Ashes to Ashes

by M. J. Padgett

  The man was in hog-heaven, so rather than destroy his happy mood with news I’d nearly been eaten by a troll, I decided to cater to my curiosity about Calla’s adoptive family. Ely pulled up a stool and offered it to me before sitting beside me at the long center island. I leaned my elbows on the marble surface and tried to think of something to start a conversation.

  “So, how did you meet your husband?”

  “Oh boy, that’s an interesting story,” Jeanine said, and for a moment I thought she wasn’t going to tell me, but I soon realized she was only pausing to remove the second cake from the oven. “I guess I should begin by saying my mother died when I was young, so my grandmother moved in with my father and me. She was very strict and had a very... I suppose you could say an old-fashioned way of thinking. Gerald and I met in high school and became fast friends, which was fine with Noni—that’s grandmother in Italian—until we started dating. You see, when my father, a white Italian-American man, married my mother, a half-Cuban woman, she nearly lost her mind. But, that was nothing compared to her opinion of her only grandchild dating an African-American man.”

  “Oh... that’s... interesting,” I stated.

  “Well, it was definitely the wrong way of thinking, but Gerald soon won her over with flowers and chocolates and all manner of Italian pastries. The man spent hours huddled over a cookbook learning to make her favorite dishes. Honestly, it infuriated me because I wanted her to love the man I loved for who he was—strong, confident, kind—everything you could want in a life partner. Still, he insisted the way to her heart was to prove he loved not only me but my entire family regardless of her opinion. Long story short, I think Noni loved him more than she loved me before she passed.”

  “That must have been really hard for you, but you two seem so in love,” I said, catching the affectionate way Ely watched Jeanine.

  “We are, and we always have been. The trials we face in life can surely ruin a relationship, but they can also make it stronger. Take Calla and Wil, for example. That man chased my daughter around the world for fifteen hundred years! I’ve spent thirty years just trying to get Gerald to put his dirty socks in the hamper. I can’t imagine the kind of love the two share.” Jeanine’s voice got a faraway tone speaking of her daughter.

  It made me think of the man sitting beside me, who hadn’t been chasing me for nearly as long, but he had spent a considerable amount of time trying to prove himself.

  Cecily had been so quiet, I’d forgotten she followed us into the kitchen until she spoke.

  “Oh! Look who’s coming!” she said, then bent down to catch Little Wil as he leaped into her arms.

  Hans ran directly to me and hugged me before climbing onto the stool beside me. “Can I have cake, Mama?”

  “Um...” I suddenly realized I’d forgotten how to mother. I was good at mothering my sister, but I had no idea how to be a parent to my own child, especially after all he’d been through.

  Jeanine was quick to pick up on my hesitation, and said, “I think cake before lunch is a splendid idea, don’t you Mama?” I nodded with relief and Jeanine patted my hand. She whispered, “It will come to you, trust me.”

  The boys’ faces were covered with chocolate as they devoured a giant slice of cake together. Jack pretended to steal bites, making the boys giggle uncontrollably. Hans tried to be the big kid and hold his laughter, but Jack was persistent. When they were through eating, it was piggy-back rides and tag for hours.

  It felt wonderful to run in the courtyard as a family, but remembering I still had not triggered my memories began to weigh on me again. I tried to push the thoughts away for another time, but I wanted to remember Hans so badly it physically hurt.

  Our fun times in the courtyard were put to an abrupt end by my father, King Agustus, rampaging into the open area demanding answers.

  “I want an explanation as to why my daughters were roaming the forest with trolls on the loose!” His booming voice startled the boys and Hans clung to my leg. There was no reason a nine-year-old boy should be so frightened by the sound of his grandfather. Little Wil ran behind Cecily, and my anger bubbled just under the surface.

  “Well? Out with it!” King Agustus yelled, directing his question toward Ely. Ely opened his mouth, but I was tired of being pushed around my whole life. All my days I accepted beatings, so my sister wouldn’t, but I’d be darned if I’d let my own biological father speak to the people I cared about or to me in such a tone.

  Hans’ frightened voice pushed me over the edge. “Opa? Are we in trouble?”

