DISCLAIMER: TNT owns the Pretender; I'm hoping they won't sue me for
playing in his world for a little while.
It had taken far longer than she'd anticipated to convince her twin to rejoin her on a second escapade to the attic. She had a sneaking suspicion she wouldn't have been accompanied at all if he wasn't so mysteriously drawn to the silver briefcase. He no longer trusted that what they were doing wasn't surreptitious, but he surprised her by simply insisting on caution.
Sid refused to make any attempt while their parents were home, and he insisted the only acceptable babysitter would be Grandpa Sydney. Sophia suspected this was because Sydney never punished his diminutive namesake, but she kept that to herself. It would have been pointless to argue because Sid used his charm to ensure their next babysitter would be Grandpa Sydney anyway. Sophia was further surprised by her brother's plan to get Grandpa Sydney to fall asleep almost two hours before their parents were expected back.
"When did you become so good at getting into trouble," she asked incredulously.
"So, you're the one who gets into trouble. I wanna go exploring, but the plans are about not getting into trouble," he answered, giving her a childish smile.
"You're in on all of my schemes from now on," Sophia stated with a grin. He protested and she tackled him. They playfully wrestled until he wound up on the ground where he was forced to agree, not only to participate in further rule breaking, but also that she was the Princess of the Universe and the best thing since the invention of Pez.
Sid's plan to exhaust their grandfather worked very well, although the twins had to pretend to be sleepy themselves almost an hour before their usual bedtime. Sydney didn't feel like inspecting the teeth of such a fine stallion, and he carried his namesake to bed while Sophia stumbled sleepily up the stairs behind him. They were as quiet as mice for almost half an hour before Sid crept out of the room to check on his Grandfather.
Sophia had to wait almost a full minute in pure anxiety before her brother skipped back into the room in what he clearly thought of as military fashion. He smiled broadly and whispered the possibility of leaving. Together they crept through the hallway and up the creaking attic stairs. Sophia found the light switch easily, but the attic was still shadowy and frightening. Sid clung to her hand while she pretended to be fearless.
They found the trunk again easily, and Sid immediately got out the briefcase and worked on picking the locks. Sophia rifled through numerous identifications and random equipment. She found a few red spiral notebooks with newspaper articles pasted onto the pages. Headlines proclaimed dramatic cases solved and new evidence surfacing. Sophia had a very high reading level for her age, but she didn't quite understand most of the topics.
"Hey, look what I found," she said, calling her brother's attention away from his briefcase. "It looks like something dad wrote; maybe it'll explain all of these things!"
"It looks short," Sid stated deprecatingly.
"Yeah, will you read it aloud for me? I had to read all of these newspaper clippings for myself," she whined. Sid grudgingly took the paper from her. He was better at reading handwriting and he was getting frustrated with the lock.
"Distilled into a forest of starlight and silver twilight the chase is beautiful," he began, in a strong, childish voice. "The panther romps through the trees in pursuit of the entity of the stag, beginning an eternal cycle. The stag, no less magnificent than the panther, leaps away in perfect balance and unmistakable grace. The panther and stag played out this scenario a million times and would play it out for an infinity upon an infinity again. This was the order and harmony that ruled their existence, that ultimately ruled the planes of the entire universe. Only when the chase was pushed into the denizens of lower creatures did it become wrong. Observers could not accept the simple perfection of this harmony and could not recognize the beauty of an eternal hunt. As they watched the wondrous creatures at their play, wondering when one would be victorious."
Sid stumbled over words like advantage and observers, but overall his voice was clear and Sophia felt like curling up and listening to the story read over and over to her. "It should be a picture book," she sighed, not really knowing why she liked the words so much.
"But it doesn't tell us anything about the pictures or the case," Sid pointed out with childish logic.
"So what, I'm going to draw pictures for it tomorrow."
"And I'm going to go back to the case now," Sid replied evenly. A few minutes later, while Sophia fruitlessly tried to come up with an explanation of why her father, a normal psychologist, could have had so very many jobs, she heard a pop and a cry of delight from her brother.
