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Part I Chapter 29

The afternoon passed wonderfully, AJ, Win and Denise talked well into the evening. Around seven o’clock Denise jumped up.
“Oh my, look at the time! You all must be starved by now. Come inside, I’ll whip up something fantastic.” AJ and Win followed Denise inside and she motioned for them to sit at the counter.
“Let me help you mom,” AJ said setting down his glass.
“Oh thank you sweetie, there’s chicken in the fridge.” Denise said pulling a cutting board towards her and cutting vegetables.
“I didn’t know AJ could cook.” Win replied.
“He hasn’t told you he can cook? What does he talk about?” Denise asked.
“About you, about me, then you some more, then, me, me, lets see, oh and me, again.” Win laughed.
“I can’t help it if I’m hooked.” He said sheepishly returning to the counter with the chicken.
“Well maybe I’ll get to know some more about you instead of hearing you talk about me.”
“Oh, and I can tell you stories! He is an amazing cook Win, let me tell you. And, this is something he’ll never admit, he can sew too, his grandmother taught him.”
“Could we not talk about this please ma?” AJ asked coldly, a noticeable change in the tone of his voice. He turned on the stove and threw a pan onto the burner.
“All right, I guess I’ll just have to take out the photo albums from when you were just a wittle cute thing!” Denise squealed pinching his cheek.
“Aw, not the baby pictures! Please!” he begged.
“Oh, now I have to get them!” Denise said hurrying out of the room.
“Please don’t laugh too hard at my teenage years.” He said as he threw the chicken in the pan with the enthusiasm of a chef.
“Why? I’m sure you were a cute baby.” Win smiled.
“I was never cute.” AJ replied.
“I think you’re cute,” Win replied.
“Only you and my mother would.”
“Now that’s not true, that gay guy that gets you’re coffee thinks you’re hot too.”
“Great, I got guys looking at me now!”
“Not to mention the tons of screaming fans all the time.” Win reminded, wagging her finger at him.
“Oh yeah, kinda easy to forget about them. Lets see, Paprika, now, bam! Look at me, I’m Emeril!” AJ said throwing some spices on the chicken and tossing it around in the pan.
“Here we are! I’m sure you’ll love these!” Denise said, setting four large photo albums down on the counter in front of Win.
“I can look through these?” Win asked.
“Yes you can, no matter what AJ says.” Win grinned evilly at AJ and opened up the first book.
“Oh my god, you were so cute!” Win sighed looking at the pictures.
“You just opened up a whole can of worms.” AJ moaned.
“No, that is really cute.” Win said pointing to a picture in which AJ was about five years old, warring a red towel tied around his neck, a bucket on his head and a pair of yellow galoshes.
“Ah yes, his superhero phase. He was adorable then.” Denise said ruffling up AJ’s skullcap.
“What are you doing wearing those glasses in the house, I’m surprised you can even see what you are doing!” Denise exclaimed pulling his glasses off his face.
“Ma, come on, I’m cooking here,” AJ said trying to snatch the glasses back.
“No, you’re with company, it’s rude, which as a matter of fact, take off that hat too!” Denise said, with her hands on her hips.
“You took my glasses, I get to keep the hat.” AJ protested.
“I don’t understand, you are such a handsome boy, why do you insist on hiding behind your glasses and hats.” Denise reiterated.
“That’s what I told him.” Win said looking up. AJ just grunted a response. Denise just waved a hand at him and laughed.
“Men, can’t do nothing with them. So Win, did you happen to know what an attention hog this guy is?” Denise asked her.
“I would have never guessed.” Win laughed.
“We used to call little ham-o, right sweetie?”
“Ah yes, I remember that fondly, of course that was when I was the size of county fair pig.” AJ replied bitterly.
“Oh you were not that big.” Denise laughed as AJ removed the chicken from the stove and grabbed another pot and taking it to the sink.
“She doesn’t like to admit she had a porker for a son at one time.” Win looked up as she flipped through the books.
