This is a really cool story, however I wish you would just post the whole chapter here instead of paying part of it and then sending us to another website. I've been sitting here wondering what events happened and why they were mentioned but skipped.
For me personally, to publish each full chapter to the forums is a massive headache and pain that I don't want to deal with. Editing the photos to scale them down would take forever, and the quality of them drops drastically from what they should be. Then there's the fact that the forums have an incredibly strict censor. You can't even say most elementary school insults without them getting plummed. My blog just makes it way easier for me to put the posts together, and it's much easier to go through the different chapters than trying to search through page after page here to get to the one you want.
You mean you didn't see the links to the full content on the first page or at the end of the previews and thought I was posting incomplete stuff? Sorry about that. There is that directory on the first page with links to all the full chapters, and there's a table of contents post on the blog on the left-hand side column that has all of them too. I hope that makes things more navigable.
There was only two ways this evening was going to go. Barely acceptable or badly. My money was on the second outcome. It was true I was smiling to myself in the mirror, but that was because I had been forcing myself to smile for the past half hour or so. If you put on a happy face, your mood increases naturally on its own. That's what they say anyway, right? It was what I was hoping for as I got ready. I figured the majority of my outing would actually be just fine. It was the choice I would have to make at the end that was causing my palms to sweat.
"Well, at least I look alright." I mumbled to myself, adjusting my collar as the nerves coursing throughout my body had it feeling like it was strangling me otherwise.
Who I met when I walked out my bedroom door didn't help me to remedy my hesitant state. I cursed mentally when I spotted Cerise coming out of her room across the hall at the exact same moment. I wish I could have walked away, but the only path of escape took me right by her. Cerise dashed over anyway to crush me around my middle with a, most likely, purposely crushing hug.
"Ooo, don't you look fancy?" she cooed, teasingly more than genuinely, unfortunately.
"It's a dress shirt and pants. Nothing I haven't worn before." I answered nonchalantly.
I pried Cerise off my waist, but she set herself firmly in front of me to give me a giggle of hers I really didn't like. I naturally loved my little sister, but she could be such an annoying little imp sometimes.
"So, does Mimi know that this is a fake date or...?" she instantly swung where it would hit the hardest.
"The date part is real. It's just that Mimosa isn't going to be getting the answer she wants at the end of the night. If she'll accept it or ignore it like she usually does, who knows?"
"It's going to be a fun evening either way then, huh?" Cerise continued to tease, placing her hands on her hips.
I poked her on the forehead before walking past her to run away as well as to force me to take the high road. Cerise, as always, made that rather difficult.
"Don't forget to take some tissues with you!" she called after me.
"You know," I stopped right at the top of the stairs and gave her a smile that barely contained the seriousness of what I felt, "You truly are lucky you have me a big brother, because I am way nicer to you than I should be. I'm not going to get mad at you now even though you're practically cheering on the heartbreak of a girl who has been nothing but adoring of you. You're still a little kid, so I get that you're ignorant about these kind of matters. When you do get older and most likely get your own heart broken, I'm not going to rub it your face by pointing out you're experiencing what you were making light of behind Mimosa's back. After all, it's not exactly a nice thing to treat other's pain so jovially."
Cerise sobered up at that. Her smile was gone, and the expression on her face showed that she got the point. She glanced my way sheepishly, but I was already heading down the stairs desperately keeping my own smile on my face in my pitiful attempt of fooling myself this night could avoid pain at all.
Hey Kesley! Popping in to say Happy Easter (a bit early, since I'll be away from a computer for the real holiday) and that Skyrim on a PC with a giant modding community is an excellent way to forget about all other video games and their story formats. Oiy! I've missed so much about the kids, but finding 4 different flavors of ice cream suddenly in the fridge and remembering Ethy's b-a-b-y flavor conversation pulled me from Skymoddingland. Hopefully I can catch up sometime soon if life gets a little less hectic and I can put down the controller. It's just so hard to focus on multiple stories even if they are in different format. Anyway, hope you're doing well!
Eh, don't worry 'bout it! I'm here and there with a bunch of different stuff in my life. Like FF XIV ARR. My and my sister will play it for several months, and then not touch it for just as long or even longer before we go back to it. The chapters will be here whenever you have time for them
Holly locked her determined stare on mine as tightly as I locked mine on hers. This was all out war, and I was not planning on losing. I would not subject myself to the torture that would bring.
"Why don't you just go ahead and back out, Vivid?" Holly taunted, "I'll make it worth your while."
"There is absolutely nothing you can give me that would have me willingly throwing myself under the bus. Even a hundred dollar gift card to Zero's or the like won't make me budge." I declined stubbornly.
"There's a possibility that could actually be arranged. Remember, you do love the food they make there." she lured me, tilting her head at just the perfect angle.
"You're seriously willing to spend one hundred freaking dollars just so you don't have to do the works cited page for your project?" Uncle Al, lazing about on the couch nearby watching television, balked in stupefied awe, "I don't think I raised you to be like that."
"You haven't seen how many sources we have, and you don't know what our teacher is like." Holly pointed out to him with so much genuine dread that I burst out laughing.
Then it was time to get serious once more. Holly gave me that important look. Our fists slapped on our other palm three times before we drew our weapons. Holly's choice was a sturdy rock. Mine was a glorious piece of paper. My smile returned with renewed vigor while Holly's expression sank so low it might as well have dropped off the face of the planet.
"Yes!" I cheered, "Suck it, Charm!"
"No one is sucking anything in this house," Uncle Al interjected again, much more rapidly than before, "Unless it's Lia and me."
"Dad." Holly rebuked shortly.
"Why don't the two of you just do the citations together?" he ignored her.
"Because she lost rock-paper-scissors most impressively, as you clearly just saw." I boasted.
"Again, you don't know what the situation is like," Holly pouted, "We were lucky enough to get the rest of the project done without biting the other's head off."
"Friends we might be, but good project partners we are not." I added on merrily.
Holly sighed miserably.
"Daddyyy, can you lend me a bit of extra money so I can increase the bribe?" she pleaded with puppy dog eyes.
"Definitely not," Uncle Al scoffed merrily, "Besides, I am a firm believer in honoring the victories of a simple child's hand game. It's how Am and I settled everything, and I had to bite my lip and suffer my fair share of losses like you will have to do now."
"You're such a stuffed shirt." Holly folded her arms with a frown.
"Well, I obviously must not have been as firm with you as I should have been if you're willing to throw one hundred dollars around like it's nothing." Uncle Al teased, turning his head back towards the television screen- but not before ruffling Mimosa's hair lovingly, "You need to be more sensible, like your sister here."
Mimosa, sitting casually on the floor at Uncle Al's feet doing her own homework, smiled up at him before sticking out her tongue at Holly like Holly was sticking hers out at her. I chuckled at their age old habit of doing such a thing, and that caught Mimosa's attention. Ours eyes locked for a brief moment, and she managed some sort of a small smile before hurriedly snapping her gaze away.
Homecoming had come and gone. Azure had ended up going with Moon, Holly got a date with some boy in her math class, and Midas and I went stag again. Mimosa didn't go at all. She instead had an evening out with her parents at some fancy restaurant before traveling down to Bayport to see a fireworks display. Before that night, Mimosa avoided me like the plague. After the dance, she started slowly warming up to me once more. We didn't hang out directly with the other too much, but we could handle being around the other's presence. It was the best I could ask for for the moment, so I was trying not to be pushy.
I frowned as I searched through the final drawer in the downstairs restroom. I picked up several boxes. All but one of them were not what I needed in the slightest, and the one that contained what could have been used had a very big problem with it. It got tossed in the trash immediately. Sighing, I closed the drawer and pressed my forehead against the wood. Lunchtime was only just slowly creeping up on us, and I was already exhausted. A headache was forming in my temples as well. The tingling ringing that then echoed throughout the house was the main source of that. The sound had been going non-stop.
Glade, the one ringing the bell that was making the noise, was simply going to have to wait. Mom seriously had spoiled her a little too much. It was about time she learned that all our attention couldn't constantly revolve around her. I ignored the bell as I made mom's room my first stop then.
"Mom, you need to stop getting up. Don't worry about Glade. I'll be getting her in a second." I instructed, rushing over as mom was unsteady even just trying to sit.
"I know you will," mom said weakly and quietly as she gave me the smallest of smiles, "You've lectured me enough today to make me stop trying. I'm just going to the bathroom, Coal."
"Oh. Okay. Do you need any help walking over?"
"No, I'm fine." mom declined.
She wobbled on her feet as she stood, but using the post of her bed allowed her to find her balance. Her gaze fell upon my empty hands, and I had to relay the news.
"We're all out of medicine. The one box we did have left was super expired. I'll make a quick run to the drugstore once I go upstairs and take that darn bell away from Glade. I can't believe Uncle Blaze thought to give it to her."
"I wonder if he knew he wouldn't be around to have to listen to it." mom joked tiredly.
It was winter, and sickness had struck the Vivid household. That wasn't a surprise in the slightest, but everyone was being struck down much harder than normal. Well, save for mom. She was holding up well for her. It was Uncle Blaze who was in the hospital this time around with a ridiculous fever. His absence meant it was solely up to me to keep the household under control, and the task was proving difficult.
I had no clue how Glade had that much energy to keep ringing that horrible bell. She would not stop until I entered the room. It was finally put down when she spotted me, and she looked absolutely miserable half sitting up as she looked my way.
"I thought you had managed to fall asleep." I said, moving closer.
"I thought I did too," she pouted, looking as if she wanted to cry, "But my head hurts too much. I woke right back up."
Those watery eyes of her snatched away most of my annoyance. Besides Uncle Blaze, Glade was the one having the worst time. Her headache was monstrous, or so she claimed. Glade didn't handle pain all that well, which meant it could be difficult to tell just how intense the ailment actually was. There had been times where she got a simple paper cut and went on about it as if she lost her finger. In this case, the lone thing that Glade claimed gave her any relief was me stroking her hair as she kept on trying to fall asleep.
The gentle tapping of me lightly hitting my forehead against the glass of the table beat out a steady rhythm one could make quite the lovely song to if one was so inclined. Song melodies were not what my mind concerned itself with though at the moment. It instead sped through every kind of job or random career I'd ever heard of in hopes that one of the ideas would catch my interest. The best I was getting were possible jobs that would at least not make me want to rip my hair out. However, there failed to be one that I actually wanted to strive for. There was so far nothing that gave me the impression that I would be happy doing it the way Wisp enjoyed his art or Prism loved his film making.
"I want at least three things written down by lunch!" mom called to me, poking her head out of her bedroom door to add more stress.
"I know." I growled to myself slowly in annoyance.
Time had flown, and summer was already here. As was summer vacation. The buffer space between now and when I had to start enacting on plans to set the rest of my life in motion was growing dangerously thin. I remembered back to Wisp working on his college essays. I remembered Prism bringing up his idea of moving to Tinseltown to live with Aunt Sunset. I remembered Desire discussing with Uncle Eden the path one would take to become a psychologist. All three of my older siblings had had solid ideas for their futures when they were my age. I had nothing. That was why mom gave me the 'assignment' to sit at the table and brainstorm a few acceptable propositions. You would think even her telling me she wouldn't require me to go to college if I could think up a sturdy idea of a job that could support me without that education would give me more options, but the paper I'd yet to pull out to write my ideas on was as blank as it would be if I had bothered to take it out.
"How about you be a stuntman?"
The suggestion came from Prism. Both he and Desire were home for the summer, although Prism wouldn't be around as long as his twin. Another offer to assist with a short film production had been sent his way. There was no chance he would turn that down.
"Stuntman?" I repeated, barely lifting my head.
"Why not? We both know you'd never survive any sort of boring office job. You're athletic, you have a drive to be active, and you're ever so slightly reckless. You could get to jump off buildings, be a part of fake sword fights, and all that fun stuff. It'd be easy to get into the business with me being your connection too."
