When Violet had shut the front door she turned and held her hand out to
Aria who accepted it with a smile so wide she looked like the Cheshire cat
from Alice in Wonderland.
The walked hand in hand down the same roads which only days ago Violet had run to away from spike, and ended up in the same park as where he had found her.
There were kids in the park already, playing on the swings and on the round about, playing tag and football, it was a world wind of activity.
"What do you want to go on first then Aria?" Violet asked bending down to look at her
"The swings!" Aria said excitedly as they made their way towards them. There was only one, which was free so Violet lifted Aria up onto it told her to hold onto the chain supporting the swing and then started to push her gently so that she swung backwards and forwards slowly.
"Faster, Faster!" Aria shouted laughing, so Violet pushed her higher but was careful not to push her to high in case she let go or slipped cause she could really hurt herself falling off.
As she was helping Aria off the swing she heard a voice from behind her saying,
"Violet! Hey, how are you." She turned when she heard the voice it was Pete.
"Hey Pete, What you up to?"
"Oh I'm looking after Charlie and Sophie today," he said pointing at two kids playing catch who had similar bright red hair to his own.
"Cool," she answered with a smile Then remembering Aria who was hiding behind her legs, looking around at Pete eyeing him from her small vantage point hidden away behind Violet's legs, Pete seeing her bent down on his knees, and smiled at her holding out his hand at her saying,
"Hey you, what's your name? I'm Pete by the way, I know Violet from school."
Aria looked up at Violet for a moment before deciding what to do when she saw Violet's encouraging smile she stepped out from her hiding space behind violet's legs and said, "My name's Aria, I live in England."
"England ay? Well you're a long way from home then aren't you? How long are you staying here for?"
"We came for Violet's birthday, it's tomorrow so I don't know."
They all smiled at each other and then Pete had an idea, he stood up and asked Violet, "How would you both like to spend the day with us? We're staying here for a bit and then we're going to the cinema to see pirates of the Caribbean, and then probably onto the arcade for some pinball and a burger for tea, would you like that Aria?"
Violet thought for a moment about the offer but then after looking down at Aria she decided "I don't think we can today sorry Pete, thank you for the really kind offer and everything, but I kind of promised Aria that it would be just me and her today an that we would go and have ice cream and go round the shops and we have to be back by about 5 any way......." Violet looked at Pete, he looked kind of dejected since she at her answer and so she continued saying, "But maybe tomorrow, I'm having a party in the evening starts at about 6 just family and a couple of friends if you want to stop by you'd be more than welcome."
Pete stood up and met her smile with a walloping big one of his own.
"Sure I'll be there, sound like it'll be fun, Well I better be going now, cause the film is starting soon, but I'll see you both tomorrow, Bye Violet, Bye bye Aria!"
And with that he had run off to collect the two kids who were busy playing catch at the other side of the park.
"You don't mind that I said we wouldn't spend the day with them do you Aria, it's just that I wanted to spend the day with you just me and you today that's all."
Aria smiled back up at her and said "Me to." Before offering up her hand to violet, who accepted it with a smile.
They played so more in the playground, on the swings and on the big roundabout and they played catch for a while, until Aria started to feel a bit tired, when this happened, Violet picked her and carried her down the road to her favourite café Magic Spark, the café was painted orange, the chairs and tabled were all made of pine wood and the table clothes were all a different shade of orange, the whole place was lit by candles which in the evening meant tat this place was the ideal place for a romantic date, in the daytime though, when the pick think blinds were pulled up and the suns bright light shone through the windows making everything look slightly paler.
They sat down at a small table set for two close by to one of the big window, looking out of it they could see out into one of the vast cemeteries in sunnydale.
Violet looked at the menu with Aria, reading to her different things which were on there and suggesting food which she might like, in the end by the time Meg who was the waitress working that day came over they were decided.
"Hey Violet, so what you going to be having today then?"
"Hey Meg I guess I'm going to have a ploughman's baguette, a coke and some pie."
Meg smiled writing all that down, sometimes she really envied Violet she seemed to be able to eat so much and yet she never seemed to gain a pound, life really was unfair like that, once she had finished writing down Violet's order she turned to Aria and said
"And what about you sweetie what would you like?"
Aria thought for a minute and said, "Can I have a Coke, ham sandwich please?"
Violet smiled and turned her attention to Meg again saying, "Can you cut her baguette into smaller chunks so that she can eat it easier please? And not coke, she'll have milk but she can have some pie too. Thank you."
Meg nodded as she altered the second coke on the list to milk, and changed it to two portions of pie.
