Gen Two- Chapter Four

It had been hard to break out of my melancholy mood, but the challenge I was facing was finally beginning to surge some energy through me. My glazed over expression instead narrowed in determination as I had to now pay attention if I didn't want to get absolutely pummeled. I hadn't even noticed how far ahead in points Rosemary had gotten, or that she was now duking it out with Malachite for first place.

     "You're finally starting to learn." Malachite teased as he only just avoided letting Rosemary total his car with hers.

     "And soon you're not even going to have time to trash talk." she warned competitively.

Malachite simply shrugged and continued speeding along, but there was loud shouting and cursing on his part and raucous cheering on Rosemary's part when her car once again came out of nowhere to successfully annihilate Malachite's car off the track this time around.

     "Are you sure you don't want to pick a different place to read?" I asked the question to one of the others sitting on the other couch.

Uncle Eden glanced up from his book for a brief second to give me a smile before he continued with his story.

     "Please," he scoffed, "Ethereal and her friends were way worse than you lot. Allium alone could make enough noise to drive me out of the house in insanity. There were times where it felt as if running away to his house to hide from him was the lone thing that did stop me from going crazy."

     "Pfft, 'hiding'. Is that what you call you and mom having sex?" Hunter joked mischievously, never taking his eyes off the television.

     "Hey, that didn't start until years later." Uncle Eden countered back almost nonchalantly over the sound of the rest of us laughing.

Hunter has teased him too many times about the topic for him to still be embarrassed about it.

     "Suuure." Hunter replied in sarcastic nonbelief.

His big grin vanished for a moment when I snuck up behind him to blast his car into pieces and claim third place, but it wasn't much longer before his fighting expression was back. Hunter and I went at it in order to reach third place as Malachite and Rosemary were too far head to catch up. The one who came in last place would have to give up his controller to Wisp, who sat on the floor merely watching as he had lost the previous round.

Wisp and I had been spending a lot of time over at Uncle Eden's house in the past several days. Wisp's presence was usual as it made sense for him to go where two of his posse were already at, and I went with him as I couldn't stand staying at home for great periods of time anymore. Honestly, I tried to stay away except for at night and for breakfast in the morning. It had been five days, and dad remained missing. No one was sure what to think. The last thing anyone wanted to do was mark him as dead, but there had been no demands or the slightest bit of contact made with his potential captors. The police didn't have any idea how to proceed as there was no information to follow. Special Officer Noble was getting stumped as well since Company activity remained quiet.

It was my nightmare come true. Not knowing the truth was just as bad as not having dad around. That was why being at mom's childhood home was nice as it was always loud, and that noise helped to block the fretting and panicking my mind now craved. Mom said it was amusing to her that her old house was now one of the noisy ones. She said other than when her friends came over, it was always so quiet with just her and Eden. Now it was cramped full of people. Hunter and Malachite had to squeeze into what used to be Uncle Eden's old office once Rosemary joining the family forced Hunter out of mom's old room. You could barely move without bumping into someone.

I pulled ahead at the final second to take third place for my own, but I tossed the next match and let Hunter play again afterwards. My heart really wasn't into the game all that much. Besides, my stomach was more concerned with whatever food it could find. With mom's old house being like a second home to me, I thought nothing about pulling out some leftover noodles and heating them up. Watching the bowl spin around and around and listening to the gentle hum of the microwave was truthfully more numbing to my brain than messing around with my brother and cousins was. I was glad for the relief of the unending headache I seemed to have now, but I jumped with a jolt when I felt fingers suddenly running through my hair at the base of my head.

I turned around with a start to discover that the culprit was Rosemary. I stared at her in shock and confusion, for I had been expecting it to be Malachite messing with me or even perhaps Aunt Deny trying to comfort me.

     "Sorry," she giggled, "I couldn't help it. Your hair is just so super bright and fun to look at, so I wanted to touch it."
     "Thanks, I guess? Just please don't turn into another Mimosa. I can barely handle her randomly touching me."
     "I won't." Rosemary promised with a smile.

A tiny smile graced my lips. Rosemary could be a little strange in her own way, but it was the interesting and fun kind of strange I could accept.

