Author's Note: While working on the story following this one as a request for my little sister, I thought of a story idea. I created an original character in my story "Return to Skid Row"; Audrey and Seymour's young daughter. We learn of her baby days through flashbacks and glimpses into the past, but little else. I thought more about Seymour accepting himself becoming a father and what he would say to his daughter, and so this story formed. For those of you meeting my original character for the first time, I hope you like her as much as I do.

*S. Snowflake

A Different Kind of Flower

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Seymour Krelborn yawned faintly as he woke up beside his wife. He watched her sleep next to him and listened to her deep, but faint, breathing. It was familiar and peaceful, but the sound of another person's breathing in the room caught him by surprise. It was a soft inhale then exhale of air, and had to have came from a very small person. He carefully put his glasses on and looked across the room toward where he heard the sound, and his eyes fixed upon the baby crib that had sat there, empty save for blankets and such, until yesterday. It all came back to him then; why he and his wife were so tired, why his sleep had been interrupted at least once by a shrill cry, and why there was the sound of snoring in the room. They had a baby now.

Seymour tiptoed quietly over to the crib and peered inside, as if he did not believe that the baby girl lying there existed. Once he saw the infant, so tiny, soft, and snoozing contentedly, he smiled and thought, Yeah, little Julie. I remember now.

Just as he came over, the baby began to stir and whimper. She wiggled around, trying to right herself, but only became more stressed in the process. Of course Seymour wanted to help her, so he placed gentle hand near the little one's side and tried to make her comfortable. Julie fussed more at first, but after she knew that there was no harm done, she grew quiet again. She opened her eyes and looked up at her father.

"H-hey, Julie," Seymour stuttered, and made sure that his wife was still sleeping behind them. "You okay?"

Something in the baby girl's eyes told him that she was curious. She was not hungry or needed changing again, but she was just looking at him as if she were expectant about something.

"What's the matter? Hey, you know what?" Seymour asked softly before picking the baby up out of the crib while wrapping her tight in her blanket. "I'm going to show you around, Julie girl." He held the one-day-old infant and walked out of he and his wife's bedroom. His hands shook lightly, as if he were afraid that he might drop Julie, but he tried to remain calm about her. He looked into her almost beady, but so lovely, eyes of newborn blue-green. Julie… I like the sound of that name more and more.

Seymour first walked down the hall and stopped at the bathroom. "This is the bathroom, Julie," he explained. "You'll, um… use it when you get a little older." He laughed. "Your ma is the one who came up with the idea of a jungle bathroom. See the ferns on the wallpaper, and the elephant toothbrush cup?" Once it seemed that Julie understood, he stepped back out into the hall. "Moving on."

Next they came out of the hall and into the kitchen area. "This is the kitchen. Mama uses it to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner." He chuckled and whispered, "She has her share a' bad luck, and we just go out to eat sometimes. She really is a good cook though." Next he turned around to the dining area. "Okay, here's a very important room. This is where we eat together. Sometimes your ma makes flower arrangements on the table here and we eat in the family room. You're too small to eat the food we eat now, but that'll change. You'll sit down here with us and have all kinds a' good stuff to eat."

His eyes traveled next to the screen door, which led to the backyard. He opened the door with a small creak, and then poked his head out. "This is the back yard. It's a lot smaller than the front yard." He stepped onto the flagstone pavement and tilted his arms forward just slightly so that the baby could see. "In the summertime, we have barbeques out here. Your Mama helps me a lot. I'm no good with food... or just about anything. We were thinking of putting in a small swing out here for when you can use a swing. Maybe we could put a doghouse out here too, if we ever get a dog. I don't know, would you like a pet dog, Julie?" he asked the baby who seemed to smile in response. "Anyway, mostly all we do is come out here and talk sometimes. It'd be boring for you, just Mama and Daddy stuff."

Seymour turned around and went back into the house. He looked back into the baby's eyes that were fading tiredly before going into the family room. "This is a very important room, Julie. This is where we sit down together on the couch after dinner. Sometimes we put on the radio and sing to the music, but we sing all the time even without it. Your ma has a beautiful singing voice, and I sing all right too. Sometime soon we'll show ya. Now the other thing we like to do is watch TV." He pointed to the tiny television set across the way. "Your ma's crazy about I Love Lucy, but I like gardening shows and things like that. That way I learn even more about plants. Speaking of which…" He walked out of the family room and to the front door.

The green grass of the front lawn sparkled in the sunlight, and the tree just past the fence spread a faint shadow over the lawn. Just near the house in the driveway sat a little blue 1957 Volkswagon bug.

"That's our car; the thing we took you home in," Seymour pointed out. "I take it to work every morning. The only reason I'm here today is to help take care of you and let your ma get some rest. I stay here all day on Sunday though, and then I can get to know you better. Who knows? Maybe we could take the car for a spin."

Next, Seymour stepped onto the grass and walked across the lawn toward the front gate. Julie whined when a touch of wind brushed her cheek, but Seymour smiled and rocked her slightly to console her. "It's only a little wind, Julie girl. It happens outside. You'll get used to it."

He stopped at the front picket fence near the mailbox and the flowerbed. "These are plants, or to be exact, they are perennial flowers. It's important to remember to take care of them because if you don't they won't be here. It's kind a' like…" He thought for a second, then heard a small yawn from the blanket bundle in his arms and saw that Julie had closed her eyes and was falling asleep.

"-Kind a' like taking care of you, Julie girl. But you're a different kind of flower." He then shook his head warmly. "Well, guess it's time you go back inside since you're tired. My arms are getting numb anyway."

Seymour walked back across the lawn with his tiny daughter in his arms and into the house. He tiptoed back down the hall, trying not to wake his wife from her well-deserved slumber. Once he reached Julie's baby crib, he put the little girl back inside. She yawned again, then curdled up into the blankets and started to fall asleep. Her primitive actions somehow made Seymour overjoyed.

"Maybe later I'll show you the rest, Julie," he whispered before trying to walk out of the room.

"What were ya' doing with the baby, Seymour?" a high-pitched voice asked that made Seymour half-jump. It was the voice of Audrey, his wife and the subject of the "your ma this or that" throughout the tour. When he turned around, her green eyes looked into his own, and he caught how truly tired and protective of Julie she was.

"I was just showing her the house and I told her about us too," Seymour answered and sat down at the foot of the bed. "Gee, I still don't believe it."

"Don't believe what, Seymour darling?" Audrey asked tiredly in a calm whisper.

"I'm a dad, that's what I don't believe. Back on Skid Row, I never would a' thought I'd have a kid someday, Audrey. And when you were gonna have her, I was scared cause, well… you know, I didn't really have a mom and dad." Seymour frowned and looked at his feet. He had no idea who his biological father was, and all that he had left of his mother was a note that told the Skid Row Home for Boys that if anything was wrong with him that they could blame her because she drank while she was pregnant with him. Such was the life of a Skid Row orphan.

"Aw, Seymour," Audrey squeaked, trying to make him feel better. "It doesn't matta' who ya' parents were, rememba'? I love you all the same. And all our Julie needs to know from you is that you care about her."

"Oh Audrey, are you kiddin'? Of course I care about her. Gosh, I love her already," Seymour said before sitting beside his wife on the bed. "She didn't cry when I showed her around or anything, she just let me talk. For once I didn't mess up!" He smiled and put his arm around his wife's shoulder. "I think Julie will really like it here."

Audrey smiled back and kissed Seymour's cheek faintly from her own fatigue. "Yeah, and she already loves her daddy."

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