  I bent down to whisper in his hear. “No baby, no one is in trouble. Why don’t you and Wil go with Auntie Cecily to your room? Papa and I will be there shortly to play.” He darted toward Cecily who gave our father a heated glare before taking the children away. Jack followed them closely, his jovial mood ruined.

  Once they were out of earshot, I gave my attention back to the man who hadn’t known me for a very long time. “If you ever so much as raise your voice a hair above normal tone in the presence of my son again, you will regret it with every bone in your body, am I clear?”

  The king was taken aback by my tone and raised a finger to me, pointing in my face. “You listen here, young lady, I am the king and your father. You will do as I—”

  I laughed, unable to control my anger. “Where were you when I was getting beaten by my foster parents? Where were you when I worked three jobs to make sure Cecily had enough to eat and decent clothes for school? Where were you... just... where were you?!” I hadn’t intended to scream at the man, but it seemed every ounce of pain and frustration was unloaded into my rant against him.

  “Saskia, I didn’t know... I... I tried many times to escape, but...”

  I sighed, well past the point of accepting excuses. “I don’t care what you did. All I know is, you may be my biological father, but all you are to me right now is a reminder that life is cruel. It’s hard, and it’s unfair. You’re a dictatorial man, and I get that maybe you had to be to rule a kingdom, but if you loved me like a father should, then you would have given me your blessing to be with a man who loved me instead of pushing me on a man of your choosing. I’m tired, I’m just tired, and I want one day of my life to be... just... oh, just free from it all for once. I’m going to spend time with my son because I love him, and I want what’s best for him, and right now that is not fighting with you.”

  I turned to leave, not caring if I’d hurt his feelings.

  “Saskia, come back here right now!” he said, still trying to exert his authority over me.

  I spun on my heel, finished with everything—wolves, witches, trolls, curses—and overbearing kings. “You can go straight to—”

  “Sierra!” Ely shouted, then “Little ears are returning.”

  I glanced over my shoulder to see Wil and Hans had escaped from Cecily and Jack, and both boys were running through the courtyard back toward the kitchen. I calmed significantly when I saw they were not upset any longer.

  “Sierra, why don’t we take a walk and calm down? He is your Dad, and it’s not good for the two of you to fight this way,” Ely reasoned.

  “No, Alex Monroe was my Dad. King Agustus is just a guy from a life long ago, who happened to have a child with a woman who is locked away in a birdcage somewhere. And trust me, from experience I can tell you she’s probably no better than he is, so as far as I’m concerned, she can rot in that cage.”

  I stormed off, leaving Ely at a crossroads. I heard King Agustus speaking, but I couldn’t make out what he said. All I heard was Ely respond, stating, “You should have thought of that before you attacked her. You don’t know what she’s been through. Excuse me.” He practically spat the last two words at him, then I felt him at my side.

  “I’m sorry,” I began, but he stopped short and pulled me back to face him.

  “Do not ever be sorry for standing up for yourself or for our son. I love you, Sierra. I love every part of you—the woman you were and the woman you are now. I ju
st... I just love you.”

  “Mama! Papa! Look, more cake!” Hans shouted, which made me giggle.

  “I love you, too. Now let’s go retrieve our child before he’s on a sugar high we’ll never get him down from.”

  Jeanine wore a guilty look, but it had very little to do with the chocolate cake she’d given my son and a lot more to do with the brownies she somehow whipped up while I was arguing with my father. How the woman managed to bake so much astounded me, but I didn’t complain. I loved brownies, especially when they had cheesecake ripples in them.

  “These are so good, Oma,” Hans said.

  “Yeah! Yummy cookies!” Wil added, and I noticed the tray of cookies that had also materialized.

  “Oma?” I questioned Ely, noting that Hans had a way of mixing languages.

  “Well,” Ely said, offering Jeanine a chocolate grin, “Jeanine has been more of a mother to us than our own—not Ravenna, of course. I meant my mother back in America. Same for Caleb and Marcus, they had it kind of rough, too, but when we met Calla’s Mom, it got a lot better. She and Ravenna have basically restored my faith in mothers.”

