Chapter Sixteen: Life Goes On
After Hades became a child, we realized we wouldn't have enough space to suffice with the extra child we had amongst us. So, we had a house built with 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a kitchen, living room, and dining area. We weren't too happy with the small space for Epona, but she managed.
The house
The interior
Living Room
Kitchen
Dining
Bathroom (they all look the same)
Master Bedroom
Zeus
Poseidon
Athena
Hades
Jack
We lived in the old house for a few months, also received an update from Mom, she said that Cronus had turned into a teenager, the twins were toddlers, and she had two new girls, Artemis and Hestia. After I got promoted and finally fulfilled my lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut and Bella started back at work, we moved into the new house. A couple of years went by and I received a call from Mom again...she said that Sam had passed away...
She didn't seem so sad though, but I knew it was because she knew her time would soon follow. She asked me to come over one day and handed me an old leather book that had maybe 250 pages in it.
"Take this Ares..." she said, her hands were thin and pale, not like the ones I would hold when I was but a small child.
"What is it, Mom?"
"Its my journal..." she smiled, her eyes still very much full of life which gave me the hope that she'd live a little longer, "Keep it safe, and remember me by it..."
I flipped to the first page, it read:
"The name's Rex Rocker and yes, I am a girl. I am the prodigy of a famous movie producing mom and a successful rock star dad; I'm not sure why they decided to name me Rex. I've always been known as the life of the party, the bad girl, and I've never backed down from a fight. Mom and Dad took me to Sunset Valley to fulfill their dreams and I grew up there, I raised my children there, and my children raised their children there..."
"Mom, I couldn't possibly take this..." I tried to hand it back, but she pushed it against my chest.
"Please...I know you'll keep it safe and I want you to pass it down to your children...so they'll know where they came from..." she smiled and then kissed my forehead.
I knew I was in possession of a great book, a book that not only described my true beginnings, but my children's as well. I kept it close to my heart and drove back home with it.
Over the weeks to come, the children finally settled back into their school schedules, Jack signed up for scouting and Poseidon cared for Epona in his down time.
Zeus, Hades, and Jack would chat in the morning before the school bus came and Athena would usually take longer getting ready (as normal girls do) for school.
Bella finally got back to exercising (as if she needed it) again, and Zeus and Poseidon studied harder than ever. I told them that as long as they kept their grades to a B or higher, I would teach them to drive, but as soon as the grades dropped, the driving lessons stopped too. We plan to have our first driving lesson this weekend while I'm off work. I only work on Mondays now that I'm an astronaut.
Athena often times asked me to read Mom's diary to her as a bedtime story, she loved the part where she told Stiles that she didn't want to marry him and when I went to Mom when I was only 3 years old and told her not to cry when Parker cheated on her. I never realized how my mother's life could be a story to tell, but that's how it turned out...
A few more years went by steadily, and it finally came around to be Athena and Hades' birthdays. Bella was shocked at Athena's resemblance to me, and her brother Zeus, but it was fitting. After all, in mythology, Athena did spring from Zeus' head. Hades looked like Bella in so many ways, and requested a mohawk with red highlights; it was probably just a phase, but we let him get his haircut the way he wanted.
Mom's birthday also arrived after the twins' and she had reached the 60 year old mark. Cronus being a teenager, the boys being children, and her new girls toddlers, I knew she had a handful with Sam being gone...
