Authors notes: epilogue time! Sorry to keep you lovely people waiting. This has been floating around my brain for over a year i suppose. i Just never got round to writing it until now - super slack, right? Enjoy! Thanks for all the reviews and support.
The pain of losing little Amber Thurston never left. Grief never does, so I don't know why I was surprised. I suppose I always wished it would hurt a little less, but it never did. Eureka and I lived a very stoic, isolated life. Work, read the newspaper, go for walks. We always felt pangs of jealousy whenever children would bustle around outside. Eureka always joked that one day she'd kidnap them. In the early days of losing Amber, I wouldn't have been surprised if she did. But she kept to herself. We found solace in tendering a garden with many beautiful flowers. This was our baby now. It was all we could do to distract ourselves from the pain. We didn't try to have a baby again. It wasn't worth the risk. Nothing was worth it anymore. Depression seemed as constant to me as the clouds in the sky. My face probably had more wrinkles than Holland's did. Eureka lost some of her hair, but it has grown back now. She always looked older beyond her years, and she was not supposed to age at all.
Holland, Wendy and Talho are doing well. I am very pleased for them. Wendy was getting big. She would be starting middle school soon. She would hear all about me and Eureka and what we did to save the world. She would prance around with her long hair and big, bulging eyes. People didn't bother us about it much anymore. Word had got out about Amber. People understood the need to be left a peace. In the early days we got flowers. We didn't even know the people who had sent them. We usually tossed them in the fire, trying to forget. We never could.
No amount of happy memories with Eureka, pleasant walks or rides on my board could ease the sorrow in our aching hearts.
That is, until a young man came knocking on our door.
"Could that be the mail man?" Eureka asked. She stood up in a hurry and knocked over her tea "I haven't ordered anything for months"
"Maybe it's someone selling something" I muttered. God, I hoped not. I wandered open to the door and opened it. My eyes widened. A boy around 14 was standing in the doorway. He had green as distinct as Eureka's – the same color. It went down to his shoulders and looked kind of messy. He carried a board at his side – also strikingly familiar. Was it a knock off creation? He bowed.
"Hello there, I don't suppose you know who I am. As far as I can tell, no one knows who I am here"
My eyes narrowed. Eureka poked her head around behind me.
"Uh… am I meant to know who you are?" I asked him. Eureka's eyes widened. She jumped.
"Ao! You're Ao, aren't you?" she demanded, excitedly. Ao spotted Eureka and nodded.
"That's right. I saw you a while ago – well, it wasn't a long time ago for me, but I think it must be for you"
"That's right… you were… um, I'm not sure anymore" she looked lost "I remember your hair. I remember thinking you looked like me, but I don't remember why"
"That's because I didn't tell you" Ao smiled "this is going to sound weird – in a parallel universe you guys had another kid and that was me. I didn't die. I managed to get sent here in this time line. I was really worried you weren't going to be here, actually. But since I am, would you … well… I guess I should let you decide"
"I see what you're saying!" Eureka looked overjoyed. She turned to Renton "can we keep him? Pretty please, I'll do all the cooking"
"He's not a dog, Eureka. We can't just keep him just like that. There must be some kind of legal procedure"
"No there isn't" Eureka urged me "He's from another universe, it doesn't matter. Please! It would be lovely to have his company"
I sighed. "Is this true… Ao, isn't it?"
Ao kicked at his feet "Yeah, that's pretty much it. Weird, right?"
"He's our miracle, Renton!" Eureka said happily "It's like the stuff with Amber wasn't for nothing"
Renton's eyebrow twitched. Amber was always a twitchy subject.
"If we let you stay, I assume you'll behave?" I asked him. God. I sounded like my grandfather "You'll be tidy and clean… help us cook? The usual family things"
"Of course!" Ao exclaimed "There's nothing I'd want more!"
Eureka wouldn't listen to reason. She pushed past me and wrapped her arms around Ao.
"All this time I never forgot meeting you. I knew something good was ought to come out of it. I just forgot. I'm so sorry"
I sighed. Life dealt a rough hand of cards. I guess we finally got lucky. I turned on my heel and thought about what to make for dinner. Hamburger steak seemed appropriate.
"Do what you want, Eureka. I just don't want to think about it" I said.
"Yaaaaaaaayyyyyy!" Eureka cheered, and that strapping boy was brought inside. Ao Thurston. Who would have thought?
Eventually I did think about it. My bitterness faded as the years went by. Ao had saved us. Maybe I could start to live again.
I walked out on the field with my board, Ao by my side. We would do this many times. At that moment, sis, I wouldn't have thought so.
Life could start again.