     "Can I ask you a question?" I wondered.
     "Sure."
     "Since you mentioned hair, is it alright if I ask where you got your coloring from? I've never actually heard who you inherited what from." I requested with slight hesitancy.
     "It's alright," she started with a kind expression now, "You are allowed to acknowledge that I had a different life before I moved here. What happened wasn't pleasant, but it's not like I'm absolutely traumatized for life and will have a panic attack at the slightest mention of it."
     "Uh, yeah." I replied softly, feeling slightly embarrassed.
     "It's really alright," Rosemary continued comfortingly, "I appreciate that you want to make sure you don't upset me. About your question, I got the purple from my birth mom. Her hair was orange though, so the brown came from my birth dad."
     "Did you ever get to meet him?"
     "I think so, but I don't remember it. I was told something about him coming to see me when I was a baby. Past that, I believe he wasn't interested in me. I can't say for certain though. My step-dad was always going on about how he would strangle his neck if he ever saw him again, so maybe he was scared off."
     "So, either way, he wasn't invested enough in you to find it worth the effort to stay around." I pointed out with a hint of anger.
     "Pretty much, but I don't let myself get bothered over it. I'm here and I'm happy, and that's what I want to focus on." Rosemary said brightly.
     "Now you're starting to sound like Uncle Eden." I laughed.
     "I hope so!" Rosemary agreed with a laugh of her own.

The microwave dinged, and I allowed Rosemary to pet at my hair that apparently did interest her so greatly. I had barely taken the bowl out when another person approached us. Apparently, the others had grown bored of videos games as well.

     "Aww, look at you two. You're so adorable." Malachite cooed with heavy sarcasm.
     "And that's my cue to leave." Rosemary said quickly, expertly sliding out of the situation and back towards the other room.

Malachite had taken some time to accept Hunter as his brother, but when Rosemary had been added to the family he had wasted no time at all in declaring her his younger sister. They acted as brothers and sisters often did, which included Malachite teasing the heck out of Rosemary. That was how she knew when to escape in certain situations to avoid his pestering. I would have followed her had I not been desperate to maintain my claim on the pasta.

     "You two would make the cutest couple." Malachite continued on.
     "You do realize we're cousins, right?" I pointed out with a roll of my eyes.
     "Cousins who are in no way related by blood."
     "It's still super gross."
     "Meh. Well, I guess you do already have a girlfriend of your own anyway. Where is the little cupcake?"
     "Don't even remind me of her right now," I requested with a heavy sigh, "She was able to trick Uncle Al and Aunt Lia over the past two days into thinking she had taken her medication when she hadn't. She had a major crying fit last night. She was clinging onto me with an iron grip and pretty much screamed in my ear the whole time. It took over five minutes for Uncle Al to get her off me."

Malachite found that funny somehow, as he laughed loudly.

     "I would have loved to have seen that." he said.
     "It's actually not amusing in the slightest. Not even because her emotional fits are annoying, but because Mimosa gets so terrified during them. She can't stop what's happening, and that she can't control her own actions usually leaves her incapacitated by fear for the rest of the day when she calms down." I spoke tartly.

Normally, I would take the selfish route and complain a bit about how Mimosa had inconvenienced me. However, with Malachite taking the matter so lightly I found myself mildly angry and ever so slightly protective.

     "What? Don't tell me there's not something interesting about watching nuts crack." he only continued to tease.

My blood rapidly boiling, the words I was about to say were overtaken by a thickly disapproving, stern reproach.

     "Way out of line, Mal." Hunter rebuked, his voice sounding like Uncle Eden's and his expression scarily similar as well.
     "Oh, look. It's my big bro come to show me how far he has that stick up his ass." Malachite snapped back.

Hunter and Malachite had their good days, and then they had their super bad days. Their bad days came about whenever Hunter tried to exercise control over his adopted brother, even when Hunter was incredibly justified in his actions. Malachite was quick in pointing out the lack of blood between them whenever he thought it would help him get out of trouble.

     "Why don't you go try saying your funny joke that I don't get in front of Mimosa then? If you have no problem making fun of a little ten-year-old mentally disabled girl behind her back, then you should have no problem doing it to her face. Or, better yet, why don't you tell it to her father and tell him he's got a stick up his ass too when he doesn't laugh? I wonder from where we'll have to retrieve you- the hospital or the morgue."
     "Alright, alright. I'm sorry, geez." Malachite huffed out what was one of the more sincere apologies I had ever heard come out of his mouth.

