Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters; I just flesh 'em out.
Prologue:
"Felix, what are you still doing in bed?"
"I can't go to school, Mommy, my tummy hurts."
Elena Renton entered her son's space-themed room, making her way towards the rocketship-shaped bed. An eight-year-old boy peered up at her, curled on his side with his hair sticking straight up in that "just woke up" way. She sat down beside him, briefly feeling his forehead with the back of her hand.
"Your tummy hurts, huh? Are you sick…" She pulled her hand away, looking directly into his eyes, "Or are you just worried about school?"
Felix buried his face in his pillow in a poor attempt to hide from the world.
"I don't know anyone…" He moaned. She smirked sympathetically; it was his first move since he had started grade school, as well as his first school in the states. It was only natural for him to be nervous.
She rubbed his shoulder, fingers pressing gently into his muscles in an attempt to soothe him, "Well, then, you'll have to make new ones. You're good at that, aren't you?"
"I miss London…" He whined.
"Maybe we'll visit during the holidays," she offered. He didn't seem to buy it.
She held her finger up in a "wait a minute" gesture before leaving the room. Felix watched her go, not sure what she was up to. She returned with a small wooden box, setting it on her lap as she sat back down.
"This is my "miss" box," she introduced, placing a hand on the smooth lid, "I put a little bit of everything I miss into here. It helps me remember the good things, and reminds me that they aren't gone forever."
Felix sat up and scooted closer as she took off the lid, revealing sundry little trinkets ranging from her mother's jewelry to pictures of high school friends. He picked up a picture of a marina at sunset and showed it to her.
"Where's this?" He asked. She glanced down at it.
"This," she said, her finger caressing the pier that stretched out into the calm ocean, "Is a place called Go City. It's where I went to college, and where I fell in love. I used to go down to these docks all the time, and watch the waves roll in and out. It's the only place in the whole world I feel I belong."
Felix looked up from the pretty picture and met her eyes. She smiled, clutching the back of his head.
"But, if I would've stayed there, I would have never had you," she insisted, kissing his forehead. Trapped by her grip, he had to endure the affection, and quickly wiped it off with a giggle. She laughed right back, ruffling his hair, "Sometimes we have to let go of what we have in order to grab onto better things."
He wasn't sure why his mother's eyes were all cloudy, or why her voice didn't sound as happy as usual. Maybe her "miss" box was making her miss all of these things, like Go City and the docks. But, before he could ask about it, she had slipped the picture out of his hands and put it in the box, snapping it shut.
"Now, my little monkey, you need to go to school."
"Whyyyy?" He complained, believing he had made progress into convincing her to let him stay home.
"Because if you don't, then the education police will come and put you in education jail, where you do nothing but write sentences all day long." Felix sucked in a worried breath, quickly reaching backwards to push buttons on his nightstand. Elena snickered, getting up and leaving him to the robotic hands to help him get dressed.
Elena started to sympathize with him once they pulled up to the school. The children gawked as Felix wheeled out of the van in his high-tech chair, and the mothers weren't much better. Felix sank back as though that would make him more invisible to their wide eyes.
"Listen to me, Felix," Elena murmured urgently, crouched down so she was eye level with him, "There will be idiots who will try to convince you that being different is bad and something to be ashamed of in order to feel better about themselves, but no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eat your carrot sticks, don't get too many rocks in your wheels, and be nice to everyone, no matter how they treat you. That's the number one way to make friends."
Felix shifted uneasily in his seat. Perhaps Eleanor Roosevelt was a bit much for a Monday morning… She sighed.
"Give me your hand," she said. He obediently held it to her and she turned it so the palm was facing up. She took it in both of her hands, bent down, and kissed the center of it, "There. Now no matter where I am, you'll always have me with you, no farther than the palm of your hand."
"Like in the story," he murmured.
"Exactly like in the story," she assured him. He looked thoughtful for a moment, then took her hand and kissed the palm of it.
"Now I'm with you too," he announced proudly. She pressed the palm to her heart.
"Thank you sweetheart," she stepped aside as he started to wheel towards the elementary school's entrance, his natural confidence emerging once again. She waved after him with her free hand, "Have a good day at school!"
Really, becoming a mother had turned her into such a teary-eyed sad sack. The once feared heartless, sadistic tyrant known as Electronique was now reduced to near-tears at something as simple as a kiss on her hand. If this made her so emotional, how on earth was she going to survive the rest of his life?
She turned to see the other carpool mothers watching her curiously; too timid to come out and actually ask what she knew must be on their minds. Dangerous anger flared up in her, and her instinct was to smash anything close by, screeching at the top of her lungs that yes, her son was in a wheelchair and yes, he had been paraplegic since birth and no it wasn't because she did drugs while she was pregnant with him or drank or was beaten by an abusive partner sometimes these things just happened and the chair didn't make him any different from any of their precious leg-functional dumb-as-bricks children, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Instead, she smiled sweetly at them, channeling her rage into a sickly perky tone.
"That first day of school in a new town is so hard, isn't it?" The other mothers nodded and mumbled their agreement hurriedly, verbally stumbling around from the shock that they had jumped to the wrong conclusion about her son's unease. Really, the hilarious awkwardness of people trying to be politically correct was one of the few perks of Felix's condition. To put icing on the cake, Elena innocently asked, "By the way, when are Little League try-outs?"
III
Welcome, welcome. Whether you're new to this saga or have graciously followed me from "Personal Demons", I'm glad you're here now. I predict this little adventure's going to be a fun one, judging from the conversations I had during "Personal Demons" (I was grateful for such attentive reviewers, and the PM convos were really interesting). There'll be drama, angst, family feuding, couple banter, a Chihuahua, some coffee, adults acting like children, genetic discussion, the "m" word, and some good ol' cattiness. I hope to get these chapters up in decent intervals but that being said, chill your buns if there's a delay, being employed and such. Anyways, I hope you enjoy, and please review!