"Did you get it open," she asked, shocked that he could have managed the feat.
"Yup," he said, lifting the heavy lid of the case.
"It's a TV set," Sophia asked confused.
"No, it's a computer of some type; there are all these funny little CDs, too." Sid put a DSA into the viewer.
"Thirty-six hours and he's already demonstrating more talent than any of our others," the black and white man announced to the camera.
"That sounds like Grandpa Sydney," Sid stated querulously.
"What do you think 'for Centre use only' means," Sophia asked.
"I don't know, do you think Jarod is Daddy, though? I mean, daddy's name is Jarod," Sid asked.
They heard a noise downstairs that prompted Sid to shut the DSA case immediately. Sophia had been careful not to take anything new out of the trunk before exactly replacing anything she had out, so they were able to shove the DSA case in and sneak down to their beds well before their father and mother quietly entered their room to kiss their 'sleeping' heads.
"Faker," Jarod whispered in Sid's ear as he leaned over.
"Don't tell mommy," Sid whispered back, not moving his lips.
"Only if you promise to go to sleep now," his father capitulated. After he made a similar deal with his daughter, he rejoined his wife downstairs to say goodnight to Grandpa Sydney. True to his word, he told neither Parker nor Sydney, both of whom were fooled by the convincing twins.
The next morning, the twins carefully decided that it would be okay to ask about panthers and stags, but asking what the Centre was or how many jobs daddy had would be too suspicious.
"Daddy, can you draw a panther," Sophia asked her father at the breakfast table.
"Maybe, bumpkin, why do you ask," Jarod asked, amazed at the non sequitors children were capable of.
"I've never seen one," she explained with childish logic, "I was hoping you'd draw one for me so I could know what it was."
"Well, I have to go to work now, kid, but I'll see what I can do for you when I come home, alright," he gave her a broad wink which left her with no doubts that not only would he draw one in depth for her, but he would also have several library books explaining panthers, their habitats, and their prey. She thanked him and kissed him goodbye.
After daddy left, Mommy, Sophia and Sid all practiced Tai Chi in the living room. Parker made it lead her children slowly through a long and complicated dance before having them practice simple karate moves. While wanting her children to have a completely normal life, she agreed with Jarod when he said they should be able to protect themselves. There were monsters in the world.
The children went to kindergarten, Parker went to work, and the day was as normal as possible. When Jarod returned home to the perfectly domestic scene of his wife setting the table for dinner and his children arguing vehemently over why Capybaras would make great or terrible pets, he had several beautifully illustrated books about panthers and a national geographic with the great cat on the cover.
True to his word, after dinner, Jarod carefully sketched the animal for his daughter. He laughed with his wife when their daughter spent the rest of the evening sketching panthers and stags from the books he'd brought home.
"She's quite the little artist, isn't she," Parker said fondly.
"Not many kids her age can draw so accurately," Jarod agreed, remembering when he, a few years older than she was now, had pretended to be a police sketch artist.
"Hey, I know that look, don't worry, she only draws that way at home." Parker wrapped her arms protectively around her husband. "It won't happen to either of them," she stated firmly.
"Introducing her to Matisse was one of the smartest things you ever did, Parker," he laughed. "I wonder if she understands why we ask them to be less outside of the house."
"I think they understand both more and less than we give them credit for. One day we're going to have a lot of questions to answer," she replied, kissing his neck softly.
"I hope not too soon," he said, taking her chin in his hand. "I want them to stay children."
"I know," she said before relishing the gentle kiss he gave her.
"Mommy," Sid asked, calling her attention away from her husband, "What does fiscal mean?"
"What are you reading," she asked, surprised that he would find that word in any of the books in his room.
"The newspaper," he said nonchalantly. "I've finished with all of my books."
"It is an adjective, which I'm sure you picked up from context, meaning in relation to financial matters, generally it has to do with public treasury or government revenues, but it can be a synonym for monetary if you use them both loosely," she answered, knowing he would not appreciate her using small words just because he was a toddler.
