by Moshe Harel
22 Prom
As I was busy with my high school studies, Brian looked for something to occupy him, especially in the mornings. There were not many openings for high school graduates with no real profession. A bookstore took him for three mornings, mainly to help with carrying the heavy boxes and restocking the shelves. This still left him with more free time than he wanted. Checking around, he found a “Golden Age” house, where he volunteered to visit the occupants and help in any way needed.
I also felt that I should do more than mere studies at school, that I should exercise my leading abilities as much as possible, especially since the Elders seemed to expect me to become a leader, at least of the caliber of my Gran. I presented myself as a candidate for the class committee. I doubted I was popular enough to be elected, and I was surprised to find that I was. This put me in a position to care for many of the preparations required for the Prom. Of course, I couldn’t do everything myself. I enlisted some of my more talented classmates to do the decorations, tackle the food and the drinks, prepare the music, and so on. I was surprised to find out that I was more than a decent organizer, something that could come handy by the time to become a full Fairlady.
With all my occupations, time seemed to fly. I felt like I had only started the school year, and suddenly I had the final exams and a blink of an eye later, I was welcoming the guests to the prom, with Brian standing at my side. He looked really proud, and I thought that he couldn’t look prouder even had I been his daughter. My parents and my siblings also came for the ceremonial part of the evening, and even Gran made an exception and came, despite it not being a weekend.
Once everybody settled down, the headmistress came forward to deliver her end-of-school speech. After what seemed to be her regular text—she had said almost exactly the same words at Brian’s graduation, a year earlier—she surprised me by calling me at her side. “As many of you may know, Sophie has been the main force behind organizing this evening. I can honestly say that she’s set a new standard for the prom, one that would be hard to match by others. Yet she was not only the moving force for this evening. She has also achieved the highest scores in all her subjects, making me proud of having such an exceptional student in this school. I’m sure we shall hear great news about her in the future.”
I felt my face heat, and I was sure it turned as red as a tomato, yet when she handed me the microphone after the cheers calmed down, I managed to seem much calmer than I really was. “Thank you for your praise, but I believe that a large part of it goes to my colleagues who helped me and did most of the work when I only asked them for some help. Without them, nothing would have been accomplished, and my studies would have probably suffered as well. I want to thank . . .” I listed all the people who had helped me, letting the crowd cheer for each and every one of them. I felt they deserved it, as they had certainly put more of their time and talents into it than I had done.
Gran hugged me tighter than ever, once we joined the family. “You made me very proud of you,” she told me. Mom and Dad were also very proud, and my little sister seemed to adore me at that moment. Yet what I liked best was Brian’s proud smile as he hugged me loosely and possessively, to make any other young man understand that I was not available. I was just as willing to make a clear message, that Brian was unavailable to any of the girls who were watching him expectantly.
It was a fabulous evening, and I enjoyed it tremendously, despite having to make sure that everything went according to plan. I even managed to charm the punch bowl to keep the alcohol contents low enough to prevent anybody from getting really drunk, yet high enough to assure the good mood. Nobody but Brian knew about this, of course.
We returned home shortly after sunrise, but we were not yet ready to sleep. We discarded our clothes as soon as we came home and then started our own intimate dance, keeping copulating for more than an hour. We then showered together before going back to bed, where we only made love once before falling asleep.
I was awakened by Mom, who was shaking my shoulder, not too tenderly. “There’s a Kathy on the phone, sounding quite stressed. She tried your mobile first, but got no answer.”
Hearing about Kathy made me jump in alarm out of bed. I lifted the handset on my desk. “Kathy, is it time?”
She sounded relieved at once. “I had a few cramps during the night, but paid them no attention. Now they seem to become much more painful and at regular intervals. My parents want to take me to the maternity ward, but I want you to come with me.”
“Maybe Brian should come as well. You may pretend he’s the child’s father if asked.”
“He may come if you insist.” She clearly preferred me at her side.
“Alright. I’ll use a portal to come quickly.”
She gave me the address and ended the call. Brian was already awake as well. He handed me my clothes and got dressed. Ten minutes later, both clad in jeans and t-shirts, we arrived at Kathy’s parents’ home.
I felt lucky that the family had two cars. Kathy, her sister, and I went with her mother in one car, while her father took Brian in the other. Her mother handled all the arrangements when we arrived at the hospital. I was thankful for that, as I would have probably felt lost in the bureaucracy. Soon enough, Kathy was rushed to the delivery room. Her mother and I joined her a moment later.
While the maternity staff was busy connecting her to monitors and to the infusion, as required by the medical procedures, I used my magic to scan Kathy internally. She seemed to be perfectly healthy and the baby—it was a boy—was positioned right for normal delivery. She only needed to let her body do the work instinctively. Yet Kathy was extremely agitated again. It looked like all her fears, all the worst-case scenarios, came to haunt her at once. Her mother was caressing her face and wiping the perspiration, speaking soothingly in her ear. It may have had some effect, but not enough. I wasn’t sure how much I could help. I never tried telepathy with Kathy before, and I wasn’t sure if her reaction, in case I used it, would be favorable. Instead, I tried to make her calmer, using my magic as a calming agent as well as a pain reliever. I was sure it would cause fewer side-effects than any medicine she would be tempted to take.
