1.2 - Birth

I couldn’t find much of anywhere that I could move with what little money I had. So, I ended up full-circle: I found a tiny little trailer in the park around the corner from my old tenement.

 I suppose it’s sort of comforting, in a way: a little girl with no past, no family... that rundown old tenement was the first place that I can remember ever having a life and a mother. No father, though: my mother did everything on her own. The younger kids’ father was an entertainer who traveled all over Moripiko Island: Saturday never wanted kids. I still remember when Elissa and Jap were born, Saturday had come over to the apartment to watch me while Mom was in the hospital. He spent the entire day wandering around the place in his underwear and reading the paparazzi reports.

 

When I first found out that I was having twins, I might have cried a little. Two newborns in that tiny trailer? What was I thinking?? I mean, I remember what it was like, living in a small two-bedroom apartment with Mom and the first set of twins. In a tiny little trailer where the only door to close is the bathroom? – I’m going to go crazy, I just know it.

I don’t go out much anymore – then again, there’s not much of anything I can do, seeing as I’m flat broke and big as a house. At first, I started following the Inventor’s Invented Guide to Inventing Inventive Inventions just as a way to occupy myself during the day: having all day to do nothing is a beast of a burden.

 

But I discovered something: I kind of like the freedom this life gives me. I can still make some money – I have some artifacts and old relics that I brought back from Shang Simla that I can pawn off to make a little bit of extra cash. Inventing lets me keep my hands busy, and I can work on useful things around the twins’ schedules.

It’s perfect. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier.

 When I went into labour, I discovered that vital, all-encompassing truth that every pregnant woman discovers… The painkiller is a lie. There is nothing that can possibly deal with the amount of pain that comes with pushing two not-so-tiny human bodies out of your you-know-what. I am still having a lot of trouble believing that my mother actually willing did this… TWICE.

Labour: the ultimate birth control. I am totally, and completely, DONE with having kids.

 I named the girls Kaiya and Mika. I figured that the best way to make sure that my little girls don’t grow up with complexes is to make sure that they’re in touch with their heritage – and what’s a bigger part of your identity than your name?

My day never ends with the twins. Whenever I manage to get one dealt with (dirty-diaper-bottle-snuggle-put-down-pick-up-wash-rinse-repeat), the other starts up. I am exhausted. I am tired. I go nowhere. I see nobody. I hate Ho Jun Kim the deep-throat idiot from Shang Simla more and more every day.