"Would you like one of my books," Jarod offered his son, wondering how interesting the newspaper would be to a small child.
"Will it have the word fiscal in it," the boy asked wryly, handing over the boring paper.
"Not if you don't want it to," his father answered, ruffling the child's hair.
"Deal." Sid thoroughly enjoyed being tackled and lifted to his father's shoulder as the price of admission into his parent's bedroom. Deciding that a boy who'd devoured CS Lewis could handle JRR Tolkien, Jarod handed over a copy of the Hobbit.
Sid accepted the book happily, but he did not start reading it immediately. It was bedtime, and bedtime was mommy's turn to read. Mommy's bedtime stories had been a tradition as long as Sid could remember. Sometimes she read chapter books to them, sometimes multiple picture books. A lot of the time, she just made the story up in her head, but it didn't really matter what the story was. If mommy was reading the financial section of the newspaper, it was interesting.
"Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful princess who loved her mother and father more than anything in the world," his mom began. Because she wasn't reading from a story book, interruptions were both allowed and encouraged.
"What did she look like, mommy," Sophia asked. Sophia liked to be able to picture everything perfectly in her mind when she went through a story.
"Exactly like you," Parker replied with a smile. "She had your same dark hair, and that adorable button nose of yours." Punctuating this with a little poke, she was about to continue when her husband interrupted.
"But she had blue eyes," he stated firmly.
"Yes," Parker agreed softly, gazing up at her husband, "she had blue eyes."
"What was her name," Sid asked, wanting to move the story along.
"Her name was not Emma, but we will call her Princess Emma for this story," his mother informed him.
"Why will we call her that if it isn't her name, mommy," Sophia asked curiously.
"Because her name was one of the very rare magical names that gives you power when you say it. It was a secret name, and should only be spoken when it demands to be said, and not simply to tell a story," her mother informed her gravely. When her children nodded equally serious, she couldn't help but wink broadly up at her husband who was hiding an amused grin.
"Princess Emma," she continued, "lived happily in her father's castle, but she was very lonely. She had no brothers or sisters that she was aware of, so she had no one to play with, but she was not the only child in the castle. One day, she was taken to the dungeon and introduced to a young boy named Jay. Jay had not done anything bad to be put into the dungeon, and he was a prince in his own right from a far away kingdom, but he was still made to stay in the dungeon. The king kept Jay because he had the magical ability to wear masks. Whenever the prince wore a new mask the castle walls became stronger and the kingdom more powerful, so he was kept in the dungeon and forced to wear a new mask every day. Only the kind old nobleman who was in charge of taking care of him ever saw his real face, and then only as the prince changed his mask.
"Princess Emma was taken to the dungeon and introduced to Prince Jay one day because the wizards who made him wear the masks wanted to see how a girl of his own age would react to the mask. The princess thought the mask was very beautiful, but she was happier to just see a boy of her own age. After that meeting, she would sneak down to the dungeons to see Jay and the other little boy who also wore masks."
"Who was the other little boy, mommy," Sid interrupted curiously.
"His name was Timmony the Brave, and while he was not a prince like Jay, he could also wear the masks to a lesser extent. The evil wizards working for the king were not satisfied with this, however, and they cast many horrible spells on him to make him wear the masks as powerfully as Prince Jay could. Timmony endured these spells for the sake of another boy, even when they drove him insane, but that is his story, not the story of Princess Emma."
"Will you tell us Timmony's story tomorrow, mommy," Sophia begged.
"Only if you let me get on with Emma's tonight," Parker scolded playfully.
"Sorry, mommy," the little girl said, her brown eyes pleading for the story to continue.