  “Oh, I see, so Oma means...? Grandmother?”

  “Granny, sort of,” Ely replied. “I can teach you the language if you want.” The way he offered, it felt as if he’d accepted I would never regain my lost memories, but I wasn’t satisfied with that. I was about to say just that when Hans said the strangest thing.

  “Auntie Snow used to make me sweets like this. They were yummy, too.”

  Ely dropped his brownie in shock and choked a bit. Jeanine, Jack, and Cecily gaped at the boy, but I chose to remain calm about it and question him further.

  “Really? Well, that was nice of her, wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah, she was really weird. Sometimes she was really nice and took care of me, but other times she was mean and would send me to stay with Mr. Hines for a while.”

  “Mr. Hines? Who’s that?” I asked.

  “Joseph Hines, the furniture maker. You knew him, Mama. He was nice and taught me how to carve things.”

  “Mr. Hines... isn’t that the guy Felix said was... you know,” I whispered to Ely, not wanting to alert Hans that the man might have burned to death in a fire.

  Ely nodded, then urged me to question Hans more.

  “Why did Auntie Snow send you to him? Were you his apprentice?” I asked timidly.

  He shook his head and ate another bite of brownie before responding. “No, not really. I’m not supposed to talk about him, Mama.” Hans got a guilty look on his face as if he were breaking a rule I was unaware of.

  “It’s okay to talk to us, sweetheart. Go on,” I urged.

  “He taught me stuff, but mostly I just stayed there while Auntie Snow was sick. She got sick a lot.”

  “Sick? Like a tummy ache?” Jeanine asked, pushing our luck, but she was as intrigued by the situation as I was, probably because her own daughter nearly died at the hands of the fairy tale princess.

  “Sometimes, but usually she just got really mad and didn’t want me around. She acted differently when she was sick, like a different person but she still looked like Auntie Snow. When she was well, she took good care of me. She gave me lots of toys.”

  “Oh, well, that’s good then,” I said and decided not to pry further since I didn’t want to overwhelm him. Even so, he had more he wanted to share.

  “The last time she got sick, she never got better, so I guess that’s why she went away forever. Then Papa came home, and everyone said it was better. Oma Ravenna says Papa didn’t want to stay away, but he had work to do, just like you Mama! I did what you said and ran right here to Auntie Snow, and she took good care of me while you were gone. She wasn’t mean to me like everyone says she was, not all the time. I was with Mr. Hines when she got really sick though, and when she left, Mr. Hines said I should go back to the castle to find Papa. One day, when Auntie Snow comes back, maybe we’ll all be a big family again.”

  Ely tensed and glanced at me. I was not prepared to explain death to a nine-year-old, though I was sure he’d seen plenty of it in his short life. Instead, I glossed over his statement.

  “I love our little family, and Mama is glad to be home again.” I hugged him and stuffed a brownie in my mouth before I began crying.

  Without even knowing, Hans had filled us in on his missing years. It made sense why he was distraught over speaking about it before—as far as he knew, Snow was a good person who loved him. I couldn’t begin to understand why Snow took him in, but in a way, I was grateful—a very, very small way.

  “You did a good job, Hans. What do you say we go find Uncle Wil and bug him to death?” Ely asked.

  “Yeah!” Little Wil said, then took off toward the Dining hall.

  Ely leaned in to kiss me, then said, “Jack and I decided you and the ladies need an afternoon off. Go have some fun while I talk to Wil and Jay about this new information.” He gave me a smirky little smile then wandered off to find his family.

  My mood was instantly improved with the idea of a fun night with the girls. The last girl’s night I’d had included Dannie, which brought on an entirely new bout of guilt. I tried to ignore it, so I didn’t bring everyone else down.

  “That was strange,” Jeanine said, then, “I wonder why she took him in?”

  I felt she was trying to make sense of the situation just as I was, but it was likely much more difficult for her to wrap her mind around. After all, Snow had disrupted her life in ways not many would understand.

  “Well, no sense in over-analyzing. You go have fun, and I’ll bring dinner later,” Jeanine said.

