My hunch was correct.
Only about a season later Gill proposed to me. It wasn't as weird as I'd thought it'd be, luckily. Full of a lot of happy tears from Elli, a surprised but very pleased Mayor Hamilton, and ecstatic parents over in Flower Bud Village, but not very "weird". In the sense I had imagined, at least.
We were married on Summer first. Remember that gift Owen said he was going to get me? He got it in the form of a wedding present. A lot of people came to our wedding. I was glad to see that Luke and Julius seemed to be taking all of it all right, because, now that I thought about it, they both kind of liked me. Hopefully they'd find their special someone for real sooner or later.
Probably the strangest part of getting married was, first of all, realizing I would be living with Gill, then, secondly, introducing my parents to him. I had practically forgotten they didn't already know him. I had written so much about him in my letters, I guess somewhere in my mind I assumed they could then automatically know everything that went on between me and everyone else here on Waffle Island. Nothing could prepare me for the scrutinizing eye my father gave Gill the day my parents showed up to see my wedding.
"Dad," I complained when I got my parents alone. "Way to make Gill feel uncomfortable! I'm an adult now. I can take care of myself. Gill is fine. He's not gonna hurt me or anything."
Before my father could defend himself, my mom came over, a tear in her violet eye. "Oh, Starri. You'll always be our little girl." She hugged me and kissed me on the top of my head, her long brown hair falling over her shoulder. "I can't believe you're getting married!"
My dad just smiled and tousled my identical yellow hair to his when Mom let me go. "I can't help being a dad," he said for his excuse, winking one of his green eyes.
Right after we got married, Gill and I combined our money to buy a house on the plot of land in the Caramel River District on the small island that split the river into a fork before it entered the ocean. I started a garden since there was a huge area of fertile soil just begging to be used.
Everything was quiet for a while, until Winter came around again. I still very distinctly remember "that" morning...
It was a beautiful, sunny day despite the snow. I had woken up just a few minutes earlier than usual and went outside to admire the weather and snow for a but. I was watching a bird fly by when suddenly my stomach cramped. I made a face and wondered if I'd eaten something bad last night.
Then Gill came out. He smiled and came over to stand beside me. "I don't really get the big deal about good weather, but I suppose if you like it..."
I scoffed and nudged him. "Thanks for ruining the moment," I said light-heartedly, trying not to show I wasn't feeling all that great.
But of course, Gill caught on straight away. He looked at me skeptically. "You look pale. Are you all right? Don't lie to me," he added sternly.
"I'm okay. I don't feel the best," I admitted. "But I'll be better as the day goes by."
"We're going to the clinic," Gill said immediately.
I sighed. "Did you hear what I just said, Gilly? I'll be fine."
"No. What could be minor, could turn into something worse. Let's go," he said firmly.
Finally I gave in. Gill was just stubborn, and I was certain nothing was wrong, but what harm could it do? If it would satisfy him, fine.
Well, turned out neither of us were quite right or wrong. I wasn't sick, exactly, but I supposed it was a good thing Gill had insisted on taking me to the doctor after all.
If only every person on Waffle Island had seen the look of astonishment on Gill's face. I would've cried laughing so hard if I hadn't been so shocked as well. It wasn't until much later I realized how off-guard he had been caught.
"Are you serious?" Gill made out after we stared at Irene in disbelief for a minute or two. "You're not joking?"
Irene looked somewhat puzzled and amused. "Absolutely not. Why would I joke about something like that?"
My husband turned to stare at me. "Then... I'm going to be a father. We're going to be parents!"
"I guess so..." I said, in a bit of a daze as well. "Wow." My eyes traveled down to my stomach to gaze at it in wonder. According to Irene, I was pregnant. Jeez, and I thought it was bad food...
Finally I came to my senses and smiled at the old woman. "Thank you, Irene."
The nurse smiled back. "Anytime. I'm sure you two will make wonderful parents."
Outside, Gill was at a loss for words, even more so than the time I had first kissed him. I didn't blame him.
Suddenly I let out a short ironic laugh, just remembering something. "Happy birthday, Gilly."
He stared at me again for a moment, then a smile crept onto his lips. "I thought I told you no more surprises."
I grinned but couldn't help it and lightly blushed. "I said no promises."
"Well, I guess I can live with this one," Gill reasoned, pulling me close and kissing my cheek. Keeping his arm around my shoulders, we started walking to work.
Elli completely freaked out. That's really the only way to describe her reaction when we explained our reason for being late, you could say. She almost seemed more excited about this news than Gill and me. For the rest of the day we were subjected to name suggestions every other sentence from her. It got a little annoying, frankly, though I did tuck away a few names in my mind for future reference.
Mayor Hamilton - erm, my father-in-law (it was still strange referring to him as that) - was pretty surprised, but overall he was delighted. My parents, on the other hand, weren't prepared. They thought it would be a few years before they received the news they were going to be grandparents, not a mere two seasons. But I pointed out there wasn't much they could do about it, so they arranged to sail over a week or two before the baby was due.