"I dunno," I mumbled, "The idea isn't too bad, but I don't think I want to move that far away. I love Berrybrook. I want to stay here if I can."
Growing up surrounded by family and friends had been ingrained in me. To take off and be so far away from everyone except my brother wasn't ideal.
"Hmm, how about you pick up a part-time position at that bookstore like dad did? Mr. Mosaic is still kicking. He loved having dad working for him, and I remember he adored you as a kid. You could easily work up to a management position. Heck, Mr. Mosaic might even pass the store down to you when he eventually retires."
"Maybe..."
"You still take Ceri and Glade to their horse riding lessons, right? I'm sure Mr. and Mrs. Bright would be eager to hire a younger stable hand to help with all the lifting work. You even have Uncle Sap to go too as well. With all the places he and Aunt Purity run, they'd be able to find you a good position somewhere."
I took my head off the table and glanced up. My interest had been captivated, but not exactly in the manner I needed it to be. Prism was looking down at me with a light smile. That is, until amused confusion and curiosity took over that grin when I kept on staring.
"What?" he wondered.
"Sorry, I'm still getting used to this grown up you. All you've been is nice to me since you got home, and it's freaking me out. You're even being really helpful here. It's weird."
"Hmm, yes, I guess growing up does usually involve some maturation," Prism chuckled, "I haven't been given complete control of any big projects yet, naturally, but now that I've been having a part in a position that provides the livelihoods for those under me and their families I have to take things more seriously. That thinking extends to you since you're working towards your future livelihood."
"Mmm." I said slowly with a little nod.
"I can easily go back to teasing and bullying you instead, if you'd like." Prism suggested.
"Uh, no. No, thank you." I laughed.
This was my second time playing this game. The one where I looked down at the wood chips to find matching or similar ones. I wasn't having the best of luck given that I couldn't move from my position on the swing in addition to me having to actively participate in a conversation. I probably should have been focusing more on that second thing anyway, but I had had a lot of trouble concentrating recently.
"When we got to the market, mom got really mad at me. I couldn't help myself. Everything was so colorful. All I wanted to do was take pictures. Mom kept on complaining that it felt like she was spending her vacation talking to a camera. She finally took it away from me after another half hour." Rosemary spoke cheerfully.
"I would do so too." I responded.
Then I faded my attention out again. Rosemary had been going on for a while about the vacation she and Aunt Deny had just gotten back from. They had gone to a country overseas known for its flavorful food, rich and colorful scenery, and energetic culture. I had been jealous when Rosemary initially told me about the trip, but now I was content to ignore every now and again what my cousin was telling me. It didn't exactly work out in my favor.
"After we bought this dragon egg that later went on to hatch in the fire we had in our hotel room, mom and I ended up participating in a local magic show where a spell went wrong granted mom the ability to fly. I rode on her back instead of us taking a plane home."
"That's pretty cool."
I could have gotten away with my inattentiveness had I injected some heavy sarcasm in that comment, but I spoke it too normally- as if I actually believed what Rosemary spoke was true. Having been staring at the ground, my brows furrowed when the words sank in. The silence of Rosemary awaiting my reaction also helped me realize what just happened.
"Aww, shoot." I sighed at myself, having been caught.
Rosemary, thankfully, was nothing more than amused.
"The others have told me you've been distracted lately," she laughed loudly, "But I didn't think you were this bad."
"I haven't been distracted." I mumbled in a pout.
"Well, it's either that or you think my vacation stories are utterly boring."
"They're not boring," I reassured defensively before caving, "I...I have been distracted..."
"Is there a reason why that you want to tell me about?" Rosemary encouraged.
I opened and closed my mouth several times. There was some strong contemplation going on in my mind saying that I should tell her. The old, familiar need to talk bouncing around in my chest was determined to break out. However, I eventually shook my head.
"Maybe later."
Rosemary blessedly accepted the denial with grace, but she had long been good at reading me. She understood I wasn't ready to speak my thoughts yet and knew when to grant me space. I might have gone ahead and told her if we had been somewhere else. And alone. Yeah, I'm sure that my tongue would have come loose in an instant if the rest of our friends hadn't been nearby. Midas, Azure, Holly, Mimosa, Rosemary, and I were hanging out at the empty playground behind the elementary school in the city. It was nice to go back to those nostalgic times for a bit. It truly did feel as if we were all kids when Rosemary and I watched Holly and Mimosa go down the slide together over and over again as we swung back and forth properly now.
School was done for the day, and it was quiet in the halls. Cerise and Glade were taking the bus home because I had something to do that afternoon, and I was actually letting Azure borrow dad's car, which had basically become mine, in order to go around and do some shopping for Moon's birthday. The two of them had had a thing after they first went to homecoming before there had been a long break where they went back to being just friends. Now they were dating after having gone to homecoming together again, and I swore Moon was already picking out her wedding dress. Girls. Azure was happy though, which was nice to see because I was having trouble feeling such an emotion myself lately.
"So, what do you think? Clothes? Jewelry? She likes both, but I feel like those are both safe and boring ideas." Azure asked.
"I dunno." I shrugged.
"C'mon, Coal! You have three sisters! You should be able to tell me the best presents for a girl with ease!" Azure whined.
"Except Moon isn't my sister, and every girl is different," I rolled my eyes with a smirk, "But, didn't I hear her talking about wanting a puppy? You could try that."
"I can't get her a puppy." Azure frowned.
"Why not? She said that her parents were seriously considering letting her get one. Talk to them to make sure it's alright, and then go to the humane society or something. That's where Uncle Eden got Button. They have a bunch of dogs of all ages, they take care of all their shots and stuff, they neuter or spay them too, and they're relatively inexpensive. Then you and Moon could go shopping for a bed, collars, toys, and whatever, and it'd be like you'd have your own puppy baby to raise together."
"Possibly." Azure conceded, sounding almost convinced.
He asked me more about the adoption process, which was a difficult question to answer considering I'd never gone through it myself either. Uncle Eden had only vaguely described how he got Button once. I'd barely gotten started when Azure and I were forcibly pulled out of that conversation though by the sound of a familiar voice heading our way. Despite being familiar, it was a voice I hadn't heard for quite some time now. Candy was walking down the hall with her hand tightly gripped in her new boyfriend's palm. The two of them didn't notice us until they got a bit closer.
"Hey, Azure." Candy greeted my friend after giving me a very vicious death glare.
"Hey, Candy." Azure greeted back, doing his best not to let the awkwardness affect him.
Their exchange was just that simple greeting. Candy smiled at him, turned her head away from me with a huff, and continued walking away with her guy. I had heard what his name was once, but I hadn't exactly been eager to remember it.
It got even more awkward when the two stopped further down so Candy's boyfriend could get something out of his locker twenty feet away from us. I had trouble finding my voice, and Azure didn't know how to pick up our conversation normally either. He used the time to fiddle around with his books in his own locker. Thankfully, Candy and her companion didn't linger. The guy's stuff was gotten, and they were on their way. I tried not to stare at them. It was only one quick glance that let me see the two deciding right then was the appropriate moment to attach their lips together as they rounded the corner.
A bizarre mixture of nostalgia, amusement, and sadness swirled together in my chest. It was a bit before lunch on a Friday about a month into the new school year. There was no school on this particular Friday as there was some kind of mandatory training going on for all the teachers in the district. That meant Glade was joining me as I babysat Wisp's daughter like I did most mornings. Her name was Tangerine, although everyone usually just called her Riny. A little over a year old, she was freaking adorable.
And having Glade play peek-a-boo with her while I sat nearby was what brought about the strange mixture of emotions within my chest. I was amused because both Glade's and Tangerine's giggles were hilarious. I was nostalgic because it felt like just yesterday I was sitting in almost the exact spot they were in now entertaining Cerise with a game of peek-a-boo, and I was sad naturally because of the silent yet devastating event that would unfold later that day. I tried to focus on the happier of the emotions, of course.
It wasn't a hard task. Tangerine's smile would get so huge when she was laughing it felt like her mouth took up half her face.
"Try keeping your hands over your face for a long time, but look through a crack in your fingers. Maybe Riny will try to do what Ceri always did by grabbing at my fingers. If she does, go at her then. Ceri got a kick out of it." I instructed my sister.
"Did you do that with me?" Glade wondered.
"A few times, but it always made you cry," I chuckled, "Peeking out at you when you were too close apparently terrified you. You would scream the whole house down."
Glade, expectedly, wasn't super keen on reacting to that kind of information. She focused her sights back on her niece and tried my suggestion. It took a while, but Tangerine did eventually scoot forward to reach for Glade's fingers. Glade popped out at her then, and Tangerine thankfully took after Cerise. She laughed so hard for so long I began to fear we'd broken her.
However, that new kind of game quickly tired Tangerine out. She ditched Glade to crawl into my lap. Having aching muscles after sitting on the floor for quite some time, I gathered her in my arms as I stood. I wasn't even halfway up yet when she spoke an explosion of babbles at me. Tangerine was a talker, although the only real word she had said so far was 'now.'
"Yeah? What is it?" I asked her in the pause she left after I found my footing.
Tangerine stared at me blankly for several seconds, but more incomprehensible babbling then followed.
"You don't say?"
"She's not really saying anything." Glade giggled at me.
"I know, but she's trying to speak. Even if you can't understand what they're saying, you're supposed to encourage babies to speak and show them the proper way to do it by replicating a normal conversation," I explained before adding, "Talking in a 'baby voice' is actually extremely counterproductive in teaching children how to talk too."
"Oh." Glade acknowledged inquisitively.
At that, Tangerine glanced between me and my sister, pointed at Glade, and rambled off some random sounds at me once more.
"See? She saw that I was speaking to you, and she's attempting to add on to that." I pointed out.
So Coal's an adult now? Given this, I think it won't be much longer until we reach the climax (even if it still is a few chapters away)
Nobody's been commenting in between the last couple of chapters- seriously, not cool.
Yup! The baby boy's all grown up Even baby sister Glade is almost ten now.
The plot's definitely going to be picking up steam soon, you're right. There's a few more minor things I want to cover, but the pieces are going to start falling into place until it all explodes I think it should be a fun ride Length-wise, this generation should end up being about the same as Gen 1, ~46 chapters. I've got up to Chapter 35 planned so far, so I should be able to determine the definitive number relatively soon once the last of the prep work is completed
Haha, yes, it has been rather quiet, hasn't it? I appreciate your comment
Stretching out my legs in front of me, I tried not to move much otherwise. A hearty lunch stuffed my stomach fuller than it should have been. It was Tuesday- one of my days off. Normally that meant I watched Riny for longer than normal, I went to see a movie by myself, or I visited mom as everyone else was either at school or work. I can't express how thrilled I was to hear Malachite was on vacation and that he was down for entertaining me at his place. I didn't require that much to keep me satisfied anyway. Simply being somewhere different was good enough for me. Heck, I think Malachite had forgotten I was there. It was that or he either didn't care in the slightest that I could see all the stupid faces he was unknowingly making as he got involved in the television show he was watching.
When my body felt like it could handle all the extra weight I forced upon it through our meal, I took to my feet and wandered over to the fireplace. Comfortable silence passed throughout the room as Malachite remained engaged in his show. Then it concluded several minutes later, and the air wasn't quiet so comfortable.
"So, what's interesting that's been going on with you?" Malachite asked after turning down the volume of the television.
"Huh?"
I kept my eyes on the fire as I could see from the corner of my eye Malachite giving me quite the stare at my comment. I had said it as if he had been speaking a foreign language to me.
"Tell me what you've been up to," he clarified slowly, "I ended up talking too much during lunch. You didn't get the chance to say anything."