"As I was saying, Princess Emma became good friends with the boys in the dungeon and was very happy. Then one day when she was in the dungeon with Jay and the kind nobleman, who cared for him, she heard a loud clap of thunder, and saw her mother's body lying cold in the corridor. The Queen was attempting to free Prince Jay, but the evil Sorcerer Raines who cast so many spells on her friends in the dungeon had now killed her mother, or so she believed. Princess Emma was heartbroken and could do nothing but cry. Her father the king didn't even seem to care that his wife was dead, but the kind nobleman comforted her as did Prince Jay. Time passed, and Princess Emma began to get over her mother's death, although she still missed her terribly. A new person had found his way into her heart, and she thought only of Prince Jay.
"When the King discovered her affection for his prisoner, he feared that she would be in the same danger his wife had endured if she felt too much for his prisoners. The king was power mad by this point, and while he loved his daughter, he would not let anything keep him from having the strongest kingdom in the land. So he put his daughter in the highest tower and forbade her from ever seeing Prince Jay again. Time and lies made her resent the prince and soon, through no fault of his, she grew to hate and distrust him. Then, one day, Prince Jay ran away. He escaped the dungeons and left the castle to travel the lands searching for his own kingdom and his family. This was more difficult than he thought it would be because father and mother were afraid of the evil wizards from Princess Emma's kingdom, so they had a spell of concealment on their kingdom."
"Why didn't he take Princess Emma with him, did he hate her too," Sid asked, already feeling sorry for the princess.
"He did not hate the princess, but he knew that she hated him," Parker replied, her voice immeasurably soft. "She would never have agreed to escape with him, because she didn't know that her father lied to her. So he went alone."
"That's sad," Sophia commented.
"Not so very sad," her mother replied with a light smile. "Princess Emma was put in charge of leading the armies to search for Jay so he had many opportunities to make her realize that what her father did was wrong. His millions of masks made it difficult for her to find him, but he played a hero wherever he went, saving villages from trolls and using the magic of his masks to help families, so he left a definite trail. He was mean, though, and he led her through bogs and to places where pixies played their pranks. All while she chased him, he kept feeding her clues about her family, little sordid details that triggered memories. She remembered her parents fighting, and the Queen being brutally injured by the king or possibly the evil Sorcerer Raines. Eventually, she discovered that her mother had not died that day, but been hidden in a tower and forced to give birth to a son that through dark magic would be Jarod's brother, so that it could be an heir to both kingdoms. Princess Emma was still grief stricken by this news, as her mother had been killed shortly after the birth of Prince Ian, but she was secretly happy that she shared a brother with Jay."
"So she started to like him again," Sid asked eagerly.
"She did. To this day it remains a secret as to exactly when she started to like him again, but it was an undeniable fact that she did. One night, trapped on an island in a storm together, he realized that she did." Parker paused to smile at her husband again.
"It took him a while to convince her to leave her father's kingdom, though," Jarod added, returning the smile with a loving gaze. "She loved her father, and she was afraid that if she left with him, her father would hurt them."
"How did he finally convince her, daddy," Sophia asked sleepily.
"Well," Parker answered, "on the night of an important ball, her father told her he could not be bothered to attend, so she would have to go alone. She was so sad about this that she sat in her room and did not go either. Prince Jay had been hiding at the ball waiting for her, and he grew tired of waiting, he found her out on the lawn and asked why she was dressed so elegantly if she had no intention of going to the party. They both knew the answer, so he removed his mask and convinced her to dance on the grass with him. She did, and when she floated in his arms she could not deny that she only cared about staying in his arms."
"So she agreed to go with him," Sid asked, stifling a yawn.
"He had to press her a little, but before the evening was over, they left the kingdom and returned to Prince Jay's kingdom, which he had discovered, where they lived happily ever after," Parker concluded, lifting her son to his own bed on the other side of the small room where he whimpered at the cool temperature of the sheets before snuggling into his pillow.
"Good night, sleep tight, and don't let the bedbugs bite," Jarod said, kissing each of his children softly as he tucked their covers up around them.
"Good night, daddy, gablessyou," they echoed sleepily.
"Is it true," Jarod asked, once they were together in their own room.
"What," his wife asked, pulling him into a tight embrace.
"Did we live happily ever after?"
