Circus school was in an old warehouse it seemed, Ken noted as he walked through the door. He had taken the afternoon off to make the drive to London.
"Ticket please," an overly cheerful woman asked him.
"Oh, I was told there would be one waiting for me, Kenneth Ford,"
"Oh you're Kenzie's Dad, you're in for a treat tonight," she tells him handing him a ticket stub. "Rilla is already inside."
"Thank you," he says nodding and heading through what reminds him of old high school gym doors. He looks around the bleacher area trying to spot Rilla, he looked around until he spotted her near the top talking to someone.
He makes his way towards her and she smiles at him. "You made it!" She says smiling brilliantly.
"Yes, a little rain is nothing," he tells her. "Why is everyone looking at me?"
"You're fresh meat?" Rilla grins at him. "Kenzie has been slowly explaining your presence in her life and everyone else a bit curious. "
"Perfect," Ken says under his breath and settles down on the bench beside her, she was in a pair of dress pants and a silky green button shirt, a pair of green heels. "How was work?"
"Oh it was the usual, disgruntled husbands, revenge-seeking wives, they destroyed my name, all that jazz," Rilla tells him. "You?"
"It feels like every year the new batch of intelligence officers get more and more unintelligent?" Ken says looking around the kids warming up on the mats. "Where she is?"
"Look up," Rilla says pointing, and when he does he finally spots her up on some platform up in the air, clutching some ring. She dressed in a long icy blue leotard, that had jewels on it from the sparkle he catches as she turns in the light.
"No," he says automatically. "She's going to hurt herself."
"Ken she's fine, she does this stuff all the time," Rilla tells him tucking her arm into his. "Just breathe, relax and just enjoy the show. There's a net, even if she does fall."
The show was more than he expected, some of the kids weren't perfect but they all played it off.
More than once his breath was caught in his throat, watching Kenzie do her tricks on her hanging ring and later the long silks that hung from the ceiling. He knew she was flexible, but to do it hanging in the air, with nothing but a net, or mats on the floor.
"It's being recorded, so I can send it to you later," She whispers as he reaches for his phone. "You can take a quick photo, just no flash though it can throw them off."
He nods his head. Snapping a photo or two for his parents but was mostly content to watch the show they had created.
Afterwards, when it was all over and the parents file out of the performance area he allows himself to breathe.
"What did you think!" Kenzie come bounding over to him, her face full of glitter, and hair slicked back with more glitter, still in her bejewelled leotard.
"That was amazing, something else," Ken tells her. "I don't know how you managed to not fall." He tells her.
"Falling is for babies," Kenzie tells him laughing. "Come meet some of my friends," she grabs his hands and he looks back at Rilla who just waves him off with a 'You'll be fine look.' But he was also focused on the fact that she referred to him as her Dad.
"Ella, Jade this is my Dad," Kenzie says, still holding his hand. "These are my friends," She says back to him.
"It's nice to meet you," Ken says still feeling completely overwhelmed by this suddenly. "You were all extraordinary out there, I didn't think this was a thing for kids."
"Kenzie says you're a spy!" One of them with blonde hair exclaims while the one who was Asian rolled her eyes.
"You're not supposed to say it out loud!" Kenzie exclaims and Ken can't help but chuckle.
"I am not technically a spy, do I know some official off the record things possibly, but sadly not quite a spy," Ken says looking over the young girls. "Though did you ladies bathe in glitter?"
"Just about," Rilla cuts into the conversation. "We've been invited out for ice cream, I'm not sure what your plans were, but apparently the highway is closed now some crash is blocking the Eastbound traffic. Plus the storm is only supposed to get worse within the next hour or two?"
"You can sleep on the couch, it was Uncle Shirley and Uncle Walter's sleep when they visit," Kenzie tells him looking at her mother.
"I suppose it is the safe thing to do," Ken says nodding his head as Rilla held out a pair of tracksuit bottoms for Kenzie to put on, much like other parents. It was pouring out when they dashed for his car. Rilla had opted to carpool earlier with another family.
"You have a booster for me!" Kenzie says surprised.
"I thought it may help if we go anywhere, plus it saves your mother on gas and milage if we always use her car," Ken explains, trying not to feel embarrassed at his purchase.
"Thank you," Rilla says first and makes sure that Kenzie is situated before getting into the passenger side of the car.
"Yes Thank you!" Kenzie says politely. "Grampa will be happy to know you care about safety."
There is a handful of children, with some sort of strange blue ice cream. Mermaid sundae's he was told, that was filled with marshmallow fluff, shell-shaped sprinkles and pink syrup. He wasn't entirely sure if any one of the children needed more sugar, but it was a celebration.
"Try some," Kenzie holds up her spoon.
"I am good thank you," he says shaking his head. "I am good with boring old chocolate ice cream."
"It's better than boring old vanilla," Kenzie tells him shoving a spoonful of melting blue ice cream in her mouth before going back to her friends.
"Do you live in Toronto?"
"You're in the Army?"
Other parents asked him curiously. Whatever Rilla they had them curious but rather polite about it. He answers then simply, feeling completely unprepared for anything directed about Kenzie. Rilla saves him most of the time though with specifics.