"It didn't bother me," I shrugged, "But, um, I guess something funny did happen yesterday. Riny suddenly started saying 'p*ss off' to me constantly."
"Yeah, I heard all about it from Wisp. He and Paya weren't paying attention to what they had playing on the television, and, of course, that out of everything was the phrase she picked up from one of the characters." Malachite chuckled.
I nodded. A longer period of quiet stretched between us. I expected Malachite to take full control of the conversation like I had been letting him do so far, but he was determined to wait me out.
"Those old ladies at the bookstore came in again. Um," I paused as I desperately tried to think of something to tell him that I hadn't said a million times before, "The doctor said mom would be able to come home in a few days."
"Wisp told me too. That's good news."
I groaned at my brother in my mind. Anything I could say he had ruined. There was seriously nothing else of note to tell my cousin, and thus I was as happy as could be when the awkward silence was broken by an irritated grumble.
"Mal, I am going to seriously kill you."
That was Lavender's catchphrase recently. And who was she? Malachite's girlfriend. She had moved in with him as soon as Hunter had moved out, for he himself had gotten married and was now living with his wife more in the center of the city. It hadn't taken more than a few months for the news to come that Malachite and Lavender were going to be parents. Lavender, who was that tough outside but sweet inside type, was ecstatic despite the fact that her unending back pain had her dramatizing otherwise.
"Why the heck did I let you get me pregnant? This is torture." she continued to mutter.
"I'm going to assume it's because he gives you really good woohoo?" I jumped in, which had Malachite chuckling again.
"A good assumption." he agreed.
"Coal, you're extremely lucky I like you, otherwise you would be getting a good smack for encouraging him. Also, I can't move. Seriously, it feels as if this baby has a personal vendetta against my spine." Lavender whined with a pout.
Tangerine reached for the bear as I danced it closer. She then proceeded to attempt to give me a frown when I abruptly yanked it back, but she was giggling too much to pretend she was annoyed. We had been going through this kind of motion a dozen times during the story I had been telling anyway. It had turned into a game she was loving.
"But when the shadows appeared in front of him, Mr. Bear leapt back into the light. He decides to go right to continue his escape from the evil Dragon overlord." I described dramatically.
"No!" Tangerine exclaimed loudly, still with a massive grin on her face.
"No? Alright, he decides to go left," I changed the tale even though I knew my niece could hardly understand a word I was saying and was just shouting out words she did know like always, "The left route appeared to be full of shadows as well, but, behold, the trees begin to clear and the sun breaks through the branches more powerfully than ever. Seeing a clearing ahead, Mr. Bear takes another leap forward to reach sanctuary under the beautiful open sky."
I tauntingly stretched the bear towards Tangerine again. She almost clawed it out of my grip that time around. It was my plan to not let her have it until the story was done, and there was still some story left to tell. That was the plan- until my phone started to ring.
"The Dragon overlord couldn't reach Mr. Bear in the sun, and so Mr. Bear was free. He traveled and traveled before one day finding a city on top of a cliff that lived under the light of an eternal sun. He met a lovely lady bear, and the two married and lived happily ever after." I quickly wrapped the tale up.
I gently tossed Glade's old teddy bear on my niece's lap. The two of us had been hanging out in my sister's room for the better part of the morning, because why not? Glade also had a million toys that made it easy to keep Tangerine entertained. The bear was good enough for her now though. She happily played with it while I took the call.
"Ah, Midas, old chap! So good to hear from you! I daresay I've begun to forget your delightful voice." I teased.
"Don't be a pretentious 🐸🐸🐸🐸," Midas laughed, "You know I already feel horrible for not keeping in contact better, especially upon hearing everyone else has been doing the same thing."
"You don't have to worry about it. I was just messing with you. Funnily enough, I have a pretty strong feeling that you and everyone else aren't exactly jerks," I comforted before quickly closing my mouth as I forgot Tangerine was right there, but she wasn't paying any attention to me, "You're all understandably busy. You've all met new people, and you're all moving forward in your lives. I know that until I catch up there's going to be some distance, but I also know that the distance doesn't mean you've stopped caring."
"Aww, how sweet," Midas cooed jokingly, "You should become a writer or something having that kind of prose."
"I have been reading way too many books lately. I need to get my head out of them, so you talk about you. Or, how about you tell me about this new girlfriend you apparently have? I heard a little about her from Azure."
Midas clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"I was going to tell you about that myself. Right now, actually," he sighed, "But, yes, I have started dating. Her name's Amethyst."
"Purple then?"
"Yup, Solid. She's an Education major, and she's thinking about picking up a Psychology minor."
"You should get her in touch with Desi then. She's had a habit of always holding onto all her notes, so since you two are going to the same university the ones she took back when she was attending will be the best you can find."
"I was actually going to ask if you would ask for me," Midas requested, "I didn't want to come off as presumptuous, especially when the notes aren't even for me."
"Midas, Desi helped your mom change your diapers. You're not exactly strangers. There's no need to be nervous about approaching her directly."
Midas chuckled in embarrassment and slight amusement, and then he said nothing further. A silence began to linger between us. I wasn't going to have that at all.
"So? C'mon, tell me more about Amethyst. She's the first girl you've ever dated! Telling me her major can't be the only thing you want to say. Turn all gushy and mushy and lovey-dovey on me! I don't care."
"I..." Midas tried to continue, but another round of laughter had him pausing, "She's great? I'm sorry, I'm not used to this. Um, I actually just posted some pictures of us online, so you can see how she looks later. She's super gorgeous. She has five siblings, just like you. Four sisters and one brother. Amethyst loves those inappropriate late night television shows just as much as she loves those over the top wedding programs. Uh, what else? She can get rather irritable at times, but you put a cup of coffee in her and she's good to go. Otherwise, she's about as level-headed and calm as a person can get. She doesn't judge, she like to cuddle, and she loves my beard."
"That last one is definitely an important quality," I grinned widely, "She sounds great just like you said. Hopefully I'll be able to visit you soon on a weekend or something so we can meet."
"Sounds good." Midas agreed.
Thanks to the furry thing darting around my feet, I was doing a truly bizarre dance. My new, most favorite companion in the world practically refused to leave my side, so my senses were on constant high alert. I really didn't need to step on my dog and break the poor thing in half.
"Alright, Doodle, stop."
I had to do something though. Every step I took was halted because Doodle kept placing himself under my foot. My original plan had me getting a slightly bigger dog, but one look into Doodle's eyes had had me falling in love. They were a stunningly captivating blue. He was a two-year-old schnoodle, which was a cross between a schnauzer and a poodle, with the slightest bit of mutt mixed in. His name when I got him had been Snickerdoodle. I figured the previous owner had wanted to rhyme Snickerdoodle with schnoodle, but I didn't feel as if that name really fit him. That's why I shortened it to Doodle, and he had thankfully had no problem with it. Doodle had also thankfully been well trained from the get-go. He stopped darting about the instant I gave the command.
"Good boy." I praised, kneeling down to give him a good pet.
When mom made her way over to us, Doodle rushed over to her rather than stay where he was, but that was fine with me. As long as he was out of my way for the moment. Besides me, mom was the one he was most attached to. She was always cold due to her thin frame, and Doodle was a cuddler. I couldn't sit without having him on my lap, and he slept on my bed with me. He would do something similar with mom when I was preoccupied. She picked him up and held him close in that moment while I got Doodle's leash ready.
"Are you sure you're feeling up to a long walk?" I asked her, "I heard you coughing earlier."
Mom had finally been able to come home, but I knew that was something that wasn't going to last. Two more weeks. Maybe three. That would be it, and then she would be back in the hospital for just as long or longer. With having heard her coughing up a storm an hour ago, I didn't want to let her get away with pushing herself and forcing herself back to the hospital sooner than expected.
"My lungs have become useless, Coal," she smiled at me wryly, her strained voice confirming her statement, "If there comes a day when I don't spent a third of my time coughing, then it probably means I'm dead. I want to do what I want to do before I get stuck back in that hospital room, and right now I want to go on this walk. I can handle it."
"Alright." I sighed ever so slightly.
Mom was determined if not honest, I'll give her that. Our destination was the dog park all the way in the city. I had tried taking Doodle to the normal parks closer to home, but those had too many little kids and inattentive parents. Poor Doodle would constantly get swarmed by the tiny munchkins desperate to get their hands on him. Thus, the dog park was our lone option. I asked mom if we should get a taxi when we had to stop and a take a break on a bench when she grew tired, but she gave me a gentle smack on the arm for making such a suggestion. The going was slow and mom's breathing grew labored as we neared our destination, but we made it eventually without any real trouble.
I sighed when I felt a light breeze ruffle the air. A few of the many fall leaves scattered on the ground moved ever so slightly, and the branches on the trees rustled almost inaudibly. The wind was wholly insignificant, but it was going to make Azure do what he had been doing nonstop during the game of horseshoes he was playing with Midas. Putting it simply, Azure was sucking big time. He had always been horrible at horseshoes, but his throws were all over the place today. Thus, Azure had come to the bright conclusion that it was the wind messing him up. At even the slightest trickle of air running past him, he would stop, wait until there was no breeze, prep his throw for way longer than necessary, and finally make his toss unless another gentle huff of air caused him to repeat the process.
The repetition drove me crazy, but Midas apparently had no problem with it. I think him being the very obvious winner had a lot to do with that. He merely folded his arms, waited, and chuckled at Azure's desperate attempts to make it seem as if he still had a chance.
"I can hear you laughing back there," Azure lightly scolded Midas, "You'd better be careful not to break my concentration, or I'll never make this throw."
"Maybe you should stop trying to concentrate then. It hasn't been doing you any favors so far. Just wing it." Midas instantly teased back.
"I'd bet you'd like that, huh? You're so afraid of me catching up that cheap taunting is the only tactic you have left."
"Are we watching the same game of horseshoes as he is? Maybe he's gone blind?" Midas asked me with a raised brow and big grin, "Or has college snapped his brain in half faster than it should have?"
"His brain was a bit snapped to begin with, so who knows?" I joked along.
"Haha. Now, seriously. Shut up." Azure laughed sardonically before lining his toss again.
To be fair, we did keep our mouths closed while he focused.
Keeping them closed and not letting out loud bursts of laughter when poor Azure absolutely failed that toss was another thing entirely. Seeing him fail that badly was actually quite heart wrenching. I managed to stay composed, but Midas lost his head. He quickly hit that point where he couldn't breathe because he was laughing so hard. That was what made me chuckle as Azure failing wasn't that funny, but Midas just having such a hard job with it was highly amusing. Thankfully, Azure wasn't insulted. He wasn't the type to be though.
"You absolute goof," he chided, smacking Midas on the arm after walking to him with an exasperated laugh, "And you say I'm the one who's snapped."
Midas was quick to retaliate the friendly hit. Seconds later, they were lightly hitting each other back and forth in amusement with such eagerness I wondered if they were going to start wrestling right then and there.
Upon pulling the rolling chair closer to mom's bed, I gave her an exasperated but amused glance as I sat down in it. I thought she would be ecstatic with the news I presented her. She had instead frowned and let out a 'What?' that held an extreme mixture of shock, worry, and disapproval.
"Please do remember that you told me to do something. 'Anything', you said. Anything," I pointed out with a grin, "Well, I picked my 'anything', so don't try to tell me now to chose a different something."
"I know what I said, and of course I won't stop you if it's what you really want. But, a police officer? Coal, that's so dangerous."
"I know." I accepted with a nod.
"Berrybrook is a relatively calm place where there's not much going on, but there still have been murders. There is still crime scattered here and there, and it was just seven months ago where an officer in the department you'd most likely end up in got brutally stabbed and dropped out a window. You can't blame me for being hesitant about this."
