Bon Voyage

Posted on Tue 2nd Feb, 2021 @ 10:02am by Purulence Addams

831 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Denouement
Location: Quays, Secure Docking Bay, Starbase 109
Timeline: Le jour des morts, 07:00

"I am not saying," Chlamydia said, sotto voice, to her sisters, careful not to be overheard by their niece, "that Papa is the Great Pumpkin; only that I have never seen the two in the same place at the same time."

Purulence snickered. "Well, whoever is the Great Pumpkin, I hope he or she was satisfied with the wealth of sacrifices offered last night. I've never seen so many pumpkin seeds in my life!"

"I don't know," Ischemia said, turning toward her sisters. "There were an awful lot of both pumpkins and seeds at that party at Papa's in ... was it 2385? You remember. That was the year Grimswold graduated from the Magical Circus Academy. Everyone was so surprised that he stuck it out, we had a huge party. I think there might have been more pumpkins, and certainly more seeds, that night.

"As for the Great Pumpkin," she lowered her voice, conscious of the small ears nearby, "I agree that there can certainly be a strong suspicion of collusion between Papa and the Great Pumpkin, if not actual body sharing between the two."

"Oh, yes, I recall seeing the holos," Chlamydia answered. "I was stationed aboard Hood at the time, and could not make it home."

Nearby, the subject of the conversation was holding his granddaughter on his hip. "Now, now, Imp. It's alright to cry; even I have been known to let one slip when parting from company as dear as this."

Six leaned her head against her beloved Pop-pop's shoulder, and nodded. "I find nothing sweet in this sorrow."

Ischemia nudged each of her sisters and nodded toward their father and Experiment Number Six. "Looks like Papa made another conquest. Or maybe Six did."

"Yes," Purulence said with a grin. She sighed. "I'm going to miss them, too, though. It's been lovely having them here."

Watching the grandfather and child, Purulence added, "I wonder if we might take Six places, do more things with her, to take her mind off of Mama and Papa leaving. She did seem to be making friends with a little girl from Brown Sector last night."

"Kya, I think it was ... no, that was the mother's name. I don't remember the child's. But yes, both of us should take more than the casual interest we've shown in her. Even though she's Chlamydia's daughter, I think parents always need more help."

Schemy paused for a moment, reflecting on what she knew about her niece. "You know she's ... unusual. I think it's a bad idea to leave her too much to her own devices. Any one of us got into frightening things, and I have a feeling Six could do far worse than we did. There may be things that could be roused by interest in her that we don't want awakened. We should probably have a planning session, while we're at it. Children are like weeds and will grow, even if they receive no care."

The lawyer in Ischemia watched her older sister as she moved around family members, saying goodbye. She'd do that herself shortly, but since they were talking about Chlamydia and Six, she watched the interactions that included the two of them with the others. Six might be clinging to her grandfather for the moment, but she wasn't generally a clingy child. She was wise beyond her years, which was why it had been interesting seeing her interact with the little girl who might be more than she seemed at first glance, too.

"The girl's name is Lexy," Purulence said, smiling at the memory. "She's the older sister of a little boy named Haksin who I met down there. Haksin is cute as bubbly pie; Lexy's a bit of a hellion." She sighed. "When any of us got into frightening things, we always had two sisters who would be at our back--or join in the fun. Six doesn't have that. She'll have to wait for cousins, and that will take a while."

Ischemia shook her head, "No, too late for her by then. She'll be too much older and able to be a leader, but not able to take counsel from your children. We have to do something ourselves. Chlamy loves that little girl, and I'm not sure she always sees clearly how very unusual Six is. I might be wrong. Maybe she's more of a relaxed mother than I can be an aunt."

"Exactly," Purulence agreed. "Far too late for a girl like Six." She glanced at Chlamydia. "I think Chlamy pays very close attention to Six. But--yes, I do wonder if she has noticed certain things about her."

"You know, we're probably far behind our big sister in noticing anything. She's known Six her whole life, and been around her while we only recently came into the nuclear family again." Ischemia shook her head slightly. "I can't help worrying about both of them, though. What do you say we walk over to give our own goodbyes?"

 

RSS Feed

Comments (1)