Baird, Week 21After Lilac became a young adult, she added candles to her cake so that Maddox Hart could grow up, too. "He's active, a dance machine, and a geek," her great-great-grandmother Dahlia told her. "You could do a lot worse."
"Plus, he's cute," Lilac agreed.
She took him with her to her next dance party, and he did have some good moves. Not as good as Dominick Fyres, of course, but Dominick was already married.
After a while, Maddox had to call it a night. "Party-pooper," Lilac teased him. "I've got to do one more tonight before I can call it quits."
After he left, a couple of blue-skinned Zargons showed up, which made Lilac angry. She and her parents tolerated their rivals coming to the store, but crashing her party was crossing a line.
She followed Eris Zargon home and confronted her. "Nobody invited you," said Lilac, "and you didn't even bother to change into your party clothes. Don't they have any manners on Sixam?"
Eris apologized, but Lilac's dander was up. And besides, she needed to become enemies with one of the Zargons. After implying that Eris's mother was a llama, she got into a fight. Belatedly, Lilac realized that getting into a fist fight with the chief of police was probably not a good idea, nor was trying to fight in her party dress. By the time Eris was finished with her, she was so dazed that she almost forgot to declare her an enemy.
She went to bed when she got home, too wiped out even to read her book of life. A phone call from Maddox woke her up the next morning. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about you," he said. "Meet me at Chez Llama for breakfast?"
Lilac met him, and they had so much fun flirting that they didn't notice how long it was taking for their waiter to appear. "I've got to go," Lilac finally said. "I have to help out at the store. We're working on our last perk, Cheaper Re-stocking. But we can hook up later, okay?"
It was definitely okay with Maddox. He showed up at Lilac's party that night. "I've got my dancing shoes on," he said. "I'm ready to dance the night away."
"Let's sit out for a bit," said Lilac. "We need to talk. I don't know if you're aware of this, but I'm a dynasty heir."
"Does that mean you're going to be rich?"
"Not necessarily," said Lilac. "What it means is that I'm in a race with the Zargons. Which means that I can't sit around and wait for you to act upon your romantic feelings. In other words, I'm going to take charge for the next few minutes."
"Okay by -- whoa, that was fast."
"So, is it a yes?"
"Sure. I mean, don't you want me to tell you how beautiful you are in the moonlight, and what lovely eyes you have?"
"Of course," said Lilac, "but --"
"And you look gorgeous in that dress."
"Yes, but for now, all you need to say is 'I do.'"
And with a couple of leftover pumpkins as witnesses, Lilac and Maddox got married.
"Can I tell you you're beautiful now?"
"Maddox, you can't even see me."
"But I can feel --"
"Now, now, family friendly."
"Oh, one thing I may have forgotten to mention," Lilac said later. "We're going to be running a restaurant."
"Is that why we didn't get a house?" asked Maddox.
"Exactly," said Lilac. "What do you think?"
"It's kind of beige."
"The words you're looking for are 'simple, understated elegance,' said Lilac, "'in harmony with its spare desert setting.' I'm going to become a food critic."
"Oh Maddox?"
"Yes, love?"
"
Now you can tell me I'm beautiful."
Later, Lilac went out to the community garden. Her mother, her grandmother, her great-grandmother, and her great-great-grandmother all agreed that it was high time there was a boy to carry on the line. Since there was no telling what kind of music Maddox might choose to listen to, she had to eat some carrots.
"I don't think I've had a raw carrot before," Lilac mused. "Hmm, crunchy -- it's got that going for it. But the flavor is kind of blah. Not bad, just not really there. Healthy, I guess it tastes healthy. I suppose if you shredded it, and combined it with eggs, flour, and buttercream frosting, it might make a good cake."
The carrot -- "Actually, there were twelve of them," said Lilac -- did what it was supposed to do. Here is Dogwood Baird, the first boy in the family.