The rain is almost a torrential downpour when they drive back to the house. He drives carefully, probably the most careful he's ever driven in his life.
Their phones buzz, his in the open console, while Rilla looks at her.
"How do you feel about tornado warnings?" She asks him.
"We have a safe spot?" Ken asks focusing on the road.
"The basement," Rilla tells him frowning at her phone's weather radar.
She makes Kenzie take a shower and wipe off her make-up as soon as they get home. She finds the candle and flashlights and spare batteries in the emergency drawer in the kitchen, now dressed in a pair of leggings and a baggy old tee shirt.
"You're like a girl scout," Ken comments, impressed by how prepared she seems to me.
"I grew up on an Island, storms were common," Rilla tells him. "But don't let that fool you, I learned the hard way. I think have some clothes that Walter left last time he visited, you're about the same size. Lee is a bit more stocky, but in a pinch, I'm sure it would still work, though he's a touch shorter than you."
"It's hard to imagine you as a twin," Ken says honestly.
"As children, we were fairly inseparable but I suppose being fraternal it's a bit different for us that way as well. Nan and Di are the same age, actually, the birthday is a day apart, they are more twins than Shirley and I ever were?"
The light flickers briefly and Kenzie screams from the bathroom. "Mom!"
"I'll go help her," Rilla says.
Ken nods and proceeds to check the windows. Pulling the old shutters inwards and making sure the bunny cage was away from the window that had no shutters.
There was a large crack of Thunder when he felt arms around him, and wet hair soaking into his shirt.
"It's just a storm," he says. "I closed the shutters for us," he tells Rilla who is still holding the hairbrush she had been using on Kenzie's wet hair.
"We have shutters?" She asks him.
"You didn't know that?" Ken asks running a hand over Kenzie's hair. "It's all right, we'll be fine."
He watches Rilla shrug sheepishly. "I'll make some decaf tea for us?"
"That will be wonderful, thank you," Ken says nodding.
"There's a towel and spare toothbrush on the counter, it's pink but it will work for tonight," she tells him next.
He ends up carrying Kenzie to her room after she falls asleep the moment she sat down with her own cup of warm milk as the powers continued to flicker but never go completely out. He's seen her room before, a light purple, pink bedding and white furniture. Rilla tucks her in and kissed her temple and pointed to a stuffed monkey that was on her night table. Ken picks it up, it was a little worse than wear, but the moment he places it near Kenzie's hands she snuggled up to it, he runs a gentle hand over the side of her head, silently saying goodnight.
They settle back on the couch to finish their own drinks and make mindless chit-chat. Cheshire comes and jumps on his mistress's lap and she absentmindedly strokes him.
"Oh, I talked to my sister Nan about what your mom told you," Rilla started. "She says she actually had a friend who she met at summer camp in Ontario who lived near her Mom's house for a few years. She's not sure if it was Persis, but the name feels familiar to her, so who knows? Maybe there is a strange possibility that if I had known your name, or a bit more information it might have been enough for her to be like I know a Ford with an older brother?"
"I think Persis has some photos, I'll ask her next time I see her." Ken smiles. "I do remember some little brown-haired girl running around with Persis but most of the time I was too annoyed by them and I swore her name was Annalise or something."
"Oh it is, but Mom's name is Anne, and Dad would call Nana Anna-Banana. Then when I was little I couldn't say her name or nickname well enough so I shortened it to Nan and it just sort of stuck?" Rilla tells him. "I mean even Kenzie isn't really a nickname to Kennedy, but I liked it."
"It suits her," Ken agrees to nod his head and Rilla yawns.
"You have enough blankets and pillows?" She asks him.
"Plenty," he tells her and stands up as she gets up, he sees her playfully smile as his etiquette.
They say goodnight with a nod of their heads and he settles onto the sofa with his phone in hand.
Sending a text off to his parents once more before tossing it aside, the cat coming out of his hiding place to watch him, or glare at taking his spot possibly.
He wakes up to the feeling of being watched and when he opens his eyes he sees Kenzie watching him. Still dressed in her unicorn pyjamas and her long hair into two pigtails, the bunny in her arms. It reminds him of three months ago when they first met.
"You're still here." She says quietly.
"Of course I am," He says his eyes adjusting, looking for a clock somewhere.
"You moved Dr. Fluffenutters cage last night,"
"I didn't want a window to potentially break near it," Ken tells her sitting up more, at this point he could see the microwave blinking 5:30 in the morning. "Everything all right, it's still really early."
"I dreamt that I woke up and you were gone, that you were never here to begin with," She says quietly. He moves the blankets and she curls up on the other end of the couch, the bunny still in her arms.
"You don't have to worry about that," Ken finds himself saying. "I know I can't really promise anything when it comes to my job, but I have done my fair share of deployments over the years, and my job now is more office and training based. But if needed I can be called upon and I have to respond to such." Ken tells her.
"Do you have any cool stories?" She asks him while yawning and Ken thinks for a moment before nodding his head. "I was young and it was probably my first on the field sort of a job…"
He watches her fall back to sleep, the bunny hopping away, and the cat peering from him at the edge of the couch watching him still.
How life has changed in such a short time.