As Basil and the twins grew, I started to notice that
Oberon was easily frustrated. If he didn't take the exact amount of steps he
needed or didn't quite get a word he would start over from the beginning. Ashe
on the other hand owned his mistakes and if he fell he dusted himself and got
right back up from where he hit the ground. I was relieved he had such
confidence and hoped that some of it would rub off on his twin.
Because of Oberon’s apparent
perfectionism their toddler days were bitter sweet and I also didn’t take as
many pictures as I should have, but I did have a few, including one where Ashe
mastered the art of walking.
***
In
what felt like the blink of an eye the toddler days ended first with Basil’s
sixth and just a few short years later the twins’ birthday of the same age. Even though they were older, they were still
the cutest boys I’d ever seen. One of my favorite pictures of Basil was on his
sixth birthday and he started tapping on his leg and humming, as if his legs
were a drum. He never did anything with instruments, but it was still cute at
the time .
Ashe did something
completely different when he turned six, instead of pretending his leg was drum
he immediately started experimenting with the magic he inherited from Jasper.
One of my favorite pictures of him is one where he’s full of curiosity about
his abilities and would go on to use it for both good and mischief, although he
never seriously harmed anyone with it.
Any worries I had about his
perfectionism or quiet nature were quickly overshadowed by worries about Basil.
At around eight-years-old his childhood doll, Mystery vanished, but he constantly
talked about her coming alive and becoming his imaginary friend.
“We have nowhere to go on Snowflake
Day, surely two more wouldn’t be too much of a hindrance on you,” Baylee had
said and I caved. Jasper, being the friendly type, didn’t try to talk me out of
it when I got home on Snowflake Day Eve.
Right before the party the next
night I got a call on my emergency beeper that the heating system in the Fae
Ray Gardens was out and needed to be fixed or else the plants would die. As a
fireman I couldn’t say no, so I rushed to Fae Ray Park to get the problem solve
as quickly as possible.
It took a
little longer than I thought and by the time I finally got the heating
mechanism started, I was late to my own party. When I got there Basil had
transformed into his wolf form and the other three boys in the house were
casting spells like Chattering teeth and Hot Head on Larry and Baylee. The two
of them immediately stomped out of the house.
Baylee paused just enough to turn
back at me and shout, “The fire chief will hear about this and we are never
coming to your parties ever again!” She was out the door before I could respond.
Basil, Ashe and even Jasper stood
around looking guilty, Basil even whimpered like a kicked puppy. Oberon, on the other hand, calmly explained
the whole incident to me. “Basil was building a snowman with Mystery and
talking to her. Mrs. Baylee saw that and started whispering mean things about
him to Daddy with Basil right there, so Ashe cast chattering teeth on her and
then things esc..es…What’s the word?”
“Escalated is the word you’re
looking for.” I crossed my arms and
turned to the boys. “Please go to bed, your father and I have to talk. “Immediately
the boys vanished into their bedrooms.
Jasper and I didn’t fight often, but
when we did the boys knew from an early age what we looked like when we were
about to have a serious conversations. “Did you have to cast spells as well?” I
asked Jasper.
“I know, but Basil has enough people
picking on him already, he didn’t need a grown woman doing it as well, so I
shooed her out of the house and Larry followed her,” he said.
“Your childishness could have just
cost me my job.” I said.
“I doubt it, you outrank those idiots by a lot
and isn’t Mr. Blainstreet about to retire anyways? I think he’s more interested
in finding a successor than petty squabbles between his employees.”
“I suppose your right, but what are we going to do about Basil? He has
no friends and…”
Jasper cut me off. “You’re worried ,
I know, but he has his family and Mystery for as long as he needs her.”
“Maybe we should put him in scouts
or something like that. He can’t keep his imaginary friend forever.”
Jasper grabbed my hands. “We’ll figure
something out, for now I say we go to bed and get a fresh start on that tomorrow.”
“You’re right.” Jasper pulled me into an embrace and we stayed like that
for five or ten minutes before we let go and headed to bed.
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