Reflections of Light

Stranger

"Oh, William!" Luci scolded. "You're stretching your clothes! That's why nothing looks like it fits!"

"Et's fiiine! I look fiiine!"

Dec groaned, pushing himself up onto his feet. He looked at the disgraceful pile of clothes on the floor; grabbing a hanger from the closet and reaching down to pull a clothing item from the pile. "Come on, help me clean this up, and then we can go swimming, okay?"

"Yeah! Swimmin'!" Billy cheered, bouncing happily.

***

Billy was bored. And sulking. They'd been having a really fun play in the pool, and then Declan had had to leave and then it was less fun. Not completely no fun at all; playing with Mummy was always fun. But playing with Mummy and Declan? That was double fun!

But now Mummy was in the shower, washing the chlorine out of her hair, and Billy was left in her bedroom, playing with his toys.

"... And den, da Knight had ta fight da big, free-tailed scorpion monsta! Roar! Aaargh! Ugh- ugh- bleaugh! Die, die, die!" He smacked his action figures together, making the plastic scorpion and the medieval character 'fight'.

"William."

Billy froze dead; eyes wide, like a baby dear hearing a predator in the woods.

He listened intently, waiting for something else to confirm what he'd heard; the sound of the shower seeming to fill the room as he listened to the heavy silence.

"William." The whisper came from the direction of the door, the one that lead into his bedroom.

Chilled to the bone, Billy glanced at the bathroom door, wondering if he could get his mother's attention. Then, steeling his nerves, he picked up one of his toy swords from the carpet besides him; and, crouching low, he scurried stealthily across the floor to the half-open door, to peer through the gap between the door and the wall on the hinged side.

An eye looked back at him.

Billy screeched in surprise; but was quickly silenced by the door opening and someone on their hands and knees snatching him up, pulling him into his room with them and onto their lap.

"Shh, Shh, William! It's me! It's Grandma!"

Billy wriggled out of her grip to run across the room, putting the bed between them. Eyeing her warily, Billy leveled the toy sword at her.

Maven chuckled. "William, don't be ridiculous. It's me!"

"Nuh Uh! Grandma's teeny small, and you're big! I know, cause I could carry her in my pocket!"

"That was me! But I'm big now! I wasn't always a snake, this is how I'm supposed to be." She opened her arms welcomingly. "Come here. Come on, it's alright."

Billy looked her up and down, his expression calculating. "Um... Ef you're my Grandma, prove et."

"Well, I know that your favourite book is Peter Pan, which you got as a present for your birthday, and you were very sad about when you had to give up; because you told me so when you were crying about it the next morning." She crouched down to his level, talking softly as if approaching a skittish animal.
"I know you used to sneak Nibs into your room at the town house because you were scared he'd be lonely at night. And I know that you became unwell recently after drinking some very wicked tea; I would sit on your pillow so I could listen to your breathing."

Narrowing his eyes at her, Billy tentatively walked around the bed, and gave her an experimental prod in the arm with his finger, before darting back away from her.

When she did nothing, he approached her again, head tilted curiously. "How would you be so big, when you woz a teeny ikkle snake?"

"Magic." Maven said, dropping to perch on the bed in a swirl of skirts, tugging him down to sit next to her. "That, and I had some help. But Shh, it's a secret. Between you and me, okay? Just for a little bit."

Billy narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously once more.

Maven dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "So, what are you playing?"

A short while later, Luci came out of the shower, dressed in her nightdress and with a towel wrapped around her hair. Seeing her son wasn't where she'd left him playing on the carpet, her eyes traced his path back to the part-open door back to his room.

"William, what are you up to?" She said, forcing her voice to be calm as she crossed the room to open the door.

"Look, Mummy, I found Grandma!" Billy crowed, sitting in the middle of the carpet, playing with the brilliant green serpent.