April 16, Spring, year 36
I like to tease Skye a little bit about today. All I have to do is say 'Blue Bar,' and he gives me such a look. The kids naturally don't get it, but it's fun to tease him about the early days of the relationship. I still remember that stupid spell…
The Egg festival was.. interesting. I let Alan participate, despite my misgivings.
"C'mon Momma, please!" Alan begged. "I gotta go do the Egg hunt!"
"You're still in trouble for instigating that little riot at the Goddess Festival," Claire frowned at him. "Why exactly should I turn you loose?"
Teary eyes failed to impress the blonde, who was in the process of attempting to calculate how much money, wood and stone it would take to expand the girls room and make a real bed for Meredith. Since math wasn't exactly high on Claire's list of favorite things to do, it consequentially came up in her life far more often than it needed to.
Not to say that she wasn't good at it, because she'd certainly had enough practice to get good. She just loathed it with a passion, and had to deal with it more than she liked.
"But I been real good!" Alan protested when he saw that the tears weren't working. "Grampa Tak says so! An Mirei an I gots to be a team Momma, we gotta!"
"Mmm…" Claire was clearly distracted, chewing on one end of a pencil. "Speak properly please Alan."
The boy let out a whining sigh, but obediently corrected himself.
"I've been really good, even Grampa Tak says I have," the child repeated. "Mimi and I've got to be a team Momma… we've always been a team."
"Much better… Did you help Uncle Tak for today?"
"Not yet," he mumbled, one foot scuffing the floor.
"Do that, and then you can go join your siblings at the Egg Hunt. Hurry and you might get there before it starts."
His green eyes lit up in glee and he gave her a quick, impromptu hug.
"Thanks Momma!" he exclaimed, darting out of the house.
Skye looked up from where he was sketching plans for the room extension and bed, opening his mouth.
"Don't say it," Claire warned, pointing the pencil at him. "You would have broken down much quicker."
"Says the woman with the four year old in her lap," he retorted, smiling.
True to form, Meredith was sprawled across her mother's lap, apparently utterly happy with this. The child had made no move to leave like the rest of the family, everyone eager to start the hunt and compete with the other children in the Valley for the title of bet egg collector.
"Oh hush. If she's happy, I'm not going to make her move," Claire huffed, clearly amused. "Besides, it's not the end of the world to have a clingy child. She'll grow out of it soon enough."
The kids were affectionate, but all of them had grown past the cling-to-Mom stage. She missed it, not that she would ever admit to it, and just having the one child temporarily content to stick close eased her heart.
"Hmm," was all Skye said.
Claire ignored the comment, going back to her figuring, and after a minute, Skye returned to his drawing.
Alan hurried down the path, hoping and praying that the festival hadn't started. Had he been thinking a little more he would have realized that it couldn't start, not without Takakura's handout of the lists.
The old man had been forced to get more and more clever as more children began to join in the game, and there were more eggs hiding this year than in any other, even from when Jack, Claire and Jill had been kids.
And none of them were in the main village area. This prevented anyone from getting a head start while waiting for Takakura and his instructions.
The small boy scanned the crowd, looking for his twin and older siblings. It wasn't fair, he reiterated to himself, that he was so dang short! Anyone who brought up the fact that it was the young boy's age and no other reason was huffed at, a habit he'd inadvertently picked up from his mother.
In the end, it was Jamie who spotted him, the silver haired older boy blinking in surprise.
"I thought Mom grounded you," he said, a frown starting to creep over his face.
"Momma said I could come once I was finished with Grampa Tak," Alan countered quickly. "And I finished! You can't tattle!"
Lauren and Mirei had followed Jamie, and Lauren gave a faintly annoyed sigh.
"He's telling the truth," she said as Jamie and Mirei turned to look at her. "Mom let him go… Guess this means all of us as a team, unless you want to just be with Alan, Mimi."
"All of us as a team," the blue-eyed girl proclaimed instantly. "You guys get the big stuff, we get the little!"
It was then that Takakura, moving slower due to his age, wandered down from Sunshine farm, lists in hand. Instantly he was surrounded by eager kids, all of whom wanted a chance at the prize.
Sure it was only a bronze cup that was passed around every year, but it was still cool to look at. And it got the winner bragging rights.
It didn't take too long for everyone to collect their list of hints and scatter, some starting from the top, some from the bottom and some from the middle. Lauren and Jamie looked in the trees and high places, Alan and Mirei looked under things, in the low places.
"We're gonna win again this year, right?" Alan piped up hopefully.
"We're gonna try squirt," James winked a blue eye at his little brother. "But sometimes it's nice to let other have the cup… it means we don't have to worry about them trying to cheat a win or anything."
Mirei and Lauren exchange looks, both girls shaking their heads ruefully.
"The only reason that happens is cause you two brag too much," Laurie sighed. "Five years in a row is a bit much you know…"
"They what?!"
Claire's exclamation made Skye jump. It was rare for her to raise her voice like that and… when had the phone rung?
The blonde woman raked a hand through her hair in aggravation.
"I'll be right over," she promised.
The phone was dropped back onto its cradle and Claire stalked over to her boots. Confused sea-green eyes followed her.
"Alan fell out of a tree trying to prove he could do anything Jamie did and broke his arm," she said flatly in response to the questions he wasn't asking. "Mirei nearly drowned in the Turtle Pond because she slipped on a rock Lauren told her to avoid, twisting her ankle in the process, Lauren got bit by the turtles in the pond trying to rescue her and Jamie bruised his back trying to help Alan!"
Skye abandoned his chair in a heartbeat, joining her at the door. Meredith was, thankfully, down for her afternoon nap, and wouldn't miss them until they got home.
They hurried down to Hardy's clinic together, and they certainly weren't the only parents in attendance. Marlin and Celia were leading a wet and shivering Sharron away—clearly another that had gotten caught in the pond mishap—Rock and Lumina were in the process of chastising Timothy for climbing a tree and nearly breaking his arm, and Muffy was running a stressed hand through her blond curls as Griffin collected Erica, who had also managed to twist her ankle.
"This gets worse every year," Claire sighed, coming even with her cousin. "Sometimes I think we really should call it off."
"I'll agree with that one," Muffy sighed, "Maybe we should take a page from Flowerbud's book and just make bins instead of hiding the eggs themselves everywhere."
"Talk to Uncle Tak," the farmer nodded. "I'm sure he wants to lower the injury rate too."
She edge into the clinic, Skye at her heels, and propped her hands on her hips at the sight of her four children. Lauren and Mirei were soaked to the skin, the former with bandages on her arms and legs from the turtle bites, the latter with a single bandage on her ankle, whimpering. Alan had tears running down his cheeks as well, arm bound in a splint and cast that Hardy was just finishing up. Jamie had a gauze pad on his cheek—a branch had marked him on his way down—and was moving in a way that suggested serious pain that he wouldn't admit too.
"Hi Mom," Lauren said sheepishly, "Dad."
Claire shook her head, and let out a long, relieved sigh. They would all be fine, which was definitely something.
"Honestly, what am I going to do with all of you?"
So Alan's cast will be on for five weeks, Mirei will be in bed or on the couch for ten days, Jamie is not to stress his back for three weeks, and Lauren isn't allowed to remove her bandages for four days
We really need to figure out a better way to run the Egg Hunt…