"No, I know," I repeated, much more solemnly this time, "I definitely don't blame you, and I certainly understand. Truth be told, I have become more nervous about it as the excitement has been wearing off and the reality of what being a cop entails sinks in. However, I'm determined to go for it no matter what. This is what I want."
Mom sighed, and a reluctant smile graced her lips.
"Alright then," she accepted, "If you've finally found your calling, then, like I said, you go right head and grab it. Will you be starting testing soon, or...?"
"Since you've said that, that's part of what I was hoping we could do today while I'm here. You have to be at least twenty-one to apply, so I've got some time until I can do anything on that front. Holly suggested the idea though of me taking some stand-alone law classes online. I was thinking you could help me look at different schools and what they offered. I tried doing it on my own, and I had no clue where to start."
"That's music to my ears. This place is so horribly boring that I've completely run out of things to do. I've had to start watching some teen show about a boy who becomes a merman after falling into a magical pond guarded by three mermaids because that's one of the few things I haven't watched yet." mom pouted.
"I don't know why you're making that face. That sounds like a classic right there." I teased.
With a chuckle, mom brushed off the topic and patted her laptop next to her on the nightstand.
"You get it turned on, and we'll start by looking at a few schools I've heard of that have strong law programs." she instructed.
I did as prompted. Mom continued the conversation while we waited for the laptop to get booted up.
"How have Daffodil and Umber taken the news of you wanting to be a police officer? Or have you not told them yet?" she wondered.
"I told them. They took it pretty...well," I had a difficult time suppressing a good bout of laughter at recalling the memory, "They certainly tried what they could to keep me around though. Poor Daff even offered to double my salary right then and there. She's always been that hopeful that she could get me to take over the place if she could simply keep offering the store to me over the course of a long while. Mr. M's reaction was the best though. He still believes I'm dad, and he couldn't wrap his head around me suddenly wanting to become an officer when he knows 'I' want to be an astronomer. So, he twisted the announcement of my eventual departure around in his head to mean that I would be leaving because you and I were getting married. He kept trying to give me this check for a thousand dollars he wrote for a wedding present."
"Ahh, poor Mr. M," mom giggled, "Even with his mind not like it once was, he's still remained a total sweetheart. I'll have to try and go visit him the next time I get out of this place."
My whole body froze in an instant. The most movement I could get was out of my fingers, and even twitching them had them feeling like they creaked and popped. What I saw almost made me feel nauseated as everything came at me in both slow motion and quickened speed. I didn't dare turn my head or blink, for I had had this dream many times. It wouldn't be long before my alarm went off. That's how it always worked. My mind would give me the sweetest but briefest moment of relief, and reality would snatch it away just like that.
"Oh, my baby girl..."
His voice gushed softly, but his words echoed with a boom in my ears. That was his voice. The one I'd almost forgotten. I latched onto the sound with fervor. Dad rarely spoke in my dreams, and if he did the words were practically inaudible. I would try and strain to hear, I would try and get closer, and that's when it would all end.
My dry eyes screamed at me, forcing me to blink. I did hesitantly, and the shock pining me frozen captured me more intensely when nothing changed. He still stood right there wearing that same familiar grin he'd worn forever. Dad's eyes sparkled brightly as he backed away from Cerise to get a good look at her.
"Except, you're not much of a baby anymore, are you?" he chuckled with a slight hint of pained sadness peaking through.
"Nope." Cerise smiled along.
"Can you even remember me?" dad continued as he attempted to keep the guilt at bay.
"A little," Cerise comforted as best she could, "But most of what I do know is from home movies and stories. I know you definitely didn't have this though."
She reached up to touch the pretty freaking huge scar running straight down the left side of dad's face.
"Ah, yes, that. We'll get to that in a bit. Honestly though, I forget it's there most of the time now. Got it quite a few years back." he explained briefly.
Mom had moved from next to dad's side to encourage me to move closer to where they were. Her efforts didn't amount to much. I managed a step or two in their direction, but that was it. Dad gently took Cerise's hand touching his cheek and held it. He smiled at her once more. Then his gaze shifted over her shoulder to lock with mine. His smile remained on his face as he slowly slid past her to approach me when it became clear my feet weren't cooperating, but that grin wasn't something he could keep up. It was all because I still couldn't do anything than stand there stiff like a board and stare. My brain went useless on me as the seconds ticked by and dad didn't vanish. The thought that he was actually in front of me had me completely bewildered. The idea that he stopped smiling because he was concerned over my lack of response or was perhaps afraid I was angry at him- the idea that he was simply a real person with his own perspective in my presence once more didn't mesh well with how I imagined the rest of my days to pass. Dad was never coming back. His disappearance would forever be a frustrating mystery. I honestly wished for a moment to return back to that reality, for it was one I knew how to deal with.
Those two solemn words mom spoke lingered painfully in the air. Her eyes darted this way and that, but never got higher than the floor. She waited for someone to say something, for someone to react, but I think the rest of us, at least I was, were waiting for her to keep going. To say it was just a joke. To reveal it actually wasn't that serious. When the silence dragged on until it grew suffocating, I looked to dad. There was no doubt by the stunned expression he wore that mom hadn't chosen to speak to him about this beforehand.
"Lung cancer?"
Wisp was the brave one to break the tension. Even his soft voice boomed like thunder as the horror was that immense.
"But..but that's something that only people who smoke and stuff get!" Cerise piped up, her words dripped with denial.
"It's more common for them, but that's not necessarily true," mom countered gently, "All the horrible bouts of pneumonia I've had are what's done it. My lungs have been weakened so much, it was the right environment for the mutations to thrive.
Cerise huffed out a heartbroken yet furiously angry scoff while turning her head away from everyone. There was a wetness in her eye.
"How bad is it?" Uncle Blaze questioned to push back the stiff silence threatening to take over again.
"The diagnosis I was given was Stage II Type B. That basically means the tumor I have is larger than five centimeters, but not larger than seven centimeters."
"If the cancer is in its second stage, then that obviously means it's been developing over time. But you've been in the hospital constantly for years now! How the hell did no one realize you had cancer!?" Prism broke out of his horrified stupor to exclaim bitterly.
"It's been hiding under all the other problems. No one thought to test for it because its symptoms mixed themselves in with the symptoms of the pneumonia and other infections and sicknesses I've had." mom mumbled miserably.
"It's alright," Uncle Blaze comforted, mostly motioning to Prism, "Stage II is something we can handle. I mean, I haven't done too much research specifically on lung cancer, but the problem isn't nearly as bad as it could be. The treatments should take care of it no problem. What is your doctor recommending you do?"
"Normally, they will do a surgery to remove the tumor and any lymph nodes that have possibly become cancerous. However, my doctor doesn't feel I'm strong enough to undergo surgery. We're going to start out with only radiation therapy, and if that doesn't prove effective enough we'll considering talking about surgery again as well as chemotherapy."
I grew more and more frightened with every word mom spoke. I didn't know much about radiation therapy, but I had heard horrible tales about the effects of chemotherapy. I glanced at mom's practically skeletal frame, and my heart dropped down to my shoes at the thought of her having to suffer through such an ordeal. No matter what happened, she wouldn't come out of this a victor. It was a dreadful realization, and it only got worse.
"What else is there?" Wisp asked softly.
Mom's head had steadily drooped lower and lower. Her fight to maintain composure was clear, but that was a losing battle as well.
"My doctor and I talked about a lot of things. One of the things he brought up was my five year survival rate," she began in a cracking and wavering voice, "He said that he typically refuses to give them at all, because the numbers can be skewed so easily and everyone is so different. However...this time around he admitted that due to my already significantly weakened state and high risk for pneumonia and similar infections that the survival rate for the stage I'm at is accurate to what he thinks will happen."
My abdomen constricted. My fingers tingled, my head started to go dizzy, and I discovered I was barely breathing myself. Fifty percent. That was what I feared would come out of mom's mouth next. It was the lowest percentage I could force myself to accept. The chance being equal of mom living or mom dying was terrifying enough. It surely couldn't be anything worse than that...
"And what's the survival rate?" Uncle Blaze had to prompt.
Mom lost her battles against her emotions. Tears steamed down her cheeks, and she hung her head so low it was impossible to see her face.
The gentle crashing of the ocean waves onto the shore in the not so distant distance sang their luring song to me, but I mentally sighed and resigned myself to the fact that there would definitely be no more ocean swimming this year. The temperatures were really beginning to drop both on land and in the water. Our heated pool would have to suffice. I was comfortable standing around in the open field near the beach. However, I had heard rumors that in maybe two or three weeks we would have snow on the ground. It would be a bit early in the season still for that, but knowing my hometown I didn't doubt a freak snowfall could occur. It was beyond me how Pastel wasn't freezing, but according to her and Citrine their own hometown was much colder overall than Berrybrook was.
"Mom's been trooping on like always," I continued my report of how things were progressing in my life, "The radiation therapy actually hasn't been affecting her too badly. She caught a fever though, so her doctor decided to keep her at the hospital until it goes away just to make sure it doesn't develop into something awful. He gave us the news that he was hoping to see a bit more improvement with decreasing the tumor than what has been seen, but it's only been two weeks. His theory for how everything will play out is that the radiation will get rid of the majority of the tumor, but not all of it. However, the decrease of cancer should give mom more strength to recover enough of her health for a surgery to take care of the last of it."
"That's seriously good news, Coal. It sounds like everything is going the best it can." Citrine replied encouragingly.
I nodded, and then was interrupted by Doodle bringing over a stick for me to throw as he had gotten bored of merely running around. Citrine proceeded to snatch the stick out of my hand and throw it himself before I could even think about pulling my arm back. Both Pastel and I laughed. Doodle had captivated Citrine quite effectively. If my dog was nearby, it was next to impossible to get Citrine to do anything other than play with him.
"Does it still feel weird having your dad back?" Pastel wondered.
"Hell yeah," I said vigorously, "It's probably going to be months before I can start accepting it. I still wake up each morning totally floored that he's around."
"I definitely can't wait to meet him, because he sounds great. We seriously took a vacation at the wrong time. Everything seemed to have happened while we were gone," Pastel chuckled, "It's a shame your dad said he was too busy today for us to come over."
"Which I still think is weird. He wouldn't even tell me what he was doing when he took off earlier." I pondered.
"Isn't your sister's birthday soon? Maybe he's getting her a present?" Citrine proposed.
"Cerise's birthday was last week." I explained.
"Ah, whoops. Everything really did happen while we were gone." he laughed.
"Was he acting suspicious at all?" Pastel questioned next.
"A little suspicious," I confirmed, "But not in a way that makes me think he's hiding bad news or anything. It just looks like he's getting right back up to his old tricks."
"Then I guess all you can do is hold on for the ride."
"Looks like it." I agreed.
Poor Doodle got frustrated. He apparently was incredibly adamant about me throwing the stick, and so when only Citrine showed interested in playing fetch he snuffed around my feet until I gave in to run around with him for a few minutes. Citrine joined while Pastel did something on her phone. She eventually joined us for a few minutes as well, but it was soon time to leave. The four of us had already been on a long walk, and I knew the cousins had other stuff to do.
"Was that your mom?" Citrine asked Pastel after we got started on our way.
Pastel nodded.
"I thought your mom was so angry about you two moving to Berrybrook that she wasn't speaking to you?" I recalled.
Citrine and Pastel had gone ahead and given me more insight about their troublesome family, but the specifics about what was wrong remained sparse.
"She decided to start texting me every now and again a little while ago pretty much out of nowhere. I think it was about two weeks ago, actually- the night before Citrine and I left for vacation. Honestly, I'm surprised she initiated conversation this fast, but I ignore anything that isn't simple, casual topics. I don't need her trying to get on my case again right now." Pastel answered.
"That bad, huh?" I asked sympathetically.
"I don't hate her, but the 🐸🐸🐸🐸 woman has been horribly unsupportive of how I've tried to live my life as well as letting others who should have never had a voice in my business have too much say."
