Chapter Four
London, July 1998
“Oooh, what about this one?” Amara held up a tiny porcelain bunny rabbit, white as snow and with a little pink bow around its neck.
“It’s unrealistic.”
“Drew.”
“It is! Rabbits don’t wear bows.”
Putting it down, Amara sighed in exasperation. “Fine. What should we get Baby Weasley then?”
Andrew shrugged and looked around the large Muggle store. It was stuffed with baby things, from clothes and toys to breast pumps. This was not Andrew’s domain, and though all the babies made him feel a rather odd sensation in his chest, he wasn’t enjoying the stuffiness of the place.
“I don’t know Amara. The kid already has tons of stuff – relatives I didn’t even know we had are sending things from all over, plus the Weasley and Prewitt relations.”
“You have to get your sister a present, Andrew.” Picking through a bin of stuffed toys, she pulled out a stuffed toy of “What about something like this? You liked to read as kids, right?”
Looking at the toy, Andrew suddenly understood the longing in his chest – and knew what he was going to get his little niece of nephew.
“C’mon, we won’t find anything in here.” Grabbing Amara’s hand, he tugged her out of the store.
“We could have just gotten a rattle or something!” she said as they navigated traffic.
“I have the perfect gift.” He said persistently “C’mon, we’re almost there.”
Soon the stood in front of a little hole in the wall shop, a sign hanging over the door reading ‘Vinnie’s Vertacularly Buldingerly Books’.
“Those aren’t real words, are they?” asked Amara, giving the store a spectacle look.
Andrew grinned and opened the door, setting off the bells “Maybe.”
“Oh wow.” Amara gasped, craning her neck to see the ceiling. Books were perched precariously on top of each other, creating a DNA strand of faerie tales and adventures, far away places and love stories.
“This was Sonia and my favourite place to go as kids when Mum brought us into the city.” He told her, beaming like a child and bringing her deeper into the maze of books. A canopy of open books let snippets of adventure ripple down and get caught in their hair, and the whispers of letters never sent, secrets never told, clung to Amara’s skirt with ends of never finished sentences.
“This must be magic.” She whispered, hearing the first few lines of an old poem trickle down her neck. “It has to be.”
“Vinnie is a Squib.” Andrew told her in a hushed voice “But he always had a way with words, with books – and kids, which is why Sonia and I adored him so.”
“Andrew?” a little voice poked at the thick stacks, wriggling its way through the pages of poetry. “Andrew Bowen, well I’ll be!”
“Vinnie!”
A tiny old man seemed to materialize out of the shelves, his whole attire and being seemingly part of the background. His hair was speckled like the pages of a book read with tea, his skin papery as a well loved paperback left out in the rain. His clothes were the colour of the last pages of a book; spare the plum embroidery along his collar and sleeves. In his blazer stretched by a jolly stomach was a pocket watch, ticking away the hours he spent dawdling among the stacks.
“It’s been a while, Andrew.” He said, going for a handshake but accepting Andrew’s hug.
“We’ve been busy, sorry Vinnie. It’s good to be back though.”
He waved a little hand at him, smiling bashfully “Well, what can I help you with today young man? But first – who is this lovely lady accompanying you?”
“Vinnie, this is my girlfriend Amara.” Andrew looked as proud introducing her to Vinnie as he had his mother, and Amara gladly shook the little mans hand.
“Very nice to meet you Amara! Now, what shall it be?” he asked, clasping his hands together.
“We’re looking for a gift for my – well, we don’t know what they are yet. A faerie tale, a good one for little kids. Like Sonia and I used to read.”
Vinnie’s eyes lit up “A baby, Andrew? Do tell me whether you’ll be bringing a little one here soon!”
Amara laughed “Not us, no. Sonia’s having a baby in late August.”
Wiping a sudden tear from his eye, Vinnie pulled out a handkerchief “Oh how lovely, a little Bowen baby. Come with me, I know what you need.”
They followed Vinnie through the shelves, ducking under arches of books too short for them and scooting around sharp corners.
Soon they entered a section that felt immediately magical. It was stacked high with books with titles such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, and Andrew was immediately drawn to a large volume, bound in cloth and embroidered with an image he was very familiar with.
“This is what that kid will need.” He said, giving Amara a backwards glance. “Sonia will love it too.”
Vinnie smiled “That was one of your favourites.”
“How much?” he asked.
Hands fluttering like butterflies around spring flowers, Vinnie giggled “For Sonia’s baby? Nothing my boy, nothing.”
When they left the shop, book tucked safely in Andrew’s bag, they took refuge under a tree in a nearby square. A playground sprawled in front of them, kids scrambling over the structure, screaming and laughing.
“You didn’t like the baby store.” Amara said. It wasn’t a question, just an observation.
“It was stuffy.”
She gave him a knowing look “It was more than that. You’ve been uncomfortable Andrew, around kids and pregnant women – Sonia especially, and that’s not what she needs right now.”
Putting his arm along the back of the bench, Andrew sighed. “Okay, you got me.”
“What’s been bugging you? I promise I won’t laugh.” She smiled, but Andrew knew she was genuinely confused.
“It’s just…and this is weird, Mara, but – well, I guess I just thought it’d be me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I thought Sonia and I would be switched. She would be on adventures, doing all this stuff – getting a job, an apartment, probably single. I’d be the one waiting every day, on my toes and – the one waiting for a baby.”
Amara’s face softened as she leaned in to kiss him “Oh, Andy.”
“You think it’s weird.”
“No!” she cried “You’ve always wanted that, the white picket fence life. I know this, and I know you must feel envy for Sonia.”
“You have no idea.” He muttered, looking at the straggle of dads sitting around a picnic bench, a few handing out juice boxes, others pushing swings. “It’s just weird, that’s all.” Glancing over at Amara, he saw the look on her face and tried to backpedal “I’m not trying to say I want to settle down right now, but…I mean, having kids is important to me. Is it … is it important for you?”
Amara nodded “Of course! I’ve always wanted kids too, just not anytime soon. Ten, twelve years from now maybe – but I want to live a little first, go to school and work.”
A weight lifted from Andrew’s shoulders. “Okay.”
She grinned “Don’t worry Drew, one day I promise to carry your spawn or whatever.”
Laughing, he pulled her close and kissed her temple. “Spawn?” he whispered into her hair, eyes still glued to the fathers across the square.
“Yeah, magic babies.”
They laughed, but Andrew felt the longing in his chest tighten. Ten or twelve years? That seemed an impossible amount of time, but he’d just have to wait – he would wait for Amara.
A/N: Whew, that was almost a deal breaker there!
Question: Do you think Andrew can wait ten or twelve years for the dream he's always wanted?
Rose<3 (still in Amsterdam, still eating chocolate.)