with her watch, Ashley noticed the time getting close to 10:00 am, and that was her usual workout time. Richard normally worked out in the afternoon, meanwhile, so as to give each other some space and because he seemed to enjoy working out in the heat of the day while Ashley was more the early bird person. Briefly kicking her polished toes into the rug and then rotating her ankles, Ashley proceeded upstairs to change into one of her dark blue, Navy Veteran T-shirts and other athletic attire.