Author's Note: This story was created over my Christmas vacation in Yellowstone National Park. It was an experiment in emotion, setting, and foreshadowing, along with creating an origin story for an original character of mine. Enjoy this story, it is very sweet!

*S. Snowflake

Something New

A Little Shop of Horrors Sequel

by Laura L.

***

It was such a very cold snowy day in the Greenville suburbs that most of the people who lived in town stayed indoors unless they had to shovel their driveways or when the occasional child went out to play in the fluff. The snow was no longer that nice December blanket that had come at Christmastime, but the cold February annoyance that had long overstayed its welcome. The twilight colors painted the sky with a deep aqua green concealed behind foggy gray storm clouds along with the tinges of pink and scarlet, and all the while the stars played a game of hide and seek with the rising moon. Overall, it was a calm and lovely late winter evening.

The sound of a car's engine penetrated silence of the season when the blue bug found its way to the house planted in the middle of Sunshine Street. It was just like the all of others; small, square, and covered in snow from the lawn, to the trees, to the rooftop, but perhaps more beautiful than the other houses as well. Apart from the snow, not a thing about the house was untidy or undesirable. As quietly as it could be, the little blue car drove into the driveway and ceased to putter before the door handle clicked slowly and a man named Seymour Krelborn stepped out. He was shivering, bundled up as tightly as he could be to fight the cold. His brown hair stuck out from under his baseball cap, frozen in mid air as he walked with slight stiffness to his house and fingered through his keys.

"O-oh, it's-s s-so c-cold-d…" he muttered in a soft voice before stepping in with his teeth chattering and glasses shaking. Inside, the temperature was warm and toasty, just the right temperature for Seymour to fall down on his plastic-coated couch, situate a spot for himself upon it, and snooze for long hours.

Seymour's wife, Audrey Krelborn, poked her head into room from where she had been. She smiled at her husband and then went to his side to hug him and tried feebly to warm him up with her own body heat.

"Hey honey," she said in her squeaky voice. "How'd the job searchin' go ova'?"

Her husband grunted in reply. "Let's just say not too good. Apparently people in Greenville do care if you have a college education or not."

Audrey pulled herself back up from the hug and looked into his eyes compassionately. "Aw honey, you'll find a job soon. We'll be okay until then. Come on, I made some pasta, and I'm starvin'." She walked back into the kitchen area and gestured for her husband to follow.

"Well, when they want the next house payment, then we'll see about the job." Seymour said pessimistically.

"Seymour, sometimes you gotta have a little faith in these things," she replied in a soft and almost motherly voice.

Despite his present dilemma, Seymour smiled. Having a caring wife almost compensated for the fact that he had lived his life as an orphan without a loving parental figure. He observed her orderly performing the tasks she did when preparing every meal of placing their two plates, two glasses, two forks, and two spoons on the table before bringing the entrée forward. Tonight only one thing interrupted her lightning fast routine, and that was when she snatched up a magazine on the table. Seymour caught the words, "First time parent? We've got great suggestions!" on the cover before sitting down and spooning out a portion of dinner for himself and one for Audrey.

The night's meal was spaghetti with a rich tomato and basil sauce. It was delicious; some of Audrey Krelborn's best cooking. Audrey could not help but be a little gluttonous, eating hastily enough for the tomato sauce to form a red ring around her lips. Seymour chuckled in his throat about that all throughout the meal, but he did not have the heart to tell his wife how ridiculous she looked. After finishing their dinner, the Krelborns shared the duty of dishwashing before TV hour and then bedtime.

"Oh, I'm stuffed!" Audrey said, putting her hand over her belly. "-Hope I don't pay for that t'morra' morning, but I just got so hungry!"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, the throwing up thing," Seymour said, slightly uncomfortable at the thought of his wife being sickly again. For the past few weeks, Audrey had been vomiting almost every other morning at nearly the same time, and it was beginning to worry Seymour. He convinced her earlier that week to visit the doctor, and the appointment had been that day.

"So, how was the visit to the doc today?" he asked Audrey.

Audrey stopped scrubbing her plate for a second, then smiled and continued, "The docta' says I'm fine. He told me that the throwin' up is normal."

"What? That doctor's a quack, Audrey! I mean, if you're sick like that, something must be wrong."

Audrey shut her eyes calmly, and then pushed her plate into the dishwasher. "It's normal for my condition, honey."

"Condition?" Seymour asked, suddenly quite alarmed. "Audrey, what's goin' on? You're hiding something from me aren't you?"

Audrey made a more throaty laugh, and then walked to the other side of the kitchen without looking at her husband's face, picking up the magazine that she had left behind and gently stroked it, as if it were alive. At last she asked him, "Did you eva' want to have kids someday, Seymour?"

Seymour paused, now horribly confused and caught off guard. "Well, um, sure I guess. I mean, if you wanted to…" He shook his head and went back to washing the dishes without looking back. His wife just loved to distract him from the point, and he was in no mood for games. "Audrey, what's that got to do with this?"

Audrey looked up from her magazine and silently tiptoed to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and putting her face just behind his ear. "Because," she whispered, as if the house were a spy. "-We're going to have a baby, Seymour."

Seymour's hand completed one more rotation of cleaning his plate before he dropped it into the sink with a clank, then turning around to look at her with wide, shocked eyes. "Audrey… you're…?"

"Mm-hm," Audrey answered, grinning.

"So then I'm… I'm gonna be a dad, Audrey?"

"Mm-hm!" she replied, trying to contain herself.

Seymour took an intense interest in Audrey's eyes at that moment, full of truth and happiness just bursting to escape at the seams. She was going to have a baby… their baby. Seymour had once believed that he had seen all of the amazing things that could happen between he and his wife. From their first kiss on that fire escape back in the city to their arrival at their little paradise-like house, their life together seemed complete, but now something new was happening. And this something brought out an enormous smile that spread from one side of Seymour's face to the other.

"Oh Audrey, I… I don't know what to say!" he choked out, smiling.

"Oh Seymour!" Audrey chirped before hugging him tightly and wiping a tiny tear from her eye with her free hand. Finally she let go, realizing that she was choking her husband who had the relative strength of a Q-tip.

"Th-this is huge!" Seymour exclaimed when he found his breath again. He looked at his wife's stomach area, still in disbelief of what was growing inside. "I mean… Audrey! How long have you been? When's it coming? Is it gonna be a boy or a girl? Tell me! Tell me!"

"Shh, shh!" Audrey hushed Seymour, laughing at his child-like response. "One question at a time, honey. Let's see, well, the baby's only about a month on its way now, so eight more months from February is um… Octoba'. The baby should come in Octoba'! I don't know if it's a boy or a girl, but-" Another tear twinkled in her eye before she leapt forward and hugged Seymour again. "-Aw, Seymour, I'm so happy!"

Seymour kept his smile and embraced his wife softly yet with great compassion. "Me too, Audrey," he replied and kissed her cheek a few short times before squeezing her slightly tighter. Seymour knew only three words that he could, and did, add to that.

"I love you."

The End