AN: One more after this, kids.
Enjoy.
Chapter 19
The park on Thursday is the perfect time to visit the playground.
No one is there and it is a deserted wasteland of quiet. Occasionally, a bird might chirp. The breeze pushed the empty swings back and forth. I liked to tell Gwen stories about angry ghosts having evil swinging contests. She loves my ghosts stories and makes scary faces to look like the apparitions. I send pictures of it to Kid. Gwen was cute when she pretended to be monstrous.
The lack of crying and squealing was peaceful. We sat on an old blanket that I dug out of a closet from Chief Charlie's house. It smelled like moth balls and Vick's Vapor Rub, like Nana Marie. It had a history that was slightly stinky, which was also like Nana Marie. You knew she was coming from miles away because of her distinctive odor. Nana and Rachel Black would have been kindred spirits.
The reason that the park was peaceful was that all the tiny terrors of Forks were at the story hour at the library. Kid likes to occasionally take Gwen, but he enjoys being with that large group of boogie eaters. He finds the sound of children screaming and their paste eating to be adorable. Kid was probably a paste eater. It would explain so very much.
If it was kid's day to take Gwen out, they'd be at the library. It was my day so here we sat on a blanket and ate the lunch that kid packed us. He loved packing lunches and would cut Gwen's little pieces of cheese into star shapes. I would be keeping kid for that reason and numerous others. I love him. I love my family. I was becoming such a girl.
I started tossing goldfish crackers into my mouth, when that husband of mine wandered up. "How's my girls?"
"Enjoying silence." I gave Gwen a sippy cup of water. "I thought you were baking cupcakes for the your book club? Where's my cupcake, man?"
Kid started a book club for dads. It was basically his Dungeons & Dragons buddies reading Game of Thrones and eating baked goods. They took field trips to the batting cages and to play mini golf. The night usually ended with Trailer dragging her sugared up husband home by his giant ear. Emmett got his high off of candy and cakes. He acted drunk on it and usually ended up streaking. He would run around the neighborhood streets and declaring himself to be the Lord of Light. I enjoyed videoing his antics and posting them on YouTube. The comments were hilarious.
"I got a job offer." He pulled out cupcakes from his backpack. They were covered in bright yellow icing and ornate dragons created out of fondant perched on the top. Gwen squealed with glee and shoved it in her mouth.
"Making cupcakes? These are your best work, kid," I complimented him.
He looked at his toes. "I got a message on my fanfiction account—"
"I told you not to read those things! Those assholes make you cry. Seriously, let me read them first so I can search them out and destroy those cowards."
I hated those people who hid behind fake names and went after my kid. They should at least identify themselves so I could destroy them. It was a pain in my ass to hack into a computer system, stalk their IP addresses, and hunt them down. There was not enough hours in the day.
"This was nice! There is a video game company that's owner read my story, The Heart of Winter Storm Hill. He wants me to work with them to create stories for the games! I won't be doing it, but—"
"Why won't you be doing it? You will be doing it." I watched as Gwen slammed the cupcake in her face. Moments like this reminded me that she wasn't yet an adult.
Kid looked at me in surprise. "I'm the house husband!"
"You're fired. You're now going to be a husband and dad who creates the cool stories for dorks who play video games." I yawned. "I want to eat my cupcake now."
"We have to move to Seattle for a little bit." Kid shook his head. "It's impossible."
"We're moving to Seattle. We can keep our house here too. It isn't like Seattle is a million miles away. Simmer down, Spider Monkey." I patted Gwen's head. "Mommy needs new inspiration for my scare the pee out horror series I'm working on."
"Scare the pee out?" Kid looked at me worriedly.
"A collection of horrible tales for the preschool child that Gwen is helping me write. I will be heralded as a genius for it. Probably after I'm dead, when the human race evolves to my level of greatness."
He pulled me close, because he's a toucher. "You'd do this for me?"
"You made me weak, Edward Cullen. Of course, I would do this for you." I kissed him, because I had a weird urge to. This man made me human. It was a toss-up if this was good or bad.
"You are my queen!" He started placing slobbery kisses all over my face. It was like I was being attacked by an amorous labrador.
I started pushing him off. "All done with the cuddles! I need to mop your spit off my face."
Gwen threw her half-eaten cupcake on her father's face. "No eat my mommy!"
Kid wiped it off and grinned brightly. "She has a pitching arm like me! We have a softball star on our hands, Bella!"
Oh God. I could see years of softball practices and games in my future. Booster clubs and pushy, athletic moms annoying me every spring.
"Let's not rush these things," I said weakly. The images of driving with cheering parents to games every weekend still danced in my head. It made me feel nauseous.
All of a sudden, I was distracted by loud noises filling the air. It started with a giggle, then crying and yelling surrounded us.
Instead of a plague of locusts, it was a horde of small children and their parents descending upon us. It was horrifying.
"Yo Ed! Bella! Make room for us!" I heard the giant call out.
"Fat ass!" Gwen squealed as she clapped her hands.
Her name for him stuck.
Quickly, I jumped up and started grabbing our things. "Kid, get Gwen!"
"What's going on?" Kid stood and picked up our daughter.
That's when I saw the little kid with the dark crewcut. A finger stuck in his nose and red crusted eyes was looking at us maliciously. It was worse than gossiping mothers and snotty nosed toddlers. The kid was waddling closer to us.
I screamed, "That kid has pink eye! Run!"
We ran for our lives. Actually, for our eyes. We were followed by more fleeing families.
Motherhood was a hazardous job.
