Chapter 31: Moving On

           As the years went by, I noticed that Andy spent a lot of time alone. He didn't seem to have any friends, and was shy around people other than his siblings or Prince and I. Of course, there was always his mention of Jessie. When I saw him playing in the sand all alone, building a sandcastle, I asked him why he hadn't asked Buzz to join him. "I'm with Jessie!" was his reply. It was always, "Jessie's here!" or "One moment, I'm talking to Jessie!"

           I swear, if Andy's just messing with our heads and Jessie doesn't really exist, I'm never going to live this down. But why would godmother do that to us?

           Another thing I noted with a touch of amusement and pride was that Buzz was taking a go at the chemistry table. When I asked him about it, he gave me shifty eyes before telling me the truth. "Dee asked me to make him the potion," he said. "You won't tell daddy, right?"

           "No way, sweetie," I said with a laugh, kissing him on the head. "Just be careful."

           Way to find a loophole, Andy. I wasn't too scared of Buzz harming himself. I had looked over the table countless times and researched things on the internet, and as far as I could tell, none of the chemicals or ingredients mixed would ever cause a fire or produce harmful liquid. The worst it could do was produce a material eating acid or create a small, ashy explosion, which I had experienced several times.

           I stood at the window facing our backyard, a cup of coffee in my hand. The tree-house that Prince had built was gigantic, complete with a trapdoor, a balcony area, a ladder, shutters, and a slide. Man, our kids were spoiled.

           "Can I come up or is the rule no girls allowed?" Sandy called up sweetly to her brother.

           "You can come up if you want!" Andy replied. He was still in his underwear. When I say that Andy is a replica of Prince, I mean it.

           "I'm coming up!" Sandy said, climbing up the ladder. Andy appeared next to her as he swished down the slide. "Stupid!" Sandy said with a shrieking laugh, shaking her head as she ran away. Andy giggled to himself as he watched his sister give him a raspberry.

           A few minutes later, the tapping of Prince's fingers on the keyboard stopped. I looked back at him. "How's your book coming along?"

           "Good, good. 'The Thief Who Stole Everything' made it to number five on the New York Times list, and my first novel is raking in a bit of cash. My publisher promises me that as long as I take a few risks with my latest book, we should be set," Prince said with a sigh, stroking his chin.

           "What risks have you taken so far?"

           "I killed off one of the main characters. It was really difficult to do, and I may have to rewrite that section. And I'm making the best couple in the book break up. I'm going to get them back together later though," Prince mused, "But I feel like that would be expected."

           "Sometimes a reader prefers some predicted events. It's kind of inexplicable, but most readers enjoy a sense of happiness of the fact that 'they saw it coming'. And is the couple Marty and Julie?"

           "Yeah."

           "If they don't end up marrying then I am never having sex with you again," I said, chuckling.

           Prince smiled at me, but then frowned, pointing at the window. "Why is Andy dumping a pail of water out on the ground?"

           I bit my tongue and shrugged, but there's was a nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me it was Jessie. I had noticed that although Andy treated his sister and other girls like everyone else, what he said to Jessie was always... teasing. And while Andy was polite to mainly everyone, and at least gave them a chance, he would always push Jessie away. I'm aware I sound insane considering that I've never seen Jessie before, but Andy has drawn a picture of Jessie and shown me. I was surprised to see that Jessie didn't look like a human, but instead of making me doubt Andy more, it made the whole situation more realistic.

           Andy would have to be a pretty darn good actor to be faking the whole thing, anyway. He was kind and helped around the house and had straight As in school, so I doubted that he was crazy. No. Scratch that. I knew that he was sane. The factor which really helped me realize that Andy wasn't lying, however, was when I squinted my eyes at the falling water. Instead of splattering on the ground, it stopped, as if being absorbed by something, though a few drops flew elsewhere. Unless my eyes were deceiving me, there truly was some creature that Andy poured the water on.

           Andy giggled to himself and ducked down under the ledge. I was relieved to hear the sound of typing again, and to see Prince's eyes concentrated on the computer screen, muttering away to himself.

           For a second, I thought I heard a tinny, anguished scream coming from the backyard. I ignored it. It couldn't be...

           "Hon, we've been invited to a party!" I announced cheerfully to Prince, holding a stack of letters. This was a few months after the tree-house occurrence.

           "Whose?"

           "Uh, let me check... Ooh, our next door neighbours! Um, the couples," I said nervously.

           "What couples?" Prince would never remember something simple like our neighbours...

           "Like Seth Monroe?" I said in a tone of false cheerfulness.

           "Pretty boy Seth?" Prince said icily. I giggled despite myself. Seth was an attractive man, but too old for me. Because he was a vampire, though, his aging had slowed considerably. But there was no denying his movie star looks.

           "Oh, hun," I said, sweeping Prince into a hug. I smooched him a few times before my children noticed.

           "Oh, gross," Sandy said, turning away.

           "Excuse me while I barf," Andy said, making retching noises.

           "Mom, dad, someone spilled water all over the ground!" Buzz said.

           Oh, for crying out loud.