"What do you think, Wonder boy," she asked, kissing him deeply.
It had taken far longer than she'd anticipated to convince her twin to rejoin her on a second escapade to the attic. She had a sneaking suspicion she wouldn't have been accompanied at all if he wasn't so mysteriously drawn to the silver briefcase. He no longer trusted that what they were doing wasn't surreptitious, but he surprised her by simply insisting on caution.
Sid refused to make any attempt while their parents were home, and he insisted the only acceptable babysitter would be Grandpa Sydney. Sophia suspected this was because Sydney never punished his diminutive namesake, but she kept that to herself. It would have been pointless to argue because Sid used his charm to ensure their next babysitter would be Grandpa Sydney anyway. Sophia was further surprised by her brother's plan to get Grandpa Sydney to fall asleep almost two hours before their parents were expected back.
"When did you become so good at getting into trouble," she asked incredulously.
"So, you're the one who gets into trouble. I wanna go exploring, but the plans are about not getting into trouble," he answered, giving her a childish smile.
"You're in on all of my schemes from now on," Sophia stated with a grin. He protested and she tackled him. They playfully wrestled until he wound up on the ground where he was forced to agree, not only to participate in further rule breaking, but also that she was the Princess of the Universe and the best thing since the invention of Pez.
Sid's plan to exhaust their grandfather worked very well, although the twins had to pretend to be sleepy themselves almost an hour before their usual bedtime. Sydney didn't feel like inspecting the teeth of such a fine stallion, and he carried his namesake to bed while Sophia stumbled sleepily up the stairs behind him. They were as quiet as mice for almost half an hour before Sid crept out of the room to check on his Grandfather.
Sophia had to wait almost a full minute in pure anxiety before her brother skipped back into the room in what he clearly thought of as military fashion. He smiled broadly and whispered the possibility of leaving. Together they crept through the hallway and up the creaking attic stairs. Sophia found the light switch easily, but the attic was still shadowy and frightening. Sid clung to her hand while she pretended to be fearless.
They found the trunk again easily, and Sid immediately got out the briefcase and worked on picking the locks. Sophia rifled through numerous identifications and random equipment. She found a few red spiral notebooks with newspaper articles pasted onto the pages. Headlines proclaimed dramatic cases solved and new evidence surfacing. Sophia had a very high reading level for her age, but she didn't quite understand most of the topics.
"Hey, look what I found," she said, calling her brother's attention away from his briefcase. "It looks like something dad wrote; maybe it'll explain all of these things!"
"It looks short," Sid stated deprecatingly.
"Yeah, will you read it aloud for me? I had to read all of these newspaper clippings for myself," she whined. Sid grudgingly took the paper from her. He was better at reading handwriting and he was getting frustrated with the lock.
"Distilled into a forest of starlight and silver twilight the chase is beautiful," he began, in a strong, childish voice. "The panther romps through the trees in pursuit of the entity of the stag, beginning an eternal cycle. The stag, no less magnificent than the panther, leaps away in perfect balance and unmistakable grace. The panther and stag played out this scenario a million times and would play it out for an infinity upon an infinity again. This was the order and harmony that ruled their existence, that ultimately ruled the planes of the entire universe. Only when the chase was pushed into the denizens of lower creatures did it become wrong. Observers could not accept the simple perfection of this harmony and could not recognize the beauty of an eternal hunt. As they watched the wondrous creatures at their play, wondering when one would be victorious."
Sid stumbled over words like advantage and observers, but overall his voice was clear and Sophia felt like curling up and listening to the story read over and over to her. "It should be a picture book," she sighed, not really knowing why she liked the words so much.
"But it doesn't tell us anything about the pictures or the case," Sid pointed out with childish logic.
"So what, I'm going to draw pictures for it tomorrow."
"And I'm going to go back to the case now," Sid replied evenly. A few minutes later, while Sophia fruitlessly tried to come up with an explanation of why her father, a normal psychologist, could have had so very many jobs, she heard a pop and a cry of delight from her brother.
