“This is our daughter, Arabella Philomena Carolina Persephone Veronica Alessandra!” Sophie held Alex in her hands and carried around the room, while he was continuously abused when one after another a dozen or so women pinched his cheeks and praised his cuteness.

“What a beautiful name!” Another praise came from a person named Beth. From the tone of her voice Alex got the impression she was a lady of a larger size, “But what will you call her on a daily basis?”

“What?” Sophie was confused.

“You can’t call her full name all the time, right?” Conny, another guest laughed in a high pitched voice, “Hey, Arabella Philomena Carolina … what was your full name ... did you do your homework?”

“Our plan is to let her choose when she grows up a little.” Karen emotionlessly explained, “She will have to make many important decisions in her life and this may as well be the first one.”

“Letting a child make important decisions is a wrong choice!” Beth calmly stated.

“Why? Just because you had three with a man and they all turned out to be failures, doesn’t mean our daughter will! See! Even her look has more wisdom than you ever had!” Sophie barked back.

“Ladies! Ladies! Let’s not fight. Parenting is a complicated thing, but we can still calmly discuss it over a drink. Am I right, Karen?” Alex heard a new, teasing voice jumping in the mix.

“Alright, Samantha! Teach us the proper ways of parenting – how the hell did you manage to raise your two twins to become criminals?” Beth snorted, “Even though one became a drug dealer, the second was a police officer, at least in the beginning, right?”

“You …!” Samantha wanted to argue.

Luckily Karen had enough, “Stop! All of you. You are guests in our home at a joyous occasion. We have a new lady here to be accepted into our circle, so please, behave!”

“I think I’ll bring her to her room. The atmosphere is too tense.” Sophie said and carried Alex away.

‘No! Wait! Stop!’ Alex wanted to scream, ‘I still want to hear the story about the twins-criminals!’

Indeed, it could’ve been the first interesting thing to hear in his two last lives, but, as usual, he only managed to produce few soft gurgles and was put to bed.

‘I need a plan!’ Was his last thought before falling asleep.

Alex woke up a couple hours later, starving. His tries to call for attention turned out to be futile and he already started to think of ways on how to make himself cry, when finally Sophie came in.

“Arabella Philomena Carolina Persephone Veronica Alessandra!” She somewhat gently, but at the same time strictly said, “You can’t call for mommies just when you want something. Mommies have their own lives and you need to learn to be patient. But don’t worry, It’ll come with time.”

‘Seriously? Have you hit your head or something?’ Alex looked at her stupefied, ‘Do you expect a normal newborn to understand you? Give me my food!’

Sophie watched Alex’s expressions change with a smile, but then turned serious, “Karen! Could you come for a minute?”

“Something’s wrong?” Karen came in still holding a glass of wine in her hand.

“She looked at me in a really weird way.” Sophie still watched Alex with furrowed brows, “For some reason she sometimes creep me out – she doesn’t cry or laugh like we were taught regular babies do. When she’s not sleeping, she just stares back without saying anything! That’s not normal!”

“And what did you expect her to say?” Beth said. Turns out she came in along with Karen, “Let me see.”

She took Alex from Sophie’s hands, “Alright, diapers are clean. She’s probably just hungry, you see how she’s instinctively grabbing my boob? You two haven’t given birth personally, so you don’t feel the subtle things. Doesn’t matter, it’ll come with practice.”

“Just because you gave birth to three, doesn’t mean you’re better mother than us.” Karen snorted.

“Fine, fine.” Beth tried to calm her down, “Just remember – if you don’t understand what she wants – try to feed her, if she doesn’t eat, just hold her in your hands until she falls asleep.”

‘Finally! Someone with brain!’ Alex wanted to high-five the newcomer when he finally was given something that should be considered a milk replacement.

“But I still think she behaves somewhat strange. Why does she never cry?” Sophie asked.

Stolen story; please report.

“Hahaha! Count yourself lucky!” Beth laughed, “My first one cried non-stop during the first year. The second one cried for six months and later every single time he noticed I left his vicinity until the age of three. I didn’t sleep for years! Why do you think I look older than you two even though we are of the same age?”

“So not crying is abnormal after all!” This time even Karen grew serious.

“No, no. You didn’t let me finish. The third one, the youngest never cried! That is until the two oldest started to molest her later.” Beth explained, “Your girl, I’m sure she’s fine. In fact, I’d exchange her for my two eldest in a heartbeat. What do you think? I’ll even throw my Bentley as a bonus.”

“So our daughter is ok?” Sophie asked while sighing with relief at the same time.

“Of course, she is.” Beth said. “Some children as simply different. My youngest also was a quiet one. When not asleep – she stared out the window at the sky thinking who-knows-what, maybe counting the birds. You have a beautiful view here – on sunny days, when you are not on a walk, bring her out on your balcony and let her watch the park and Hudson river! Remember, children are closer to nature than we adults will ever be. While she can’t properly appreciate your apartment, at least not yet, she’ll love some birdies and trees. Just don’t forget to keep an eye on her.”

