Remember the Time

Chapter 50

January 9th, 1998

It was early in the morning and Michael woke up to the sound of one of his daughters crying.

He rolled over and looked at the clock.

Six in the morning? Good job girls!

He smiled. The girls were doing a pretty good job at sleeping through the night. He figured they were catching up on the sleep they lost at the hospital.

“Baby I-”

Mariah wasn’t on her side of the bed. Michael furrowed his eyebrow. She usually didn’t wake up with the babies.

Maybe she’s with them, finally trying to help out.

Michael sat up on the bed in his silk, red, form-fitting pajamas. Their bed sat high, so he had to slide to the very edge of it in order to fully step down. He stepped into his house shoes and walked into the twins’ room. The lights were off.

“Mariah?” He called out.

When she didn’t respond he made his way over to the Mission Control system and turned on the lights.

His eyes swept the room for Mariah. There was no sign of her. He tilted his head to the side in thought before the loud roaring of his daughter’s cry interrupted him.

“Oh baby, what’s going on?” He asked as he ran over to Noelle’s crib. He picked her up and held her, rubbing her back until she stopped crying.

Pulled her away from him so he could see her eyes, he asked, “Are you hungry? I know it’s about time for you to eat mama.”

Michael picked up Nicole in the other arm, waking her up in the process, and walked the twins down the stairs.

“Mariah!” He yelled as he walked down the stairs.

“I’m not Mariah but we do look alike.” Pat joked.

Pat ran over to Michael and grabbed Nicole, who started on a cry.

“Aww sweetie, it’s okay.” Pat said gently bouncing Nicole up and down trying to get her quiet.

Michael, still holding Noelle, scanned the open concept lower level of the home for Mariah. No sign of her there.

“How are you?” Pat asked.

Michael heard her, but he didn’t respond. He put Noelle in her bouncer before walking over to the refrigerator to search for the babies’ bottles. Surprisingly, instead of two small bottles for each of them, he found two large gallons of milk: one labeled for Nicole, and the other for Noelle.

“Uhh Pat, when did these get here?”

“Oh I don’t know, they were there when I came in here this morning.” She replied, holding Nicole and biting into a bagel.

Michael read the labels aloud. “Nicole, approximately five days at 25.6oz per day. Give her whole bottle. Noelle, five days at 25oz per- What are these labels for?”

Pat shrugged, placing Nicole in her bouncer. “Maybe she pumped too much?”

He shook his head hastily. “Nah, something ain’t right.”

He hurried over to the phone and dialed Mariah’s cell phone number.

No answer.

He turned around towards Pat who was playing with the twins. “Can you feed them? There’s bottles in the cabinet.

Pat nodded.

He hurried back upstairs and knocked on the guest room door. Alison answered, her eyes narrowed into slits.