CPegasus: Why, thank you! BTW, I haven't gotten to read your newest chapters yet, but I have them copy/pasted onto Microsoft Word, so don't worry, I will read them.

BlackieChuu: I'm sorry. but....rocky road wins. It's not even a question. Chocolate chip cookie dough is good too, but....it just can't COMPARE.

Myotismon13: Hmm, I've never seen Gaiman, so I can't say that it affected the story. But now I wanna see it.........I must get my hands on it! Kukukuku. plots, schemes, cackles

"Nature's first green is gold

It's hardest hue to hold

Her early leaf's a flower

But only so an hour

And leaf subsides to leaf

So Eden sank to grief

As dawn goes down to day

Nothing gold can stay"

-"Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost

Death and Roses

Pegasus grunted as he felt a pillow weakly hit his skull repeatedly. Pegasus, in an attempt to return to what was once a peaceful slumber, pulled his own pillow over his head and calculated just how early in the morning was too early for this sort of thing. His tormenter, undeterred, just began to hit his back with the pillow.

"Daaaaaaaaaddyyyyyyyyy, wake uuuuuuuuup!"

Pegasus groaned and sunk himself deeper into the mattress. Faintly, he could hear a similarly childlike voice trying to wake up mooooooommyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Pegasus continued to try to ignore the little person who was attacking him, and it was about then that God smiled on him by causing one of the childlike voices to screech, "Let's go watch Pokemon!" And with that, they were gone.

Pegasus, after hearing small footfalls going in the opposite direction, turned over to the person lying next to him. "How exactly do they manage to wake up this early on a Saturday?"

Cyndia, still half-asleep, managed to yawn, "Got me." And with that, the two turned over and tried to go back to sleep.

Unfortunately for their slumber, the two mini-sized villains returned while their show was on its first commercial break, and they began their systematic torture once more. Only this time, they had managed to break into a bag of Oreos and were now supplied with more energy than most nuclear power plants.

After about five minutes of relentless persecution, the two parents managed to rise from their bed and confront their tormentors. Both were little girls. Whoever said they were cute and innocent has never seen 'The Ring'.

One was approximately four to five years old, with curly brown hair reaching down to her shoulders. She wore a frilly pink shirt and a very loose denim skirt that went down to her knees, and she had two barrettes holding her hair back. The other little girl, who appeared to be about three years old, had long, wavy black hair running down her back, and she wore a cute blue sundress. Although they did not immediately appear to look like either of their parents, you could still see the family resemblance shine through. The older of the girls had red eyes, like her dad, while the younger one had Cyndia's blue eyes. Both of them seemed to have Cyndia's smile, but when they giggled, it was Pegasus's laughter that emerged.

The younger of the girls stood next to Cyndia, wrapping one tiny arm around her legs in order to cling tightly to her mother. The older one, obviously the leader of the two, skipped cheerfully over to Pegasus, sugar-coating her voice by sweetly saying, "Good morning!"

Pegasus, who, as we all know by now, is not much of a morning person, managed to say something along the lines of: "Lily, what are you doing up this early?"

Lily, the older of the sisters, frowned slightly. "It's ten in the morning, Daddy!"

Pegasus glanced at an alarm clock near his bed and saw that it was, indeed, ten o'clock. More specifically, 10:12 AM. But that didn't make him any happier about waking up.

Cyndia, who had already managed to recover from her awakening, crouched down to her daughter's eye level and said, "Lily, would you do me a favor and get Daddy a coffee mug? I think he just needs to pour himself some coffee so he'll wake up."

"Okay, Mommy!"

Cyndia then turned his attention to the little girl clinging to her legs. "How 'bout you, Iris? Do you wanna go help your sister?"

Iris, the younger of the two, did not reply, but simply nodded and followed her older sister down a set of stairs. When they had safely disappeared, Cyndia turned to say something to her husband, only to find that he had collapsed on the mattress and was falling back asleep.

Cyndia, torn between the urge to laugh and the urge to nag, grabbed Pegasus's feet and began dragging him off the mattress. She managed to get him about three feet from where he had started before he squirmed away. Frustrated, Cyndia did what any mature, rational person does when their spouse refuses to awaken.

She simply hit him over the head with a handy pillow.

Hard.

However, this course of action seemed not to work, as Pegasus just kept on sleeping. Cyndia sighed, then sat down on the mattress next to him, preparing to shake him awake. However, this course of action was interrupted suddenly, when she was hit on the head herself with Pegasus's own pillow. Surprised, she fell off the mattress and got a quick glimpse of her husband grinning.

"Hit me with a pillow wouldja?"

