The Present
2014:
"Sonikku," Amy Rose, who is currently six months pregnant, is holding up a blue baby onesie up to show her husband, Sonic. "What do you think of this?"
Sonic, who is holding hands with their five-year-old daughter, Lavender Rose, takes a look at the baby outfit. "Looks adorable, but what if our son's fur ended up light blue? If we put that on him, it'll look like he's not wearing anything at all." He laughs at the joke.
"We may not know for sure," Amy chuckles while putting the onesie back in its rack. She continues to look through the baby section of the thrift store. "I think we should find some other colors too, like green and yellow. After all," She looks at Sonic and Lavender Rose. "We are having fraternal twins."
Sonic recalls about the gender of their unborn babies. "Oh yeah, that's right. Not only are we having a son, another daughter too." Sonic looks down at Lavender and she looks back while sucking her tiny thumb. "Isn't that right, baby girl? You're going to have a baby brother AND a baby sister." He winks at her.
Inquisitively, like all little children her age, Lavender removes her thumb from her mouth. "Daddy? What does 'fwaternal' mean?"
"It means 'different,'" Sonic answers.
"Different how?" Lavender asks again.
Amy answers for her, "Usually, twins are identical, which means they look alike. But for fraternal, it means they don't look alike and normally, it's one boy and one girl."
"Oh," Lavender coos when she understood what they said.
When Amy is done rummaging through the baby clothes, she takes some of her choices in her hands and shows them to Sonic and Lavender. They both accepted the ones she chose. Some of them may look old but with Amy's skills at sewing and redesigning, they would look brand new. It'll be as if they weren't brought from the thrift store.
Holding the clothes in her arms, Amy looks at her husband and daughter. "Why don't you two find something you like while I take a look at some other baby stuff?"
"We'd like that," Sonic remarks, "Come, Lavender. Let's go take a look around."
"Okay," Lavender Rose says while the father and daughter walk apart from Amy hand to hand. Amy heads to the section where the baby toys are stored on the shelves.
Sonic lets go of Lavender's hand when the two made their way to the men's clothing section. "Daddy's going to look around here for a second. I could use another shirt." He tells her.
He goes through the circular rack of used men's shirts. Not many of them caught his attention, possibly because the designs and patterns are too tacky for him. Some of them are plaids with ugly dark colors. Some are solids with unattractive colors, like brown and off-white. Some are vintage Hawaiian shirts with dissimilar bright colors. And there are even several novelty shirts; one of them saying "I'm with Stupid" with an arrow pointing to the right and a bright pink one that says "Real Men Wear Pink."
Sonic is either gagging at the tacky designs and colors or laughing at the prints on the novelty shirts. This went on for a few minutes; Lavender has been waiting patiently for her daddy but then quickly became bored herself. Turning around to take a glimpse at something, her eyes are fixed to the painting section that is not even too far away from where Sonic is. Wanting to take a look at the old and used paintings, she strolls to the section.
Sonic notices where his little lady is going. "Stay close, baby girl." He tells her before going back to his browsing.
Lavender Rose stood right in front of the painting. Her emerald green eyes move around to perceive the portraits and colorful landscapes. She saw one with a baby lamb and its mother sitting together on the field, much to her adoration. She saw one with a colorful rainbow over the blue sky and on top of the green flowery meadow. She saw one with a mother duck leading her baby ducklings to the pond. Lavender let out some 'aws' when she sees paintings of adorable animals and some 'oohs' on perfectly painted landscapes.
Gazing around from top to bottom and from left to right, Lavender reaches to the end of the section. When she came to the bottom right side of the wall—one of the portraits have grabbed her attention.
"Huh?" She says to herself with curiosity. Lavender Rose walks closer to the painting that she is heavily focused on. Her eyes widened at the 14x22 gold-painted framed portrait and she stares at it without making a sudden movement or averting her eyes elsewhere.
"Lavender Rose," Sonic calls her name as he steps toward her. "Are you ready to go? Mommy is about to ring up." Standing beside her, he realizes that she is mesmerized at something. "What are you looking at? Did you see something you like?"
"Uh-huh," Lavender responds almost hypnotically. She points her finger at the portrait she's looking at. Sonic takes a look at it… and he is completely surprised at the painting.
Amy walks up to the check-out counter with her chosen baby clothes and two small stuffed animals, one teddy bear and one baby lamb. She places the items on the counter. The clerk behind it turns around from the behind-the-counter shelves and she makes eye contact with her. She is a white cat with pink irises and her hair is tied into downward pigtails. Her outfit is very preppy with her white collar shirt underneath her purple argyle sweater vest and a dark purple plaid skirt to match. She lets out a smile at the pregnant pink hedgehog.
"Hi, there," The cat says with a hint of optimism. "Is that everything?"
"Maybe," Amy responds while placing her hand on her expecting abdomen. "My husband and daughter are somewhere here still looking through some things. I'm waiting for them now."
"Okay," the cat then fixes her eyes on Amy's belly. Her smile turns to warmth, "You must be one lucky mother."
Amy chuckles softly, "I guess I am. I'm having twins this time, fraternal twins more specifically."