‘Ok! Anyone wants to switch? I’ll take this large lady as my mother! Objections?’ Alex inwardly said while sucking on a bottle with a weird white substance in it.

“Beth sounds reasonable.” Karen nodded, “That leaves us with the question with her name. Even if Conny sometimes behaves like a bitch, she had a point. And the sooner we make our daughter used to her new name, the better.”

“Why don’t you say her long name to her, bet really slowly and see how she reacts to each of the parts? That way she would basically make her own choice, just like you wanted, right?” Beth said.

But Alex almost screamed from joy, ‘Beth! Please be my mom! Take me away! You’re the only woman in my life who understands me!’

“Alright!” Sophie said with a smile and slowly one after another started to call out all the names Alex now had, “ Arabella … Philomena … Carolina … Persephone … Veronica … Alessandra … She obviously likes the last one the most.”

“Let me!” Karen performed the same experiment, thought for a bit and said, “Indeed. Alessandra, not bad at all. We could call her Alex. A very beautiful and feminine name.”

“Cough, cough …” Alex choked on his pseudo-milk.

‘What the hell is wrong with you?! Have you ever heard of Alexander the Great?!’ He wanted to scream, but all he managed to do was to vomit out some of the white substance he was fed.

Be as it may, at least the event settled the way the two mommies addressed him and even more importantly – were taught to feed him as soon as he asked for it.

Days went by, Alex’s sight improved and he finally could discern everything around him in more detail. He had to agree to what Beth said on his first day here – their apartment was amazing. Not only it was huge and had an amazing view on the Hudson river, everything in it was arranged by a professional designer who had incredible taste. Well, that and this gay couple was loaded, just as he thought.

Beth was also right in another aspect. He loved to watch the view from their balcony. The park downstairs, the Hudson river and the lit up Manhattan in the evening. Something with this view didn’t seem right, but he still enjoyed it. New York had never been one of his favorite places, but he had to frequent here and knew it quite well.

His mommies continued to introduce Alex to their many friends, but he pretended to be asleep every single time. Of course, it did bring some displeasure in the family and Karen even held a lecture on how the child should behave on official occasions, but he ignored all of it. The fact that he was still a tiny newborn did help and every single one of the guests he was introduced to called him ‘cute and adorable’, and that for some reason made his two mothers proud.

Either the two were trying too hard or intended to create some super-woman, they didn’t let a single moment pass by without teaching Alex something. Even when he was sleeping they put on recordings of some audio classes. At first he felt uncomfortable, but soon got used to it and took it as a background noise.

While the two mommies were molding him into god knows who or simply showing off, Alex had more important things to do. On the outside he only slept and ate, but inside he made plans.

First of all he had to grow enough to gain ability to walk, then read and then – gain access to the largest public library in the US – the New York Public Library. At the same time he could not appear too bright and talented, and had to pace himself properly if he wanted to avoid any unwanted attention.

Carrying memories and knowledge from one life to another was, of course, extremely convenient and felt almost like cheating, but he suppressed the urge to learn all he could before he died again. His task number one was to gain a deeper or at least some kind of understanding about the reincarnation.

During his first life, while doing research on some of the items he had to deliver to his clients, he had occasionally stumbled on the concept of reincarnation. Back then it seemed like a religious nonsense, but now he understood why there were scientists who kept researching it even in modern times. And if there were scientists – there were research papers and books. And that was the reason he needed to get to the library as soon as possible.

The other part of his plan were the physical exercises. While no one was watching him, he tried to enhance his physical strength and at the same time increase his own flexibility. Even though he was a girl in this life and he hadn’t really come in terms with it yet, he intended to continue the carrier path he had during the first life. Thus a good physical form was basically a requirement. Even more, Alex looked forward to grow up a bit more and start practicing martial arts. While his two mothers probably would be against it, that was the problem to solve another day.

One day mommy Sophie said she intended to start going to her yoga classes ‘once again’ – apparently she was the spiritual one in their relationship. To Alex’s big surprise, she intended to bring him along and he was ecstatic. He had met some ancient yogis in India back when he was tasked to break in the real tomb under the Taj Mahal and those old bastards could definitely shed some light on mysteries of reincarnation, even if it was from the view point of Hinduism.

Thus, at first, Alex was overjoyed. But the bigger the hope, the bigger the disappointment. Turned out the yoga Sophie did was meeting up with a bunch of other women her age at the gym, babbling for half an hour, then ‘finding their inner center’ for an hour under the guidance of some charlatan and then getting a two hundred dollar massage in the local Spa.

During the first half an hour Alex was in the center of attention, but the ‘yoga class’ finally started and he was left alone. Still, everyone praised Sophie for ‘getting’ such adorable and obedient child, boosting her ego even more and Alex quickly figured that it was the sole reason she brought him along.

In the end, there were no yogis present. Of course, even if there was one, Alex had no intention and could not immediately question the guy about the principles of the universe. Be as it may, he had to postpone his self-education until he could get in to the library.