Gen 1 ~ Crescendo Orchid ~ Chapter Five

Chapter Five: Little Miracles

“They aren’t in their room, I double checked.” Kale commented as he walked quickly from the room he mentioned.

I bit my lip and ran a hand through my hair. “They aren’t anywhere in here either,”

“They couldn’t have gone too far,” I said, and I was too worried to be distracted by the fact that Kale was walking around with no shirt on.

“We’ll find them, love,” Kale said, and then there was the faintest sound of Riptide’s barking outside.

Then the idea hit both of us at the same time, apparently, because we turned to stare at each other, our eyes going wide. “Outside.”

Kale and I both bolted for the door, and I threw it open and I took not even five steps outside when I heard the giggling.

“Girls?” Kale called loudly, and the giggling was cut short.

“Daddy?” a little voice questioned, and I leaned over the porch to look down towards where the voice was coming from—the flowers.

“Coral? How’d you get outside?” I asked, my heart still pounding in my chest. If anything happened to them…

“More like how did they get down the stairs…” Kale muttered, although I was already on my way down the stairs towards my two girls.

Okay, I suppose I should back up for a minute or two.

“She’s beautiful,” Kale said as he looked at our bundle of joy in between the two of us. I smiled at our baby. We had just arrived back home from the hospital with our new baby, Illusion. It was the name Kale had mentioned on the beach that day, although at the time I doubt he knew that I was considering it as a serious baby name.

“Kale?” I whispered, looking up from Illusion to his handsome face. He moved his head down so he could look at me.

“Yes, love?” he brushed a strand of my hair out of my face so he could get a better look at my face.

I giggled, unsure of myself for a moment. I gently kissed Illusion’s tiny forehead. “I want another one,”

He seemed to pause for a moment, considering what I was saying. He finally broke out into a grin. “Alright, love,”

So that’s how I ended up with two children instead of one, and let me tell you, I love them more than anything.

Illusion Swirl Moon and her little sister,

Coral Mulberry Moon.

Anyways, back to the present. Kale followed me down the steps as we went over to Coral and Illusion. I picked up my eldest daughter.

“You scared me,” I whispered as I snuggled her closer.

“How’d they get outside?”

“I don’t know,” I said, and then I started to laugh. “You’re the detective, why don’t you tell us?”

After Illusion was born, Kale managed to get a job as a private investigator. And he turned out to be a very good private investigator. Soon enough everybody wanted Kale to be working on their case, and the money started rolling in. That also helped boost us back into the community. The elder berries still keep their distance from Kale and I, but the other berries have seemed to completely accept us now.

With my life, I couldn’t be more happier.

~~~~~~~~~~

I didn’t know that only a few hours later I would be eating my own words.

“Uh…love….somebody’s at the door for you….” Kale’s voice trailed off as he slowed down his exercise.

“Great, who is it?”

“Er,” Kale responded, and I knew that whoever it was, I wasn’t going to like this unexpected visitor.

I sighed before I opened the door, wondering what kind of fate lied ahead of me on the other side. I swung the door open, and then I froze.

“Ice?”

“Hey Crescendo…” her voice trailed off, like she was suddenly unsure of herself.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, not bothering to keep the coldness from my voice. Not once had she come to visit me before, so I was more suspicious than ever.

“I…Cressy…” the words tumbling out of her mouth started to become twisted together, like she had no idea what she was supposed to say. I didn’t say anything, all I could do was stare at her. And then the waterfall came.

“Crescendo, I am so, so, so sorry that I abandoned you like that. I know what I did was horrible, that you needed me, and I left. I’m here to ask you to forgive me, even though I cannot forgive myself for doing that to you. I feel so bad, as soon as I stormed away I wanted to come back but I didn’t know how, I couldn’t find the words to tell you how sorry I was…”

I was in shock, but apparently my mouth was working just fine. “You cared too much about what people thought of you. How do you expect me to ever trust you again?” I knew, deep down that I would never trust or rely on her the same way again. I don’t even think I could stand to look at her.

“I know, I’m a horrible person. But, please, Crescendo, let me make it up to you. Let me make this all right…I don’t expect you to trust me, but if you give me a second chance I swear I’ll be the friend I was supposed to be.”

No, you had your chance and you blew it, my brain told me. Tell her to back off. 

“….okay.” Okay? OKAY? Did I just hear you right? Are you out of your mind?!

“Seriously?” She asked, and from the look on her face you could’ve sworn that I was taking a huge load off of her shoulders.

“Yes,” I said. I was at war with myself. A part of my mind was telling me that I was being the biggest idiot in the entire world, but the other part of my mind welcomed having a friend other than Zest and Kale. I knew this would come back and bite me in the butt someday, but I had to give her another chance…

…right?

“You are absolutely amazing Crescendo! You will not regret this!” Ice said, her face coming back to life.

“I already am,” I grumbled, barely audible, and unlike Kale she didn’t hear it. “I have to go put the girls down for their nap soon—”

“Girls? Plural? As in more than one?” Ice’s face lit up as the shock poured into her features.

“Yeah…”

“Would you like to meet them?”

“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Er…I mean…only if you want to introduce them to me.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“They. Are. So. Adorable!!” She exclaimed as she made baby faces at them.

“Yeah…they’re my angels,” I stated, and the faces she was giving Illusion and Coral were contagious, I couldn’t help but smile.

“And I see something else that’s an angel…if you know what I mean,” Ice hinted, acting like there was nothing wrong between us.

“Hey. That’s my guy.” I retorted. “Find your own.” For once…I actually wished Kale had his shirt on.

“Kidding, kidding. He’s all yours, Crescendo.”

Kale looked up at us. “Oh…hi Ice.” He gave me a questioning look, and I mouthed to him that I’d explain it later.

“Can I hold one of them?”

“…Sure,”

I couldn’t believe how quickly Ice and I got back into the groove…pretending that nothing was wrong. I could’ve been an actress at the rate that I was fooling Ice, and Kale, if I come to think about it. He seemed to really buy into the act that everything was fine as well. The girls seemed to adore Ice, too.

….Maybe it really was a good thing to have Ice back.