I wanted to still be angry, and I definitely was, but I decided to keep my mouth shut from taking my turn at him once it was apparent the lackluster apology had been sufficient for Hunter. Uncle Eden had given me a talk not long after he took in Malachite that, in a way, he suffered from a mental illness too. There wasn't actually anything wrong with him of course, but he could only act how he had been brought up. With the kind of father he had lived with until that father nearly bludgeoned him to death, it was clear that Malachite hadn't been taught to be a kind, gentle soul. In all fairness, he had improved quite a lot since he had joined the family. There was a look in his eye that also showed he did understand the kind of joke he had said wasn't something that shouldn't ever be said.

Even if I had wanted to push the matter more and turn the brief air of tension into a full-blown argument, I didn't have the chance. It was a mere few seconds after Malachite let out his apology that a severely furious voice half-belted out from upstairs. Intrigued, all five of us young'ins ended up at the bottom of the stairs to listen to Uncle Eden fight back against whoever he was talking to on the phone upstairs in his room.

     "NO! Absolute bullshit!" his irate voice easily carried down to us.

Rosemary and I glanced at each other with wide eyes. It was a rare thing to hear Uncle Eden curse, but when it was mixed with the angriest tone I had ever heard from him it that meant this was a very unique event indeed.

     "I don't give a damn how good he thinks he is! He had years to prove himself, and he just sat around on his fucking ass! Now he thinks they can team up and launch this disgusting attack at us?! I don't care what your record is- you don't have a case this time around! You even try and push your flimsy excuses at us, and my lawyer will rip you and your goddamn clients to fucking pieces!"

I looked at Hunter and even Malachite for some sort of explanation. I had thought that maybe the call had something to do with dad's disappearance, but it was now clear this issue wasn't related to it at all. Malachite looked dumbfounded, and somewhat impressed at Uncle Eden's sudden crass personality shift, and Hunter just shook his head confusedly at me. No one had any clue what was going on.

     "I think we should scatter." Wisp suggested after several seconds passed.

Uncle Eden had probably hung up on the other person given how rapidly quiet it became upstairs. He wasn't one to take out his anger on other people, but none of us wanted to stick around to be the person he might unleash it on this time around if we didn't steer clear when he made his reappearance.

Wisp, Rosemary, and I made our way outside after I ate. Rosemary grabbed her summer workbook to bring out with her. Her birth mother had home schooled her, poorly, so now Rosemary willingly did extra work during the summer to help herself get to the level the rest of us were at. It was something she actually enjoyed, for Uncle and Aunt Eden rewarded her with better and better gifts the further along she got. It almost had me wanting to convince mom to let me do something similar. I would gladly do a little math, writing, history, and all that good stuff each day if it earned me a trip to my favorite restaurant or a full day visit to the nearest amusement park.

     "Have you ever seen dad act like that before?" Rosemary asked Wisp once she got herself comfortably situated on the ground and Wisp and I took over the old swing set.
     "No, never," Wisp shook his head, "The worst I've ever seen him is that one time Mal tried to swipe several cans of beer from a pack from the grocery store."
     "You really don't have a clue what that was about?" I confirmed with Rosemary.
     "I have absolutely no clue at all."
     "It was probably something unexpected even for him," Wisp proposed, "He hasn't been acting lately like there's been something bothering him. Whoever was on the other side of the line must have brought the issue up out of the blue."
     "But what would involve multiple people and their lawyer trying to take up a legal case with him?" I wondered.
     "I think we can only wait to see what it is, if these mysterious people do try to take things to court." my brother shrugged.

I started to swing for real while Wisp just gently swayed back and forth as he helped Rosemary with her work. More bad news was not what I wanted to hear at the moment, so I hoped that Uncle Eden's startlingly ferocity scared off whoever he had been talking to. Our family didn't need an important member of it missing while the other half dealt with a crazy legal battle. Swinging, like hanging out with friends and family, helped me to forget the worst of the situation. Luckily, I soon got an even better distraction than swinging before the day inevitably took another nose dive south.

     "Ahh, Pudgy!" Rosemary exclaimed with glee when a little dog appeared from nowhere to bound over to us.
     "Pardon?" Wisp asked.
     "This is Pudgy, the neighbor's new puppy," Rosemary explained, "He keeps escaping through their fence and wandering over here."

She and the puppy were quite familiar with each other. Rosemary picked him up with ease, and he immediately began licking her face.

I sank my heels into the ground to stop myself as quickly as possible. Wisp gave me an amused glance, but he said nothing. I curiously peeked over Rosemary's shoulder to see the little intruder. I absolutely loved dogs, and Rosemary was quick to catch my enthusiasm.

     "Here, you can hold him. He's super friendly." she said as she passed Pudgy over.

