Chapter 3

Enya pulled at the tassels of her jester hat. She knew her son had problems. He didn't play well with other children, and he was violent, he had been his whole life. When he was four, he had bitten his father to get his attention. He had pulled apart one of his stuffed animals when he was two. And he had been hurling insults since he had learned to talk.

Maybe they weren't giving him enough attention? Were they giving him too much attention?

"Enya?" Adia knocked on the door, "you in there?"

"Yeah, come in."

Adia came into the room and sat down next to Enya, "what's on your mind?"

"Why do you think there's something on my mind?"

Adia swept her brown, braided, hair behind her head, "you're usually with Nights when he lapses… is it getting too hard for you?"

Enya shook her head, "its William. What do you think about him?"

Adia shook her head, "I really don't know, I mean, he's not what I pictured when I thought of your and Nights' child."

Enya nodded, "what should I do?"

"I don't know," Adia put a hand on Enya's shoulder, "but if you need help, with anything, I'm here," Adia left.

Enya stared after her, could Adia sense how tense she felt? Could she sense her patients wearing thin? No, she was fine, she wasn't losing her feelings towards Nights, she was just tired, yeah, that was it, she just needed some rest. She lay down, blew out the oil lamp and fell asleep.

Echo liked to help out in the kitchen. All the different smells. All the different tastes.

"Open the book a little wider, Echo," Ashling, the head chef, instructed. She looked over the recipe, "do we have any fresh Ginger?" she called out to the rest of the kitchen.

"Here chef," Kione handed Ashling a fresh Ginger root.

She started slicing the root into smaller pieces, "you look a little down Echo, what's on your mind?"

"William," Echo pouted.

"Don't be so down," Ashling said reassuringly, "I'm sure he doesn't mean to act the way he does."

"I'm sure he does," Echo muttered.

"Just like Nights," Ashling went on, "he does stuff that he doesn't want to."

Echo shighed, maybe she was right, but Echo wasn't going to just let it go.

Nights sat on his heels, in edge garden, letting a caterpillar crawl around on his fingers.

"We're a lot alike you know," He said to the caterpillar, "we're both small and frail, but one day, we'll both transform into something better, and more beautiful."

He put the caterpillar onto the grassy floor, "bye bye, be careful."

The caterpillar disappeared into the foliage.

He sat back in the grass, and looked up into the clear sky, wishing he could fly like the other 'Maren. He shighed.

"Nights?"

Nights looked up and smiled, "hi En-ya,"

Enya sat down next to her husband, "I'm worried, about William."

"What happened to him," Nights said anxiously, "did he get hurt?"

"No," Enya reassured, "I mean his attitude."

Nights rubbed his leg, where his son had bitten him, "he's really mean sometimes. I think he does it on purpose."

"What do you mean?"

"He's not like me; he can stop himself if he wants to."

"Why do you think that?"

"He doesn't say sorry."

Enya thought about this, "you always say sorry immediately after you do something wrong," she mused.

"He doesn't,"

Enya looked at Nights. A sudden Revert wasn't uncommon, what was, was that it had only been a few hours since he had lapsed.

Nights rubbed his head, "I wasn't lapsed for very long," he said pensively, "I hope that's a good thing."

"Me too," Enya looked up into the sky, as the sun set.