by Chris Colfer
As Alex rode her bike the rest of the way home from the train station, she closed her eyes for a minute and pretended she was riding along Thumbelina Stream in the Fairy Kingdom—a herd of unicorns was to her left and a hovering flock of fairies was to her right—and she was meeting her grandmother for a magic lesson on how to transform rags into a beautiful ball gown.
Paradise, she thought to herself.
Alex opened her eyes a second before crashing hard into a set of trash cans. Thankfully, the only witness was a garden gnome across the street, but even it seemed to judge her.
She got up and brushed herself off, deciding to walk her bike the rest of the way home. It had been a brutal reality check.
The Baileys still lived in the same rental house with a flat roof and few windows, but things were looking up for them. Their mother had finally caught up on a lot of their financial troubles and wasn’t working nearly as much as she used to. However, something else had been occupying Charlotte Bailey’s time recently, and it wasn’t nursing.
Alex parked her bike on the porch. The front door flew open just as Alex was about to walk through it. Conner was standing on the other side. He seemed upset and very concerned about something.
“What’s your problem?” Alex asked.
“Sorry, I thought you were Mom,” Conner said.
“Do you need her for something?” Alex said.
“No,” Conner said. “Mom is just usually home by six o’clock every night.”
“It’s six o’clock right now,” Alex said, looking at him like he was a crazy person.
“It’s six-fifteen, Alex,” Conner said, raising his eyebrows.
“So?”
“Well, where is she, then? Do you see her? Is there a car parked in the driveway?” Conner asked.
“Maybe there’s traffic,” Alex said.
“Or something else,” he said. “Like something keeping her at work.”
“Is there a point to all of this?” Alex asked, becoming annoyed.
“I need to show you something,” Conner finally admitted. “But let me warn you, you aren’t going to like it.”
“Um… okay,” Alex said and followed her brother in.
A series of barks and whimpers came from inside the house as Alex stepped through the front door.
“Buster! Down, boy! It’s just Alex!” Conner shouted. “Why does this stupid dog act like everyone who comes inside this house is carrying explosives? We live here, too!”
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on, Conner?” Alex asked, running out of patience.
“I’ll show you. It’s in the kitchen,” he said. “There’s been a development.”
CHAPTER TWO
IT STARTED WITH A DOG
Afew months ago, Buster the Border collie was rescued from the local animal shelter and given to the Bailey family. He was a gift from Dr. Robert Gordon, whom Charlotte worked with at the hospital and who had become a close family friend.
“Dr. Bob,” as the twins called him when he occasionally came over for dinner, was a kind man whose face settled into a natural smile. He was balding and not very tall but had big, caring eyes that made him an instant friend to anyone he met.
“Oh, Bob! You shouldn’t have!” Charlotte said as soon as he surprised them with the canine.
“What’s up with the pooch?” Conner said when he came to see what the ruckus was about.
“He’s all yours!” Bob said. “Your mom is always talking about the Border collie she had when she was a little girl and said she’s always secretly wanted another one. I was volunteering at the animal shelter and as soon as I saw him I knew I had to adopt him for you guys.”
“We have a dog?!” Conner exclaimed. Although the words came out of his mouth, he hadn’t fully grasped the reality of it.
“I suppose we do,” Charlotte said.
Conner immediately fell to the floor and started rolling around with his new pet. “We have a dog! We have a dog!” he exclaimed. “Finally, our suburban lives are complete! Thank you, Dr. Bob!”
“You’re very welcome!” Bob said.
“What’s your name, boy?” Conner asked.
“Buster,” Bob told him. “At least, that’s what they called him at the shelter.”
The black-and-white dog was obnoxiously happy and had bright green eyes, one of which was larger than the other. Bob had placed a red bandana around Buster’s collar.
Conner hugged him and almost cried tears of joy. “I know we’ve just met, Buster, but I feel like I’ve loved you my entire life!” he said.
“Who’s this?” Alex asked when she came to see what was causing all the excitement.
“This is my dog, Buster!” Conner said. He took off one of his socks and he and Buster played tug-of-war with it.
“He’s for all of you,” Bob corrected him.
“Conner, don’t use good socks!” Charlotte said.
Alex unintentionally let out a high-pitched squeal and her mouth dropped open. “We have a dog?!” she asked and jumped up and down. Something about Buster made the twins act like they were ten again.
“Yes, we have a dog,” Charlotte said, and shared her smile.
“Don’t be disappointed if he likes me more, Alex,” Conner said matter-of-factly. “Dogs tend to bond with boys more. It’s proven science, I think.”
“Buster, come here!” Alex called. Buster ran straight to Alex’s side and happily whimpered up at her.
“Never mind,” Conner said, a little disappointed.
The twins were so excited to get a dog they never questioned the gift for a second. They were so distracted playing with the new addition to their family that they didn’t see Charlotte give Bob a long, thankful hug, an embrace that lasted too long to just be a friendly gesture.