Like with her, he started washing my face with licks right away. For the first time since dad went missing, I large smile I didn't have to force spread across my face.

     "Do you think we could convince mom to let us get another dog?" I asked my brother.
     "Probably not. She's still mourning Button, you know."
     "But she died over six years ago already!"
     "You can ask her, but I don't think now is the time when she's going to want to be adding more responsibilities to her plate." Wisp shrugged.

I pouted. He was most likely right on the mark. The stress of dad being gone and the morning sickness the baby was suddenly inflicting on her had mom looking quite awful in these past several days. She was having trouble just keeping up with Cerise. Adding another creature to care for wasn't going to help her out any. I was just going to have to hang out in Rosemary's backyard more to wait for the chances when Pudgy escaped through the fence.

The lingering desire to ask mom about a dog vanished about three minutes later. That was when Aunt Deny came out wearing the kind of expression I didn't like- a forced smile and reluctance swirling in her eyes. Wisp understood the signs as well, and we both slowly met her halfway.

     "Today just seems to be another day for bad news," she began, not trying to beat around the bush, "Eden's starting up the car. You two are going with him."
     "Where, and why?" Wisp asked for the both of us.
     "He'll tell you in a moment." she explained.

I certainly wasn't surprised when I heard what had happened, but that didn't mean it lessened the sting any. Mom truly hadn't been looking well. It was a long drive to the hospital with the only noise being the radio Uncle Eden had softly playing. I found I could do nothing else other than stare out the window and sulk. I had hoped I wouldn't have to visit mom in the hospital ever again, at least not until she was an old lady or something, but the familiar building came into view before I knew it. While it had actually been a decent while since mom had been sent here, it still felt as if I had been here only yesterday.

Uncle Eden walked us up to the room, but he remained outside in the hall at the beginning. He said something about already having talked to mom on the phone, but I spotted that he quickly pulled out his phone again and made another call as soon as the door was closed behind us. No doubt it had to do with whatever issue had been set into motion that day. Mom lay on the bed, looking fragile and exhausted, but she was able to smile up at Wisp and me as we approached. Uncle Blaze, who was sitting on the bed and had been talking to her, gave us a grin as well.

     "Sorry if you two got a fright." he apologized.
     "Just a bit. Uncle Eden was stumbling over his words so badly when he first tried to explain what happened that it came out more like the baby had been lost. We felt better when he spoke more coherently." Wisp replied.
     "Oh, Eden," mom shook her head as best she could from her position and laughed softly, "The baby is fine. It's what the baby is doing to me that's the problem."
     "Extreme morning sickness or something, right?" I asked.
     "Hyperemesis gravidarum they call it." Uncle Blaze confirmed.
     "Honestly, I had plans to come to hospital today anyway to see if that's what was going on with me," mom admitted in wry amusement, "I had a slight case of it when I was pregnant with you, Wisp, so when the vomiting just kept getting worse and I found out I was actually losing weight I grew suspicious. I would pass out and make my way here by way of an ambulance instead though."
     "Are you starting to feel better?" Wisp wondered.
     "Much." mom said with another smile.

Though she did still look fragile, I could tell by the way she moved and her expression that she wasn't lying. Heck, she even suddenly grabbed me and placed me on her lap when I went to give her a hug after she sat up. I didn't protest, and I didn't even think about doing so. Mom had trained us well. We were never too old for cuddles. Even with Prism and Wisp she would randomly snuggle against them or try to hold them like she would hold Cerise. We all went along with it as she would make the most heartbroken pouting face if we tried to push her off. Besides, I guess I could be considered a mama's boy. I liked having a reason to be cuddled and not being made fun of for it. I sat contentedly on her lap when Wisp and I were given more news.

     "You're moving in?" I repeated the decision Uncle Blaze had just revealed.
     "Yup," he said brightly, "I was thinking about asking if I could join you lot even before our current predicament started. I've made a lot of great memories at my apartment, but it's just not the place where memories are being made anymore. I'm already staying at the house way more than I'm staying at the apartment anyway, and so far no one's been adverse to my constant presence. I like being where everyone's at too. It makes perfect sense to go ahead and make the spare bedroom into Blaze's bedroom, does it not?"
     "I need help keeping everything in order as well, especially if this baby is going to keep putting me out of commission." mom added.
     "Think we're too wild to keep the place clean on our own?" Wisp asked back teasingly.
     "Eh, your mom has raised a decently behaved litter. It's more the fact that none of you ankle-biters have a job that can pay for the damn mansion your parents decided to build with the money I gave them. While they might have a crazy amount of money left in their savings, we thought it was better to avoid dipping into that fund unless we absolutely have to. I'll help to bridge the gap until Am gets back." Uncle Blaze explained better, though he answered back just as teasingly.

