When we approach the swing set, only Aisling notices us walking hand-in-hand towards them. She continues to swing with a little smile on her face. I’m beginning to really love that smile. We’re coming up behind Scott and Rick, so they don’t have a visual on us.
I see Rick tense, but he doesn’t turn around. Chances are he can feel me, but I imagine he doesn’t want to scare the children by freaking out. I want to see his face, or more particularly his eyes, to get the full effect of how shocked he is to find me on his radar.
“There’s another phoenix in the area,” we hear Rick tell Scott quietly.
I’d hate to play hide and go seek with him. It’s no fair always knowing where uniques are hiding, or coming closer to you, so you can hide better. Rick being Rick would totally use that to his advantage. It makes me glad that we weren’t humanoid when we were children.
I couldn’t remember what it was like when we were just young fireballs trying to find our ways in the world, but I doubted fun and games were high on our list of priorities. Our brains were more than likely focused on the ever changing world we had a front-row seat to watch take shape.
“That isn’t unheard of. A lot of our kind has come to the area to try to support Dad,” Scott replies. “We probably have fifty or so phoenixes in the general New York area now. One of them showing up here shouldn’t surprise you.”
“That would be true in most cases, but none of them register as your mother,” he says, turning around to see us.
I smiled when I saw his saucer-sized eyes catch sight of me. As soon as he gets a good look, to verify there’s a body to go along with what he senses, he faints. Scott hurries over to catch him, but he still hits the ground with a thud. Scott decides it isn’t worth his effort to pick him up and instead stares at me.
“Wow, I wasn’t expecting that from Rick. He always seemed so solid,” I say, smiling wider at my passed out brother.
Too bad I didn’t have a video camera on me. The whole scene would be awesome to take back to the past and show him. He’d probably claim I’d found his doppelganger, but I’d figure out a way to prove to him I could make him faint.
“Mama,” Aine and Aidan yell, running over to us.
A little shock registers as I ponder how they immediately knew who I am. They each latch on to one of my legs, and any questions I have on the subject disappear.
“Hello, my little angels. Have you had a fun day today?” I ask them, wishing they’d step back a little so I could get a better look at them.
I’d seen them in my dreams, but exact features were always a little fuzzy in those dreams. Even having recently watched them at the ice cream shop didn’t make me feel like I’d been able to catalog everything I want to.
“Today is the bestest day ever, Mama. You’re here and that will make Daddy very happy. It will make everyone happy. Everyone misses you so much, and they aren’t smart enough to listen to Aisling and Aunt Eva. We are though, we knew you’d come back and make Daddy happy again,” Aine says.
“We like it when Daddy’s happy, don’t we?” I ask.
“Yes!” Aidan yells, causing my ears to ring. The boy certainly had a set of lungs on him. “He’s hardly ever happy.”
“I know, we’re working to fix that,” I say, messing up his shaggy hair. I couldn’t resist pressing on his little button of a nose before I turned to his older brother. “Scott, do you have a hug for your mother? I believe it’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other, even more so than the rest of the family.”
“It’s really you?” he asks, looking me over, trying to find something to indicate that I’m someone in a really good costume.
If they’ve made Avery Clavens costumes since I’d died, someone is going to have a lot of explaining to do. I’d been scared about how crazy some of the fans at my conferences were getting, but mimicking me was a bit much in my mind.
“Yes, but word to the wise, I’m from the past, so don’t give away any secrets that will change what I do, if I ever make it back there. If you do, I’m pretty sure Aisling over there will beat you up, and my money’s on your sister,” I tell him. “Earlier your father may have been close to saying something he shouldn’t have, and I swear I saw uppercuts dancing in her eyes.”
“That’s right, Scott, so you better watch it,” Aisling adds, backing up my threat.
With a video camera, not only would I record Rick, but having a little authoritative mini me on tape to take back would be priceless. I’d play her during any of my meetings and threaten to bring her out if the people weren’t listening to me. If anyone had dealt with me as a child in my present lifetime, they’d know not to mess around.
Scott makes his way over to me and gives me a big hug. When he separates from me, he looks down at me and asks, “So you’re from a time when you know who I am? I don’t want to give anything away, but I’m not sure I buy that.”
“Technically no. I saw you this morning with your father, and for some reason I just remembered everything about you. I’m down to only having one more daughter to remember and then I’ll know all of you. I’m not really sure that my memories of you will follow me back home, but stranger things have happened,” I tell him.
“Can I ask exactly what time you’re from, so I don’t reveal anything I shouldn’t?” he asks. “I imagine that information will come in useful for anyone you come across from your time. There’s some pretty obvious things we can’t keep from you, but I always find it’s the little things that have more impact.”
I’m enjoying the fact that so far no one has bothered to try to revive Rick. It serves him right for all they crap he always gives me.
“March 1, 2012 is the day fresh in my mind. I was set to get married the next day and we were just trying to take care of a warlock causing problems. The next thing I know, I was in the bedroom with Nate just before you joined him earlier today.”