Kathy didn’t calm down all at once. It took the midwife reassuring her that she was doing fine and that the baby was in no danger, along with some subtle applications of magic, to make her calm enough to start cooperating as expected. As this was her first baby, she was naturally more anxious than experienced mothers, and the birth process was not expected to go very fast.
Just as the staff was monitoring her condition with various instruments, I was monitoring it magically. I noticed quite soon that Kathy was not very strong, physically. While her muscles continued to contract under the influence of the delivery process, they were not doing too well in actually advancing it. Without some help, I felt that it would take much longer than expected and that in itself could put mother and child in danger.
I had to stay in a closer tune with Kathy to help her. When a contraction started, I helped it with some magic, and when it ended, I helped her muscles relax. This seemed to ease the process and hasten it. I was not really aware of the time. It seemed to me that it went quite quickly. Her contractions were finally able to push the baby all the way. He crowned, making the whole staff come to her side. A few more pushes brought the head out, and another one made the body emerge. The loud yell of the baby was like sweet music in my ears, and I watched attentively, using my magic to monitor him as well, especially since I had no experience to help me judge his condition otherwise.
The staff seemed to be content about the situation of the baby. They cut the umbilical cord and then cleaned and covered him with soft and warm clothes, before giving him to his mother for his first suckling. Kathy looked at the little bundle with some disbelief, as if it was beyond comprehension that such a tiny life came out of her body. She took him tenderly and let him latch to her breast. I finally took a good look at him as well. His face was round and red, althoug
h its color was quickly becoming paler, like normal skin color. His ears looked only slightly pointed. I would have completely missed that, had I not known about his father. His body, as much as I had a chance to see it before it was wrapped, seemed completely normal as well. While suckling, he opened his eyes and looked at his mother. He had quite big eyes, but I couldn’t tell if they were any bigger than normal for human babies. At least none of the medical staff commented on them.
After some suckling, the baby fell asleep, looking calm and content. “You should now try to expel the afterbirth, while your womb is still contracting,” a nurse told Kathy.
I knew she was unable to do it, so, once again, I used my magic to urge her muscles to cooperate. It took only a few minutes for the afterbirth to emerge, complete and clean, assuring Kathy’s quick recovery.
“How did it go?” Brian asked me as soon as I came out of the delivery room.
“Quite well, but I felt I needed to help her push, as her muscles wouldn’t do it without some help.”
“You look exhausted.” He looked exhausted as well. I glanced through the window and was surprised that it was already dark outside.
“How long did it take?” I asked. I had not bothered with the time since before we fell asleep, so I couldn’t really know. I didn’t even wear my watch.
“You stayed in there for almost five hours. Aren’t you hungry?”
Now that he asked, I felt both hungry and thirsty. Brian gave me a can of something to drink and her father approached with some fruit salad, clearly bought at the vending machine. I thanked them both before eating and drinking. It wasn’t much, but it helped.
While eating, I tried to understand all that happened and also continued to monitor the baby some more. He didn’t seem to be in any danger. His breathing, his temperature, and his heart rate were stable. This made me calmer as well. As much as I had reassured Kathy, I wasn’t quite sure about it either. According to what I had heard, elves reacted to being out of Avalon in a matter of seconds. That baby had been out of the womb for more than half an hour and only seemed to get stronger. It was a comforting thought.
23 Wedding
That weekend, my parents and Brian’s met to discuss the wedding arrangements. Brian and I decided to leave that to them, as the ceremony was basically irrelevant for us, being magically mated. It could still give my parents some semblance of normalcy, that they wanted so much, and being married was important for us as it assured us the treatment given to couples. I also thought that it could be better when we got our children, and the way I was feeling, especially after witnessing the birth process, I was sure it would be much sooner than my parents would like.
“When would you like to set the wedding?” Dad asked us when he returned.
“Before the start of term at the university,” I told him.
“Don’t you want a bit of a honeymoon?”
He already knew about me and Brian living as a couple, yet a honeymoon meant a kind of vacation, with no obligations to anybody except to each other. “That could be nice, if we can afford it,” I said, not sure where this would lead.
Dad smiled. “That’s what I thought. We decided to set the wedding three weeks before the start of term, allowing you a week or two of honeymooning before saddling yourselves back with studies. Brian’s parents will share the burden with us.”
I jumped on him and gave him a tight hug and a kiss on his cheek. Dad blushed a bit, probably because I was stark naked.
Brian only thanked him and shook hands with him.