The excitement that spread across my face wasn't intended. I had been wondering how things were going to be kept under control. Mom hadn't held a paying job in her entire life, and now wasn't the best time for her to try and find something that could cover the bills. However, that was no longer an issue, and we would still have that second pair of hands to lean on for support.

     "What's with that look?" Uncle Blaze questioned me merrily.
     "We met the puppy Uncle Eden's neighbor adopted. I think Coal thinks now that we know Blaze is going to be around that he has a better chance of asking for a dog and getting one." Wisp explained for me with a laugh.
     "I dunno. Maybe." mom said.
     "Oh! It's a maybe- not a no!" I remarked in amazement.
     "A dog, huh? I did always want one, but we weren't allowed to have any pets in the building. Not even fish." Uncle Blaze pondered.
     "Why don't we bring the topic up again after the baby is born? Let's see how things stabilize then. At this particular point in time everything's too chaotic and uncertain, but the future might show us something different." mom proposed.
     "That's fine. I really am just glad you didn't say no right away like before." I shrugged.
     "Well, I was about your age when I got Button, and I suppose it has been long enough since she passed for me to accept another dog." mom spoke reminiscently.

Uncle Eden finished his phone call and walked into the room after that. I slid off mom's lap as he started playing Twenty Questions with her. Mom complained enough that dad was too smothering, but Uncle Eden was the king of overkill. Mom began to joke that it was his incessant, though well intended, care that was making her feel ill again. That got her, Uncle Eden, and Uncle Blaze joking and bantering back and forth like they had a tendency of doing. Wisp and I watched the show for a while, but we eventually made our way downstairs to one of the waiting rooms to meet up with our siblings who had been chauffeured to the hospital behind the ambulance.

Most of our day was spent there at the hospital. Mom's doctor wanted to keep her at least for one night to make sure she got all the fluids and rest she needed. We all hung out with her in her room after that decision was made until she fell asleep from exhaustion. The rest of us made ourselves right at home following that. Mom was well-known by pretty much the entire staff. Prism and Desire had been born a little too early, so they had spent a decent chunk of their youngest years coming and going so their development could be monitored. I had had a severe case of the flu when I was seven that had had me here myself for a week. The atmosphere of the place was comfortable to us all. Prism goofed off with Cerise, and Wisp and Desire walked around just chatting as if everything was normal. I was more content to play games on Wisp's phone and watch the others.

Uncle Eden was the first one to go home, which was something that shocked Uncle Blaze greatly. Uncle Blaze teasingly reminisced on how he basically had to drag him out of the hospital to have a few hours off from caring for mom when she was sick when she was young. I thought it was an obvious thing to have him leave given that he made so many phone calls that had to be in regards to that explosive one he took earlier, but the more I listened the more I realized Uncle Eden hadn't said anything about it to anyone else. He probably figured mom didn't need another thing to stress her out or something. I doubted he even knew Hunter, Wisp, Malachite, Rosemary, and I all knew there was trouble brewing. And, it was safe to say him keeping his mouth shut for the moment was a good call. Prism started to grow obnoxious, as usual, so I made my way back up to mom's room to see if she had woken up. What I got was hearing a conversation between her and Uncle Blaze that I was never suppose to have heard.

     "I mean, if you really want to I'm definitely not going to stop you," Uncle Blaze was in the middle of saying, "But you don't entirely sound as if you do want to do this. You just feel obligated about it. You've always said you've loved that you didn't have to work because you could simply stay at home and be a mom."
     "I obviously can't think that way anymore, can I?" mom countered, looking and sounding despondent, "I need to finish college. It'll be easy enough speeding through classes online if I get permission from the right people. I seriously should have done it back when Amaranth encouraged it. I need to get a job. I can't rely on you forever."
     "You're not going to be relying on me forever. Only until Am gets back."

Mom shook her head vigorously.

     "He's not coming back, Blaze." she spoke with such conviction that it drove a sharp sting through my chest.
     "I understand that the situation doesn't look the best at the moment, but you can't think like that. Officer Noble has said that-"
     "He's not coming back!" mom interrupted bitterly and almost in annoyance, "He's dead, okay? That's all there is to it."

