127. Summer Chillin’

A/N: Have a Happy New Year! 😀

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The kids had their birthdays and life started to take on some sembleance of normalcy.

Ricky decided to try out the broom arena in the backyard.  I can only guess Holly or Alice had it installed before we moved here, because I would not have put up a broom arena if I’d had a choice.

Later he danced with Rory.  Rory’s a real dance machine.

It’s hard to tell who Selena looks like most in her features, but I love her smile.  It really stands out.

Nikial has his father’s eyes but my magic.

Though Richelle looks the most like me, I think she is more like Selena in personality.

You’d think Nikial would have the advantage in tag, but Richelle always outruns him.  It’s the wolf in her.

“Hey, Ricky, want to go to the summer festival?” I asked one day.

“I was actually going to ask you!  I’ve been wanting to go ever since it opened.  I wish Rory were home so she could come too.”

“It’ll be open all summer, there’s time for her to go yet,” I said.  “C’mon then, I’ll round up whoever else is home.”

In the end, only four out of six of us made it to the festival, not counting the babi(es) in me.  I sat out the hot dog contest.  No need for me to throw up anymore than I already had.

“Ha, you two are so going to lose!” Ricky said.  “I’m the biggest, so I can eat more than twice what you can.”

“Yeah, well, Nikial and I are triplets, so that means us plus Richelle can eat triple what you can,” said Selena.

“That doesn’t make sense,” said Nikial.  “We don’t have one stomach that we share among the three of us.  So we really can’t eat more than Ricky can.”

“Oh shush.  Let’s just start,” said Selena.  “On your mark, get set, go!”

“Oo ooze, oo ooze,” mumbled Ricky.

Selena was focused.  Nikial kept choking and gagging.

Ricky crammed his last bit of hot dog down, then held his hand over his mouth to keep from hacking it up.  “I in,” he mumbled.  “Toldja.”

“Too late, loser!” Selena giggled.  “I’m a werewolf, we eat fast.  Neener neener!”

Poor Nikial still determinedly crammed it down.  I wish I’d told him to stop, but I was preoccupied.

I’d got a brain freeze from too many snow cones.  I can’t help it – those things are addicting!  They just calm me right down.

“Look at me, I’m skating!” Ricky called.

“That’s not skating, stupid,” said Selena.  “Yer flying.  Just because you’re flying on a roller rink doesn’t make it skating.”

“Yeah right.  This is how all the figure skaters do it.  I’ve seen them!”

“Figure skating is for ice rinks!” Selena shouted.  “Did all those hot dogs make your brain go mushy?”

“She’s right, Ricky,” said Nikial.

“Of course I am,” said Selena.  “I’m not stupid.”

“Aww, come have some nice calming snow cones, guys,” I said.

Back home, my kids listened to my mellow tunes without screaming in pain.  I guess I’m not completely out of practice.  Or maybe it’s my shiny aura that gets them to pay attention to me.  No, I’m pretty sure they like my music.  It has nothing to do with my magic.

I gave birth to Aston the next morning.  I wonder how much of the Master is in him.  Guess we’ll find out soon enough.

I try not to worry or stress about anything anymore.  My snow cones are the cure to all my troubles.  I don’t need to fret about some guy who may or may not be my husband, or about how my son is the child of a super-strong magical loan shark, or that my triplets are descended from a zombie-killer.

I just got to chill, man.  And what better time to do that than in the summer?

126. Whose is the Truth?

The kids were in bed by the time the Master and I emerged from my room.  He pulled me back into his arms and I wasn’t opposed to it – his kisses were an intensity that left me wanting more and more no matter how tired I got.

He pulled back from me.  “Don’t flatter yourself.  You are a minor game in the grand scheme of things, merely something to pass the time before that meteor shower.”

I pulled away.  “Wait, what meteor shower?”

“Nothing that concerns you, little fish,” he said.

Before I could inquire further, he pulled me into another kiss and I forgot anything about a meteor shower.

