"Alright, so Julia and Asha are coming over for dinner tonight." I was helping my mom prepare for dinner before I left to go pick up the kids.
"After everything you've said about Julia, I can't wait to meet her finally. I'm excited to see Asha again." I smiled to myself at this. My mom already looks at Asha as another grandchild.
"Julia is looking forward to meeting you too. Asha has already mentioned she's excited to see you again." I took a brief pause. "Also, mom, thank you for staying with us. Having you around has been a huge help." My mom stopped in the middle of mincing her vegetables and gave me this look of love laced with something else.
"Of course, Mija. There is no reason to thank me, though. I'm always going to be here to help. I'd drop anything to be here for you all." I kissed her on the cheek.
"Still, thank you. With you being here, I think it has put the kids at ease a little more. They still have to sleep with Emma and me, but their nightmares aren't as bad." She hummed at this.
"Yeah, I've noticed that you all seem better rested than how you all were when I first got here. All of your eyes aren't as bloodshot. Kids don't look like they've been up all night crying. I may stay for a little bit longer. If that's okay with you?" I felt relief wash over me immediately. I wanted to ask her but felt bad doing so. So, I'm glad she offered herself.
"If it's not too much for you." She hummed at my response.
"Not too much at all. That's why I'm offering to stay longer. I think it will benefit you all. Plus, I get to spend more time with all of you. It's hard to synchronize our schedules to be able to see each other." I nodded at this.
"Yeah, it can be very difficult. I'm glad you're staying longer, and I'm sure everyone else will feel the same way." I say it all the time, but I am fortunate to have a mom like the one I have.
"Shit, I need to go get the kids." I got so caught up in talking to my mom I didn't realize what time it was.
"Language." My mom chided me.
"Sorry. I love you; I'll see you in a bit." I kissed her cheek and headed out to my car.
The drive to pick up the kids was like any other. I, as usual, was so caught up in my thoughts that when I arrive at the school, I don't remember the drive there. Going into auto-drive mode honestly seems a little dangerous, but it happens to me a lot. I always wonder if it happens to others a lot too.
"Hey, momma!" I was brought out of my thoughts by my kids and Asha sliding into the backseat.
"Hey there, my little bears. How was school?" I looked up at the rearview mirror smiling at them.
"It was good. I learned a new word today." This piqued my interest.
"And what word is that?" Alyx just kind of giggled.
"Ambidextrous. Isn't that a funny word? I learned it today because my teacher pointed out that I am ambidextrous." I chuckled a little bit along with her.
"It kind of is a funny-sounding word. I could have told you that you were ambidextrous. You and Aleksey both have always been very coordinated with both sides of your body." Alyx had her thinking face on.
"Well, I just now learned the word for it. Which I think might be one of my favorite words." My daughter is so adorable. Having favorite words and shit.
The rest of the drive home, I did my best not to drift into auto-drive mode. I did a really successful job of it, too, if I do say so myself. I made sure to stay present the whole time. Did this take a lot of self-discipline? Yes. Do I feel exhausted now from driving? Yes. Will I be drinking extra blood at dinner? Again, yes. Will I possibly lose my mind if I hear the Baby Shark song again? Most definitely. Please, someone, anyone, get me out of this car.
When we pulled into the driveway, I almost bolted out of the car and kissed the ground. I was so excited not to hear that annoying song again. Hopefully, they don't continue to sing it as we were entering the house—the aroma of the food filled my nostrils. My mouth was watering. I wish so badly that it would taste as good as it smells. But alas, I will never have that luxury again.
The kids started their homework, and I sat beside them, editing projects of my own. It was always a peaceful routine. I stayed present at this moment and took it all in. Appreciating spending time with my kids and Asha. I got to see my mom cooking in the kitchen with a smile on her face and humming some songs while doing so. It took in this, what some would say is a small moment, because sometimes that's what we tend to overlook the most. The small moments. The little things. This moment was perfect in and of itself, but if Emma were here giving me that beautiful smile of hers and showing how much she loved me just in her eyes, this moment would be ineffable.
