It has been a rough two months in Colorado for Don, Lanh, and Karole. Luckily Kim-ly and Trung have stayed by their sides to help get ready for the big move back to Minnesota, Kim-ly remained close to Don and Lanh, and Trung has spent almost all of his time with either Karole or helping Don pack up the house. Karole's house has been sold, and there is a buyer eagerly waiting for the final closing on Don and Lanh's house. Now, it's time to go home to the farm in Minnesota...
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We're a Wonderful Wife
Chapter 13
The Love Boat
Don and Kim-ly finished stacking up boxes in Don and Lanh's garage and when he stacked the last box on the pile Don started gasping for air. "Where's your oxygen tank?" Kim-ly demanded.
"That stuff is all packed in Lanh's SUV," said Don as he eased down and sat on a box.
"You dumb fuck," scolded Kim-ly. Normally she wouldn't talk like that to Don unless she was scared or drunk, and right now she's cold sober. She gets terrified when Don starts gulping and gasping for oxygen and with everything that has happened to Lanh, he's neglecting his own health and his damaged lungs are not going to heal without his care. He's busy packing and cleaning and he's tired of tripping over his oxygen line, he's not taking his medications as required, he's too worried about Lanh and Karole to worry about his own health. Kim-ly handed Don the Albuterol inhaler, the same device used by asthmatics, and Don took a couple of puffs before handing the inhaler back to "Nurse Nguyen." At Lanh's request Kim-ly carried that inhaler whenever she was in Colorado, because Don refuses to carry it.
"Sorry, I get..." Don gave up on whatever weak excuse he was going to use, the look on Kim-ly's face said "I ain't buying it," loud and clear.
Kim-ly sat down on Don's lap and put her arms around him and said, "You need to start taking care of yourself, let Trung and me deal with the heavy lifting. Why don't you take care of the babies instead."
Don chuckled at her words. "Taking care of those terrorists is more work than anything else happening." But to be honest, things are getting better, Lanh is now walking on her own and Karole is in a wheelchair but she's finally out of the hospital. Movers were showing up in the morning to grab this pile of boxes, a charity was scheduled to pick up the remaining furniture and they were leaving for home in the morning. Real home, Minnesota - land of 10,000 lakes and two dozen dairy cows with Don and Lanh's name on them.
Watching Don suddenly start gasping for air reminded Kim-ly of four years ago when she and Tam flew to Germany to support their sister Lanh when Don was injured so horribly. Seeing Don lying in the hospital bed, it looked like every part of his body was bandaged or set in splints, terrified Kim-ly and forced her to face her feelings about her sister's husband. She has yet to admit to the L word, but time is drawing near when the three of them are going to have to face it. As she pondered her own feelings she noticed that Don was trembling. "Why are you shaking so bad?" Kim-ly scolded.
"I'm freezing," gasped Don. It is frigid in the garage, but it's not really bothering Kim-ly, with all the hauling and working they've been doing, she's been pretty warm, in fact she's sweating, which is dangerous in the cold, it's a quick trip to hypothermia when the temperature is low and your body is covered with sweat. She suspected that she would be shaking like Don is doing pretty soon.
"Ok, let's go hit the shower then I'll put in our very last load of Colorado Laundry," said Kim-ly as she helped Don to his feet. Don's gasping was over, he was back to breathing normally and they entered the house then checked on the babies, Danh and Krissy. They were snoozing together in their playpen so Kim-ly covered them up then followed Don to the laundry room where they stripped down, tossed their dirty clothes into the washing machine, then proceeded naked through the house where Don followed his sister-in-law into the bedroom.
Not long later a shiny new Ford F-150 wheeled into the driveway, what wasn't glossy black on that truck was glittering chrome and it wore shiny chrome twenty inch five spoke Crager SS Mags. Trung Nguyen hopped out of the driver seat and pulled the wheelchair out of the bed of the pickup truck, unfolded it, then wheeled it over to the passenger side. He opened up the rear door and helped his tiny sister Lanh out of the lifted truck, unfolded Lanh's walker and Lanh slowly headed off to the house. Trung then went to the front door of the truck and scooped Karole out of the front seat and set her gently in the wheelchair. Years of playing collegiate and semi pro hockey showed with the ease that he lifted Karole who was not a small girl. When she was able to stand, she stood "Five foot fourteen inches" tall because her momma told her it wasn't lady like to be over six foot tall. She and her best friend Lanh make quite a couple, Lanh only stands four foot eight, the foot and a half difference in height is very noticeable when the friends go shopping together.
"What do you think of your new truck?" Lanh asked Karole as Trung wheeled Karole into the house. Before he packed up his tools, Don made wheelchair ramps for Karole to make it easy to wheel her into the house through the garage.
"That thang is awesome!" Karole was in a wheelchair, her hands and arms in soft splints, steel rods were surgically implanted to repair the damage done by a drunken driver on Christmas Eve. They wheeled her around a tower of boxes that the movers were scheduled to pick up tomorrow. "Ah can see why Don says that these new trucks aren't trucks, he calls them four door limousines with a big trunk."
As they entered the kitchen, they found the house dark. Most of the furniture was gone, donated to different charities, the babies, Krissy and Danh were in their playpen standing up holding on to the sides. "Momomomomom!" Krissy held her hands out, opening and closing her hands as Trung lifted her up and set her in her mother's lap.
"Here you go pretty girl, here's your momma." He turned and picked up Danh and said, "Where's your momma little guy?"
"I think they're in the shower," said Lanh and she hobbled off toward the master bedroom.
Trung shrugged as his youngest sister hobbled off, the clacking of her walker announcing her transit through the empty house. Her husband is in the shower with her sister? As he pondered this, Danh made a grab at Trung's nose then laughed at him. "Damn this guy is cute, he really is. I wonder who his daddy is." He wasn't surprised that Kim-ly had a baby out of wedlock, she was always the rebel of the family, but no one ever mentioned the father when he was told about Danh.
"Don," said Karole as she kissed her daughter.
"Don what," asked Trung. The prodigal brother chuckled like this was a knock-knock joke or something like that.
"He's Danh's father."
"Bullshit!" Trung looked at Karole in shock.
"You didn't know?" asked Karole in complete surprise. "It's a little something that Lanh and Kim-ly cooked up after Don got almost killed in Saudi Arabia, they were both terrified of losing him and Lanh is infertile, so they made a little Don." Trung looked shock and angry, and Karole continued, "To be completely honest you might say that Danh's daddy is a test tube, but genetically Don is Danh's daddy." She explained how Lanh gathered Don's semen with a handjob and took it to their doctor who made the miracle happen with an egg cell from Kim-ly and the budding little egg cell was placed in Kim-ly's womb and that they didn't tell Don until the last moment.
"You're kidding!" But Karole shook her head. Trung looked at Danh and said, "Is Don your daddy?"