"Aw, congratulations to you," The cat comments. "I'm Missy, by the way." Missy the Cat holds her hand out to Amy.
Amy did the same and the two meticulously shake hands. "I'm Amy Rose." They let go.
"So what makes you buy some baby stuff here at a thrift store?" Missy starts the conversation as they wait. She looks through some of the tiny clothes on the counter.
"Well, I really like to come here since I have a small passion for used items. I know some of the choices I picked out seem old, but sewing is one of my favorite hobbies and I figured that I can use it to make something new to these clothes for my twins."
Missy is intrigued, "That's really interesting. That way, you can make something more unique without spending a fortune."
"Exactly." The two giggle.
Amy then heard Sonic and Lavender coming towards her. She notices that Sonic is holding something in his hand while his other is holding onto Lavender's. "That's them," she informs Missy. Missy gazes at the blue and purple hedgehogs.
"Your husband is Sonic the Hedgehog? Also known as the Hero of Mobius?" Missy is surprised to learn about the fact that Amy is married to a well-known celebrity—sort of a celebrity.
"That's right!"
"You really are lucky."
Sonic and Lavender made it to the counter. "We're here, Ames."
Amy introduces the three all together. "Missy, you may have heard of Sonic. This is my little daughter, Lavender Rose Sparkle."
Sonic and Missy briefly greet each other. Then, she greets herself to Lavender Rose with a cutesy voice. "Hello, there. I'm Missy, it's nice to meet you."
Lavender tentatively hides her face onto Sonic's leg. He chuckles while putting his hand on top of her head. "She's a little shy."
"Don't worry, I used to be shy, too," Missy tells them while keeping a warm smile on her face. "It takes a while to overcome it."
Amy makes eye contact with Sonic. "So Sonic, did you and Lavender see something you like?"
Feeling nervous, Sonic responds, "Well, Lavender did. And I really don't know about whether or not we should get—this." He's referring to the portrait that Lavender was so drawn into.
"Think you can show it to us?" Missy asks. Sonic nods.
He shows the painting to Amy and Missy—and Amy is entirely surprised. "Oh my…"
The portrait depicts a little ivory hedgehog girl staring straight through at them and she looks extremely sad. She is wearing a little white dress and she's standing barefooted on the field with dark rainy clouds in the sky. In her arms, she's holding a doll that looked just like her except its eyes are entirely black with no irises. And—the girl's ebony eyes are entirely beady with her tears pouring heavily in distress.
After gazing at the portrait, Amy looks at her daughter. "Lavender, why on earth would you want this?"
Lavender says, "I—I just do. I really like it and I think it would look okay on my bedroom wall. And she looks a little like me but with different color fur." What she said was right. They could see a small hint of resemblance between the two.
Sonic cautions her, "Are you sure? Because this looks—really sad. Even for us."
Lavender refuses to listen to her parents. "Pwease? Can I get it?" She begs her parents with her green irises turning beady. Sonic and Amy glance at each other. Due to her pleading, they were unable to resist.
"If she really wants it, then I guess it's okay." Amy is still reluctant. Sonic agrees even though he's as reluctant as she is.
Sonic places the painting on the counter to ring up. "How much is the portrait, Missy?"
Missy has been glaring at the portrait and by the look of her facial expression, it seemed she knows about the painting. "I don't know if you guys would want that." She has the urge to tell them the history of the painting, but she didn't have the audacity to do so. She worries about the fear they, especially Lavender since she is a small child, would suffer. She looks down at Lavender to warn her. However, Missy is being interfered with her pleading eyes and just like Sonic and Amy, she cannot deny it.
Missy lets out a warming smile, trying to hide her worrisome. "But I guess I'll allow you." Lavender is pleased to hear this.
Missy informs them, "The portrait is a priceless antique and it costs about 1000 rings. Fortunately, since my boss is a huge fan of you," She's referring to Sonic, "He decides that everything you and your family purchase here is complimentary. No charge." She smiles at them again.
Sonic and Amy are happy to hear about this. Missy places all of the baby stuff in a beige paper bag with handles and the portrait in a separate bigger one. She hands them to the hedgehog family. "There you go."
"Thank you so much," Sonic gleefully thanks her while taking the bags off the counter.
"You're welcome, and once again, congrats on your upcoming twins."
"Thank you," Amy responds to Missy. When the family heads off, Missy waves goodbye to Lavender Rose. She returns the wave but still with tentativeness.
She watches them leave the thrift store. By the time they depart, Missy's boss appears to the counter where she is standing. He—a bloated grey wolf in a professional attire—notices Sonic the Hedgehog through the window display. He seems eager about the fact that his idol was in the store.
"Was that who I think it was?" He asks Missy.
"Yes, Dan. He was here with his wife and kid to buy some things. And just like you told me, everything he buys here are free for him."
"Good," Dan remarks, "I hate to take his money."
"I know." Unaware to Dan, Missy is distracted about the painting she gave to them. She couldn't resist the worrisome in herself. She fears that someday in the future—they have to know about the dark side of that Crying Girl portrait.
By the time they set it up somewhere on the wall—a haunting surprise would be in store for the hedgehog family.