“When were these?” Win asked looking at some pictures where AJ must have been around twenty-two or twenty-three. He looked extremely thin and gaunt, ghostly almost but he was smiling as he held onto his mother.
“Oh that was about four years ago, right before,” Denise said slowly staring at the pictures.
“What kind of pasta do you want Ma?” AJ asked loudly.
“Oh, there’s fettuccini in the cabinet by the stove.” Denise said returning her glance to AJ. He gave her a sideways look and shook his head.
“Anyways, see, he wasn’t a pig.” Denise replied looking away quickly. Win closed the book and stood up, walking around the counter. She walked up behind AJ and put a hand on his side, squeezing it gently.
“I’ll be right back.” She said in his ear before walking out of the room.
“What was that about?” Denise asked raising her eyebrows at him.
“She wants me to take it easy, that’s all.” He replied.
“You might feel better if you talked about it.” She replied.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Have you talked about it with Winifred?”
“A little.” He said coldly.
“Maybe you should talk to her about it some more.”
“I don’t want to talk about it Ma, so lay off.” He said.
“You take your tone easy with me boy, you’re not too big that I still can’t whoop you good.” Denise said threateningly.
“I’m sorry mom.” AJ replied turning around and kissing her on the forehead. Win returned to the kitchen with a box in her hands.
“It’s only fair, so I brought you some of my baby pictures.” Win said shaking the box.
“Oh, wonderful!” Denise said throwing her hands up and clapping.
“Yeah, I’d like to see that too.” AJ replied.
“Elizabeth was a great woman, she always took pictures of us. She said she was acting the mother, so she always wanted pictures of her kids.” Win said opening the box. AJ put the pot of water on the stove and turned on another burner.
“Elizabeth was the woman you grew up with?” Denise asked.
“Yes, she ran the orphanage I grew up in.” Win replied pulling out a few photos.
“Awe, your first day of school!” Denise squealed. AJ walked over and looked through the photos as well.
“Now you were the cute kid. Ha, ha, this one is cute.” He said holding up a picture where she was around seven years old, rolling her eyes, pulling out her cheeks and sticking out her tongue.
“You were such a darling!” Denise went on.
“Not to say that she isn’t one still.” AJ said looking up at her.
“Do you have any baby pictures?” Denise asked.
“Oh a couple, not that many though. Ah, let me see,” Win said digging through the box.
“Oh look at you! AJ, look at these!”
“I don’t have any from when I was just born, wait these are the earliest pictures I have.” Win replied laying the two yellowed newspaper articles on the counter. AJ and Denise’s faces fell.
Across the top of the first read “BABY FOUND IN DUMPSTER BEHIND CHINESE RESTAURANT”. Below that was a picture of a baby wrapped in a dirty blanket, her face shining up at the viewer. The other picture showed the ally and the dumpster. The second newspaper clipping showed a smiling woman holding up a baby in a little white dress and shoes in front of a large house. This paper read, “DUMPSTER BABY FOUND A HOME AT ELIZABETH COLDWELL HOME FOR GIRLS”. AJ read lower. “Belltown’s own dumpster baby, who was recognized by a hospital bracelet as Winifred Bastar, was placed at Miss. Coldwell’s home this Thursday. It was hoped that with the publicity of her finding that there would be a family willing to adopt her. Babies are hard to find in the adoption system, but no one has shown interest in adopting the child, now guessed to be around two months old. Miss Coldwell agreed to take the child in after her latest success story, Milly Efton, was accepted to Penn State on full scholarship, and went off to college leaving an available room. Miss Coldwell hopes to find a home for Winifred within the next five years, but she said, ‘If no one adopts her she can stay here, she will always be welcome.’ Police have gone on to say that they have had no luck in finding the mother or father for the dumpster baby and have at this time no leads. Considering that baby Winifred was left in the middle of March it was lucky she didn’t freeze to death. Police are ready to press charges of an attempted murder once the suspect is found. If anyone has any information about what happened please contact…” AJ looked away from the clipping.