"It'll all be ready in about 5 minutes ok?"
They sat in silence, until their, food came. When it did they ate that quickly as they were both hungry.
Neither of them was able to eat the whole of their baguettes, there was just too much of it, and so they changed their minds about having the pie.
They got up and Violet paid the bill while Aria waited by the door.
"Bye Meg, thanks for the meal it was really nice, sorry about the pie though, we were just so full,"
"Don't worry bout it hon, pie is pie, if no one else wants it, it just means that me and Ted would have more to take home with us, so no worries, and I'll see you again soon ok hon."
"Sure Meg, see you soon, Bye."
"Bye Hon"
Meg shouted after Violet as she left the café with Aria in hand, they carried on walking down the street looking in some of the shop windows and just wondering around really, there were leaves blowing on the floor, they had fallen they were the first to have fallen off the trees and were just turning yellow as they floated in the wind.
They came to the magic box and stopped to go in there, Anya and Giles had used to run it before Anya and Xander had moved to New York and Giles had moved to England and married Clara.
Now though Tara and one of her friends Marc ran it. But they were in luck when they went in because it was Tara's smiling face, which met them as they walked through the door.
"Hey guys, what you been up to today?" she said walking towards them. "We been in the park on the swings, we swung really really high and then we had sandwiches but we're going to have ice cream soon."
Aria said jumping up and down, she was itching to look round the shelves of the shop she loved it in here it was just like her mum and dad's shop but it was slightly smaller and it had a big open space I the middle of the room which she could run around in.
"Well that sounds like you've been having a really good day so far," Tara said smiling she carried on though to say
"Hey Aria would you like to look around on the shelves you can pick something out as well to keep for yourself as long as it isn't very expensive ok?"
"Ok!" Aria said as she ran off to scramble through the shelves.
Violet looked after her and said, "How do you know that she isn't just going to pull the biggest thing she can find out?"
Tara smiled "I know cause the last time she was here she started to collect little gems, there not really worth any thing a couple of dollars at most and Giles has all ready got a lot of rare ones, but she doesn't like them, she just likes the pretty ones."
Violet smiled, they both sat down at the table on in the middle of the room and violet began after checking to make sure that Aria was not in the immediate area and so would not over hear anything which was said.
"I've um well I've decided that I'm going to go through with the ritual tonight."
Tara bowed her head softly and said "I knew you would." She smiled at violet and said, "Is there anything you need? Anything which you want me to explain, I know that your dad'll probably go through everything with you but if there's anything that your not really sure about or anything that you want to know then I'm here for you, just ask me."
Violet thought for a moment and then said "Is it going to hurt.. It's a silly question I know cause I have to be bled and that means cuts and everything, but is it going to be really painful? Will I feel it?"
Tara thought for a moment then said "I don't know if it will hurt or not I'm really sorry but I don't, but I can give you this....." she said reaching around her neck to unclasp her necklace, it was silver and it had a simple sphere in it with a blood red gem dotted at the centre.
"This was my mother's it'll protect you from pain of the blood, I'm not sure if it'll help this isn't what it was meant for, it was meant to protect you from pain which was pumped into the blood from the heart, but I hope it helps, you."
Tara reached over as she said this and tied the clasp of the necklace around violets neck. It was a long chain and reached to Violets waist.
"Thank you" Violet said softly and then turned to hug Tara.
"Will you be there tonight? I don't want to be on my own, Dad said he'd be there and so would Willow, but I want you to be there too, please say you will, please."
"Of course I'll be there sweetie,"
Tara hugged Violet close to her again she felt like a mother comforting her child after they had bumped their head or bruised their knee, and wished silently that that was what she was and she wasn't there sitting in her shop helping this 17 year old prepare for her death.
Aria came walking back towards them then she was getting bored of looking at all the stuff on the shelves and she had chosen the gem she wanted, it was a tigers eye. She liked it cause it shone when you moved it back and forth in different colours.
"Hey Aria you picked one then, oh a tigers eye those are my favourite ones too"
Tara said as she stood up and took the gem of the little girl she walked over to the counter and placed it into a purple gift bag with silver ribbon on it, It was far to big for the gem itself and normally she would have just put it into a small white bag or something but Aria liked the bags, she had helped her to pick them so she thought that she deserved one.
She passed the gift bag to Aria and then pulled at something from under the counter, it was a brown bag, she handed it to Violet and said "For tonight" and smiled tightly.
Violet looked down at the bag and nodded, she didn't look into the bag to see what it contained tonight was going to come quick enough as it was it was 4 o'clock she didn't want to hurry it along.
