Chapter 18: Bambi's Bambina

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It was a beautiful, but chilly Saturday afternoon. Gwendolyn was at her friend Kimmy Ursine’s house, (her first slumber party at a friends house) and Persephone was in the treehouse playing with Bobo, When Agnes called me into the kitchen..

She was standing there holding what looked like Bobo, but with different colors.

“Look what we got in the mail today for Seymour.” She said, snickering.

“Oh god, you mean we have to go through all this again?” I asked.

“Nope!” She said, motioning me to open the trash can lid.

Instead, I opened the door to the trash compactor, and threw the doll in.

I had to take the trash out anyway! And yes, it may be a little wrong, but both of my daughters were very obsessed with their doll, hell, Persephone still is! In fact, she thinks he’s real! And to our defense, it is rather creepy getting these dolls sent to our house without anyone labeling who it’s from.

That evening, Claire Ursine drove Gwendolyn home just in time for both girls favorite dinner- mac n’ cheese! Persephone ate in the kitchen since she refused to take off a dinosaur costume she just had to have.

“So did you have fun at Kimmy’s house?” Asked Agnes.

“Yep Mom, yep!” Gwendolyn said, chowing down her food.

“But you’re not leaving us ever again right?” I asked playfully.. no answer.

Baby Seymour (or Sy, as we called him) had a habit of keeping us up all night. Especially Agnes, who was definitely sleep deprived, and it showed.

I would take care of Sy whenever I could, so that Agnes could get some well deserved rest.

Which meant I wasn’t doing as good at work, but it was worth it in the end, since Sy started warming up to me.

And despite Persephone’s obvious sibling rivalry with Sy, she started to warm up to him, as well.

I was thankful for any alone time I got with Agnes. We struggled, but we always found time for each other, even if we only stayed home and watched the stars together like when we were younger.

“Then I yanked the darn plunger on outta there, you ain’t gun’ believe what happened next!” Said Cullen, the man with a strong southern accent who I was interviewing said.

“What happened next?” I said, yawning.

What an interesting job I have.

One night Seymour started crying, and since I was used to Agnes jumping up to tend to him, I tried covering my ears.

But then I realized Agnes wasn’t next to me, so I got up and changed his diaper myself.

Then I went to go find Agnes.

The first place I looked was outside on the balcony, where Agnes likes to paint..

As I opened the screen door, I gasped at what I saw…

It was a strange painting of Aliens abducting humans from their house, which was reminiscent of the nightmares Agnes was having back in Moonlight Falls.

I was confused by this. Agnes never allowed anything alien related in the house, that included movies, comics, toys, she even kept the girls home from a field trip to the science lab, because she was afraid the subject would come up.

Once I went back into the room, I saw Agnes coming out of the bathroom wearing something I definitely approved of.

“There you are!” I said. “What’s up with that painting?”

“What painting?” She answered.

I immediately regretted asking, it must have been the girls or something who painted it. Whoever it was, Agnes wouldn’t take it lightly so I decided to drop the subject.

“Oh just the one in girls’s room. It’s beautiful! How’d you do it!?” Nice save.

Once Agnes went back to sleep, I took the painting and put it into the fire pit, before ripping it up into several pieces, then burnt it.

I cam back inside to see Lila’s ghost sleeping on the couch.

I picked her up and played with her, Although it was not the same, I was still glad she wasn’t gone completely.

It was a great reunion, however, I had to be discreet. I couldn’t risk my daughters finding out about this, that could traumatize them.

Baby’s first snow!

Winter was here, and it began snowing! For some reason, you would never catch Sy crying when it was snowing. He absolutely loved the cold weather. And snow was complete bliss for him, he’d giggle and coo like crazy!

On Snowflake Day Eve, (which was a snow day for the girls) Agnes took Gwendy and Persey to the Winter Festival. She had Bella babysit Sy while I worked.

Later on after work, I went home and picked Sy up, then met the girls at the festival. Gwendolyn was laying in the snow making a snow angel, while Persephone and Agnes build a snowman together.

Agnes was very happy to see her little man, and snuggled him right after she finished the snowman. This angered Persephone. After all, this was mother daughter time right?

She took her rage out on the snowman, causing snow to fly everywhere.

She felt much better afterwards.

Seasons greetings, from the Darlings!

After the festival, I took the family to a pond out on the edge of town, where I used to play as a boy, to go ice-skating. I had to hold Gwendolyn’s hand, she was very clumsy on the ice, as for Persephone, she zoomed around the ice like it was her second pair of feet. She was very athletic, and I think her Ballet classes helped a lot with that.

Agnes sat this one out, so that she and Sy could watch.

As we were leaving, we saw the most beautiful thing. A male an female couple of deer. The girls decided to call them Bambi and Bambina.

I thought it was the most amazing thing how they stuck beside each other, and took turns eating, while looking out for one another.

In a way, it reminded me of Agnes and I. We were in love, and we always had each others backs. Agnes is the Bambina to my Bambi.

Once we got too close, the deer couple hopped away together into the night.

-Christmas Morning-

“Daddy! Quit being lazy! Let’s get ready to open presents!” Gwendy shouted, pulling me by my hand.

“Daddy, I need to confess something to you.” Persephone began. This should be good.

“It was me who clogged the toilet with Sy’s diapers, I’m sorry! Does that mean Santa got me coal?” Persephone worried, beginning to tear up.

“I’ll have Mommy call him and see what she can do.” I said, trying not to laugh.

“Hello Santa. It seems as though my Daughter, Persephone Darling, decided to be honest. Oh you know? Nothing to worry about? Great, Thanks!” Agnes said, pretending to be on the phone. Persephone’s face lit up like a light!

The Goths came over to unwrap presents with us. Gunther stopped by but had to leave shortly after to prepare for the feast party at the Goth Manor.

“Damn it, Erik! Did you let her change out of her Snowflake Day sweater? That could have been a great picture!” Agnes yelled.

After the party ended, Agnes went upstairs to grab Sy, while Cornelia and I helped the girls get all bundled up to head over to the Goth house for dinner.

At the Goth Manor,the party was great, and the food was even better, before leaving I excused myself to use the bathroom, when I walked in on an interesting guest…

It was Prudence Crumplebottom, Agnes’s mother.

She told me that at first she didn’t really approve of me, but after she seen everything I’ve done for Agnes, that she was fine with me now, and that she has seen my children, and that she’s always watching over them. I couldn’t wait to tell Agnes about this.

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Chapter 19: Turning Point