"Did you get it open," she asked, shocked that he could have managed the feat.
"Yup," he said, lifting the heavy lid of the case.
"It's a TV set," Sophia asked confused.
"No, it's a computer of some type; there are all these funny little CDs, too." Sid put a DSA into the viewer.
"Thirty-six hours and he's already demonstrating more talent than any of our others," the black and white man announced to the camera.
"That sounds like Grandpa Sydney," Sid stated querulously.
"What do you think 'for Centre use only' means," Sophia asked.
"I don't know, do you think Jarod is Daddy, though? I mean, daddy's name is Jarod," Sid asked.
They heard a noise downstairs that prompted Sid to shut the DSA case immediately. Sophia had been careful not to take anything new out of the trunk before exactly replacing anything she had out, so they were able to shove the DSA case in and sneak down to their beds well before their father and mother quietly entered their room to kiss their 'sleeping' heads.
"Faker," Jarod whispered in Sid's ear as he leaned over.
"Don't tell mommy," Sid whispered back, not moving his lips.
"Only if you promise to go to sleep now," his father capitulated. After he made a similar deal with his daughter, he rejoined his wife downstairs to say goodnight to Grandpa Sydney. True to his word, he told neither Parker nor Sydney, both of whom were fooled by the convincing twins.
The next morning, the twins carefully decided that it would be okay to ask about panthers and stags, but asking what the Centre was or how many jobs daddy had would be too suspicious.
"Daddy, can you draw a panther," Sophia asked her father at the breakfast table.
"Maybe, bumpkin, why do you ask," Jarod asked, amazed at the non sequitors children were capable of.
"I've never seen one," she explained with childish logic, "I was hoping you'd draw one for me so I could know what it was."
"Well, I have to go to work now, kid, but I'll see what I can do for you when I come home, alright," he gave her a broad wink which left her with no doubts that not only would he draw one in depth for her, but he would also have several library books explaining panthers, their habitats, and their prey. She thanked him and kissed him goodbye.
After daddy left, Mommy, Sophia and Sid all practiced Tai Chi in the living room. Parker made it lead her children slowly through a long and complicated dance before having them practice simple karate moves. While wanting her children to have a completely normal life, she agreed with Jarod when he said they should be able to protect themselves. There were monsters in the world.
The children went to kindergarten, Parker went to work, and the day was as normal as possible. When Jarod returned home to the perfectly domestic scene of his wife setting the table for dinner and his children arguing vehemently over why Capybaras would make great or terrible pets, he had several beautifully illustrated books about panthers and a national geographic with the great cat on the cover.
True to his word, after dinner, Jarod carefully sketched the animal for his daughter. He laughed with his wife when their daughter spent the rest of the evening sketching panthers and stags from the books he'd brought home.
"She's quite the little artist, isn't she," Parker said fondly.
"Not many kids her age can draw so accurately," Jarod agreed, remembering when he, a few years older than she was now, had pretended to be a police sketch artist.
"Hey, I know that look, don't worry, she only draws that way at home." Parker wrapped her arms protectively around her husband. "It won't happen to either of them," she stated firmly.
"Introducing her to Matisse was one of the smartest things you ever did, Parker," he laughed. "I wonder if she understands why we ask them to be less outside of the house."
"I think they understand both more and less than we give them credit for. One day we're going to have a lot of questions to answer," she replied, kissing his neck softly.
"I hope not too soon," he said, taking her chin in his hand. "I want them to stay children."
"I know," she said before relishing the gentle kiss he gave her.
"Mommy," Sid asked, calling her attention away from her husband, "What does fiscal mean?"
"What are you reading," she asked, surprised that he would find that word in any of the books in his room.
"The newspaper," he said nonchalantly. "I've finished with all of my books."
"It is an adjective, which I'm sure you picked up from context, meaning in relation to financial matters, generally it has to do with public treasury or government revenues, but it can be a synonym for monetary if you use them both loosely," she answered, knowing he would not appreciate her using small words just because he was a toddler.
