Logan's Story: A Sand & Clay Prequel by Sarah Robinson

purposefully mispronounced the word, teasing her.  She grinned at them, tears flooding her eyes.
    “My boys.  You may be all grown up now and three or four times my size, but you will always be my boys.” Laura sighed and smiled at each one of them. Mickey rolled his eyes and grumbled something inaudible, which caused all the men to burst out laughing.  Laura squeezed her husband’s hand and wrinkled her nose at him in jest.  
    “Are we celebrating something in here?” A nurse smiled at them as she waltzed in and picked up the clipboard hanging at the end of Laura’s bed.
    “Oh, yes.  We are always celebrating but today is special.  Today, my boys are men.” Laura smiled at her.
    “All these boys your sons? Man, you must have had your hands full. I have one boy right now and Lord knows that is enough for me.” The nurse chuckled and pressed some buttons on the machine, writing down numbers on the chart.
    “Every single one of them.” Laura grinned back at her and all the boys nodded in agreement, smiling back.
    “Well, you have yourself a beautiful family, ma’am. Your doctor is over in the next room finishing up, so he’ll be here soon.” The nurse gave them one last smile as she exited the room.
    “We should have told her that the real celebration is Logan here.  Soon, we can all say that we know a celebrity!” Rock chuckled, pointing at Logan with a smirk on his face.  Logan just rolled his eyes.
    “Hell yeah, plus we will have the hook up to front row tickets for the hottest shows in town!” Dylan said, looking at Logan with exaggerated seriousness.
    “Dude, it’s a record deal but that doesn’t mean I will become famous.” Logan responded, annoyed and trying to hide a grin.
    “The fuck it don’t! You are going to make over seven fucking figures a year!” Charlie burst into the conversation from his place by the door.
    “Hey, you watch your mouth around a lady, son!” Mickey abruptly cut in. Charlie put his hands up and mouthed “I’m sorry” to Laura who was laughing.  
    “Well I can tell you now, the moment I get my first check, Momma, you’re getting out of this place.  The nicest place we can find, with at least six windows.  With room service. And a butler.” Logan said, playing into their joke even though they all knew that he was serious. Laura laughed again at his comment.
    “I knew you could do it, Logan.” Laura said to him.
    “We all knew he could do it. It was convincing him that was the problem.” Dylan said with a hint of sarcasm.
    “Never a doubt in my mind.” Mickey said quietly.  The entire room went silent and looked at him. It wasn’t often that you heard a compliment from Mickey Clay and Logan was soaking in every minute of it.
    “Knock, knock.” The same doctor from the other day said, awkwardly standing in the door wearing the same scrubs and coat.
    “Come on in, doctor! Ignore these boys.” Laura said, smiling. He walked in hesitantly and looked down at his clipboard.
    “Well, I’ve got good news and bad news I guess, depending on how you look at it.” The doctor started, causing everyone to lean forward and scoot to the edge of their seat.
    “Let’s hear it.” Logan said after an uncomfortable pause where everyone glanced around, unsure of what to say.
    “We tested Mickey’s blood the other day and it wasn’t a match.  We tested all four of you and unfortunately, none of you were a match.” The doctor said looking up from his chart briefly.
    “None of us?” Rock’s jaw dropped.
    “Out of all five of us men, not a single one was viable?” Charlie was incredulous. Logan looked silently at the doctor, his jaw rigid and angry in frustration. He felt his mother let out a quiet sigh so he reached up and squeezed her hand.
    “You said you had good news too, doctor. But so far, all I heard was a ton of shit.” Mickey said loudly, glaring at the doctor. Everyone turned to look at Mickey in surprise and then looked back at the doctor,