A Children's Easter Party
"Right, come on, girls," Sybil called, as she stood in the middle of her garden, addressing her daughters and their friends. Her twin daughters, Eva and Imogen, had decided that Easter was a great excuse to have a party. All the girls were on holiday from school, so Easter Monday seemed like as good a time as any to gather their friends together. All the girls gathered around Sybil and she said loudly enough for them all to hear, "Okay, girls. There are two hundred eggs in the house and in the garden. Everyone take a wicker basket, and whoever gets the most eggs in their basket wins the prize at the end." The girls chattered more in excitement. "You have half an hour, starting…" she paused for effect and the girls all got ready to run off in different directions. "NOW!" The girls sprinted off every which way. Earlier in the day, Sybil and Tom had thought of imaginative places to hide all the eggs. They knew that some of them would probably not be found and that they'd be lost forever, but they didn't mind too much. Tom walked out of the back door and was rushed at by six and seven year old girls. He tried to get to the side to get out of the way, but was still crashed into by a few of the girls. Sybil saw and laughed at him slightly. "Sorry, love," she said as he approached her. "I've just started the Easter Egg Hunt."
"Mmm, I can tell," Tom said, raising his eyebrows. "At least they're having fun."
"And so they should. I've spent hours organising this party with the girls," Sybil said, speaking of her daughters. Tom stood still and smiled at Sybil, his hands in his pockets. "What?" she asked, looking up at him.
"Nothing," he said, a smirk finding its way onto his lips.
"What?" Sybil persisted, knowing that it was not, in fact, nothing. Tom was being secretive and it caused Sybil to smile at him involuntarily.
"It's just that you're so good with children. I would never be able to control that many girls of that age. And you haven't had any practise either."
"What do you mean?" Sybil asked, as she moved to the side to start tidying up some of the girls' rubbish.
"I mean that you never had any younger siblings as a child. I did, and I'm still not as able as you are with children," Tom explained.
"Maybe it's just a natural ability then," Sybil laughed. "And maybe it helps that I've always wanted children."
"Possibly. But I always knew you'd be good with children," Tom stated.
"And how did you come to that conclusion?" she asked, looking at him as she continued to stuff things into the black bag she was holding.
"Well, remember when you first met my parents?"
"Yes, your entire family was there – a birthday or something," Sybil recalled.
"Exactly – my whole family was there. The kids were all over you and you handled it brilliantly – smiles and laughs and all!" he laughed at the memory of seeing Sybil dragged to various places by his nieces and nephews. "You know, I think that's when I knew I wanted to marry you," he continued. "That's when I knew that I wanted to have a family with you." Sybil turned to smile at him, and walked towards him, her hands wandering to the back of his neck.
"You're a sentimental old thing, aren't you?"
"I like to think of myself more as romantic than sentimental," he said, leaning down to kiss his wife. The two were jerked apart when they heard a high pitched scream somewhere in the garden. Sybil shot Tom a worried look and the two took off together down the garden at a run to find the source of the scream. They found Imogen comforting her best friend, Rebecca, as she sat on the grass and allowed tears to stream down her face.
"What happened, girls?" Sybil asked, crouching beside them as Tom stood by her side. Rebecca couldn't answer through the tears, so Imogen answered for her.
"Rebecca fell over and landed on stinging nettles."
"Oh, poor thing," Sybil said, looking from one girl to the other. "Which hand did you hurt?" Sybil asked Rebecca. She held out her left hand, which had turned slightly red in patches. "Oh dear," Sybil said sympathetically. "Do you know what we need?" Sybil asked, a smile starting to form. The little girl shook her head. "We need a dock leaf." Both girls looked up at Sybil, completely clueless about what she was talking, so Sybil explained. "It's a leaf of a plant and if you rub it on stinging nettle stings, it helps them to heal."
"There's one," Tom said, pointing and walking towards it. He leant down to pick the leaf and returned to the others, handing it to Sybil. She passed it onto Rebecca and said,
"Place that on your hand. You might have to rub it for it to work." Rebecca did so and she and Imogen smiled at each other. "That's it. Does that feel any better?" Rebecca nodded gratefully. "If it keeps hurting later, come and find me and we'll make it better, okay?"
"Okay!" the fair-haired girl said brightly, as she got to her feet.
"Go on then – you don't want to miss out on a chance to win the Easter Egg Hunt, do you?" she said with a wide smile. With that, the girls got to their feet and ran off again, Rebecca still clutching the leaf to the palm of her hand. Sybil sighed inwardly as she stood up to face Tom.
"Well, that wasn't too bad," Tom said softly. "It could have been a lot worse."
"I suppose so. At least nobody's in the pond."
"Yet," Tom said.
"Don't be so pessimistic!" Sybil said, swatting his chest. She made to walk away, but Tom caught her around the waist and lifted her up, stopping her from walking away. She squealed quietly and laughed deeply from her throat. "Tom, this is not the time! We can't get caught by six year olds!" Sybil exclaimed.
"Oh, fine!" Tom said, putting Sybil back on the ground. She faced him and placed a soft kiss on his cheek.
"Come on, we ought to get back to tidying up," Sybil said as she started walking away from Tom. He trailed behind and they continued to tidy up their garden. Small children were hard work, especially when there were a group of them all together who were overexcited and cheerful beyond belief.
"As much as I love children, I shall be glad when we're back to only our two in the house."
"Sorry," Sybil said.
"It's not your fault. A party was a good idea, and it's good to see the girls having fun with their friends."
"No, no. Not that. I mean, it won't be just our girls for long. I'm pregnant again, Tom," Sybil said, turning to look up at him from under her long eyelashes. His eyes widened and the corners of his lips curved up. He stepped towards her and hooked stray hair behind her left her. He took her cheek in his right hand, his left resting on her waist as she asked, "Is that alright?" Before answering, he kissed her softly.
"That's perfect, Sybil." He kissed her once more and looked into her bright eyes. Maybe their third child would have her eyes. Both Eva and Imogen had Tom's deep blue eyes. Sybil's were lighter – slightly green, even. He'd always loved her eyes – they were one of the best things about her. But, of course, to him, all of her was, naturally, utterly perfect.
After uploading my fic The Joys of Spring, The Yankee Countess suggested that I do a fic for Easter. I know this is early for Easter, and I was contemplating whether to upload this now or on Easter Monday (when it's set), but it's done now, so I thought I may as well get it uploaded now. I know it's a short fic and there isn't much going on, but it's a but of fun (and it was excellent procrastination from actually doing proper work). Please review if you enjoyed.