A sound made me break away from the Master.  I’d heard something in the front yard.  I moved to the window and saw…

…my daughter Zoey and a man whose face nudged at a memory deep inside me.  But it slipped away and I was left staring blankly at him.  Who was he and why did Zoey look so distressed?  Why was she holding him back?

He tore away from her and marched inside.

“How could you, Elena? How could you? I thought we were working on this, I thought you were as committed as I was!”

“I’m sorry,” I said.  “But I don’t know who you are.  What are you talking about?”

“Oh, right,” he said.  “The amnesia.”

I looked to Zoey.  “Could you explain to me what is going on?  Who is this man, and what is he accusing me of?  And why am I once again being told I have amnesia?”

“So it didn’t wear off when you saw him?” she asked, just further confusing me.

“So what didn’t wear off?”

“The amnesia.  You still don’t recognize him?”

“Oh.”  I said, and her eyes lit up.  “So is he the man I got pollinated by to have you, Jerome, Anna, Victoria – ”

“Yes, yes,” she said, before I could list all of her full-blooded brothers’ and sisters’ names.  “So you do remember him?”

“No.  I’m only guessing because you two look so much alike.  And because I knew you went off looking for your father.”

“Oh my Berry,” she said.  “Of course it had to be that and not the many times we’ve explained to you that you’re married to Dad, whom you’ve been in love with for a long time.  And that Yori took away your memories of him.”

“Did Elena mention any of this to you?” he said to the Master, who had been standing quietly by.

“I did not need to ask Elena anything.  She was a more than willing participant.”

“Look here,” I said as Zoey’s pollination father made a move towards the Master, and I grabbed his arm.  He looked to me as the Master moved smoothly out of reach.  “I am sorry for whatever impressions Zoey may have given you.  But I am not, and I never was, your wife, and that is the end of that.  You have no claim over me.”

“Mom, please stop,” said Zoey.  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You hush,” I said.  “It’s bad enough you put these thoughts into Lana and Tamia’s and Holly’s heads, but then you had to go and drag your bio-dad halfway across the simverse on the off-chance I would believe your lies and fall madly in love with him?  Just stop.”

“But they’re not lies.”

“Maybe this will work,” said the man.  “You know how in the movies true love’s kiss will break any curse?”

“Get away from me!” I exclaimed.  “Ya think I’m gonna kiss a person who’s delusional?”

He looked down.  “You think I’m delusional?” he asked.

“Of course you are, if you really believed Zoey’s story.  I mean, you came all the way out here, so you must’ve thought you’d have a chance to browbeat me into believing it too.”

My aura bubbled up inside me and I let it out.  I needed some way to relieve my stress.  This evening had started out so nice, and now look where it had gone.

“What was that for?” he gasped.

“You know what.”

He stared at me for a long moment as his teeth slowly stopped chattering.

“You’ve changed, Elena,” he said.  “It’s not just the fairy wings, or the weird powers.  Something about you is different.  You used to really care about us staying together.  Even after what you put me through, I knew you would ccome back to me.  But now…”  He shook his head hopelessly.  “I don’t think this will work anymore.”

“Goodbye.”

“I’m sorry, Mom,” said Zoey.  “I knew I shouldn’t have brought him here from Hidden Springs.  I just thought…I don’t know, that just seeing each other would break this blasted curse on you, this amnesia.  I guess I was wrong.”

“It’s okay,” I said, saying it more because I didn’t want more of my kids mad at me than because I really meant that I forgave her.

“No, it’s not okay.  But I’ve gotta live with it for now because I don’t know any other ways to break the spell.  Bye.”

“Daddy, wait, come back!”

It took me a minute to realize that I was completely alone.  Well, not completely.  Bonehilda, Selena, and Richelle were in the nursery and Nikial, Rory, and Ricky were in the fairy house.  But that room was empty of everything but me.  The Master had gone when I wasn’t looking.

I felt briefly as though I’d lost something.

And for a moment, I entertained this thought:

Was it possible they were all right and I was the one who was wrong?