"See you later" she said as she closed the door behind her and Aria.
They were back on the main street again then, and Violet had a quick thought about where they could go next so taking Aria's hand she walked her a short distance down the road and into a shop called Equinox, it was a toy shop, filled to the brim with toys, she walked over to a display of teddy bears and picked up the one which she looked at before on many occasions and had decided she was going to get Aria for Christmas, she wasn't going to be there for Christmas not this year and not ever again, so if she wanted Aria to have the teddy bear she decided that she was going to buy it for her here and now, she took it over to the counter and paid for it, it was $45 a lot for a teddy bear she knew, but it was the most beautiful bear she had ever seen it was white, clear white, white as a snow ball, and so soft it felt like a the soft fluff you found on a kitten it measured as tall as the distance between her shoulder and middle finger. It had a red velvet ribbon tied around its neck and a friendly expression on its face.
Aria's eyes were wide open when she saw the bear which Violet was buying, the shop keeper put it into a gigantic paper bag and handed it over to her with a smile, she grinned back to him and then turned back to Aria who was staring at her with eyes the size of bin lids.
"So what about an ice cream now?"
Aria nodded and they walked into the ice cream parlour, which was next door.
Violet ordered a mint supreme for both of them and they tucked into it.
"Is that bear for me?" Aria asked smiling up at Violet
"Yeah it's for you, it's a present from me to make up for all the Christmas' and birthday presents I miss."
Aria smiled for a moment, as she sucked on the ice cream in her mouth before the words sank in and she processed them properly, "Why will you miss them?"
"Oh Aria, I don't want to but there are some things which we can't control you know what I mean?"
Aria thought for a moment and said, "Yeah, will you try to be there though?"
"Yeah Aria I'll try to be there for everyone with all my heart ok?"
Aria nodded and scooped up the last drips of ice cream out of the bowl, before standing up to leave,
"Violet, will you carry me I feel sleepy."
Aria said with a tired voice and a yawn,
"Course I will babe, come here," and with that she scooped Aria up in her arms and carried her for the 15 minute walk home, Aria fell asleep before they had got past the Magic box, Violet felt sad as she carried Aria home, watching the sun set, sad that she would never see the sun rise again and sad that she would never be able to carry her own child home asleep in her arms as she carried Aria now, and she felt a little tear escape her eyes as she walked up the drive to the front door of "Eternal Summers" watching the last glimmers of light disapper.
The walked hand in hand down the same roads which only days ago Violet had run to away from spike, and ended up in the same park as where he had found her.
There were kids in the park already, playing on the swings and on the round about, playing tag and football, it was a world wind of activity.
"What do you want to go on first then Aria?" Violet asked bending down to look at her
"The swings!" Aria said excitedly as they made their way towards them. There was only one, which was free so Violet lifted Aria up onto it told her to hold onto the chain supporting the swing and then started to push her gently so that she swung backwards and forwards slowly.
"Faster, Faster!" Aria shouted laughing, so Violet pushed her higher but was careful not to push her to high in case she let go or slipped cause she could really hurt herself falling off.
As she was helping Aria off the swing she heard a voice from behind her saying,
"Violet! Hey, how are you." She turned when she heard the voice it was Pete.
"Hey Pete, What you up to?"
"Oh I'm looking after Charlie and Sophie today," he said pointing at two kids playing catch who had similar bright red hair to his own.
"Cool," she answered with a smile Then remembering Aria who was hiding behind her legs, looking around at Pete eyeing him from her small vantage point hidden away behind Violet's legs, Pete seeing her bent down on his knees, and smiled at her holding out his hand at her saying,
"Hey you, what's your name? I'm Pete by the way, I know Violet from school."
Aria looked up at Violet for a moment before deciding what to do when she saw Violet's encouraging smile she stepped out from her hiding space behind violet's legs and said, "My name's Aria, I live in England."
"England ay? Well you're a long way from home then aren't you? How long are you staying here for?"
"We came for Violet's birthday, it's tomorrow so I don't know."
They all smiled at each other and then Pete had an idea, he stood up and asked Violet, "How would you both like to spend the day with us? We're staying here for a bit and then we're going to the cinema to see pirates of the Caribbean, and then probably onto the arcade for some pinball and a burger for tea, would you like that Aria?"
Violet thought for a moment about the offer but then after looking down at Aria she decided "I don't think we can today sorry Pete, thank you for the really kind offer and everything, but I kind of promised Aria that it would be just me and her today an that we would go and have ice cream and go round the shops and we have to be back by about 5 any way......." Violet looked at Pete, he looked kind of dejected since she at her answer and so she continued saying, "But maybe tomorrow, I'm having a party in the evening starts at about 6 just family and a couple of friends if you want to stop by you'd be more than welcome."