"That's unfortunate. Sorry to hear it."
"It's fine," Pastel shrugged, "I do appreciate that she's at least attempting to patch things up. I'll probably give her and dad another chance once the repercussions of their actions have sunk in a bit more."
I kept glancing Pastel's way expecting further explanation, but she transfixed her stare straight ahead and said nothing more. Citrine gave me a shrug too when I turned my attentions towards him. As far as I had figured out, Citrine didn't really have bad relations with his section of the family, but he had chosen to move to Berrybrook to support Pastel with whatever issues she had with hers.
Comments
For me personally, to publish each full chapter to the forums is a massive headache and pain that I don't want to deal with. Editing the photos to scale them down would take forever, and the quality of them drops drastically from what they should be. Then there's the fact that the forums have an incredibly strict censor. You can't even say most elementary school insults without them getting plummed. My blog just makes it way easier for me to put the posts together, and it's much easier to go through the different chapters than trying to search through page after page here to get to the one you want.
You mean you didn't see the links to the full content on the first page or at the end of the previews and thought I was posting incomplete stuff? Sorry about that. There is that directory on the first page with links to all the full chapters, and there's a table of contents post on the blog on the left-hand side column that has all of them too. I hope that makes things more navigable.
There was only two ways this evening was going to go. Barely acceptable or badly. My money was on the second outcome. It was true I was smiling to myself in the mirror, but that was because I had been forcing myself to smile for the past half hour or so. If you put on a happy face, your mood increases naturally on its own. That's what they say anyway, right? It was what I was hoping for as I got ready. I figured the majority of my outing would actually be just fine. It was the choice I would have to make at the end that was causing my palms to sweat.
"Well, at least I look alright." I mumbled to myself, adjusting my collar as the nerves coursing throughout my body had it feeling like it was strangling me otherwise.
Who I met when I walked out my bedroom door didn't help me to remedy my hesitant state. I cursed mentally when I spotted Cerise coming out of her room across the hall at the exact same moment. I wish I could have walked away, but the only path of escape took me right by her. Cerise dashed over anyway to crush me around my middle with a, most likely, purposely crushing hug.
"Ooo, don't you look fancy?" she cooed, teasingly more than genuinely, unfortunately.
"It's a dress shirt and pants. Nothing I haven't worn before." I answered nonchalantly.
I pried Cerise off my waist, but she set herself firmly in front of me to give me a giggle of hers I really didn't like. I naturally loved my little sister, but she could be such an annoying little imp sometimes.
"So, does Mimi know that this is a fake date or...?" she instantly swung where it would hit the hardest.
"The date part is real. It's just that Mimosa isn't going to be getting the answer she wants at the end of the night. If she'll accept it or ignore it like she usually does, who knows?"
"It's going to be a fun evening either way then, huh?" Cerise continued to tease, placing her hands on her hips.
I poked her on the forehead before walking past her to run away as well as to force me to take the high road. Cerise, as always, made that rather difficult.
"Don't forget to take some tissues with you!" she called after me.
"You know," I stopped right at the top of the stairs and gave her a smile that barely contained the seriousness of what I felt, "You truly are lucky you have me a big brother, because I am way nicer to you than I should be. I'm not going to get mad at you now even though you're practically cheering on the heartbreak of a girl who has been nothing but adoring of you. You're still a little kid, so I get that you're ignorant about these kind of matters. When you do get older and most likely get your own heart broken, I'm not going to rub it your face by pointing out you're experiencing what you were making light of behind Mimosa's back. After all, it's not exactly a nice thing to treat other's pain so jovially."
Cerise sobered up at that. Her smile was gone, and the expression on her face showed that she got the point. She glanced my way sheepishly, but I was already heading down the stairs desperately keeping my own smile on my face in my pitiful attempt of fooling myself this night could avoid pain at all.
Continue reading.
Eh, don't worry 'bout it!
Holly locked her determined stare on mine as tightly as I locked mine on hers. This was all out war, and I was not planning on losing. I would not subject myself to the torture that would bring.
"Why don't you just go ahead and back out, Vivid?" Holly taunted, "I'll make it worth your while."
"There is absolutely nothing you can give me that would have me willingly throwing myself under the bus. Even a hundred dollar gift card to Zero's or the like won't make me budge." I declined stubbornly.
"There's a possibility that could actually be arranged. Remember, you do love the food they make there." she lured me, tilting her head at just the perfect angle.
"You're seriously willing to spend one hundred freaking dollars just so you don't have to do the works cited page for your project?" Uncle Al, lazing about on the couch nearby watching television, balked in stupefied awe, "I don't think I raised you to be like that."
"You haven't seen how many sources we have, and you don't know what our teacher is like." Holly pointed out to him with so much genuine dread that I burst out laughing.
Then it was time to get serious once more. Holly gave me that important look. Our fists slapped on our other palm three times before we drew our weapons. Holly's choice was a sturdy rock. Mine was a glorious piece of paper. My smile returned with renewed vigor while Holly's expression sank so low it might as well have dropped off the face of the planet.
"Yes!" I cheered, "Suck it, Charm!"
"No one is sucking anything in this house," Uncle Al interjected again, much more rapidly than before, "Unless it's Lia and me."
"Dad." Holly rebuked shortly.
"Why don't the two of you just do the citations together?" he ignored her.
"Because she lost rock-paper-scissors most impressively, as you clearly just saw." I boasted.
"Again, you don't know what the situation is like," Holly pouted, "We were lucky enough to get the rest of the project done without biting the other's head off."
"Friends we might be, but good project partners we are not." I added on merrily.
Holly sighed miserably.
"Daddyyy, can you lend me a bit of extra money so I can increase the bribe?" she pleaded with puppy dog eyes.
"Definitely not," Uncle Al scoffed merrily, "Besides, I am a firm believer in honoring the victories of a simple child's hand game. It's how Am and I settled everything, and I had to bite my lip and suffer my fair share of losses like you will have to do now."
"You're such a stuffed shirt." Holly folded her arms with a frown.
"Well, I obviously must not have been as firm with you as I should have been if you're willing to throw one hundred dollars around like it's nothing." Uncle Al teased, turning his head back towards the television screen- but not before ruffling Mimosa's hair lovingly, "You need to be more sensible, like your sister here."
Mimosa, sitting casually on the floor at Uncle Al's feet doing her own homework, smiled up at him before sticking out her tongue at Holly like Holly was sticking hers out at her. I chuckled at their age old habit of doing such a thing, and that caught Mimosa's attention. Ours eyes locked for a brief moment, and she managed some sort of a small smile before hurriedly snapping her gaze away.
Homecoming had come and gone. Azure had ended up going with Moon, Holly got a date with some boy in her math class, and Midas and I went stag again. Mimosa didn't go at all. She instead had an evening out with her parents at some fancy restaurant before traveling down to Bayport to see a fireworks display. Before that night, Mimosa avoided me like the plague. After the dance, she started slowly warming up to me once more. We didn't hang out directly with the other too much, but we could handle being around the other's presence. It was the best I could ask for for the moment, so I was trying not to be pushy.
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I frowned as I searched through the final drawer in the downstairs restroom. I picked up several boxes. All but one of them were not what I needed in the slightest, and the one that contained what could have been used had a very big problem with it. It got tossed in the trash immediately. Sighing, I closed the drawer and pressed my forehead against the wood. Lunchtime was only just slowly creeping up on us, and I was already exhausted. A headache was forming in my temples as well. The tingling ringing that then echoed throughout the house was the main source of that. The sound had been going non-stop.
Glade, the one ringing the bell that was making the noise, was simply going to have to wait. Mom seriously had spoiled her a little too much. It was about time she learned that all our attention couldn't constantly revolve around her. I ignored the bell as I made mom's room my first stop then.
"Mom, you need to stop getting up. Don't worry about Glade. I'll be getting her in a second." I instructed, rushing over as mom was unsteady even just trying to sit.
"I know you will," mom said weakly and quietly as she gave me the smallest of smiles, "You've lectured me enough today to make me stop trying. I'm just going to the bathroom, Coal."
"Oh. Okay. Do you need any help walking over?"
"No, I'm fine." mom declined.
She wobbled on her feet as she stood, but using the post of her bed allowed her to find her balance. Her gaze fell upon my empty hands, and I had to relay the news.
"We're all out of medicine. The one box we did have left was super expired. I'll make a quick run to the drugstore once I go upstairs and take that darn bell away from Glade. I can't believe Uncle Blaze thought to give it to her."
"I wonder if he knew he wouldn't be around to have to listen to it." mom joked tiredly.
It was winter, and sickness had struck the Vivid household. That wasn't a surprise in the slightest, but everyone was being struck down much harder than normal. Well, save for mom. She was holding up well for her. It was Uncle Blaze who was in the hospital this time around with a ridiculous fever. His absence meant it was solely up to me to keep the household under control, and the task was proving difficult.
I had no clue how Glade had that much energy to keep ringing that horrible bell. She would not stop until I entered the room. It was finally put down when she spotted me, and she looked absolutely miserable half sitting up as she looked my way.
"I thought you had managed to fall asleep." I said, moving closer.
"I thought I did too," she pouted, looking as if she wanted to cry, "But my head hurts too much. I woke right back up."
Those watery eyes of her snatched away most of my annoyance. Besides Uncle Blaze, Glade was the one having the worst time. Her headache was monstrous, or so she claimed. Glade didn't handle pain all that well, which meant it could be difficult to tell just how intense the ailment actually was. There had been times where she got a simple paper cut and went on about it as if she lost her finger. In this case, the lone thing that Glade claimed gave her any relief was me stroking her hair as she kept on trying to fall asleep.
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The gentle tapping of me lightly hitting my forehead against the glass of the table beat out a steady rhythm one could make quite the lovely song to if one was so inclined. Song melodies were not what my mind concerned itself with though at the moment. It instead sped through every kind of job or random career I'd ever heard of in hopes that one of the ideas would catch my interest. The best I was getting were possible jobs that would at least not make me want to rip my hair out. However, there failed to be one that I actually wanted to strive for. There was so far nothing that gave me the impression that I would be happy doing it the way Wisp enjoyed his art or Prism loved his film making.
"I want at least three things written down by lunch!" mom called to me, poking her head out of her bedroom door to add more stress.
"I know." I growled to myself slowly in annoyance.
Time had flown, and summer was already here. As was summer vacation. The buffer space between now and when I had to start enacting on plans to set the rest of my life in motion was growing dangerously thin. I remembered back to Wisp working on his college essays. I remembered Prism bringing up his idea of moving to Tinseltown to live with Aunt Sunset. I remembered Desire discussing with Uncle Eden the path one would take to become a psychologist. All three of my older siblings had had solid ideas for their futures when they were my age. I had nothing. That was why mom gave me the 'assignment' to sit at the table and brainstorm a few acceptable propositions. You would think even her telling me she wouldn't require me to go to college if I could think up a sturdy idea of a job that could support me without that education would give me more options, but the paper I'd yet to pull out to write my ideas on was as blank as it would be if I had bothered to take it out.
"How about you be a stuntman?"
The suggestion came from Prism. Both he and Desire were home for the summer, although Prism wouldn't be around as long as his twin. Another offer to assist with a short film production had been sent his way. There was no chance he would turn that down.
"Stuntman?" I repeated, barely lifting my head.
"Why not? We both know you'd never survive any sort of boring office job. You're athletic, you have a drive to be active, and you're ever so slightly reckless. You could get to jump off buildings, be a part of fake sword fights, and all that fun stuff. It'd be easy to get into the business with me being your connection too."
"I dunno," I mumbled, "The idea isn't too bad, but I don't think I want to move that far away. I love Berrybrook. I want to stay here if I can."