“I see, so you hadn’t met me yet. I’m going to have to be careful around you then,” he says with a smile before bending down and smacking Rick a couple of times to wake him up.
They aren’t soft little taps either. I can see the redness of a handprint after the second one. I’d always thought Rick had a hard head, and clearly Scott did too.
Rick slowly starts stirring, and I laugh, mainly because I know hearing my laugh won’t help his head clear any quicker. “Freddie dear, I know I’m the pretty sibling, but you don’t need to go falling down when you gaze upon my awesomeness. I can see that happening to a normal mortal, but you’re a phoenix last I checked.”
“Well it has to be you. I don’t know anyone else who has that smart of a mouth,” he replies, standing up and coming over to spin me around. I feel like he’s looking for the seam in my costume. When he doesn’t find one, he picks me up for a hug.
“Uncle Rick, Mama is from the past and doesn’t know anything about anything, so you have to keep your mouth shut. We can’t have her learning any secrets,” Aisling tells him.
“Okay, there may be one other person in the world with your mouth. Of course, she’s your daughter, so it makes sense, even if she didn’t have you in person to imitate. I figure you’ve already been told you aren’t exactly around these days,” he says, putting me down.
“She does like to speak her mind, doesn’t she? And yes, I’m aware I didn’t make it out of the battle alive, but it’s best we don’t go into details about why that is. So what other plans did you guys have for today?” I ask. There was no use of me going into details about how things ended up better than they could have, at least in Rick’s case.
“We’re having a party!” Aine says, jumping up and down. This is the first I’ve heard of that, but of course I’ve been following around mopey people, who I never would’ve thought were planning a party.
“Really? What’s the party for?” I ask.
I don’t really know what day it is. I’m guessing it’s summer because of the ice cream and general warmth of the day, but with global warming it could December for a
ll I know. Enough years hadn’t past for that to be true, but it was a joke topic uniques liked to frequent.
“It’s a party for you,” Aisling quickly says. I have a feeling that isn’t what the party is for, but I let it slide. If she didn’t want me to know, I figured she had a good reason.
“Are you allowed to tell me what today is Aisling?” I ask.
“No, and we should do everything we can to make sure you don’t find out. I know that will probably drive you crazy, but it’s really for the best. You don’t want to go back, and then mess something up. You’ve already learned everything you need to make the right choices,” she tells me.
“Does anyone ever not listen to your advice?” I ask her.
“All the time, but I can’t help if they’re idiotic at times. I’m sure you remember how that is,” she replies with her usual conviction.
“Are you sure you haven’t spent more time with Vinnie? You sounded kind of like him just then,” I say.
“A few people have mentioned it a couple times, but I like Uncle Vinnie, so I take it as a compliment,” she replies.
“I’d love to go see Uncle Vinnie, to make sure he’s keeping himself oiled properly. Do you think we could head back to the house so we can check on him?” I ask.
“I see no problem with that,” Aisling replies.
Nate picks me up bridal style and says, “Okay, everyone, let’s go have ourselves a party.”
We head back to their car and the kids pile in the backseat with me and Nate. Nate insists that I sit on his lap, so I just sit back and make myself comfortable for the ride. I keep looking over at my children and they keep staring right back at me.
“So can I ask who picked your names?” I ask, trying to come up with something that would at least cause them to blink.
“You did, silly Mama,” Aidan answers. “Daddy said you just told him one day he had to call us certain things no matter what happened. Daddy has told us all about you. He told us you were the best mommy in the whole world and that you died to keep the rest of the world safe. He said you were a super hero and that you were unlike any woman in the world.” It doesn’t sound like that’s exactly everything he could have said about me, but maybe that is all a five-year-old remembers, or needs to know.
“Otherwise known as a shero,” Rick adds.
“Yeah, that’s what Uncle Rick always calls you,” Aine says with her eyes still glued to my face.
“So who all is going to be at this party?” I ask, starting to squirm just a little.
“Everyone you’ve ever known, pretty much,” Aisling replies. “We all come together this time of year for fun.”
“You do know I can tell when you lie to me, right? That might not be one of the features your daddy mentioned about me, but it’s a skill that I enjoy using.”
“I know, but I think it’s just one of those things you shouldn’t know. We can ask Aunt Eva later; however, she’ll agree with me. She always does,” she says.
“Is someone going to let the partygoers know that the reason for today’s party has changed?” I inquire. “It would be awfully silly for them to show up for one reason, only to find they have a secret guest.
“I’ve already alerted Grandma and she’s letting everyone else know that we have a surprise guest of honor,” Aisling responds.
“You didn’t give the exact surprise away did you, angel?” Nate asks.
“Nope, I wanted to see if we can make more people faint like Uncle Rick. That was really funny.”
“You are a little devil, aren’t you?” I say to her.
She gives me her evilest grin. “Not really, I just take after my Mama.”
CHAPTER 15
Sorry buddy, the voice isn't for sale