Pete stood up and met her smile with a walloping big one of his own.
"Sure I'll be there, sound like it'll be fun, Well I better be going now, cause the film is starting soon, but I'll see you both tomorrow, Bye Violet, Bye bye Aria!"
And with that he had run off to collect the two kids who were busy playing catch at the other side of the park.
"You don't mind that I said we wouldn't spend the day with them do you Aria, it's just that I wanted to spend the day with you just me and you today that's all."
Aria smiled back up at her and said "Me to." Before offering up her hand to violet, who accepted it with a smile.
They played so more in the playground, on the swings and on the big roundabout and they played catch for a while, until Aria started to feel a bit tired, when this happened, Violet picked her and carried her down the road to her favourite café Magic Spark, the café was painted orange, the chairs and tabled were all made of pine wood and the table clothes were all a different shade of orange, the whole place was lit by candles which in the evening meant tat this place was the ideal place for a romantic date, in the daytime though, when the pick think blinds were pulled up and the suns bright light shone through the windows making everything look slightly paler.
They sat down at a small table set for two close by to one of the big window, looking out of it they could see out into one of the vast cemeteries in sunnydale.
Violet looked at the menu with Aria, reading to her different things which were on there and suggesting food which she might like, in the end by the time Meg who was the waitress working that day came over they were decided.
"Hey Violet, so what you going to be having today then?"
"Hey Meg I guess I'm going to have a ploughman's baguette, a coke and some pie."
Meg smiled writing all that down, sometimes she really envied Violet she seemed to be able to eat so much and yet she never seemed to gain a pound, life really was unfair like that, once she had finished writing down Violet's order she turned to Aria and said
"And what about you sweetie what would you like?"
Aria thought for a minute and said, "Can I have a Coke, ham sandwich please?"
Violet smiled and turned her attention to Meg again saying, "Can you cut her baguette into smaller chunks so that she can eat it easier please? And not coke, she'll have milk but she can have some pie too. Thank you."
Meg nodded as she altered the second coke on the list to milk, and changed it to two portions of pie.
"It'll all be ready in about 5 minutes ok?"
They sat in silence, until their, food came. When it did they ate that quickly as they were both hungry.
Neither of them was able to eat the whole of their baguettes, there was just too much of it, and so they changed their minds about having the pie.
They got up and Violet paid the bill while Aria waited by the door.
"Bye Meg, thanks for the meal it was really nice, sorry about the pie though, we were just so full,"
"Don't worry bout it hon, pie is pie, if no one else wants it, it just means that me and Ted would have more to take home with us, so no worries, and I'll see you again soon ok hon."
"Sure Meg, see you soon, Bye."
"Bye Hon"
Meg shouted after Violet as she left the café with Aria in hand, they carried on walking down the street looking in some of the shop windows and just wondering around really, there were leaves blowing on the floor, they had fallen they were the first to have fallen off the trees and were just turning yellow as they floated in the wind.
They came to the magic box and stopped to go in there, Anya and Giles had used to run it before Anya and Xander had moved to New York and Giles had moved to England and married Clara.
Now though Tara and one of her friends Marc ran it. But they were in luck when they went in because it was Tara's smiling face, which met them as they walked through the door.
"Hey guys, what you been up to today?" she said walking towards them. "We been in the park on the swings, we swung really really high and then we had sandwiches but we're going to have ice cream soon."
Aria said jumping up and down, she was itching to look round the shelves of the shop she loved it in here it was just like her mum and dad's shop but it was slightly smaller and it had a big open space I the middle of the room which she could run around in.
"Well that sounds like you've been having a really good day so far," Tara said smiling she carried on though to say
"Hey Aria would you like to look around on the shelves you can pick something out as well to keep for yourself as long as it isn't very expensive ok?"
"Ok!" Aria said as she ran off to scramble through the shelves.
Violet looked after her and said, "How do you know that she isn't just going to pull the biggest thing she can find out?"
Tara smiled "I know cause the last time she was here she started to collect little gems, there not really worth any thing a couple of dollars at most and Giles has all ready got a lot of rare ones, but she doesn't like them, she just likes the pretty ones."
Violet smiled, they both sat down at the table on in the middle of the room and violet began after checking to make sure that Aria was not in the immediate area and so would not over hear anything which was said.
"I've um well I've decided that I'm going to go through with the ritual tonight."