Growing up surrounded by family and friends had been ingrained in me. To take off and be so far away from everyone except my brother wasn't ideal.
"Hmm, how about you pick up a part-time position at that bookstore like dad did? Mr. Mosaic is still kicking. He loved having dad working for him, and I remember he adored you as a kid. You could easily work up to a management position. Heck, Mr. Mosaic might even pass the store down to you when he eventually retires."
"Maybe..."
"You still take Ceri and Glade to their horse riding lessons, right? I'm sure Mr. and Mrs. Bright would be eager to hire a younger stable hand to help with all the lifting work. You even have Uncle Sap to go too as well. With all the places he and Aunt Purity run, they'd be able to find you a good position somewhere."
I took my head off the table and glanced up. My interest had been captivated, but not exactly in the manner I needed it to be. Prism was looking down at me with a light smile. That is, until amused confusion and curiosity took over that grin when I kept on staring.
"What?" he wondered.
"Sorry, I'm still getting used to this grown up you. All you've been is nice to me since you got home, and it's freaking me out. You're even being really helpful here. It's weird."
"Hmm, yes, I guess growing up does usually involve some maturation," Prism chuckled, "I haven't been given complete control of any big projects yet, naturally, but now that I've been having a part in a position that provides the livelihoods for those under me and their families I have to take things more seriously. That thinking extends to you since you're working towards your future livelihood."
"Mmm." I said slowly with a little nod.
"I can easily go back to teasing and bullying you instead, if you'd like." Prism suggested.
"Uh, no. No, thank you." I laughed.
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This was my second time playing this game. The one where I looked down at the wood chips to find matching or similar ones. I wasn't having the best of luck given that I couldn't move from my position on the swing in addition to me having to actively participate in a conversation. I probably should have been focusing more on that second thing anyway, but I had had a lot of trouble concentrating recently.
"When we got to the market, mom got really mad at me. I couldn't help myself. Everything was so colorful. All I wanted to do was take pictures. Mom kept on complaining that it felt like she was spending her vacation talking to a camera. She finally took it away from me after another half hour." Rosemary spoke cheerfully.
"I would do so too." I responded.
Then I faded my attention out again. Rosemary had been going on for a while about the vacation she and Aunt Deny had just gotten back from. They had gone to a country overseas known for its flavorful food, rich and colorful scenery, and energetic culture. I had been jealous when Rosemary initially told me about the trip, but now I was content to ignore every now and again what my cousin was telling me. It didn't exactly work out in my favor.
"After we bought this dragon egg that later went on to hatch in the fire we had in our hotel room, mom and I ended up participating in a local magic show where a spell went wrong granted mom the ability to fly. I rode on her back instead of us taking a plane home."
"That's pretty cool."
I could have gotten away with my inattentiveness had I injected some heavy sarcasm in that comment, but I spoke it too normally- as if I actually believed what Rosemary spoke was true. Having been staring at the ground, my brows furrowed when the words sank in. The silence of Rosemary awaiting my reaction also helped me realize what just happened.
"Aww, shoot." I sighed at myself, having been caught.
Rosemary, thankfully, was nothing more than amused.
"The others have told me you've been distracted lately," she laughed loudly, "But I didn't think you were this bad."
"I haven't been distracted." I mumbled in a pout.
"Well, it's either that or you think my vacation stories are utterly boring."
"They're not boring," I reassured defensively before caving, "I...I have been distracted..."
"Is there a reason why that you want to tell me about?" Rosemary encouraged.
I opened and closed my mouth several times. There was some strong contemplation going on in my mind saying that I should tell her. The old, familiar need to talk bouncing around in my chest was determined to break out. However, I eventually shook my head.
"Maybe later."
Rosemary blessedly accepted the denial with grace, but she had long been good at reading me. She understood I wasn't ready to speak my thoughts yet and knew when to grant me space. I might have gone ahead and told her if we had been somewhere else. And alone. Yeah, I'm sure that my tongue would have come loose in an instant if the rest of our friends hadn't been nearby. Midas, Azure, Holly, Mimosa, Rosemary, and I were hanging out at the empty playground behind the elementary school in the city. It was nice to go back to those nostalgic times for a bit. It truly did feel as if we were all kids when Rosemary and I watched Holly and Mimosa go down the slide together over and over again as we swung back and forth properly now.
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School was done for the day, and it was quiet in the halls. Cerise and Glade were taking the bus home because I had something to do that afternoon, and I was actually letting Azure borrow dad's car, which had basically become mine, in order to go around and do some shopping for Moon's birthday. The two of them had had a thing after they first went to homecoming before there had been a long break where they went back to being just friends. Now they were dating after having gone to homecoming together again, and I swore Moon was already picking out her wedding dress. Girls. Azure was happy though, which was nice to see because I was having trouble feeling such an emotion myself lately.
"So, what do you think? Clothes? Jewelry? She likes both, but I feel like those are both safe and boring ideas." Azure asked.
"I dunno." I shrugged.
"C'mon, Coal! You have three sisters! You should be able to tell me the best presents for a girl with ease!" Azure whined.
"Except Moon isn't my sister, and every girl is different," I rolled my eyes with a smirk, "But, didn't I hear her talking about wanting a puppy? You could try that."
"I can't get her a puppy." Azure frowned.
"Why not? She said that her parents were seriously considering letting her get one. Talk to them to make sure it's alright, and then go to the humane society or something. That's where Uncle Eden got Button. They have a bunch of dogs of all ages, they take care of all their shots and stuff, they neuter or spay them too, and they're relatively inexpensive. Then you and Moon could go shopping for a bed, collars, toys, and whatever, and it'd be like you'd have your own puppy baby to raise together."
"Possibly." Azure conceded, sounding almost convinced.
He asked me more about the adoption process, which was a difficult question to answer considering I'd never gone through it myself either. Uncle Eden had only vaguely described how he got Button once. I'd barely gotten started when Azure and I were forcibly pulled out of that conversation though by the sound of a familiar voice heading our way. Despite being familiar, it was a voice I hadn't heard for quite some time now. Candy was walking down the hall with her hand tightly gripped in her new boyfriend's palm. The two of them didn't notice us until they got a bit closer.
"Hey, Azure." Candy greeted my friend after giving me a very vicious death glare.
"Hey, Candy." Azure greeted back, doing his best not to let the awkwardness affect him.
Their exchange was just that simple greeting. Candy smiled at him, turned her head away from me with a huff, and continued walking away with her guy. I had heard what his name was once, but I hadn't exactly been eager to remember it.
It got even more awkward when the two stopped further down so Candy's boyfriend could get something out of his locker twenty feet away from us. I had trouble finding my voice, and Azure didn't know how to pick up our conversation normally either. He used the time to fiddle around with his books in his own locker. Thankfully, Candy and her companion didn't linger. The guy's stuff was gotten, and they were on their way. I tried not to stare at them. It was only one quick glance that let me see the two deciding right then was the appropriate moment to attach their lips together as they rounded the corner.
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A bizarre mixture of nostalgia, amusement, and sadness swirled together in my chest. It was a bit before lunch on a Friday about a month into the new school year. There was no school on this particular Friday as there was some kind of mandatory training going on for all the teachers in the district. That meant Glade was joining me as I babysat Wisp's daughter like I did most mornings. Her name was Tangerine, although everyone usually just called her Riny. A little over a year old, she was freaking adorable.
And having Glade play peek-a-boo with her while I sat nearby was what brought about the strange mixture of emotions within my chest. I was amused because both Glade's and Tangerine's giggles were hilarious. I was nostalgic because it felt like just yesterday I was sitting in almost the exact spot they were in now entertaining Cerise with a game of peek-a-boo, and I was sad naturally because of the silent yet devastating event that would unfold later that day. I tried to focus on the happier of the emotions, of course.
It wasn't a hard task. Tangerine's smile would get so huge when she was laughing it felt like her mouth took up half her face.
"Try keeping your hands over your face for a long time, but look through a crack in your fingers. Maybe Riny will try to do what Ceri always did by grabbing at my fingers. If she does, go at her then. Ceri got a kick out of it." I instructed my sister.
"Did you do that with me?" Glade wondered.
"A few times, but it always made you cry," I chuckled, "Peeking out at you when you were too close apparently terrified you. You would scream the whole house down."
Glade, expectedly, wasn't super keen on reacting to that kind of information. She focused her sights back on her niece and tried my suggestion. It took a while, but Tangerine did eventually scoot forward to reach for Glade's fingers. Glade popped out at her then, and Tangerine thankfully took after Cerise. She laughed so hard for so long I began to fear we'd broken her.
However, that new kind of game quickly tired Tangerine out. She ditched Glade to crawl into my lap. Having aching muscles after sitting on the floor for quite some time, I gathered her in my arms as I stood. I wasn't even halfway up yet when she spoke an explosion of babbles at me. Tangerine was a talker, although the only real word she had said so far was 'now.'
"Yeah? What is it?" I asked her in the pause she left after I found my footing.
Tangerine stared at me blankly for several seconds, but more incomprehensible babbling then followed.
"You don't say?"
"She's not really saying anything." Glade giggled at me.
"I know, but she's trying to speak. Even if you can't understand what they're saying, you're supposed to encourage babies to speak and show them the proper way to do it by replicating a normal conversation," I explained before adding, "Talking in a 'baby voice' is actually extremely counterproductive in teaching children how to talk too."
"Oh." Glade acknowledged inquisitively.
At that, Tangerine glanced between me and my sister, pointed at Glade, and rambled off some random sounds at me once more.
"See? She saw that I was speaking to you, and she's attempting to add on to that." I pointed out.
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Nobody's been commenting in between the last couple of chapters- seriously, not cool.
Not a movie
The plot's definitely going to be picking up steam soon, you're right. There's a few more minor things I want to cover, but the pieces are going to start falling into place until it all explodes
Haha, yes, it has been rather quiet, hasn't it?
Stretching out my legs in front of me, I tried not to move much otherwise. A hearty lunch stuffed my stomach fuller than it should have been. It was Tuesday- one of my days off. Normally that meant I watched Riny for longer than normal, I went to see a movie by myself, or I visited mom as everyone else was either at school or work. I can't express how thrilled I was to hear Malachite was on vacation and that he was down for entertaining me at his place. I didn't require that much to keep me satisfied anyway. Simply being somewhere different was good enough for me. Heck, I think Malachite had forgotten I was there. It was that or he either didn't care in the slightest that I could see all the stupid faces he was unknowingly making as he got involved in the television show he was watching.
When my body felt like it could handle all the extra weight I forced upon it through our meal, I took to my feet and wandered over to the fireplace. Comfortable silence passed throughout the room as Malachite remained engaged in his show. Then it concluded several minutes later, and the air wasn't quiet so comfortable.
"So, what's interesting that's been going on with you?" Malachite asked after turning down the volume of the television.
"Huh?"
I kept my eyes on the fire as I could see from the corner of my eye Malachite giving me quite the stare at my comment. I had said it as if he had been speaking a foreign language to me.
"Tell me what you've been up to," he clarified slowly, "I ended up talking too much during lunch. You didn't get the chance to say anything."
"It didn't bother me," I shrugged, "But, um, I guess something funny did happen yesterday. Riny suddenly started saying 'p*ss off' to me constantly."
"Yeah, I heard all about it from Wisp. He and Paya weren't paying attention to what they had playing on the television, and, of course, that out of everything was the phrase she picked up from one of the characters." Malachite chuckled.
I nodded. A longer period of quiet stretched between us. I expected Malachite to take full control of the conversation like I had been letting him do so far, but he was determined to wait me out.
"Those old ladies at the bookstore came in again. Um," I paused as I desperately tried to think of something to tell him that I hadn't said a million times before, "The doctor said mom would be able to come home in a few days."
"Wisp told me too. That's good news."