But as time went on, and the twins saw more of Bob, they were forced to notice the signs that their mother and the doctor were more than just friends.…
Conner sat Alex down at the kitchen table as soon as she walked through the door. Although he saw them every day, Buster couldn’t contain his excitement for the twins both being home. He jumped up and down and spun in circles around the kitchen.
“Buster, calm down!” Conner ordered. “I swear, that dog needs to be on medication.”
“What’s going on, Conner?” Alex asked. “You love that dog as much as he loves you.”
“That was before I discovered Buster was a bribe!” Conner animatedly declared. “Take a look at this!”
Conner retrieved a beautiful bouquet of a dozen long-stemmed red roses from the kitchen counter. He placed them on the table directly in front of Alex.
“Those are beautiful! Where are they from?” Alex asked.
“They were delivered when I got home from school,” Conner said. “They’re for Mom… from Bob!”
Alex’s eyes widened. “Oh dear,” she said and gulped. “Well, that’s very sweet of him.”
“Sweet?!” Conner said loudly. “This isn’t sweet, Alex! It’s downright romantic!”
“Conner, you don’t know he meant it in that way,” Alex said. “People send other people flowers all the time.”
Conner searched through the bouquet. “Daisies are friendly, sunflowers are friendly, a Venus flytrap is friendly—but red roses mean romance!” he said. “And he sent a card. It’s in here somewhere—I read it like a hundred times before I threw it back in—here it is. Read it.”
He passed a small card to his sister, and to her horror it was heart-shaped. She looked down at it like it had the results to an exam she knew she had flunked.
“I don’t want to read it,” Alex said. “I don’t want to invade Mom’s privacy.”
“Then I’ll read it to you,” Conner said and tried snatching the card out of her hands.
“Fine, I’ll read it!” Alex said and reluctantly opened the card.
Alex quickly closed the card as if trying to stop the truth from escaping it. Conner leaned close to his sister and studied her face, w
aiting for a reaction to surface.
“Weeeeeell?” Conner said.
“Well,” Alex said as she ran through a dozen unlikely theories, “we don’t know that this means they’re in a relationship.”
Conner threw his hands into the air and paced around the kitchen. “Alex, don’t do that!” he said, pointing his finger at her.
“Don’t do what?” she asked.
“That thing you do when you try to ignore a situation by making light of it!” he said.
“Conner, I think you’re overreacting—”
“Face it, Alex, we were blinded by a Border collie!” Conner exclaimed loud enough for the neighbors to hear him. “Mom has a boyfriend!”
Hearing Mom and boyfriend made Alex squirm. In her opinion, the two words didn’t belong in the same dictionary, let alone the same sentence.
“I’m not going to get too worked up about something until I hear it from Mom herself,” Alex said.
“What more proof do you need?” Conner said. “Mom got a dozen red roses delivered with a heart-shaped card specifying an amount of time! What do you think ‘six months’ means? Do you think Mom and Bob joined a bowling league and didn’t tell us?”
Both of their heads abruptly turned in the same direction when they heard the garage door open. Charlotte was finally home from work.
“Ask her,” Alex mouthed at her brother.
“You ask her,” Conner mouthed back at her.
Charlotte stepped inside a few moments later. She was still dressed in her blue scrubs from the hospital and carried a bag of groceries. She walked right by the flowers on the table without noticing them.
“Hey, guys, sorry I’m late,” Charlotte said. “I stopped by the store on the way home to pick up something for dinner. I’m starving! I was thinking of making a chicken-and-rice something or other; sound good? Are you two hungry?”
Charlotte looked up when the twins stayed silent.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Are you okay—wait, where did those flowers come from?”
“They’re from your boyfriend,” Conner said.
In the thirteen years of being her children, Alex and Conner could count on one hand how many times they had seen their mother become speechless. This was one of those times.
“Oh…” Charlotte looked like a deer in headlights.
“You have a lot of explaining to do!” Conner said and crossed his arms. “You should probably have a seat.”
“I’m sorry, did someone promote you to parent?” Charlotte said and glared at her son.
“Sorry,” Conner said and lowered his head. “I just think we need to talk about this.”
“Is it true?” Alex asked with a half-concerned, half-horrified expression.
“Yes,” Charlotte said with difficulty. “Bob and I have been seeing each other.”
Conner slid into a seat next to his sister. Alex’s forehead hit the table.
“I was going to tell you,” Charlotte said. “I was just waiting—”
“Let me guess, until we were older?” Conner asked. “If only I had a nickel for every time we heard that. Alex, watch out—we may be two-thirds of a set of triplets but won’t know until we’re thirty.”
Charlotte closed her eyes tightly and let out a deep breath. “Actually, I was waiting until I could figure out how to tell you,” she said softly. “You guys have been so worried about not seeing your grandmother. I didn’t want to add anything to your plate.”
She took a seat and let the news sink in for a moment.
“I know this is hard to swallow,” Charlotte said.
“Hard to swallow? We need an emotional Heimlich, Mom,” Conner said.
“I actually think finding out our grandmother is a fairy in another dimension was easier to process than this is,” Alex added.