~~~~~~~~~~

A few weeks later, Ice was over at the house to hang out with the kids and I while Kale and a bunch of his private investigator buddies hung out in the kitchen discussing things of great importance to their cases. (Who am I kidding? They were probably having a guys day out there) According to Ice, nobody else was brave enough to do what Kale and I did. But I knew they’d come around. I couldn’t tell you how I knew, but I just did. I guess you could call it an instinct.

We were interrupted in our discussion when Coral let loose this sudden cry.

“Uhm,” Ice mused, looking at Coral as if Ice were afraid that Coral would explode. Coral’s orange eyes were set on me, as if willing me to read her mind.

“She’s just hungry, I’ll go get her bottle,” I said.

“Okay, I’ll try to…distract her, until then?”

I laughed at Ice. “Sure thing.”

I walked out of the kiddies’ room, and apparently the guys didn’t hear me, and I was just about to make my presence known when one of them started talking.

“Kale, dude, you know I adore Crescendo…” he started off. “But, come on man, you could do better than her. Like that yellow berry who was hitting on you while we were on the last case. Did you see her? Talk about smokin’ hot.”

My mouth fell completely open. I was too shocked to move, let alone speak. What yellow berry?

“Hey, c’mon Lonestar. Lay off. Crescendo’s nice, berry she’s beyond nice. She agreed let me crash on the couch here when Pear kicked me out for that brief time, rainbow it was even her idea to allow me to stay.” Manz said, defending me, and I gave him a mental thumbs up.

“I hate to admit it,” Tradewind, cuts in completely ignoring Manz. “But she isn’t the brightest. She seems extremely difficult to please. You guys won’t last that much longer.”

“What is wrong with you?” Kale retorted. “Crescendo didn’t once get mad when you ate the whole bowl of her favorite candy, Tradewind.”

“I love Crescendo, and if you can’t accept that…I advise you leave.”

“Look man, I know you love her and all…but…” Tradewind started, but his voice trailed off when Kale threw him a fading glare. “Sorry.”

“I still say she’s difficult.” Lonestar said. Silence filled the room, and Kale didn’t speak again. Instead, he just simply sighed and threw him another glare. I knew I came out here to get something, but I couldn’t remember what it was, not after hearing that. I quickly opened the door to the kiddies’ room back up and shut it quickly behind me, making sure I was ever-so quiet so they had no clue that I was listening in.

“Hey, look, there’s Mommy,” Ice said as she tried to get Coral to look at me. Ice looked up. “Where’s the bottle?”

That’s right, I was supposed to get Coral her bottle.

“Oh, uh…I decided to fix her something instead.”

“Oh, okay,” Ice said, and then she started to bounce Coral. She turned her back to me and started to walk towards Illusion.

I was glad she couldn’t see the look on my face.