AJ felt the floor fall out from underneath him. He saw Win, so tiny and small and helpless, Elizabeth holding her, hoping that someone would adopt her. Hoping that someone would find it in their heart to love Win as much as she did. AJ looked at Win sitting there, looking through the pictures with his mother Denise, laughing and talking and smiling. She smiled at him with so much life. He smiled back at her, seeing now, that Win was still that small helpless little girl that needed to be loved. Win spoke and he woke out of his thoughts and went back to his pasta.
“This is my favorite one, Elizabeth looked so pretty, that’s the way I always saw her.” Win said pointing to the picture of her and Elizabeth.
“Oh she is lovely, are you two close?” Denise asked.
“We were, she died when I was eighteen. See, here we are at our annual fourth of July picnic. I believe I was, sixteen then. Oh and that’s Karen she was only fifteen, she just died last year, she had the flu and she never really got better. Oh here’s me and Elena, Elena got married right out of high school, she has six kids now. She found a good man. Here’s our little talent show, we had so much fun putting that on.” Win laughed and carried on with Denise.
AJ finished making dinner and helped his mother set the table. They spent a good part of the evening talking and laughing when Win excused herself to go to bed.
When Win was finally out of earshot Denise burst out,
“AJ, oh AJ my boy, she is the girl, the girl AJ, she is wonderful!”
“Yeah, I kinda like her myself.”
“You in love with her?”
“That’s a pretty safe bet right now.”
“Good, that means she’ll be sticking around for a while.”
“She pass your test?”
“My test? The are you going after my baby boy just because he is rich and famous and handsome test?” AJ laughed.
“Yes, that one.”
“I don’t know yet, but I have a good feeling about her. We’ll see when we go shopping tomorrow.”
“Oh ma, I just can’t get over her.” AJ reeled, his head falling into his mother’s lap.
“That’s a good thing.”
“You know what she did, the other night, I was really sick, and she came to me, and I literally threw up all over myself, and everywhere else for that matter. But she stayed beside me and cleaned me up. She put me to bed. When I woke up, she was still there, still holding my head, still touching my hands.”
“Awe, see, she really does like you sweet heart.”
“I know she does.”
“Just remember one thing darling. I know she’s been good to you, I haven’t seen you this happy, or this open in a long time. But she needs you, to do the same for her too.”
“I think I am. Just the other night, after Brianna had her baby, she was upset. She couldn’t be that close to the new baby, it just made her nervous. She’s waiting for me to drop her, like she was dumped when she was a kid. I just hope she knows that I won’t.”
“She knows, but I think she just has a hard time believing that. You’ve got to open up to her more, she needs to hear about you, so that she’ll be more comfortable talking about herself. She’s very nervous, I can see that.”
“Did you read that clipping? It said her name was Winifred Baster, now it’s Caldon, I wonder why she changed her name.”
“Oh that’s obvious honey, Elizabeth thought it sounded too much like bastard, like a bastard child. There’s no way she’d let an orphaned child go through life with a name like Baster.”
“Oh, I see. We’ve been through so much of the same things its funny sometimes. Yet in the end, she’s come out better for it.” AJ said thoughtfully. Denise fiddled with a string on his skullcap.
“Who says you haven’t come out better because of it?”
“Mom, I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Then talk to Win about it, she wants to hear about it.”
“No she doesn’t, cause then she’d have to talk about it too. We’ve got at least that much in common.”
“AJ, you’ve got to talk to somebody about it, at least if it’s not me, talk to Win, she’ll understand.” AJ sat up and rubbed his head.
“I spent two months doing nothing but talking about it so I wouldn’t have to talk about it now.”
“That’s not the way it works.”
“Well, that’s the way I’m working it. Good night ma, I love you.” AJ kissed his mother on the cheek and got up quickly, retreating to the guest room where Win was sleeping. He undressed and slipped into bed, slithering his arms around Win’s sleeping body and throwing his leg over her hip. She snuggled against him.
“Oh so you finally came to bed,” she mumbled.
“Yes, I did, night beautiful.”
“Night babe.”