Tara bowed her head softly and said "I knew you would." She smiled at violet and said, "Is there anything you need? Anything which you want me to explain, I know that your dad'll probably go through everything with you but if there's anything that your not really sure about or anything that you want to know then I'm here for you, just ask me."
Violet thought for a moment and then said "Is it going to hurt.. It's a silly question I know cause I have to be bled and that means cuts and everything, but is it going to be really painful? Will I feel it?"
Tara thought for a moment then said "I don't know if it will hurt or not I'm really sorry but I don't, but I can give you this....." she said reaching around her neck to unclasp her necklace, it was silver and it had a simple sphere in it with a blood red gem dotted at the centre.
"This was my mother's it'll protect you from pain of the blood, I'm not sure if it'll help this isn't what it was meant for, it was meant to protect you from pain which was pumped into the blood from the heart, but I hope it helps, you."
Tara reached over as she said this and tied the clasp of the necklace around violets neck. It was a long chain and reached to Violets waist.
"Thank you" Violet said softly and then turned to hug Tara.
"Will you be there tonight? I don't want to be on my own, Dad said he'd be there and so would Willow, but I want you to be there too, please say you will, please."
"Of course I'll be there sweetie,"
Tara hugged Violet close to her again she felt like a mother comforting her child after they had bumped their head or bruised their knee, and wished silently that that was what she was and she wasn't there sitting in her shop helping this 17 year old prepare for her death.
Aria came walking back towards them then she was getting bored of looking at all the stuff on the shelves and she had chosen the gem she wanted, it was a tigers eye. She liked it cause it shone when you moved it back and forth in different colours.
"Hey Aria you picked one then, oh a tigers eye those are my favourite ones too"
Tara said as she stood up and took the gem of the little girl she walked over to the counter and placed it into a purple gift bag with silver ribbon on it, It was far to big for the gem itself and normally she would have just put it into a small white bag or something but Aria liked the bags, she had helped her to pick them so she thought that she deserved one.
She passed the gift bag to Aria and then pulled at something from under the counter, it was a brown bag, she handed it to Violet and said "For tonight" and smiled tightly.
Violet looked down at the bag and nodded, she didn't look into the bag to see what it contained tonight was going to come quick enough as it was it was 4 o'clock she didn't want to hurry it along.
"See you later" she said as she closed the door behind her and Aria.
They were back on the main street again then, and Violet had a quick thought about where they could go next so taking Aria's hand she walked her a short distance down the road and into a shop called Equinox, it was a toy shop, filled to the brim with toys, she walked over to a display of teddy bears and picked up the one which she looked at before on many occasions and had decided she was going to get Aria for Christmas, she wasn't going to be there for Christmas not this year and not ever again, so if she wanted Aria to have the teddy bear she decided that she was going to buy it for her here and now, she took it over to the counter and paid for it, it was $45 a lot for a teddy bear she knew, but it was the most beautiful bear she had ever seen it was white, clear white, white as a snow ball, and so soft it felt like a the soft fluff you found on a kitten it measured as tall as the distance between her shoulder and middle finger. It had a red velvet ribbon tied around its neck and a friendly expression on its face.
Aria's eyes were wide open when she saw the bear which Violet was buying, the shop keeper put it into a gigantic paper bag and handed it over to her with a smile, she grinned back to him and then turned back to Aria who was staring at her with eyes the size of bin lids.
"So what about an ice cream now?"
Aria nodded and they walked into the ice cream parlour, which was next door.
Violet ordered a mint supreme for both of them and they tucked into it.
"Is that bear for me?" Aria asked smiling up at Violet
"Yeah it's for you, it's a present from me to make up for all the Christmas' and birthday presents I miss."
Aria smiled for a moment, as she sucked on the ice cream in her mouth before the words sank in and she processed them properly, "Why will you miss them?"
"Oh Aria, I don't want to but there are some things which we can't control you know what I mean?"
Aria thought for a moment and said, "Yeah, will you try to be there though?"
"Yeah Aria I'll try to be there for everyone with all my heart ok?"
Aria nodded and scooped up the last drips of ice cream out of the bowl, before standing up to leave,
"Violet, will you carry me I feel sleepy."
Aria said with a tired voice and a yawn,
"Course I will babe, come here," and with that she scooped Aria up in her arms and carried her for the 15 minute walk home, Aria fell asleep before they had got past the Magic box, Violet felt sad as she carried Aria home, watching the sun set, sad that she would never see the sun rise again and sad that she would never be able to carry her own child home asleep in her arms as she carried Aria now, and she felt a little tear escape her eyes as she walked up the drive to the front door of "Eternal Summers" watching the last glimmers of light disapper.