“We didn’t get to pick. Five babies just decided they wanted to come be our kids.”
“That’s because you’re cool and Vatten is smart. He knows the names of all the fish and all the birds. He knows the names of the different rocks too. He also knows how to catch ducks. He said one day he’d catch me a duck to eat because I’m still afraid to hunt them but his sire’s side of the family was made to hunt ducks and other water birds. So he’s not afraid. So I guess he’s brave too.”
“He’s very brave.”
“You have a crush on him,” Jondi smiled up at me.
“I do,” I nodded, grinning. “I do and I’m lucky because he’s my true-mate.”
“I remember living in the water,” Jondi said, switching subjects as little kids are fond of doing. “There was another me. Well, someone who looked like me. We swam around on our big otter until I shifted. I couldn’t shift back right away and our big otter got scared and took the other me and swam away.”
“Do you miss them?”
“Yeah,” he nodded.
This was the first time that Jondi ever talked about the time before he washed up on shore. If his memories were correct that meant he survived at least a little while as a human form baby in the water somewhere before he was able to shift back.
“But I’m not mad at our big otter. I mean I get scared too and sometimes human form beings are mean to animals. Like I want to eat a duck and that’s sort of mean. So maybe our big otter thought I would eat her or the other me.”
“I think you might’ve been a twin, Jondi,” I said.
“I know. He was the other me. That’s what having a twin means. Do you know there are eight Vattens?”
“Vatten was part of a litter of eight,” I nodded.
“Could you imagine if there were that many yous or mes?”
“I think we’d be very busy,” I laughed.
“Uncle Eran, you’re going to be very busy because Vatten decided to have all his babies at once. You better grow some more arms or something. Did you know that starfish grow their arms back? Maybe if you eat one, you’ll grow more arms.”
“It doesn’t work like that, buddy,” I chuckled.
“Have you tried it already?” he looked up at me.
“Jondi?” Jade called out the front door of the cabin, his voice thick with sleep.
“Oh no! Dad knows we ran away! Come on we have to reverse runaway before we’re in trouble!” he said, standing up and pulling on my arm.
Chapter 33
Nashen
Canton Valley Farm
My mind reeled between my far spread out contractions. I nibbled on danishes and tried not to think too hard about Pami. Her letter was full of love and encouragement from a madwoman. My sister was utterly mad but in the end I think she recognized that. She recognized that, like our parents, Sharon tried to use her and then Ferrick did too. Her whole life she sought power but most of the time was merely a pawn.
Diamond took Bernard out for a walk because he was pacing a hole in the floor. That left me alone with Bree but over the weeks the women had lived with us, we learned to be good company for each other. Bree was still carrying her egg and every day we exchanged looks about what would happen if Ferrick broke free. We wouldn’t go down without a fight. We exchanged sticky notes with little ideas jotted down of how we might escape him.
“You’re in the same spot as before,” Bree said, sitting down next to me on the sofa. My contractions were far apart. My biggest symptom of labor was a very achy back that wouldn’t stop no matter what I did.
“You think I should change seats?” I arched a brow at her. Everyone had their own methods of encouraging a baby to be born but if my kid disliked the sofa they were just going to have to get over that. The sofa was here to stay.
“If you want to,” Bree blinked at me bemused. “I meant what she did was a good thing, but it didn’t change anything, did it? She’s still dead and she’s still done horrible things. She did a very good thing with helping with that horrible shebear. She was even considerate with wanting to save your baby from Ferrick but she still did all those things. I think, and maybe it’s none of my business and what I think really doesn’t matter, but I think you shouldn’t let her set you back if you can help it. I mean it. You were happy. Well, as happy as you could be with all the ghost murders and threats. We’re down two threats. Rumor has it Clarence and Medwin are almost done with whatever they’re doing down in that hole too. Pras isn’t a threat to us except for his hurt pride of not being remembered properly.”
Bree paused long enough to pick up a bottle of water and spritz her face. She took a deep breath and blinked. Then sprayed her eyes. The further along in development her egg got, the more often she spritzed herself.
“I’m alright. Believe me, if I thought I needed to be anywhere else, I’d be there,” she said. “What I mean is you’re in the same spot as before because Pami is the same person she’s always been but this time it worked out for the best. So, we’re two mad ghosts down. Everyone else still loves you.”
