October, 2009

Life is going good and that’s all I can ask for.  On tour right now just chillin’ while I have some downtime before the sound check starts, in an hour or so. I miss Chels and Nadia but they’re coming out in a couple of weeks, so I’ll try and hang in there.  Things are back to normal, well as normal as normal is for my family.  From what I understand Jerald hasn’t talked to any one but his Mom since everything went down.  When we went back to Anne’s place after spending a night alone in a hotel room, we walked in on Tim unloading on Jerald. Telling him he took shit too far, that if their Father was alive right now his hide would be tanned, whether he was 50 something or not. Anne told us Jerald just doesn’t want us together, at all, and I even heard whispers that he’s gone to counseling.  Nadia’s in school and adjusting well, just before I started the tour, Chels and I helped her redo her room, we painted it, bought furniture for it, and she picked everything out.  I gotta say she doesn’t really have my funky taste; she’s more relaxed like her Mom when it comes to that kind of stuff.  Chelsea’s doing good too, still nothing major has happened because of the coma and it’s been a couple of months now.  Oh and Nadia has been calling us Mom and Dad for a couple of weeks.  Sometimes I look at her and wish I was there, wish I could experience her coming into this world, it’s weird when you realize you’re a parent and it’s even weirder when it’s just like bam you now have a teenage girl.  She’s smart and I now know what Kevin meant when he use to say Chelsea was like an old soul, cause her daughter has one too…

AJ looked up when there was a knock at the door.  He put his pen down, got up from the table and then walked over to the hotel room door.  Looking out the peep hole he saw a hotel attendant standing outside.  Opening it he met the worker with a smile.

“Hi” He said as the man stood there with a package in his hand.

“This came for you sir, need you to sign here.” The man said and AJ’s face fell in puzzlement He signed for the package and said thank you to the attendant. 

“Hey dude whatcha got?” Nick yelled an AJ looked up and saw LeighAnne, Brian and Nick standing in the hall.

“Dunno” He shrugged as they started heading over.  Pulling on the plastic that was secured over it.  “I hate this shit always so hard to pull cause it stretches.” AJ moaned as he tried to poke a hole for an opening.  Finally his fingers poked through and he was able to take off the plastic mail envelope.  Inside was a box, no name, no lable, only thing abnormal about it was that it wasn’t really square it was somewhat long.  He looked at the plastic bag for a name but there wasn’t one.

“What it is?” Brian asked as AJ looked at his friends.

“No name, so I have no idea.” He shrugged.

“Fan package?” Nick asked.

“Then it would have, name, number and address plastered all over it.” AJ said looking at Nick.  He looked back at the box and turned it over a couple of times, that’s when he saw the writing.  “To You, From Me. Oh, it’s from Cheslea.” He said reading the writing.

“Well open it up.” LeighAnne said shooing him with her hands.

Pulling on the edge of the box and breaking off the piece of scotch tape that was over the lid, he got inside the unknown package.   He looked inside and his face was over come with confusion.  “What the hell is this?”  Tilting the box he let the item fall out into his hand.

“What the hell is that?” Nick said repeating his question.

LeighAnne gasped and everyone looked at her and then a devilish smile came across her face as she looked at AJ.  “I know what that is.” She smiled.

“What?” AJ asked looking at her.

“Turn it over.” She said still smiling.

AJ looked down at the long thin plastic thing in his and turned it over.  As the other side faced him he stared at the small window with the pink plus sign in the middle.  His mind went blank for a second, he knew what it was but he couldn’t remember.

“Oh, it’s a pregnancy test.” His inner voice spoke.  “It’s a pregnancy test!” He blurted out to his friends as he looked at them dumb founded.  Then he looked back down at the window.  “Plus, it’s plus…holy shit its plus!”

“Well duh dude, I don’t think Chels would have sent it out here if it was Negative.” Nick said sarcastically.  “Oh look baby we were so close this time.” He said as he snapped his fingers.

“Nick shut up.” LeighAnne sighed.

“Alex…” He heard Brian say as he stared at the stick.

“I…I…I need to go call Chelsea.” He said as he turned around and let the door close behind him, still staring at the stick in his hand.  Almost zombie like he walked over to the table and picked up his cell phone, dialing his home number. 

“Hello?” Chelsea’s voice answered the phone.  He said nothing still staring at the stick.  “Alex are you there?” She said after a minute.

“Chelsea…” Was all AJ could get out.

“Ah, did you get my present?” Chelsea said and he could hear her smile through the phone.

“Are you serious, is this, is this for real?” AJ said as he started to come out of his fog.

“Yep” She said.  “I took the test and when it came out positive I made the doctors appointment.  They called yesterday morning to confirm that it was positive so I sent that out express.”

“Oh my God Chelsea are you serious?” AJ spoke as he felt the emotion over take him.

“Yes, I’m serious.” She replied with a giggle.

“Does Nadia know?” He asked.

“No, I was figuring we could tell her together when we meet up with you.” She told him.

“Can you fly, are you ok to fly?” AJ asked.

“Yes hun I can fly.” She replied.  “But if you want you can call your Mom.”

“Oh man she’s going to lose it.” AJ said with a light laugh.  “Holy fuck Sweetheart I can’t believe this.” He said as he put his hand over his mouth as his tears dripped from his eyes.

The couple talked and cried for about a half hour, talking about people they were going to tell and making sure they knew not to say anything to Nadia.  AJ said I love you too her about twenty times before they finally hung up the phone and then he sat there and stared at the test again.  Composing himself he stood up and headed towards the door but then his journal caught his eye.  Changing direction AJ walked over to the table and sat down, picking up the pen.

…My hand is shaking…I can’t believe what Chelsea just told me.  I can barely write it, Chelsea told me she was pregnant. PREGNANT!!! This is unreal, it feels like a dream. My Chelsea, the one I thought I had lost forever and now we’re going to have a baby.  This is a whole different feeling from when I found out about Nadia, this I can watch grow, I can be there, and we can share this together.  Words can not describe how much I love that woman right now, she’s brought so much to my life, she’s made my life something I thought it would never be…perfect.