Chapter Fourteen
One side of the babies' bedroom was cute and blue and boyish, the other was pink and annoyingly girlish. Viq was in the playpen. Nearby, a tiny fairy, or muse, watched. She was Viola, and she had almost found the right moment to intervene. At last.
Ever since she had been left to protect the Moppet Family she'd done a lousy job in her eyes. Sure, she'd given a moose the ability to speak, which had later rescued Jack from a prison facility, but Jack had just been caught again anyway. It was hard to discover what was real and what was illusion these days, especially with time moving so fast.
But the twins were real, she knew that. And they were the most intelligent of the family, so she had decided it was time to approach them if they were to be protected. But, how? She'd watched them for weeks, or months, she'd lost track of time. Sometimes they were silent, or asleep, and she wondered if they were lost in illusions of their own.
After the older brother, who she was sure wasn't real, had gone insane, what appeared to be the Fairy Godmother, her old friend, had appeared to help him. But, something was wrong there too. Either the Godmother was being controlled, or she wasn't real because Viola could see her, but she couldn't sense her.
"Honestly, WHEN will I grow older?" Viq asked his sister.
Vibs blinked at him, and continued brushing her doll's hair.
"I mean, my entire life I've been hanging out in a playpen, building stupid towers of toy-bricks that would only make it crash and make me build the tower over and over again, I've been eating mashed baby food, drinking milk, wearing a diaper all the time! My world is falling apart!!"
Vibs looked at him sideways. "Viq, you are not normal."
"I know. I was meant to be... something bigger than this! Something special. If not an author, if not an actor, if not a poet, if not a philosopher, then maybe a singer."
"Oh please no..." Vibs said.
Viq climbed onto the edge of the playpen and stuck out his chest. 'The hills are alive with the sound of music, I sing ... I sing... I...' what's next?"
"It ends there. I sing."
"No way! That's a rubbish ending. Are you sure?"
Vibs made her doll dance without glancing at him. "Absolutely."
"I shall write a song," Viq declared. "... a song that will be known for eternity! A song that everybody will know! A song that will make a difference!
Vibs hummed a lullaby for her doll.
"Are you listening at all?" Viq asked, as Vibs kissed her doll goodnight, tucked herself into her cot, and fell asleep.
"Right." Viq crawled to the desk in Father's office and dug in a drawer for paper and a pen. "Uh…" He stared at the paper. "Uh…" he turned it over and stared at the back as though that would make a difference. "Uh…I need inspiration."
Viola stared at him. That was her cue. She knew it. Puff! Viola appeared beside him, and smiled. "My name is Viola-Xenia-Celebrity-Fanny Tastic. I am your personal Muse. I will guide you, I will lead you to the top, I will help you reach the gold of your carrier."
"I never knew I had a Muse."
Viola lost track for a moment. It felt good to be herself, be a muse, not a protector. "Well, everyone does. But only a few get to meet her."
Viq grinned, then blushed, then grinned again. "Then I'm one lucky boy."
Viola's cheeks burned as she joined the blushing brigade. They stared, and grinned silly, and then, slowly, got control of themselves again. "So you want to be a song writer?" Viola asked.
"Um, yes."
Viola closed her eyes. She'd only just met him, really, and now she was about to lie to him. "Okay, take my hands." She reached forward, and his chubby fingers gripped hers. Viola felt a channel of blue energy flow through her into him, and into his brain, reading, searching. She read his thoughts about her, and blushed again. She moved deeper into his mind and read what he had seen the day his mum left, and what he had heard in his sleep, and what he didn't even know he knew. She felt out a small mental connection between him and his mum, and set a trace.
She opened her eyes. "There. You should be able to write a thing or two now," she said.
Viq gulped. "Wau..."
Just days or hours later, a large domineering woman entered and took Father hostage. To call Lullea Bates Washington Jones a domineering woman would be like calling a bunny cute. She was huge, and black, and driving the truck with Father next to her. She was explaining something, or trying to, but Father wasn't listening. "You realize as sole-caregiver of twins and an irresponsible son, I am responsible to clean the house, cook dinners, and get the rats out of the fridge? I appreciate your offer, and, who wouldn't, but, you are engaged!!" he insisted. "You can't just kidnap me like this!"
Kidnap? Him of all people? Bless. As if. He should be so lucky, but she needed his help. Jack had left her a message and then disappeared, and so she was looking for him and his girlfriend who was, apparently, in utter doom. She'd traced his mobile and found it lying in the middle of some woods beside tire screech-marks-in-mud. Obviously he'd been taken. Don Canolli, a Mob Boss and her lover, wanted Jack back, and had set her hunting for him but so far she'd found nothing. So she grabbed Father.
Huh? She looked away from Father to the road where a man was standing perfectly still, a cape flowing around his shoulders. Lullea hit the brakes, as Father leapt over her and swung on the steering wheel.
The truck hit the bank, and tipped, tires popping, engine straining, and then rolled once and settled. Father and Lulleia dangled from seatbelts, the windscreen was smashed.
She closed her eyes. And reopened them, lying on the grass at the feet of the man in the cape. He smiled at her, and nodded towards the fire of what had once been her truck. "You were lucky to climb out. Unfortunately, Jack wasn't so lucky, my dear. I'm so sorry that you had to be the driver when he did something so stupid, as a passenger, attacking you, spinning the truck off the road. And leaving himself to blow up with the engine. My dear girl, it must have been a shock to see."
Wasn't Father with her in the truck? She started shaking her head, then agreed with the man. "It was, it was. Jack."
"But you'll get over it. And forget about him. You already are. Wasn't it just a hitchhiker you picked up? Who was this Jack anyway? Too bad he died in the explosion you caused."
She stared at him in silence, and then turned away, towards the blaze of the truck. When she looked back, he was gone. Just like Jack.
From nearby, Randel watched her face struggle to put together what her brain couldn't comprehend. As far as she knew now, Jack had been no one she cared for, and he'd died in a car crash. Poor darling. But Jack had another use. Randel swished his cape, and disappeared.
Moments later Father came stumbling out of the woods moaning and muttering to himself. He look at Luella and at the truck, "What happened?"
Luella jumped up quickly and ran to Father, "Father Moppet! Thank goodness you're here! Some hitchiker just attacked me in my truck causing this terrible accident. I think his name was Jack the poor soul."
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