  “You’re not joining us?” I asked, finding I quite liked the company of Jeanine Benson.

  “Perhaps later, after the others have eaten. I’ll drag Ravenna away from her books for a little while.”

  I started to walk away when I heard Jeanine groan. Jack and I both turned around to see what had bothered her. She was clutching her stomach and looked positively miserable.

  “Jeanine? Are you alright?” Jack asked, then took a few steps toward her.

  She immediately stood straight, working hard to mask her pain. “It’s nothing. Happens every time I come here. I get a bit sick from the flight, jet lag I suppose. I’ll be fine soon enough.” She smiled and shooed us away, then went back to cleaning up.

  “Well, I guess we’ll just be down the hall if you need us,” Jack said, then followed me toward the party.

  “Um...” I began, not sure how to remind Jack he was a man and decidedly not part of the ladies only party.

  “Hey, it was my idea, so there’s no way I’m missing it. Get over it,” he said, then picked me up, tossed me over his shoulder and ran down the long corridor to a bedroom I hadn’t been in before.

  It was quite large and appeared to be prepped for a very lavish girl’s night in. Snacks of all kinds lined a table at the rear of the room while piles of pillows and lush blankets covered the open space in front of the fireplace. I’d had slumber parties before, but this one was set to take the cake—a giant, Jeanine Benson triple-chocolate cake.

  “Hey!” Jemma called from behind. “Do you like it?”

  “It’s incredible, but when did you find the time to do it... oh, wait, it was Fiona, wasn’t it?”

  There were so many people running around in the castle, I kept losing track of everyone. I felt a bit bad about it, but how was I supposed to keep up with all the new faces while maintaining some degree of sanity?

  “Yep. That little magic wand is handy,” she said, then dropped herself onto an impossibly tall tower of throw pillows. “Ahh, a girl could get used to this.”

  “Don’t get too used to it. This is my room, after all,” Elizabeth said when she entered, pulling her poor sister behind her. Seline was not at all prepared for a night of fun with the girls, but it didn’t appear Elizabeth was taking no for an answer.

  “I hardly think there’s time for partying,” Seline snapped, but Elizabeth calmly i
nformed her it was a perfect time.

  “We need to be at our best to fight Ella, and with all the stress floating around here, we need to take a breather for our mental health.”

  Calla begrudgingly entered the room with Julianna and Heidi, all three seemingly annoyed that they were taken from their researching. Cecily, on the other hand, was quite ready for fun.

  “Oh, ladies... and Jack... this is going to be so much fun, so slap on some smiles and pretend you like each other,” Cecily said, then fell beside Jemma.

  “I do like you all, but now is not the time to rest. It’s the time to—” Jack interrupted Calla’s statement by picking her up and plopping her directly in the middle of the pile of blankets. She stared at him like he’d lost his mind entirely, and I thought my best friend—my brother—was about to lose his head. Fortunately for him, he’s a funny guy who knew how to diffuse tension.

  “Why did the chicken cross the road?” he asked Calla.

  She groaned, then released a frustrated sigh. “I don’t know, Jack, why did the stupid chicken cross the road?”

  “He didn’t, he was too chicken! Ha! Get it?” He laughed and laughed like a little hyena on a sugar rush.

  I felt a bit bad for him, then Calla cracked a smile. She tried not to, but the corners of her mouth kept tugging until she couldn’t contain it any longer. She threw a pillow at him, nailing him right in the kisser.

  “Ow, you’re all such mean girls,” he claimed.

  “We are not mean, we’re just strong, independent women,” Heidi declared, then said, “But that was a bit mean, Calla.”

  “Oh, hush! You do it to Brody all the time!” Calla said with a bigger smile.

  Heidi’s eyes went wide. “I do not! Did he tell you that? The little... let me tell you what he does! The little monster has been purposely coming into the bathroom and flushing the toilet while I’m in the shower! Do you know how cold mountain water is?”

  There was collective giggling in the room, more in response to Heidi’s animated hand gestures than to what she’d said about her mischievous husband, but it got the conversation started.