I groaned at my brother in my mind. Anything I could say he had ruined. There was seriously nothing else of note to tell my cousin, and thus I was as happy as could be when the awkward silence was broken by an irritated grumble.
"Mal, I am going to seriously kill you."
That was Lavender's catchphrase recently. And who was she? Malachite's girlfriend. She had moved in with him as soon as Hunter had moved out, for he himself had gotten married and was now living with his wife more in the center of the city. It hadn't taken more than a few months for the news to come that Malachite and Lavender were going to be parents. Lavender, who was that tough outside but sweet inside type, was ecstatic despite the fact that her unending back pain had her dramatizing otherwise.
"Why the heck did I let you get me pregnant? This is torture." she continued to mutter.
"I'm going to assume it's because he gives you really good woohoo?" I jumped in, which had Malachite chuckling again.
"A good assumption." he agreed.
"Coal, you're extremely lucky I like you, otherwise you would be getting a good smack for encouraging him. Also, I can't move. Seriously, it feels as if this baby has a personal vendetta against my spine." Lavender whined with a pout.
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Haha, I'm glad you enjoy it so much! Thanks
Tangerine reached for the bear as I danced it closer. She then proceeded to attempt to give me a frown when I abruptly yanked it back, but she was giggling too much to pretend she was annoyed. We had been going through this kind of motion a dozen times during the story I had been telling anyway. It had turned into a game she was loving.
"But when the shadows appeared in front of him, Mr. Bear leapt back into the light. He decides to go right to continue his escape from the evil Dragon overlord." I described dramatically.
"No!" Tangerine exclaimed loudly, still with a massive grin on her face.
"No? Alright, he decides to go left," I changed the tale even though I knew my niece could hardly understand a word I was saying and was just shouting out words she did know like always, "The left route appeared to be full of shadows as well, but, behold, the trees begin to clear and the sun breaks through the branches more powerfully than ever. Seeing a clearing ahead, Mr. Bear takes another leap forward to reach sanctuary under the beautiful open sky."
I tauntingly stretched the bear towards Tangerine again. She almost clawed it out of my grip that time around. It was my plan to not let her have it until the story was done, and there was still some story left to tell. That was the plan- until my phone started to ring.
"The Dragon overlord couldn't reach Mr. Bear in the sun, and so Mr. Bear was free. He traveled and traveled before one day finding a city on top of a cliff that lived under the light of an eternal sun. He met a lovely lady bear, and the two married and lived happily ever after." I quickly wrapped the tale up.
I gently tossed Glade's old teddy bear on my niece's lap. The two of us had been hanging out in my sister's room for the better part of the morning, because why not? Glade also had a million toys that made it easy to keep Tangerine entertained. The bear was good enough for her now though. She happily played with it while I took the call.
"Ah, Midas, old chap! So good to hear from you! I daresay I've begun to forget your delightful voice." I teased.
"Don't be a pretentious 🐸🐸🐸🐸," Midas laughed, "You know I already feel horrible for not keeping in contact better, especially upon hearing everyone else has been doing the same thing."
"You don't have to worry about it. I was just messing with you. Funnily enough, I have a pretty strong feeling that you and everyone else aren't exactly jerks," I comforted before quickly closing my mouth as I forgot Tangerine was right there, but she wasn't paying any attention to me, "You're all understandably busy. You've all met new people, and you're all moving forward in your lives. I know that until I catch up there's going to be some distance, but I also know that the distance doesn't mean you've stopped caring."
"Aww, how sweet," Midas cooed jokingly, "You should become a writer or something having that kind of prose."
"I have been reading way too many books lately. I need to get my head out of them, so you talk about you. Or, how about you tell me about this new girlfriend you apparently have? I heard a little about her from Azure."
Midas clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"I was going to tell you about that myself. Right now, actually," he sighed, "But, yes, I have started dating. Her name's Amethyst."
"Purple then?"
"Yup, Solid. She's an Education major, and she's thinking about picking up a Psychology minor."
"You should get her in touch with Desi then. She's had a habit of always holding onto all her notes, so since you two are going to the same university the ones she took back when she was attending will be the best you can find."
"I was actually going to ask if you would ask for me," Midas requested, "I didn't want to come off as presumptuous, especially when the notes aren't even for me."
"Midas, Desi helped your mom change your diapers. You're not exactly strangers. There's no need to be nervous about approaching her directly."
Midas chuckled in embarrassment and slight amusement, and then he said nothing further. A silence began to linger between us. I wasn't going to have that at all.
"So? C'mon, tell me more about Amethyst. She's the first girl you've ever dated! Telling me her major can't be the only thing you want to say. Turn all gushy and mushy and lovey-dovey on me! I don't care."
"I..." Midas tried to continue, but another round of laughter had him pausing, "She's great? I'm sorry, I'm not used to this. Um, I actually just posted some pictures of us online, so you can see how she looks later. She's super gorgeous. She has five siblings, just like you. Four sisters and one brother. Amethyst loves those inappropriate late night television shows just as much as she loves those over the top wedding programs. Uh, what else? She can get rather irritable at times, but you put a cup of coffee in her and she's good to go. Otherwise, she's about as level-headed and calm as a person can get. She doesn't judge, she like to cuddle, and she loves my beard."
"That last one is definitely an important quality," I grinned widely, "She sounds great just like you said. Hopefully I'll be able to visit you soon on a weekend or something so we can meet."
"Sounds good." Midas agreed.
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Thanks to the furry thing darting around my feet, I was doing a truly bizarre dance. My new, most favorite companion in the world practically refused to leave my side, so my senses were on constant high alert. I really didn't need to step on my dog and break the poor thing in half.
"Alright, Doodle, stop."
I had to do something though. Every step I took was halted because Doodle kept placing himself under my foot. My original plan had me getting a slightly bigger dog, but one look into Doodle's eyes had had me falling in love. They were a stunningly captivating blue. He was a two-year-old schnoodle, which was a cross between a schnauzer and a poodle, with the slightest bit of mutt mixed in. His name when I got him had been Snickerdoodle. I figured the previous owner had wanted to rhyme Snickerdoodle with schnoodle, but I didn't feel as if that name really fit him. That's why I shortened it to Doodle, and he had thankfully had no problem with it. Doodle had also thankfully been well trained from the get-go. He stopped darting about the instant I gave the command.
"Good boy." I praised, kneeling down to give him a good pet.
When mom made her way over to us, Doodle rushed over to her rather than stay where he was, but that was fine with me. As long as he was out of my way for the moment. Besides me, mom was the one he was most attached to. She was always cold due to her thin frame, and Doodle was a cuddler. I couldn't sit without having him on my lap, and he slept on my bed with me. He would do something similar with mom when I was preoccupied. She picked him up and held him close in that moment while I got Doodle's leash ready.
"Are you sure you're feeling up to a long walk?" I asked her, "I heard you coughing earlier."
Mom had finally been able to come home, but I knew that was something that wasn't going to last. Two more weeks. Maybe three. That would be it, and then she would be back in the hospital for just as long or longer. With having heard her coughing up a storm an hour ago, I didn't want to let her get away with pushing herself and forcing herself back to the hospital sooner than expected.
"My lungs have become useless, Coal," she smiled at me wryly, her strained voice confirming her statement, "If there comes a day when I don't spent a third of my time coughing, then it probably means I'm dead. I want to do what I want to do before I get stuck back in that hospital room, and right now I want to go on this walk. I can handle it."
"Alright." I sighed ever so slightly.
Mom was determined if not honest, I'll give her that. Our destination was the dog park all the way in the city. I had tried taking Doodle to the normal parks closer to home, but those had too many little kids and inattentive parents. Poor Doodle would constantly get swarmed by the tiny munchkins desperate to get their hands on him. Thus, the dog park was our lone option. I asked mom if we should get a taxi when we had to stop and a take a break on a bench when she grew tired, but she gave me a gentle smack on the arm for making such a suggestion. The going was slow and mom's breathing grew labored as we neared our destination, but we made it eventually without any real trouble.
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I sighed when I felt a light breeze ruffle the air. A few of the many fall leaves scattered on the ground moved ever so slightly, and the branches on the trees rustled almost inaudibly. The wind was wholly insignificant, but it was going to make Azure do what he had been doing nonstop during the game of horseshoes he was playing with Midas. Putting it simply, Azure was sucking big time. He had always been horrible at horseshoes, but his throws were all over the place today. Thus, Azure had come to the bright conclusion that it was the wind messing him up. At even the slightest trickle of air running past him, he would stop, wait until there was no breeze, prep his throw for way longer than necessary, and finally make his toss unless another gentle huff of air caused him to repeat the process.
The repetition drove me crazy, but Midas apparently had no problem with it. I think him being the very obvious winner had a lot to do with that. He merely folded his arms, waited, and chuckled at Azure's desperate attempts to make it seem as if he still had a chance.
"I can hear you laughing back there," Azure lightly scolded Midas, "You'd better be careful not to break my concentration, or I'll never make this throw."
"Maybe you should stop trying to concentrate then. It hasn't been doing you any favors so far. Just wing it." Midas instantly teased back.
"I'd bet you'd like that, huh? You're so afraid of me catching up that cheap taunting is the only tactic you have left."
"Are we watching the same game of horseshoes as he is? Maybe he's gone blind?" Midas asked me with a raised brow and big grin, "Or has college snapped his brain in half faster than it should have?"
"His brain was a bit snapped to begin with, so who knows?" I joked along.
"Haha. Now, seriously. Shut up." Azure laughed sardonically before lining his toss again.
To be fair, we did keep our mouths closed while he focused.
Keeping them closed and not letting out loud bursts of laughter when poor Azure absolutely failed that toss was another thing entirely. Seeing him fail that badly was actually quite heart wrenching. I managed to stay composed, but Midas lost his head. He quickly hit that point where he couldn't breathe because he was laughing so hard. That was what made me chuckle as Azure failing wasn't that funny, but Midas just having such a hard job with it was highly amusing. Thankfully, Azure wasn't insulted. He wasn't the type to be though.
"You absolute goof," he chided, smacking Midas on the arm after walking to him with an exasperated laugh, "And you say I'm the one who's snapped."
Midas was quick to retaliate the friendly hit. Seconds later, they were lightly hitting each other back and forth in amusement with such eagerness I wondered if they were going to start wrestling right then and there.
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Upon pulling the rolling chair closer to mom's bed, I gave her an exasperated but amused glance as I sat down in it. I thought she would be ecstatic with the news I presented her. She had instead frowned and let out a 'What?' that held an extreme mixture of shock, worry, and disapproval.
"Please do remember that you told me to do something. 'Anything', you said. Anything," I pointed out with a grin, "Well, I picked my 'anything', so don't try to tell me now to chose a different something."
"I know what I said, and of course I won't stop you if it's what you really want. But, a police officer? Coal, that's so dangerous."
"I know." I accepted with a nod.
"Berrybrook is a relatively calm place where there's not much going on, but there still have been murders. There is still crime scattered here and there, and it was just seven months ago where an officer in the department you'd most likely end up in got brutally stabbed and dropped out a window. You can't blame me for being hesitant about this."
"No, I know," I repeated, much more solemnly this time, "I definitely don't blame you, and I certainly understand. Truth be told, I have become more nervous about it as the excitement has been wearing off and the reality of what being a cop entails sinks in. However, I'm determined to go for it no matter what. This is what I want."
Mom sighed, and a reluctant smile graced her lips.
"Alright then," she accepted, "If you've finally found your calling, then, like I said, you go right head and grab it. Will you be starting testing soon, or...?"
"Since you've said that, that's part of what I was hoping we could do today while I'm here. You have to be at least twenty-one to apply, so I've got some time until I can do anything on that front. Holly suggested the idea though of me taking some stand-alone law classes online. I was thinking you could help me look at different schools and what they offered. I tried doing it on my own, and I had no clue where to start."