On Spring second, Gill and I's daughter Trisha was born. She had beautiful bleach-blonde hair like her father and my purple eyes. Five years later, I was due on Fall sixth for a baby boy. Adrian ended up with yellow hair and blue eyes, opposite of his older sibling.
And thus three years later Gill and I found ourselves in the main room of our house, him sitting at the table with eight-year-old Trisha and me tending to Adrian in his highchair.
I kept making silly faces and blowing raspberries at him, trying to get him to laugh. It was pretty easy; Adrian was a giggly toddler. Gill and Trisha cast amused glances my way from time to time at my expressions, then returned to reading. I had to smile. Trisha was sure taking after her dad. She was incredibly smart, and serious-minded about most subjects. Though I'm glad to say she was much less... Rude, to strangers. That was a relief. I could only wish the same for Adrian.
"Twisha!" Adrian shouted proudly for no apparent reason. He beamed at us. Gill and I laughed.
"That's right," Gill encouraged his son. "Trisha's your sister." He turned to me. "He's really smart."
"That's what you said about Trisha, too," I chuckled.
Just seeming to notice her name being mentioned, Trisha looked up from her book and peered at me through her glasses. She had been oblivious to her brother and father an me until then. "What?" she asked, blinking her pretty lavender eyes. "Did you say my name?"
I smiled affectionately at her. "We were just talking about how smart you were when you were a baby," I explained.
"Are you saying she's not smart now?" Gill asked, pretending to be offended on her behalf.
"No!" I laughed. "Trisha, you're the most intelligent girl I know."
Looking bashful, she didn't say anything in return. Adrian squealed to break the silence and win back my attention; he was hungry again. I rewarded him with a spoonful of soft corn from his bowl and resumed making funny faces at him.
A few minutes later there was a knock on the door. "That must be him!" I announced, then got up to answer it. Mayor Hamilton stood there.
"Hi, Father," Gill said as he came to stand next to me. "Thanks for watching the kids while we're out. It's a big help."
"Are you sure it's not interfering with anything?" I pressed somewhat fretfully. He was the mayor, after all.
"No, no," he assured me. "It's my pleasure! I don't get to see my grandchildren every day. I should really spend more time with them."
"All right, if you say so," I agreed, still doubtful.
"Stowy, stowy!" we all heard Adrian say gleefully as he caught sight of his grandfather. He associated Mayor Hamilton with story time nowadays.
Gill's father laughed. "That's right, I have a story to tell you today." He headed inside. "Hello, Trisha. My, you've grown!"
"Hello, Grandpa," she said quietly, her shyness getting the better of her even with her own relatives.
Gill put his arm around me. "It's fine. If there's an emergency in town - which there won't be - people know where he is. They'll call," he told me, trying to quench my fear that Hamilton was neglecting his mayor-ly duties by babysitting for us tonight.
"I guess you're right," I gave in, nodding. "But next time let's have Luke do it. He's been wanting to babysit for us for a while."
Gill rolled his eyes.
"Fine. Let's go, before we miss it."
"All right. Bye, everyone!" he said, waving to our children. "We'll try and be back by ten." We didn't want to stay out too late now that we had kids to take care of. Plus, we had work tomorrow. Well, I got an altered schedule so Adrian didn't have to be home alone that long. Trisha had school for most of the day, so I didn't worry about her as much.
Yes, you heard me. Now that most of the younger generation on the island had gotten married and had kids, they were all going to school at the Town Hall. Gill had his hands full as their teacher. I noticed Trisha taking a liking to Angie, Julius and Candace's daughter, and Heath, Calvin and Phoebe's son. So far Gill and I were the only ones with two children. I kind of hoped that would change, so Adrian wouldn't have to be by himself when it came time for him to start school. But there was nothing I could do about it, so I tried not to let it bother me too much.
I blew a kiss into the house, then Gill and I set off for Brownie Ranch for the Starry Night Festival. It was my favorite festival of the whole year, no, not because it had my name in its title. Stars had always fascinated me, and I loved to peace and quiet of just sitting there in the snow, watching them for a whole night. They were very beautiful things, and I was honored to be named after them. If I hadn't already been named Starri, I probably would've named Trisha that whether Gill liked it or not.
When we arrived at the big tree at Brownie Ranch and sat down, I sighed. "Wow, who would've thought that nine years after our first festival together, we'd be married with two kids?" I marveled, remembering the first time we went to this festival a little more than a week after we began dating.
Gill shook his head and smiled. "I know I never thought of that."
I giggled and leaned against him, gazing up at the sky in content silence for a bit. Then I suddenly frowned. "Gill?"
"What?"
"I don't feel so good."
He sat up straighter and looked at me with a mixture of alarm and nervousness on his face. I could practically read his thoughts; A third time? "R-Really?"
I stared solemnly into his eyes for a minute, then couldn't take it anymore and burst out laughing. "I'm joking, I'm joking!"
Gill put a hand to his forehead and slumped down. "Jeez, don't do that, Starri."
"You're such a worrywart," I said teasingly.
"Well, I'm just looking out for you," he said, somewhat flustered. "So you're sure you feel okay?"
"...Actually, no."