Cyndia smirked. "Yes, yes I would." With that she took her own pillow, and began to aim for Pegasus's shoulder, but Pegasus's pillow hit her torso split seconds before hand. Undaunted, she hit him a good few times before he head-butted her and she fell onto the mattress, thwacking him wildly with her pillow. Pegasus, laughing all the while, guarded himself with his left arm while using his right arm to push Cyndia away, using his pillow as a sort of shield. However, Pegasus soon fell off the mattress, and Cyndia, seizing this opportunity, began to thwack him wildly with her pillow as he lay on the floor, laughing all the while.

However, this little attack maneuver was cut short as she looked up and saw two slightly bewildered, slightly bemused children standing in their doorway, each one holding a coffee mug.

Cyndia, turning slightly red from embarrassment, put her and Pegasus's pillow back at their respective places at the head of the bed while Pegasus looked up to see what was going on. Spotting his two daughters, he smiled, slightly amused at the fact that his children had caught him in the midst of full-on pillow fight. "Good morning, girls."

Lily, acting as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened, cheerfully trotted up to Pegasus and held out the coffee mug in her hand. "Here you go, Daddy!"

"Thank you, sweetie."

"And Iris got one for Mommy, too!"

Iris, responding to what Lily had said, walked quietly up to Cyndia and held out the mug in her hand. Cyndia took the cup in her hands and smiled warmly at her. "Thank you, Iris. That was sweet of you."

Lily, rocking on the balls of her feet, obviously pleased with herself, asked innocently, "Are we going out anywhere today, since it's a Saturday?"

Cyndia considered this. "Hmm.....maybe, if you and Iris are good this morning."

"We'll be good! Honest!"

"Alright, then. Why don't you two go back downstairs? Your show's probably on again."

Not another word needed to be said as the two girls scampered downstairs as fast as their little legs could carry them.

Pegasus, after watching his two daughters leave, turned to look out the window as Cyndia went into the adjacent bathroom to brush her teeth. The sun had risen hours ago, but was only beginning to peek over all of the other houses nearby. But, then again, what could you expect when you lived in the middle of San Francisco?

Pegasus turned away and surveyed the room. After that little pillow-fight that had ensued, the sheets and blankets were strewn all over the place, and, if he was not mistaken, the mattress seemed a little off-kilter. Even the painting on the opposite wall seemed crooked.

Pegasus chuckled and walked across the room to realign the painting. He remembered this one. This was one of his best works. It was of Lily when she was only a few days old, and had just been brought home from the hospital. It was also one of Pegasus' more popular paintings. Several dozen copies had been sold in San Francisco alone. But Pegasus supposed it had something to do with the fact that he was one of the more popular painters in the city.

Pegasus smiled a little. He'd been so worried when he'd decided to take up fine art. His parents hadn't been pleased, of course, but eventually they came around. And Cyndia had been right beside him all the way. And, luckily for him, it had all worked out. He lived in a nice house in San Francisco, and didn't have to worry too much in the way of finances. Pegasus had been under the impression that he'd have to live out of a shack to be an artist in any big city.

Cyndia reentered from the bathroom, and, upon seeing Pegasus, hugged him from behind. "So....the girls seem to want to go out somewhere. What do you think?"

"Well, why not? It's the weekend, and the weather is gorgeous."

"Alright, but where do you think we should go? We could go to the park, or we could go to one of those art exhibits they have going on downtown....."

Pegasus thought for a moment, and as he did so, it was as though a certain Celtic man with a fondness for cigars was grinning toothily while pulling the strings behind some odd scheme. Because, at that moment, Pegasus came up with an idea that, if he had remembered what reality had been like originally, would have struck him as déjà vu.

"Actually, there's a nice farmer's market I've heard about that we could go check out..."

(Death and roses, love everlasting...)

Three hours later, the Crawford family was walking through said farmer's market happily. Lily was fascinated with the sights around her, making loud exclamations every now and then. Cyndia held Iris's hand, smiling down at her and talking to her younger daughter about the sights they saw. Iris, true to form, clung tightly to Cyndia and only responded by nodding or shaking her head.

Pegasus, meanwhile, was lost in thought. As he walked throughout the market with his family, he kept having the oddest feeling that he'd been there before, as though he'd seen these sights once before but couldn't quite place when he had. It was an odd sensation, and he did his best to ignore it.

"Look, Mama, paintings!"

Sure enough, Lily had spotted a farmer's booth selling seascapes to passers-by for five dollars or less. Pegasus, intrigued, went up to the man running the booth and asked him if he had painted these works himself. When he answered yes, the two got into a long conversation about techniques and subjects matter for paintings as Cyndia, Lily, and Iris continued to walk along.

Several minutes later, Pegasus left that particular booth with two seascapes under his arm. As he scanned the farmer's market for the rest of his family, he spotted them buying balloon animals several booths away.