"That's music to my ears. This place is so horribly boring that I've completely run out of things to do. I've had to start watching some teen show about a boy who becomes a merman after falling into a magical pond guarded by three mermaids because that's one of the few things I haven't watched yet." mom pouted.
"I don't know why you're making that face. That sounds like a classic right there." I teased.
With a chuckle, mom brushed off the topic and patted her laptop next to her on the nightstand.
"You get it turned on, and we'll start by looking at a few schools I've heard of that have strong law programs." she instructed.
I did as prompted. Mom continued the conversation while we waited for the laptop to get booted up.
"How have Daffodil and Umber taken the news of you wanting to be a police officer? Or have you not told them yet?" she wondered.
"I told them. They took it pretty...well," I had a difficult time suppressing a good bout of laughter at recalling the memory, "They certainly tried what they could to keep me around though. Poor Daff even offered to double my salary right then and there. She's always been that hopeful that she could get me to take over the place if she could simply keep offering the store to me over the course of a long while. Mr. M's reaction was the best though. He still believes I'm dad, and he couldn't wrap his head around me suddenly wanting to become an officer when he knows 'I' want to be an astronomer. So, he twisted the announcement of my eventual departure around in his head to mean that I would be leaving because you and I were getting married. He kept trying to give me this check for a thousand dollars he wrote for a wedding present."
"Ahh, poor Mr. M," mom giggled, "Even with his mind not like it once was, he's still remained a total sweetheart. I'll have to try and go visit him the next time I get out of this place."
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My whole body froze in an instant. The most movement I could get was out of my fingers, and even twitching them had them feeling like they creaked and popped. What I saw almost made me feel nauseated as everything came at me in both slow motion and quickened speed. I didn't dare turn my head or blink, for I had had this dream many times. It wouldn't be long before my alarm went off. That's how it always worked. My mind would give me the sweetest but briefest moment of relief, and reality would snatch it away just like that.
"Oh, my baby girl..."
His voice gushed softly, but his words echoed with a boom in my ears. That was his voice. The one I'd almost forgotten. I latched onto the sound with fervor. Dad rarely spoke in my dreams, and if he did the words were practically inaudible. I would try and strain to hear, I would try and get closer, and that's when it would all end.
My dry eyes screamed at me, forcing me to blink. I did hesitantly, and the shock pining me frozen captured me more intensely when nothing changed. He still stood right there wearing that same familiar grin he'd worn forever. Dad's eyes sparkled brightly as he backed away from Cerise to get a good look at her.
"Except, you're not much of a baby anymore, are you?" he chuckled with a slight hint of pained sadness peaking through.
"Nope." Cerise smiled along.
"Can you even remember me?" dad continued as he attempted to keep the guilt at bay.
"A little," Cerise comforted as best she could, "But most of what I do know is from home movies and stories. I know you definitely didn't have this though."
She reached up to touch the pretty freaking huge scar running straight down the left side of dad's face.
"Ah, yes, that. We'll get to that in a bit. Honestly though, I forget it's there most of the time now. Got it quite a few years back." he explained briefly.
Mom had moved from next to dad's side to encourage me to move closer to where they were. Her efforts didn't amount to much. I managed a step or two in their direction, but that was it. Dad gently took Cerise's hand touching his cheek and held it. He smiled at her once more. Then his gaze shifted over her shoulder to lock with mine. His smile remained on his face as he slowly slid past her to approach me when it became clear my feet weren't cooperating, but that grin wasn't something he could keep up. It was all because I still couldn't do anything than stand there stiff like a board and stare. My brain went useless on me as the seconds ticked by and dad didn't vanish. The thought that he was actually in front of me had me completely bewildered. The idea that he stopped smiling because he was concerned over my lack of response or was perhaps afraid I was angry at him- the idea that he was simply a real person with his own perspective in my presence once more didn't mesh well with how I imagined the rest of my days to pass. Dad was never coming back. His disappearance would forever be a frustrating mystery. I honestly wished for a moment to return back to that reality, for it was one I knew how to deal with.
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Those two solemn words mom spoke lingered painfully in the air. Her eyes darted this way and that, but never got higher than the floor. She waited for someone to say something, for someone to react, but I think the rest of us, at least I was, were waiting for her to keep going. To say it was just a joke. To reveal it actually wasn't that serious. When the silence dragged on until it grew suffocating, I looked to dad. There was no doubt by the stunned expression he wore that mom hadn't chosen to speak to him about this beforehand.
"Lung cancer?"
Wisp was the brave one to break the tension. Even his soft voice boomed like thunder as the horror was that immense.
"But..but that's something that only people who smoke and stuff get!" Cerise piped up, her words dripped with denial.
"It's more common for them, but that's not necessarily true," mom countered gently, "All the horrible bouts of pneumonia I've had are what's done it. My lungs have been weakened so much, it was the right environment for the mutations to thrive.
Cerise huffed out a heartbroken yet furiously angry scoff while turning her head away from everyone. There was a wetness in her eye.
"How bad is it?" Uncle Blaze questioned to push back the stiff silence threatening to take over again.
"The diagnosis I was given was Stage II Type B. That basically means the tumor I have is larger than five centimeters, but not larger than seven centimeters."
"If the cancer is in its second stage, then that obviously means it's been developing over time. But you've been in the hospital constantly for years now! How the hell did no one realize you had cancer!?" Prism broke out of his horrified stupor to exclaim bitterly.
"It's been hiding under all the other problems. No one thought to test for it because its symptoms mixed themselves in with the symptoms of the pneumonia and other infections and sicknesses I've had." mom mumbled miserably.
"It's alright," Uncle Blaze comforted, mostly motioning to Prism, "Stage II is something we can handle. I mean, I haven't done too much research specifically on lung cancer, but the problem isn't nearly as bad as it could be. The treatments should take care of it no problem. What is your doctor recommending you do?"
"Normally, they will do a surgery to remove the tumor and any lymph nodes that have possibly become cancerous. However, my doctor doesn't feel I'm strong enough to undergo surgery. We're going to start out with only radiation therapy, and if that doesn't prove effective enough we'll considering talking about surgery again as well as chemotherapy."
I grew more and more frightened with every word mom spoke. I didn't know much about radiation therapy, but I had heard horrible tales about the effects of chemotherapy. I glanced at mom's practically skeletal frame, and my heart dropped down to my shoes at the thought of her having to suffer through such an ordeal. No matter what happened, she wouldn't come out of this a victor. It was a dreadful realization, and it only got worse.
"What else is there?" Wisp asked softly.
Mom's head had steadily drooped lower and lower. Her fight to maintain composure was clear, but that was a losing battle as well.
"My doctor and I talked about a lot of things. One of the things he brought up was my five year survival rate," she began in a cracking and wavering voice, "He said that he typically refuses to give them at all, because the numbers can be skewed so easily and everyone is so different. However...this time around he admitted that due to my already significantly weakened state and high risk for pneumonia and similar infections that the survival rate for the stage I'm at is accurate to what he thinks will happen."
My abdomen constricted. My fingers tingled, my head started to go dizzy, and I discovered I was barely breathing myself. Fifty percent. That was what I feared would come out of mom's mouth next. It was the lowest percentage I could force myself to accept. The chance being equal of mom living or mom dying was terrifying enough. It surely couldn't be anything worse than that...
"And what's the survival rate?" Uncle Blaze had to prompt.
Mom lost her battles against her emotions. Tears steamed down her cheeks, and she hung her head so low it was impossible to see her face.
"About thirty-one percent..."
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The gentle crashing of the ocean waves onto the shore in the not so distant distance sang their luring song to me, but I mentally sighed and resigned myself to the fact that there would definitely be no more ocean swimming this year. The temperatures were really beginning to drop both on land and in the water. Our heated pool would have to suffice. I was comfortable standing around in the open field near the beach. However, I had heard rumors that in maybe two or three weeks we would have snow on the ground. It would be a bit early in the season still for that, but knowing my hometown I didn't doubt a freak snowfall could occur. It was beyond me how Pastel wasn't freezing, but according to her and Citrine their own hometown was much colder overall than Berrybrook was.
"Mom's been trooping on like always," I continued my report of how things were progressing in my life, "The radiation therapy actually hasn't been affecting her too badly. She caught a fever though, so her doctor decided to keep her at the hospital until it goes away just to make sure it doesn't develop into something awful. He gave us the news that he was hoping to see a bit more improvement with decreasing the tumor than what has been seen, but it's only been two weeks. His theory for how everything will play out is that the radiation will get rid of the majority of the tumor, but not all of it. However, the decrease of cancer should give mom more strength to recover enough of her health for a surgery to take care of the last of it."
"That's seriously good news, Coal. It sounds like everything is going the best it can." Citrine replied encouragingly.
I nodded, and then was interrupted by Doodle bringing over a stick for me to throw as he had gotten bored of merely running around. Citrine proceeded to snatch the stick out of my hand and throw it himself before I could even think about pulling my arm back. Both Pastel and I laughed. Doodle had captivated Citrine quite effectively. If my dog was nearby, it was next to impossible to get Citrine to do anything other than play with him.
"Does it still feel weird having your dad back?" Pastel wondered.
"Hell yeah," I said vigorously, "It's probably going to be months before I can start accepting it. I still wake up each morning totally floored that he's around."
"I definitely can't wait to meet him, because he sounds great. We seriously took a vacation at the wrong time. Everything seemed to have happened while we were gone," Pastel chuckled, "It's a shame your dad said he was too busy today for us to come over."
"Which I still think is weird. He wouldn't even tell me what he was doing when he took off earlier." I pondered.
"Isn't your sister's birthday soon? Maybe he's getting her a present?" Citrine proposed.
"Cerise's birthday was last week." I explained.
"Ah, whoops. Everything really did happen while we were gone." he laughed.
"Was he acting suspicious at all?" Pastel questioned next.
"A little suspicious," I confirmed, "But not in a way that makes me think he's hiding bad news or anything. It just looks like he's getting right back up to his old tricks."
"Then I guess all you can do is hold on for the ride."
"Looks like it." I agreed.
Poor Doodle got frustrated. He apparently was incredibly adamant about me throwing the stick, and so when only Citrine showed interested in playing fetch he snuffed around my feet until I gave in to run around with him for a few minutes. Citrine joined while Pastel did something on her phone. She eventually joined us for a few minutes as well, but it was soon time to leave. The four of us had already been on a long walk, and I knew the cousins had other stuff to do.
"Was that your mom?" Citrine asked Pastel after we got started on our way.
Pastel nodded.
"I thought your mom was so angry about you two moving to Berrybrook that she wasn't speaking to you?" I recalled.
Citrine and Pastel had gone ahead and given me more insight about their troublesome family, but the specifics about what was wrong remained sparse.
"She decided to start texting me every now and again a little while ago pretty much out of nowhere. I think it was about two weeks ago, actually- the night before Citrine and I left for vacation. Honestly, I'm surprised she initiated conversation this fast, but I ignore anything that isn't simple, casual topics. I don't need her trying to get on my case again right now." Pastel answered.
"That bad, huh?" I asked sympathetically.
"I don't hate her, but the 🐸🐸🐸🐸 woman has been horribly unsupportive of how I've tried to live my life as well as letting others who should have never had a voice in my business have too much say."
"That's unfortunate. Sorry to hear it."
"It's fine," Pastel shrugged, "I do appreciate that she's at least attempting to patch things up. I'll probably give her and dad another chance once the repercussions of their actions have sunk in a bit more."
I kept glancing Pastel's way expecting further explanation, but she transfixed her stare straight ahead and said nothing more. Citrine gave me a shrug too when I turned my attentions towards him. As far as I had figured out, Citrine didn't really have bad relations with his section of the family, but he had chosen to move to Berrybrook to support Pastel with whatever issues she had with hers.
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