I was brought out of my thoughts when I heard the door open. The excitement started to build up inside of me. Emma is here, and she's actually home early. If I weren't in the presence of others, I would be happy dancing my ass off right now. But, instead, I just bolted up and was trying to speed walk to the front door discreetly.
"Hey, baby. I missed you." I was going to give her a quick kiss, but she looped her arm around me and held my lips to hers. The kiss had my heart-melting.
"Hey, love." The intensity of love in her eyes made me want to start blushing. "I found someone out in our driveway too." She then stepped to the side, showing Julia.
"Hey there. I'm so glad you could come." I brought her into a hug and started leading her towards the kitchen. "Come on; I want you to meet my mom." She gave me a nervous smile.
"This is my mom Anita; mom, this is Asha's grandma Julia." They both stared at each other. I'm sure it was only for a few seconds, but it felt like years. I was growing nervous till they smiled warmly at each other and hugged. Emma and I exchanged the same what-the-hell-is-going-on-look.
"Oh, Julia. I haven't seen you in forever. How have you been? You look great, as always!" My mom waved her off.
"Stop it. You look great too. I've been good. I am so sorry to hear about Melissa. I can't imagine how you must be feeling." My mom grabbed Julia's hand and gave her a sad concerned look. "I'm always here for you, no matter what. Okay?" Julia nodded.
"Okay, hold up a minute. How do you two know each other?" My mom and Julia exchanged a look.
"We were neighbors back when we were younger. Even though she was older than me, she would still play with me. She was the closest one to me in age in our neighborhood. Plus, she would babysit me from time to time." It's a small world, after all.
"Right. Well, I'll let you two catch up." So with that, Emma and I made our way over to the kids.
We checked on the kids to find that they were finally all done with homework and were going to head upstairs to get ready for dinner. I'm still extremely shocked that Julia and my mom already knew each other. That's crazy, right? Like I knew people would always say it's a small world, but I've never experienced that expression till now.
"Wow, I never knew you were a faerie." Julia laughed out loud in response to my mom's comment.
"Good, it means I did a good job at keeping it a secret that I was supernatural. Except there was this one time, I used magic around you. I don't know if you remember that dead plant you had shown me, and you were super upset about it being dead...." My mom interjected.
"Yes, my cactus was named Tina." I saw Julia roll her eyes.
"How you killed a cactus. I'll never know. But seeing how upset you were, I used my magic to bring it back to life." My mom nodded.
"Yes, I remember you holding it behind your back, and when you brought it back in front of you, it was alive. I was so young I didn't think anything of it." My mom and Julia both laughed with a look of nostalgia on their faces.
"What about you, Asha? Are you only fae?" Asha shook her head and swallowed the bite of food she just took.
"No, my mom was a fae just like my grandma, but my dad was... Mamaw, what was my daddy again?" Julia looked up for a second, thinking. Then she had the aha moment.
"He was a dark angel." She looked around at all of us. I looked over to Emma, who looked surprised and had her eyebrows raised.
"That's very rare," Emma spoke out. Come to think of it; I don't think I've ever heard of a dark angel.
"What is a dark angel?" I'm glad one of my kids asked the question.
"They are what people believe to be fallen angels or sometimes demons. They aren't bad in nature at all. Well, some aren't. But that goes for anyone; you can either be good or bad. It has nothing to do with your species but rather your character. Anyways they differ from light angels in a few ways. One, they have dark wings. Two, their magic is stronger and what some believe to be dark magic. Three, they can blend into the shadows. They basically can become a shadow themselves. As Emma mentioned, they are very rare." Wow. I learn something new every day.
"Does that mean that Asha has wings?" Alyx said this while looking at Asha's back.
"Yeah, she does. Within time, we will know if they are more like mine and her mothers or if they will take after her dads. We will know the full extent of her abilities when she is more in her teens." Emma nodded and looked at the twins.