           "Fine, brats!" I snapped, grabbing my Swiffer. My whole family stared at me, grinning. "What's so funny?" I said again.

           Andy snickered. "Nothing, mom."

           "Yeah, nothing," Buzz repeated, biting his lip.

           Sandy couldn't say anything and just covered her mouth with her, shaking in an effort not to laugh.

           "It's just the whole..." Prince managed before bursting out laughing.

           I smiled, too. "Okay, keep it a secret then," I said, shaking my head as I mopped up the water.

           "It's actually nothing, hon," Prince said, and slyly tugged on my shirt. I turned to see that it was tucked into my underwear.

           "Oh," I said, turning bright red.

           "It's okay, mom," Buzz said, giggling.

           "We love you anyway," Sandy said, walking past me to grab a cup of water.

           The day of the party, godmother gave me a little machine to use. It looked a little like a radio mixed in with a video game controller. I pointed it at Prince, messing with the dials. It started humming.

           "Uh, Cindy dear, what's that?" Prince said with concern.

           "Don't worry, I know how to use it," I said confidently, "It'll soothe you and remove any grief about King you may have left, as well as get rid of your writer's block."

           "I don't feel anything," Prince said.

           "I haven't done it yet. Just shut up for a second, k?"

           "Alright."

           A jagged shot of electricity burst out of the antenna, zapping Prince. He blinked a few times. "Are you okay?" I asked with concern.           

            He grinned at me, closing his laptop. "Never been better! Now let's go to that party!"

           Great. I just knew that everyone would think my husband was high.

  

           As it turned out, our next door neighbours had a pool, so when Buzz heard, he sprinted back home to change into his swim trunks. I couldn't help but chuckle a little at the sight of my dark haired boy flying down the street in his runners. The moment he got back, he dived into the pool and swam around for ages. There were people at the poolside who said they would watch him, so I let him be.

           I decided to try out the mood manager thing a little. My first contestant was Courtney Foster. Although she used to fight hard when she was young, Courtney became a little too stressed by life and decided that being bitten by a vampire was the best way out. Instead, she just became a cranky, scary vampire.
           She could use a little happiness. I kept my distance from her and worked the magic on the controller. After a few seconds, I was worried it hadn't worked, but then Courtney grinned brightly at me.
           "Did you do that?" She asked cheerily.        
           "Uh, yeah? Sorry, but I hoped it helped..." I said weakly.
           "I feel tons better now! Even better than when I took that magic pink pill!"
           I frowned. I had a feeling that she wasn't talking about Advil

           "Hey, do you know Jared?" She said, walking closer to me. I put away the device.
           "Ghee?"
           "Yeah. He was being such a jerk earlier," she said with exasperation, rolling her eyes.
           I didn't want to get defensive, but Jared and I used to joke around a lot. I kind of missed him. "Oh? What'd he do?" I asked casually, picking a bit of lint off my shoulder.

           "I was talking to Girbits about vampire stuff, and he said that he actually hated being a vampire. So I called him a wuss, and then he mocked cried. But Jared took it way out of control! He went, 'Leave Girbits alone! You're the wuss!' So I said, 'Wanna prove it to me, punk?' That's when Seth walks in and goes, 'Don't pick on an old man, Courtney. He can't help being cranky that no one changed his diaper.' It was pretty immature, I'll admit. And then out of no where, Jared jumps me! Our little spat turned into a full out brawl."

           "So then what happened?" Courtney provoked Jared, I thought angrily. She had no right to do that.
           "Well, then we started throwing punches and some guy tried to intervene. Girbits did too, at first, until he got a fist to his nose. I'm not sure who was the one who hit him, but he was in serious pain and was stumbling around a bunch."

           "Seth stopped the other guy from getting in the middle of the fight by snarling at him all vampiric like, but we were done fighting anyway. I kicked that Jared guy's old wrinkly butt. He won't mess with me no more!" Courtney made a fist and curled her arm, leaning down to kiss her bicep.
           I rolled my eyes. "Okay then. I'm going to go find Jared. Have fun smooching your muscles."

           As I tried to located Jared, I ran into Seth. Wow, how about that? I totally wasn't looking for him or anything...
           "Hey," I said shyly, brushing some blond curls away from my face. Seth was wearing a red hoodie over top of a gray tee. I tried not to giggle like a thirteen year old.
           "Why hello there," he replied, sidling up to me.
           I looked away, a smile breaking its way onto my face. I needed to stay focused. "Do you know where Jared Ghee is?"
           He frowned. "The old geezer? Courtney killed him."
           "WHAT?!" Courtney killed Jared? She left that part out!
           "Well, not exactly," Seth said slowly, scratching his head. "They got into a fight and Courtney really beat him up, so Giribts drove him over to the hospital. He soon died from a heart attack."
           I felt like I would die from a heart attack. Jared? Dead? But... he wasn't even that much older than I was! Would Prince die soon, then? Would I die soon? But what would my kids do without me? No. I had to stay strong. I was going to live to see my grandkids grow up. That was my plan, at least.
           "You okay?" Seth said, snapping me out of my reverie.
       