A heavy, suffocating silence overtook the room. I glanced up and down the hall afraid someone else was listening like I was, but there was no one else around. The corridor was just as quiet as the room now was. I dared to peek through the glass for a second time, and I caught one of the most serious expressions I had ever seen on my uncle's face. He had something to say, but he was reluctant to say it. He didn't want to hear the answer. I wish I had started walking away in that moment, because I didn't want to hear the answer either.

     "I knew it," Uncle Blaze broke the silence with a soft voice, "You know something about this that no one else does."

Mom didn't respond.

     "He was using the resources I showed him growing up to do something, wasn't he?" Uncle Blaze continued knowingly, giving mom a sad but loving look of reproach when her head snapped up in surprise, "Did you two seriously think I wouldn't notice? I've been involved in this kind of stuff for a much longer time than you or him. The signs were easy enough to spot, but I didn't say anything because I guess I didn't actually want to acknowledge it."

Mom's head drooped down again.

     "So, what was it? What was he getting himself involved in?
     "I'm not going to tell you. I promised I never would, and it doesn't even matter now."
     "Ethereal, you can't-"
     "I'm not going to tell you," mom interrupted like she had before, "Not the full truth. There was just some information he was trying to find. Answers for an injustice he felt had been done. The people, dangerous ones, who had done it. But...they found him first."

Mom's voice went so quiet I could barely hear her. Another glance through the door's window showed me she had sunk down towards the bed so greatly that she essentially became a ball of utter despair. Hands held over her face revealed that unstoppable tears had come, and she shook hard to the extent I feared she was going to have a fit.

     "It has to have been them. Amaranth said they were much cleaner than The Company. Not as arrogant and naively confident. They know how to stay hidden and not leave any traces. That's why they were able to slip past Officer Noble's watch. That's why they were able to get away without leaving any evidence," she explained in horrified distraught, "They know when to stop too. How to only act against those it's necessary to take out. Am was sure if he kept his searching quiet enough that they wouldn't come after the rest of us. And, look, no one has bothered us a single bit. Not like how it would be if The Company was behind this, and why would he be the one they would want to go after anyway? It would be me they want, or even Wisp instead."

She shook her head once more.

     "These others clearly only wanted Amaranth out of the way. There hasn't been any ransoms or demands because there's no point in them. They took him, they killed him, and they dumped him where no one would find them. The really is just how it is, so please don't ask me anymore about it. Please, Blaze. It's hard enough pretending to be hopeful for everyone else's sake..."

I let my head rest against the wall. I really was as stupid as could be. Mom had been smiling more the past several days. She had tried to cheer me up when I moped about, and she had been the one to counter anything anyone said about dad never coming back. I took her optimism at face-value, never even trying to think of how she might actually be feeling. I made every excuse I could to rush out the door when she was fighting against everything thrown at her to make our house still be the happy place it once was. I took lightly all that had been done for me without giving a single thing back in return.

Uncle Blaze knelt down in front of mom, and he tenderly lifted her shoulders up before gently brushing back the tears still streaming down her cheeks.

     "I'm sorry, Ethereal. No matter how strongly you feel, I won't believe what you're saying. I can't think that Amaranth is gone. Not until there's evidence to prove it. I have to have faith until then, and I'll hope on your behalf too just for good measure," he promised, battling against the heartbreak that seemed to want to overtake him, "And I'll stand by what I said. You get a degree and a job if that'll help you feel better. Don't do it if you're rejecting it inside, because you were right with what you said earlier. Everything's too chaotic and uncertain. This baby might keep on giving you more and more trouble, and the last thing you'll need is something unnecessary that drags you down. You have to know that you became family to me long before Am slipped that ring on your finger. He's not here right now, so you and your rugrats are my world. I might be getting older, but I am not feeble and decrepit just yet. I can still take care of you, and I want to still take care of you. I do need some sort of purpose, you know? Why else do you think I wanted to move in where I can be where everyone I love is instead of staying at the place where I'm all alone? Trust in me a little bit more."

Mom nodded feebly and clutched Uncle Blaze's hand with both of hers. He sat next to her on the bed and brought her in tight for a good hug. That left me to silently shuffle further away from the door. My heart was racing once more. I wanted to believe in Uncle Blaze and in his words. I truly did. However, a cruel chill seeped into my chest as I had to accept the truth that, unlike his, it had been mom's words that had been spoken without the slightest hint of doubt.