"Would you like one of my books," Jarod offered his son, wondering how interesting the newspaper would be to a small child.
"Will it have the word fiscal in it," the boy asked wryly, handing over the boring paper.
"Not if you don't want it to," his father answered, ruffling the child's hair.
"Deal." Sid thoroughly enjoyed being tackled and lifted to his father's shoulder as the price of admission into his parent's bedroom. Deciding that a boy who'd devoured CS Lewis could handle JRR Tolkien, Jarod handed over a copy of the Hobbit.
Sid accepted the book happily, but he did not start reading it immediately. It was bedtime, and bedtime was mommy's turn to read. Mommy's bedtime stories had been a tradition as long as Sid could remember. Sometimes she read chapter books to them, sometimes multiple picture books. A lot of the time, she just made the story up in her head, but it didn't really matter what the story was. If mommy was reading the financial section of the newspaper, it was interesting.
"Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful princess who loved her mother and father more than anything in the world," his mom began. Because she wasn't reading from a story book, interruptions were both allowed and encouraged.
"What did she look like, mommy," Sophia asked. Sophia liked to be able to picture everything perfectly in her mind when she went through a story.
"Exactly like you," Parker replied with a smile. "She had your same dark hair, and that adorable button nose of yours." Punctuating this with a little poke, she was about to continue when her husband interrupted.
"But she had blue eyes," he stated firmly.
"Yes," Parker agreed softly, gazing up at her husband, "she had blue eyes."
"What was her name," Sid asked, wanting to move the story along.
"Her name was not Emma, but we will call her Princess Emma for this story," his mother informed him.
"Why will we call her that if it isn't her name, mommy," Sophia asked curiously.
"Because her name was one of the very rare magical names that gives you power when you say it. It was a secret name, and should only be spoken when it demands to be said, and not simply to tell a story," her mother informed her gravely. When her children nodded equally serious, she couldn't help but wink broadly up at her husband who was hiding an amused grin.
"Princess Emma," she continued, "lived happily in her father's castle, but she was very lonely. She had no brothers or sisters that she was aware of, so she had no one to play with, but she was not the only child in the castle. One day, she was taken to the dungeon and introduced to a young boy named Jay. Jay had not done anything bad to be put into the dungeon, and he was a prince in his own right from a far away kingdom, but he was still made to stay in the dungeon. The king kept Jay because he had the magical ability to wear masks. Whenever the prince wore a new mask the castle walls became stronger and the kingdom more powerful, so he was kept in the dungeon and forced to wear a new mask every day. Only the kind old nobleman who was in charge of taking care of him ever saw his real face, and then only as the prince changed his mask.
"Princess Emma was taken to the dungeon and introduced to Prince Jay one day because the wizards who made him wear the masks wanted to see how a girl of his own age would react to the mask. The princess thought the mask was very beautiful, but she was happier to just see a boy of her own age. After that meeting, she would sneak down to the dungeons to see Jay and the other little boy who also wore masks."
"Who was the other little boy, mommy," Sid interrupted curiously.
"His name was Timmony the Brave, and while he was not a prince like Jay, he could also wear the masks to a lesser extent. The evil wizards working for the king were not satisfied with this, however, and they cast many horrible spells on him to make him wear the masks as powerfully as Prince Jay could. Timmony endured these spells for the sake of another boy, even when they drove him insane, but that is his story, not the story of Princess Emma."
"Will you tell us Timmony's story tomorrow, mommy," Sophia begged.
"Only if you let me get on with Emma's tonight," Parker scolded playfully.
"Sorry, mommy," the little girl said, her brown eyes pleading for the story to continue.
