On the weekends, Blaze works on his advanced technology skill, occasionally zooming up to check on the kids in the nursery. They love playing on the balcony and watching their father fly back and forth.
Sometimes, the line between work and play gets a little blurred. Blaze witness his son's birthday in the brief glimpses he gets while bouncing on the trampoline.
Polaris's traits are Light Sleeper, Neurotic, and Insane. He gets a small room to himself, painted with soothing yellow and brown tones.
But there's no escaping the voices he hears at night.
Go away, he thinks. I'm trying to sleep. But the voices never answer. They're not talking to him.
He's pretty sure they're ghosts. They sound dead.
Polaris still rarely speaks. His parents quickly realize he prefers quiet, and are respectful of that. Which is why Polaris is surprised when he hears his father say, quite loudly, "Damn that Hubert Sheppard! That promotion was mine!"
Polaris looks at his Dad, who is staring off into space. "What?" Blaze says at his son's look.
"Who's Hubert Sheppard?" Polaris asks finally.
Blaze looks at his son strangely. "What? Er, what? How do you know Hubert Sheppard?"
"No, you just said... something about Hubert Sheppard. Didn't you?"
Blaze shakes his head slowly. "I didn't say anything, son. Why don't you finish your pancakes and let's take Lily to the park?"
But she wants to go to the pool, not the park, Polaris thinks, but he merely nods and returns to his food quietly.
Lily guards Pol's bed at night. It doesn't help with the voices, but Polaris does feel safer with the dog there. He and Lily have a special bond.
For example, he knows she's expecting puppies long before Zinnia figures it out.
It doesn't take long for him to figure out that he can read people's thoughts, and the dog's thoughts, and even the ghosts' thoughts, and that that's not normal.
Sometimes he hears things, and then wishes he didn't. He washes his hands three times, five times, up to twenty times a day. The sound of rushing water helps block out the thoughts of others.
Blaze tries telling stories about aliens and astronauts to distract Polaris from his seemingly constant discomfort and anxiety, but it just gives him more conspiracy fuel. Now he's concerned that aliens are trying to take over his mind and use his body as a vessel for evil.
Meanwhile, Cassiopeia becomes a toddler.
Zinnia is pregnant again, and Lily has her puppies.
If you look closely, one is smaller than the other. The small one is Milo, and the fluffy one is Poppy.
They are tiny and adorable, and for a while the whole house is captivated by their antics.
Polaris expresses his anxiety through art, though he has no talent for it.
It doesn't always help.
He can hear his parents worrying about him, but he doesn't know how to tell them to stop. It doesn't help that he can't always tell if they're saying things or just thinking them, so he sometimes responds to their thoughts when he shouldn't, or doesn't respond where he should. Sometimes, people's thoughts and speech overlap, making it difficult for him to understand what they say.
His aunt Zoe comes to visit; he knows his parents have asked her to check to see if he's crazy. Her new job at the hospital involves treating mentally ill people.
She tries to talk to him about innocent things, like school and TV and books and his artwork, but he doesn't speak. He just doesn't have much to say.
Later, Zoe tells Zinnia that there's probably nothing to worry about. "The boy is just quiet," she says. "Probably shy, like you. Just give him space, and make sure he knows he's loved."
"If anything, he can come in for therapy once a week, but I really don't think it'll be necessary," she says.
Zinnia hopes she's right.
Ambrosia becomes a child the same night Zinnia gives birth to a boy, Sage.
Her traits are Grumpy, Artistic, and Perceptive. She and Polaris become close; he can tell she knows something's weird about him, so he decides to just tell her.
"I can read minds," he says. Ambrosia blinks at him, and then thinks, YELLOW IS A STUPID COLOR as loud as she can.
Polaris rolls his eyes. "Yellow is the best color, stupid."
Ambrosia's eyes go comically huge. Polaris hastens to add, "You won't tell anyone, right?"
Ambrosia shakes her head. The idea of keeping a secret this huge excites her enormously. "I won't tell," she promises.
Polaris sleeps easier than he ever remembers doing, that night.
As well as their fifth, unexpected child, a girl named Nova. Nova is born a day after Sage's toddler birthday and Cassiopeia's child birthday.
Nova:
Sage:
Cassie:
Cassiopeia's traits are Virtuoso, Brave, and Good.
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Notes -
Bah, I'm not very happy with this chapter. Sorry for making Polaris an unexplained psychic....... but, whatever. Also, somehow I was terrible with taking pics of the last two kids. So the end is really rushed, I apologize.
Bonus pic of Ambrosia and Cassiopeia's room:
Whew! We're all caught up!
Puppies! *ahem*
ReplyDeleteAh, so Polaris can read people's thoughts, and possibly hear ghosts, too. Glad he felt he could tell Ambrosia; it seems like he needed to get that off his chest a bit.
I like their unicorn bedroom. :)