He hurried over to them just as Lily received a balloon shaped like a cat. Iris, still clinging to Cyndia, held in her hand the string to a balloon shaped like a caterpillar.

Pegasus made his way over to his family as the man handing out the balloons handed the cat to Lily. Lily giggled in delight and tugged on the string to make her balloon cat dance.

Pegasus was struck with shock once again as the man with the balloons looked up at him and grinned. The man was dressed in a worn flannel shirt, smoking a cigar. He seemed to be in his late fifties or early sixties, and his well-worn hands spoke of someone who had many stories to tell but not many people to tell them to. He carried a small pouch in his left hand, while his right hand held a small basket, filled with smooth, polished stones. And when he spoke, his voice, tinged with a Dublin accent, seemed eerily familiar to Pegasus.

"I take it yer the father 'a these little ladies."

Pegasus nodded numbly as Lily turned to him, squealing, "Look! I got a cat balloon!"

Pegasus smiled at her. "Yes, I see."

Cyndia rummaged through her purse, then produced two dollars and handed them to the man with the cigar. As he took the money, he tipped his hat to her. " 'Ave a good day, all of yeh."

"You too."

The family wandered further away in the direction of a booth selling baked goods. All the while, Pegasus felt odd. Where had he seen that man before? A chance meeting? No, no, he would never have remembered something so brief. A business associate? No, not if he was selling balloons on the street. But then WHERE?

Pegasus suddenly remembered something that he couldn't place. He remembered screaming.....horrified wailing that was part of a memory that had been replaced.

Cyndia had died.

Pegasus practically jumped when Cyndia turned to him, saying, "Where do you want to go next?" Pegasus, startled, began to stammer an answer when he realized that he needed to go back. He needed to talk to that man with the cigar.

"Cyndia, you and the girls can go on without me. I think I left something back at one of the booths."

"Alright, but don't take too long."

Pegasus nodded, then turned and ran in the direction of the man with the cigar. He could remember it all now. The funeral. The wishing stones. Cyndia in a wheelchair. Disappearing at a magic show. Roses. So many roses.......

He remembered everything now.

When he finally reached the man with the cigar, he crouched for a minute to catch his breath as the man with the cigar watched him calmly.

"So I see ye've returned, eh, Mr. Crawford?"

Pegasus, hearing him say that, knew now that this was no coincidence. The man had granted his wish, just like he'd said he would.

Pegasus looked up at the man, trying to speak, but he found that words just would not come out. He stammered for a bit while the man with the cigar watched him calmly, as though he knew full well everything that Pegasus wanted to say.

Finally, Pegasus decided that he really wasn't able to express his gratitude weel with words, so he pulled out his wallet and held out approximately one hundred dollars. "Here. Take it."

"What fer?"

"The wish! You granted my wish!"

"What're y'talkin' about?"

"The wish I made! You told me to wish on one of those stones in your basket, and I did, and my wish came true, and...." Pegasus broke off his sentence, realizing how childish he would sound to anyone listening. But it had happened. It had. It wasn't childish at all....was it?

The man with the cigar smiled knowingly, almost patronizingly, saying, "Are y'sure y'know what yer sayin'?"

Pegasus hesitated. Maybe he was just being delusional.....ugh, he must have been hallucinating or something........yes, that was it. He'd better come around, or......

"After all, yer wish ain't even granted yet, and yer actin' so grateful an' all. It's a little embarassin'."

Wait.......WHAT?

Pegasus began stammering. "I....I don't understand."

"Well, yer wish hasn't been granted yet, or at least, not completely."

"Yes, it has! I wished that you'd bring Cyndia back, and you d-..."

"That's not what you wished for."

Pegasus blinked, not comprehending. "What?"

"I said that that wasn't yer wish."

Pegasus didn't understand. He began to protest. "Of course I did! What else could I want more than that?"

The man with the cigar smiled a little, and Pegasus almost thought he could detect a hint of sincere sadness behind that smile. "You, my friend, have a problem with wording."

Pegasus stared at him blankly. Wording? What about it? What was this man talking about? Maybe he was crazy. Maybe they BOTH were. None of this seemed to make any sense to Pegasus.

The man sighed. "Have y'ever heard of the monkey's paw story?"

Pegasus shook his head dumbly.

"I think y'ought t'read it. It might help y'understand what I mean."

Pegasus nodded a little, still confused. He suddenly realized that the money that he had offered the man was still in his hand, and he began putting it away. The man smiled consolingly.

"Come back t'me once yer wish is really granted."

And with that, the man seemed to disappear in front of Pegasus's very eyes, and Pegasus stared dazedly at thin air.