"As I was saying, Princess Emma became good friends with the boys in the dungeon and was very happy. Then one day when she was in the dungeon with Jay and the kind nobleman, who cared for him, she heard a loud clap of thunder, and saw her mother's body lying cold in the corridor. The Queen was attempting to free Prince Jay, but the evil Sorcerer Raines who cast so many spells on her friends in the dungeon had now killed her mother, or so she believed. Princess Emma was heartbroken and could do nothing but cry. Her father the king didn't even seem to care that his wife was dead, but the kind nobleman comforted her as did Prince Jay. Time passed, and Princess Emma began to get over her mother's death, although she still missed her terribly. A new person had found his way into her heart, and she thought only of Prince Jay.
"When the King discovered her affection for his prisoner, he feared that she would be in the same danger his wife had endured if she felt too much for his prisoners. The king was power mad by this point, and while he loved his daughter, he would not let anything keep him from having the strongest kingdom in the land. So he put his daughter in the highest tower and forbade her from ever seeing Prince Jay again. Time and lies made her resent the prince and soon, through no fault of his, she grew to hate and distrust him. Then, one day, Prince Jay ran away. He escaped the dungeons and left the castle to travel the lands searching for his own kingdom and his family. This was more difficult than he thought it would be because father and mother were afraid of the evil wizards from Princess Emma's kingdom, so they had a spell of concealment on their kingdom."
"Why didn't he take Princess Emma with him, did he hate her too," Sid asked, already feeling sorry for the princess.
"He did not hate the princess, but he knew that she hated him," Parker replied, her voice immeasurably soft. "She would never have agreed to escape with him, because she didn't know that her father lied to her. So he went alone."
"That's sad," Sophia commented.
"Not so very sad," her mother replied with a light smile. "Princess Emma was put in charge of leading the armies to search for Jay so he had many opportunities to make her realize that what her father did was wrong. His millions of masks made it difficult for her to find him, but he played a hero wherever he went, saving villages from trolls and using the magic of his masks to help families, so he left a definite trail. He was mean, though, and he led her through bogs and to places where pixies played their pranks. All while she chased him, he kept feeding her clues about her family, little sordid details that triggered memories. She remembered her parents fighting, and the Queen being brutally injured by the king or possibly the evil Sorcerer Raines. Eventually, she discovered that her mother had not died that day, but been hidden in a tower and forced to give birth to a son that through dark magic would be Jarod's brother, so that it could be an heir to both kingdoms. Princess Emma was still grief stricken by this news, as her mother had been killed shortly after the birth of Prince Ian, but she was secretly happy that she shared a brother with Jay."
"So she started to like him again," Sid asked eagerly.
"She did. To this day it remains a secret as to exactly when she started to like him again, but it was an undeniable fact that she did. One night, trapped on an island in a storm together, he realized that she did." Parker paused to smile at her husband again.
"It took him a while to convince her to leave her father's kingdom, though," Jarod added, returning the smile with a loving gaze. "She loved her father, and she was afraid that if she left with him, her father would hurt them."
"How did he finally convince her, daddy," Sophia asked sleepily.
"Well," Parker answered, "on the night of an important ball, her father told her he could not be bothered to attend, so she would have to go alone. She was so sad about this that she sat in her room and did not go either. Prince Jay had been hiding at the ball waiting for her, and he grew tired of waiting, he found her out on the lawn and asked why she was dressed so elegantly if she had no intention of going to the party. They both knew the answer, so he removed his mask and convinced her to dance on the grass with him. She did, and when she floated in his arms she could not deny that she only cared about staying in his arms."
"So she agreed to go with him," Sid asked, stifling a yawn.
"He had to press her a little, but before the evening was over, they left the kingdom and returned to Prince Jay's kingdom, which he had discovered, where they lived happily ever after," Parker concluded, lifting her son to his own bed on the other side of the small room where he whimpered at the cool temperature of the sheets before snuggling into his pillow.
"Good night, sleep tight, and don't let the bedbugs bite," Jarod said, kissing each of his children softly as he tucked their covers up around them.
"Good night, daddy, gablessyou," they echoed sleepily.
"Is it true," Jarod asked, once they were together in their own room.
"What," his wife asked, pulling him into a tight embrace.
"Did we live happily ever after?"
"What do you think, Wonder boy," she asked, kissing him deeply.