Charlotte’s eyes fell sadly to her hands. The twins didn’t mean to make her feel bad, but they were feeling so many things, they were forgetting to be considerate.
“Bob and I have known each other for a very long time,” Charlotte said. “When your dad died, he became a very good friend. He was one of the few people I could talk to about everything that I was going through. Did you know Bob’s wife died just a year before your dad?”
Both of the twins shook their heads.
“You could have talked to us,” Conner said.
“No, I couldn’t,” Charlotte said. “I needed another adult to confide in. You’ll understand one day when you have kids. Bob and I each knew what the other was going through. We talked every day at work and became very close, and recently, that friendship has grown.”
The twins couldn’t decide if what she was saying was helping or making it all worse. The more she explained, the more real it became.
“What about Dad?” Alex said. “Your and Dad’s story was literally a fairy tale, Mom. He traveled from a different world to be with you. Don’t you still love him?”
The question was heartbreaking for all of them, especially Charlotte.
“Your father was the love of my life, and always will be,” Charlotte said. “And these years without him have been the hardest of my entire life. We were married for twelve years, and in that time we talked about a lot of things, a lot of possibilities. I know for a fact that if I spent another year missing your father, he would be so disappointed in me. He would want me to move on as much as I would want him to move on if the roles were reversed. It was a promise we made to each other.”
Charlotte went silent for a moment before continuing. “The first year after he died, I thought I never would be able to move on,” she said. “I thought part of me died with him and I would never be able to love anyone again. But then Bob told me he and his wife had made the same promises to each other just before she passed away, and he felt the same way. For some reason, just knowing someone else was in the same boat as me made everything feel so much better.”
The twins shared a hopeless glance, knowing there was nothing they could do to ease their mother’s heartache. “I know this is difficult for you two,” Charlotte said. “I’m not saying you need to be okay with it. You can feel however you want, and rightfully so. Just know that Bob makes me really happy, and it’s been a long time since I’ve felt this way.”
Conner unsuccessfully tried keeping a question that popped up in his mind to himself.
“Conner, what’s your question?” Charlotte asked and dabbed the corners of her eyes with the edge of her sleeve.
“I don’t have a question,” Conner said and shook his head unconvincingly.
“Yes you do,” Charlotte said, knowing her son better than he knew himself. “You always purse your lips like that when you have something to ask.”
Conner immediately repositioned his mouth.
“It’s okay, honey, you can ask anything,” she said.
“It’s really childish and lame,” Conner warned. “I guess it’s something I’ve always wondered about people who lose their husbands or wives. But one day, if we’re all in… well, heaven, I guess, isn’t it going to be a little awkward with Bob and Dad there?”
Alex was about to let out a disapproving sigh but held it in. Even she had to admit it was a decent question. Although she felt horrible for feeling it, a part of her felt like her mom was being unfaithful to her dad.
A smile came to Charlotte’s face and she let out a soft laugh. “Oh, honey, if there’s ever a time or a place when we’re all together again, I imagine we’d be too happy to let things be awkward.”
Alex and Conner looked at each other and knew they were both thinking the same thing. The thought of their family being together again made them both smile.
Charlotte placed her hands on the tops of theirs on the table. “Nothing any of us do will ever bring your dad back,” she said. “And nothing we do will ever push him further away, either. He’ll always be with us in our hearts, no matter what.”
“I guess putting it that way makes me feel better,” Conner said.
“Me too,” Alex said.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Charlotte said and smiled at them. She got up from the table and grabbed her car keys. “I don’t feel like cooking anymore. Let’s go get pizza instead. It’s good to eat something heavy after a heavy conversation.”
CHAPTER THREE
LUNCH IN THE LIBRARY
The next day at school Alex was still having a hard time digesting the conversation (and the pizza) from the night before. The news of her mother’s new relationship was a heavy thing to process and did nothing to help the gloomy state she was already in.
She felt like she was slowly losing control over everything in her life, and she hated it.
Alex desperately needed someone to talk to, someone who wasn’t her mom or her brother, but an outside source who could hug her and tell her everything was going to be all right—she needed her grandmother. She would have given anything just to see her face again. However, since that was impossible at the moment, Alex settled on seeing a form of her grandmother instead.
At lunch she went to one of her favorite places in her world: the school library.
“Hi, Alex,” the librarian said as Alex passed her desk. “You’ll be happy to know I just ordered a new set of encyclopedias!”
“Really?” Alex said. “That’s wonderful!”
She smiled for the first time all day. It faded a second later after she realized “new encyclopedias” was the most exciting news she had had in weeks.
“Thank you for your enthusiasm,” the librarian said. “Earlier today I told another student I was getting new encyclopedias—he asked me how long I’d be in the hospital! Can you believe that? Times are definitely changing.”
“They sure are,” Alex said under her breath.
Alex went to the very last aisle of books, where the children’s literature was kept. Students weren’t allowed to check out these books, as they were mostly used as reference for the English classes. From the top shelf, Alex pulled down an old book that was several hundred pages thick. It was exactly where she had left it on her last visit to the library.