*I am exactly two days away from finishing! However: No "congratulations" or "yay, it's over" until I finish the story, or you will be banned from (erm, what's a good thing to ban . . .)
waffles for the rest of your living days! To accomplish this, I'm going to post as much as I can. I will not reply to comments, but please do comment--I need fuel for the rocket engine if I want to get to the moon faster! (Rocket metaphor.
What!)
Chapter 116 - Morning Mist "
Who's my little princess . . . you are! Yes, you are!" I've spent the last three hours cooing to Ilene Azokka in my "baby" voice (come on, we all have one) and I think she's finally fallen asleep. So, it's time to go do what I love . . .
Work! As soon as I popped Ilene out, I ran straight to Elysi Towers and got a job in business. I am determined to receive a promotion every day, and that means lots of overtime. I love it!
It's not like I really have to worry about the baby: every two hours, one of the elders comes up to play with the last member of the Elysi Dynasty. For the record, Grandpa's picture is the largest because he's the most traumatizing.
With so much free time on my hands before work starts, I also jumped on a treadmill to lose that extra pregnant fat. I refuse to be
plump when I hit the town!
Besides, I had to flirt it up with my new boss, who is old and ugly, but so is every man in this town besides Stephen, so I sucked it up and got that promotion before ever going to work. People are so predictable.
Stephen hasn't come around yet--not telling him that the baby was born. I keep trying to work up the courage to tell him, but it's easier to ask for love and support when you're pregnant with a man's child, rather than holding a screaming baby.
Ilene Azokka isn't really the screaming type, anyway. She's the quietest baby they've ever seen, according to my grandparents. All smiles and giggles and faraway looks. I'm just not sure that I'm ready to be a mom, or that I even know how! I wish that my mom was here to help me out, but she prefers to stay underground with the rest.
Still, I'm doing my best. Maybe I'll be good at this once I get some practice.
At any rate, I held Ilene up to the cake without dropping her into the candles (sorry, I forgot to take a picture! but trust me, she just looked like a burrito) and we were all very surprised at her unusual hair color and lovely dark eyes. She picked out her new wardrobe with only a little help from me, and I couldn't be prouder.
She really is just a beautiful child: sweet, well-mannered, gorgeous, and every time I look at her I think of her father.
Her eyes might be a little muddy at first glance, but we discovered the true magic soon: they take on the color of their surroundings. I can't wait until she's old enough to wear makeup and enhance them with colored eyeliner! As you can see in this picture, Grandma Bree started out the potty-training.
Grandma signed up for the next round of "Teach to Potty," which seemed unlike her.
That is, until I realized she had only taken the potty-training so she could be the one to put her great-granddaughter to bed.
The next day, Stephen finally came by! I was so relieved to see him, I wasn't even exaggerating the damsel-in-distress aspect of the situation. That came quite naturally.
Needless to say, we didn't really spend much time talking about Ilene Azokka.
* * * In the night, there was an arrival on this plane of existence that set off warning bells all over Sunset Valley.
She's come out! For the first time? Yes, it's her! Should we tell him? I don't know, she might not be happy to see him. Don't be ridiculous--I'm telling him.
Overjoyed to see his wife in the first time in hundreds of years, Nicholas was surprised to find that she was angry with him. Lolita had heard of his many girlfriends and children, and she did not react well to the betrayal. Nicholas tried to placate her, but she refused to forgive him.
Nicholas hadn't seen Lolita for so long that he spent his days and nights in a senile daze, only lucid every once in a while, and in this moment he felt better than he had in a long time. He wasn't about to give up so easily.
He stepped back and looked at Lolita with eyes that were sad, and hopeful, and not tired for the first time since . . . since Iris Bianca was born, at least. He felt alive for the first time since a few years after Lolita died, when he first realized that she was not going to come out like the other spouses who had passed away.
But now, now it was all okay. Now they were together, and they loved each other so much, a love that one hundred years could not diminish. Love that six betrayals could not lessen.
"
Did they mean something to you? The others?" Lolita asked, embracing her husband.
"
Of course I did," he answered. "
I loved them, and I loved my children. I tried to make them happy, and for a time I was happy. But I always broke up with them because in the beginning, each one reminded me of you, and I could trick myself into believing they were you. But over time, they became more them than you, and I knew I had to leave them for someone who would love them like I love you.
Because I do love you, Lolita. Next to my love for the others, it's the sun beside a candle. It's the moon compared to a nightlight. "
You've thought about this for a long time, haven't you?"
"
You're the only thing I really care about."
They both looked up at the sky, at the sun that slowly rose over the horizon. "
We don't have much time left," Lolita murmured, "
and I don't know when I can come back. Maybe never."
"
Let's just pretend the last few hundred years never happened," Nicholas suggested. "
I'm me, you're you, and we love each other. Nothing else matters."
"
I have to go now."
They kissed one last time, then she dissolved into the morning mist, leaving Nicholas standing in the center of the graveyard.
