King Harold strode down the hall and stopped cold in the open doorway of his mother's room. All he could see were boxes, of which there were so many that he could no longer see the bed; just the top of the tall and fancy headboard. "Mother?" he called, and suddenly she popped up from behind a wall of cardboard.
"Yes?"
"You're moving today?"
"Soon," she answered. "I've put it off long enough. My new kingdom is just about finished; and now that you and Lillian are married and starting a family, I think it's best to make room for the baby."
"What baby?"
She paused, opening her arms over a box to drop in her pillows and comfortors. "Uh," she eloquently answered, "The baby you'll have in the future, of course. The distant future."
King Howard squinted at her.
"In, like...seven months," Queen Bridgette clarified shyly. Then she gave him an apologetic smile. "I thought you knew."
"Well, how come you knew first? I'm the father. I hope," he added.
"She didn't want to get your hopes up," the queen answered softly. "But she knew I had a private family doctor, and she wanted to see if the baby was doing okay. She had to tell me."
"I guess I get that." He watched her stuff the blanket into the same box. "But I vowed she would never be alone, as long as we were married. She should have said something."
"Well, now you can," Queen Bridgette suggested, and smiled as her son left. Turning back, she stopped and looked down at a thick book titled Memoirs. Pushing a box back to make room, she sat and flipped through the pages. Harry's first word - SUPERIOR! Beat that! Second memoir, Cute! Harry's hood filled with water. All the memories were dated, with a little footnote that read the approximate time they were written down.
Standing, and gently placing the book atop the blanket, she closed the flaps. How quickly they grew up, she mused, it seemed like last week he had been transferred from private school to a public school. Now here he was, happily married and expecting a child.
Oh, cripes, she thought, I'm going to be a grandma!
The thought that immediately followed was, I better quit drinking.
Author's Note: I know some of these chapters are super short; and for that, I apologize. But I'm having a blast; I think it's going well. I hope you do, too.