           "Yeah, splendid," I muttered.
           "What do you do for a living, sweetcakes?"
           I smirked at the word 'sweetcakes.' "I sing. Mainly sing-a-grams, but ya know, I've gotta start somewhere."
           "'Course. Hey, sugarpie, why don't you sing me a sing-a-gram? I'll even pay you. What're your rates?"
           "Depends on what type of sing-a-gram you want. A celebration sing-a-gram with a gift is fifty bucks, for example," I said. Okay, so normally it was only twenty, but I wanted to discourage him from asking for a sing-a-gram. I wasn't exactly in the mood to run home, throw on my outfit, and haul my machine back over.
           "Hmm... I'll even pay you sixty 'cause this is unexpected," Seth said.
           I ran home, threw on my outfit, and hauled my machine back in record time.
           "Sweet!" Seth said when I finished and was handing him his gift. "Thanks, buttercup!"
           I chuckled under my breath. He really was too much. "No problem. Listen, it's getting late, so I'd better grab my kids and get out," I said with a sigh. He handed me my money and I ventured downstairs to find the rest of my family.

           I found Buzz hanging around an angry looking werewolf, so I quickly swept him away. "But mom," he protested, "I just asked him to turn me into a werewolf!"
           I gasped. "ABSOLUTELY NOT! Under no circumstances will I have any of my children be turned into a werewolf, or vampire, or anything like that! Do you understand?"
           He glared at me. "Yes."
           "Good. Now let's go home."

           I walked outside with Buzz, and to my relief Andy and Sandy were right in front of me. Sandy was laughing. "I love you too, bro!" she said, hugging her brother. I was glad that they were close. After the horrible relationship I had had with my step-sisters, I wanted to do everything possible to make sure that they all got along.

           After reading my three children to sleep, my stomach grumbled uncomfortably and I realized that I hadn't eaten since lunch. Prince was seated in his usual spot, typing away of course. "Sorry about dashing away from the party so early," he said, "But I just had a brilliant idea for my book and I couldn't wait to get it down."
           "It's okay, we managed," I replied, rummaging around in the fridge for something to eat.
           "Hey, there's an article written about Jared Ghee," Prince said, leaning over his computer, "You knew him, right?"
           "Let me see." Prince flicked through some links before coming across a short obituary. "They wrote it quickly; he only died today," I said.
           "It says that he had experienced heart trouble for a while... blah blah blah... Oh, they talk about his will. He asked for no service or ceremony of any kind to be held, and asked to be cremated and have half of his ashes buried next to his parents, and half of his ashes buried next to Drizella Tremaine's grave," Prince read.
           Tears welled up in my eyes. "That's so sweet. I just wish that they could've gotten married. They were so in love."
           Prince just stared at me, shaking his head. He pointed to the screen. "They have some pictures up."

           
           The pictures were faded and worn, very beat up. The first one showed Jared's full height. He was wearing sandals and a proper suit. I stared at his head, wondering if he ever took his cornrows out. Did he braid them himself? No, probably his hairdresser. I wanted to ask him about it. I never did get the chance. If only I had become better friends with Jared instead of acquaintances. It hurt knowing that life took him away so soon. I clenched my fists. It was Courtney's fault. But deep down, I knew it wasn't. The article talked about Jared's heart condition and how he had suffered through a disease, being forced to drop out of university and go back home.
           "You okay, hun?" Prince asked, putting an arm around me. I suddenly realized that my face was wet with tears.
           "I think so," I admitted, "I think so."

           I fished out a bowl of Bonehilda's favourite snack-brains. I had finally weaned the truth behind it out of Bonehilda. The brains weren't real, just jelly, which was a relief and a half. I sat down next to Prince with my meal. I was still tentative about the brains-I felt like there was more to it than Bonehilda was letting on-but I eventually tried a nibble of it and it was quite good! It sent pleasant, refreshing chills down my spine. It tasted rather like a smoothie combo of whipped cream, ice cream, bacon, chocolate, and my all time favourite, tri-tip steak. I realized that it was a combination of all my favourite foods. 
           "Prince, try some," I said, forcing the spoon into his mouth. Prince made a face once he realized what I was force feeding him, but he slowly smiled after swallowing it down.
           "That was delicious!" He said, getting a dreamy expression on his face.
           "What did you taste?"
           "Uh, let's see... it was like a soup, I guess. There was peanut butter and jelly sandwich, bacon, pickles, chips-wait, no, dill pickle chips, salmon, and my favourite, stir fry." He licked his lips happily. That was a manly combination of foods.
           I set my spoon down, nodding. "Some tasty brains!" Prince stared at me. His face slowly morphed into a grin. "What?" I snapped, but I couldn't help but smile myself.
           "Look at us. I'm sitting here in my cowboy jacket, you're sitting here in your ridiculous sing-a-gram outfit, and we're discussing how delicious brains taste. We're insane," Prince said, laughing.
           I couldn't help but laugh as well, and soon we were just clutching our stomachs, crying tears of happiness.

It was nice to know that even through my sadness, I could laugh. And that was something that would've made Jared proud.