"This will probably be the same for the both of you too. Since you were born as a vampire, you probably won't develop your powers until you're older, like most other supernatural creatures. I can't say for sure, though. It's different for regular vampires. When you're turned, you find out pretty quickly." This had me thinking about it too. I wonder what their special abilities will be.
"I've never heard of natural-born vampires happening before, and I've been alive a long time." She looked towards my mom, who had a curious look on her face. "Us fae age differently. Even though I looked like a teenager when we met, I was already around a century old." This had my eyebrows raised.
"You're that old and never heard about natural-born vampires?" She shook her head no.
"Not at all. All I know about the beginning of vampires is that a goddess fell in love with a human and wanted them to be able to live forever like her. The only thing is that when you use magic like that, there always has to be some type of balance, so that's where they have to drink blood. Why that's the balancing factor, I'm not quite sure of. Maybe because blood brings life, and since you are technically dead, there must be something that will provide you with life, thus the symbolism of blood. Emma, you probably know more about this than what I do." Emma took this as her cue.
"Most of what you said is right. Thousands of years ago, a goddess fell in love with a human and made them immortal. She basically froze their age, which in return froze their heart. So she made a way to balance it out. One, you drink blood, but also she gave us a soulmate like any other supernatural creature. Once you meet your soulmate, your heart beats again, it isn't a frequent pace like that of lively beings, but it beats nonetheless. I wish I could meet the goddess herself to get the true answers as to why and the full specifics. Really everything we know is more word to mouth. There could be a whole nother reasoning and story behind our creation; we may never know." Emma just gave a simple shrug after everything she had said. It definitely had me thinking.
"What about the rest of the supernatural species, were they created too?" Emma nodded her head.
"Yes, each species is blessed and created by a god or goddess." This made me confused.
"Then why can they reproduce naturally and not vampires?" She hummed.
"Good question. It's simple; really, we are still considered dead. We are frozen in time, immortal. Every other species still ages, at a much slower pace than humans, but they still are alive." This clarified a lot.
"But we can still reproduce with a witch's help. So, why wouldn't the children be born vampires?" Emma shrugged a bit.
"They've always been born human. They are a little more coordinated and smart but still human. Since we aren't "natural" within nature and we can't reproduce naturally, we can't have vampires. That's the way they have theorized, at least. You can only reproduce what you naturally are, and since the only thing that was natural about us was when we were humans. Our kids throw a huge wrench in that theory. They may be the only one of their kind, well, for now. Since they were naturally born as vampires and still somehow possess immortality and human characteristics, they could possibly reproduce naturally." Emma shrugged again. "I definitely don't have the answers, and neither does the council. Maybe one day we will, maybe we won't. But, at the end of the day, they are extraordinary." Emma looked at the twins with pride. This made me smile. I was proud too. Our kids are amazing and truly special, defining every supernatural law/theory known to the supernatural.
"Gross, mommy. I don't want to have kids." Alyx said in a disgusted voice. I laughed about this.
"I agree with Alyx. I don't want to have kids either." Aleksey said in a matter-of-a-fact tone.
"Well, that's your choice. If you don't want to have kids, you don't have to. And if either of you changes your mind when you get older, that's okay too." Aleksey shook his head.
"No thanks." We all were laughing at their disgusted faces.
"I don't know. I think I might want to have them one day." Asha shared her opinion. I'm glad she was engaging in the conversations. Most of the time, she stays quiet unless the conversation is directed at her.
"Oh. Well, I guess it wouldn't be that bad." Alyx had a sudden change of heart. This definitely had me thinking.
"Yeah, you're right. I guess it wouldn't be that horrible." I chuckled and shook my head, completely amused at what Aleksey just said. "Wouldn't be that horrible." Hilarious.
"You don't have to worry about any of this till you're older. Way older!" I emphasized the "way older" part. I don't want to be a grandma before my kids are at least somewhere in their twenties. They all nodded and continued eating and talking amongst themselves. I took in every detail of this moment, appreciating it, just like how I did earlier. Just another family dinner. The little things that often happen that we forget to cherish.