“Your father said he will provide you with a list of resorts that you may like and let you choose, next time you go there. We also noticed that you don’t care too much about the wedding proper, so we decided to make it a small event, with only close family on both sides. Is that fine with you?”
We both nodded. I vaguely wondered if Mom’s uncle and aunt would come.
Gran didn’t let that deter her from letting us head another incarnation of the fairy club. There were only six girls and two boys, this time, and we no longer needed Gran’s help, except for the field trips, if only due to not having driving licenses yet. Being so busy with other stuff, we both hadn’t given it a thought before, but now I made it one of my top priorities, after the wedding, of course.
Being so busy, we were spared most of the hassle concerning wedding arrangements. Mom only took me one afternoon to look for a wedding dress and two more times for the fitting. Brian’s father took him to find suitable clothes for the wedding at the same time, and then to buy the wedding rings. Our parents also consulted with us about the styling of the wedding invitations and the music at the reception but left us alone about the other stuff. I found it quite normal, really, not having any experience with a wedding in the family or with close friends.
A few days after our last club meeting, we put on our wedding costumes and Dad drove us to the town-hall, where a secular marriage ceremony was held. Once it was over, Dad drove us to the hall where we had the reception.
I only expected to find a few people there—no more than thirty, at most—as we had originally planned to have a very modest wedding. It turned out that Gran had very different ideas about the proper way for her granddaughter to wed. Kathy and Lora were waiting for us at the door and they escorted us into the hall that was bursting with hundreds of people.
I saw my siblings there, as expected, as well as Brian’s family. I then noticed an elderly couple who stood up from their chairs to greet us warmly. It took me a moment to recognize them as Gran’s parents, who were clearly very excited. A few paces farther, I saw Gran’s brother and sister, who smiled warmly at us. Gran was standing at their side, her eyes moist.
Looking around, I felt a bit dizzy from the many smiling faces that I saw. There were my uncles and my cousins, from Dad’s side, of course, and then some very young women—my colleagues at the first Fairy Club, each with her boyfriend, and the slightly younger participants from the second club as well as those who had just finished it a few days earlier. Most of my high school classmates were also there, some with their boy- or girl-friends, as did many of Brian’s high school classmates.
I was most surprised to see some other faces, though. About half the Elders came, each with her mate. That was a much greater honor than I could have expected.
“I wonder how they can be presented to others,” I whispered in Brian’s ear.
“Probably as your Gran’s close friends or associates,” he whispered back.
It went very well, and I could sense that Gran had a great part in the organization. As far as I knew, neither my parents nor Brian’s had any organizational skills or any experience.
A few hours later, after changing to more comfortable clothes, Joshua handed us our flight tickets and the voucher for the vacation resort. “It’s a cloth-free resort, managed by a fairy couple. I’m sure you’ll like it there.”
Kathy called a few days after we returned from our honeymoon. “I’d like your help in taking my son to visit his father. Can you come this weekend?”
In a way, I had already expected her to ask for such help, but as I had a very busy summer, I didn’t give it much thought nor made any preparations. Now I had no choice.
“I’ll come, along with Brian. Will Lora join us as well?”
I could almost see her smile. “She’s crazy about the baby. You’d have to act forcefully to prevent her from joining.”
I laughed at that. “She’s really welcome.”
Once I hung up, my mind went immediately to all the preparations and the precautions we would need. The baby wouldn’t transform when passing the portal, as not even fairy babies could. That also meant that we would need to stay in our human size. I needed to check if that was even possible. Were we changing into our fairy form due to some inherent quality of the passage, or were we changing voluntarily, as we felt it would be more appropriate that way? I wasn’t sure about the answer.
Brian helped me check some books that could p
rove relevant, but there was nothing in them to help me. “Let’s try it ourselves,” I suggested.
“Better do it one by one,” he said cautiously.
“Right! I’ll open a portal and try to keep my form on passing. If I fail, I’ll try to transform back as soon as I can. You’ll have to monitor me and protect the portal if needed.”
Brian didn’t seem happy to let me do it but nodded just the same. Opening a portal to Avalon was no longer a challenge for me. I then concentrated on keeping my form as I walked through. I wasn’t really sure if I succeeded or not, as the trees in that area were very tall, even for humans. I turned back to look at Brian, who was still on the other side. He seemed to be in his normal size, compared to me.
“Follow me now. Make sure you keep your size,” I told him.
He seemed reluctant, but only for a moment. He then walked through the portal and came to my side, still in his human size.
I closed the portal and then hugged him. He hugged me back and kissed me, and we were soon copulating on the grass, oblivious to everything else.
I was regaining my breath after our third copulation when I heard some noise between the trees. There weren’t many beings on Avalon who could prove dangerous to us in our human size, but I still preferred to be cautious. I looked in the direction of the noise, making myself ready to use some magic, if necessary. The trees obscured the view, yet as the noise came closer, I thought I recognized it. A moment later, I could already understand the elves talking.