Vanilla

Chapter 6: Meet the Parents (Part 1)

The Granderson's were a loving, happily married couple of over 20 years. After meeting at college, they dated for over 2 years, were engaged for another year, and were finally married in the summer of 1977. Because it was the summer of their 20th wedding anniversary, they had decided to take a year or more off from their successful dentistry practice. They researched multiple places to go on vacation, settling on the city of Perth, Australia. The decision to go to Perth was made because of its temperamental climate, its relatively small population for a city, and its location on the west coast so that they could enjoy watching the sunset over the ocean.

It was, for all intent and purposes, the perfect vacation. The house they had rented for their vacation was on the beach, giving them to access the sun, sand, and the ocean 24 hours a day. Their escape from England allowed the couple to step back and reflect on their lives.

While they deeply loved each other, the one thing they thought that was missing from their lives was the presence of children. Early on in their marriage they tried to conceive, but ran into problems. The closest they came was in 1979, when there was a miscarriage. To this day, they remember what they would have named their child. Both of them grew up loving Shakespeare, and both of them agreed which was their favorite play: The Winter's Tale. They narrowed the list of potential baby names down to Hermione Jean if it was a girl or Leontes Jameson if it was a boy.

They had given up trying to have a child years ago, but decided to give it one more go while in Australia. They had yet to succeed, but neither Walter nor Rose Granderson really expected to have a baby in their early 40's. They were however enjoying what was equivalent to a second honeymoon.

It was now early June, and the weather was finally starting to cool down. But today was a nice, sunny day, and even in winter, it was warm enough to go to the beach. Walter and Rose were in their usual positions sunbathing, when they saw a young English couple that had been walking past them for the past few weeks in a small argument. The young couple looked nice enough, and looked like they enjoyed each other's company. They were always walking hand-in-hand and gazing at each other lovingly. But today they seemed to be in disagreement over something. They were trying to keep their little tiff to themselves, but were unable to keep from bursting the noiseless bubble that surrounded the Granderson's, who heard almost every word.

"You said we were going to do it today," the black-haired boy said. He was medium height, a shade under 6 feet tall, and slender.

"No, you said today. I don't recall agreeing," the young lady retorted. The girl had caught both Walter and Rose's attention since the young couple had moved into the place a few houses down from them. They would catch snippets of their conversations, but never heard them mention their names. She looked strikingly like Rose: uncontrollable brown hair, slight build, and long legs. They hadn't been up close enough to tell if they shared the same eye color, but Walter would bet on it, seeing as everything else seemed to fit.

"Oh come on Hermione, it's not going to be that bad."

Both Walter and Rose's heads snapped around to look at the two kids. They really hadn't been paying attention until now. How many people would name their little girl Hermione? And on top of that, she looked like a younger version of Rose.

"Honey, you know how I keep having those weird dreams?" Walter said to his wife.

"The ones I keep pestering you to tell me about but you never do? Those dreams dear?" Rose replied, never looking up from her book which she was currently reading.