Gen 1 ~ Crescendo Orchid ~ Chapter Four

Chapter Four: Reality?

Ignore her, Crescendo, she’s just an old bat lady, I tell myself, but I couldn’t concentrate on anything with her eyeing me like I was the devil’s mistress. “Do you have something to say, lady?” I asked. “If you do, just say it.” I guess you could say that I wasn’t really expecting her to say anything to me, just behind my turned back.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

She pointed her long, boney finger at my stomach, and spoke in a nasally voice. “That thing is an abomination that shouldn’t be alive.”

My mouth fell completely open, and I put my arms protectively around my growing stomach. How could these people be so cruel? It was just a baby! I was so shocked that I couldn’t respond, but thankfully I didn’t have to.

“Thing?” Kale spat, the anger seeping through his voice as he stepped in front of me, as if to guard me. “Did you just call my child a thing?”

Old bat lady was clearly startled by Kale’s outburst.

“I don’t suppose that your children are things, are they?”

“I suggest you take you and your things over there before I build you a coffin and help you into it.” He said, leaving the empty threat in the air, and the lady gasped and quickly walked away with her cane muttering under her breath—complaining, actually–about how unnatural my baby would be. He turned to me. “I swear to berry; the next one will get a black eye. I don’t care if it’s another old lady, you don’t call somebody’s kid a thing,” He rambled on, but I couldn’t concentrate on that. I could hear her voice echoing in my mind. “That thing is an abomination that shouldn’t be alive.”

I stared at my belly, blinking back the tears that blurred my vision. It was just a baby, a baby that Kale and I both desperately wanted. Why couldn’t the berries get over the fact that Kale and I are staying together through the thick and thicker and we’re going to raise a family? “You aren’t a thing,” I whispered, barely audible but yet somehow Kale heard me.

“Crescendo?” All traces of his earlier anger disappeared into thin air.

“Yes?” I tried my best for my voice to come out casually, but my voice cracked.

“Oh, Crescendo,” I looked up to see that his face was composed of sadness as he looked at me. “Crescendo—” I couldn’t keep the emotions I had stirring inside me any longer, I broke down crying in the middle of Strawberry Park…at least it was better than vomiting in public.

He instantly pulled me close to him and I cried on his shoulder. “Crescendo,” Kale whispered, in his best soothing voice. “Crescendo, it’s alright. It’ll all be alright. We don’t have to-” he cuts off mid-sentence. “Don’t you people have something better to do than to sit around and stare at us?” he yelled. “Can’t you see that you’ve done enough damage?”

I couldn’t help it, as soon as I heard Kale’s voice turn cold I glanced up to see who he was yelling at.

When I looked up, my heart turned cold. There stood Ice, looking as guiltier than ever, and next to her stood a green berry who looked ashamed…and maybe even regretful. I wanted to yell at them to go away, but my voice caught in my throat when I tried to speak. Seeing Ice again made all the pain she had caused me come crashing back down on me, which in turn only make the tears come down harder.

“Honey don’t look at them,” Kale said, shifting his body so it blocked my view of the berries who were staring at us. “We don’t need them, you said so yourself.”

Then, as if on cue, Riptide ran over to them growling and they ran away.

“This baby is going to have two parents who love it very much,” Kale said, putting his hand on my stomach. I couldn’t bring myself to smile, even though I wanted to. My mouth somehow forced its way into a grim line and wouldn’t change no matter what. I knew he was right, I just didn’t understand how I could be so upset, and then it hit me on the side of the head. Pregnancy hormones. I had never acted out of whack before until now…so this was completely new to me.

“Hey Crescendo!” I heard a familiar voice—er, the only other voice that ever says my name.

“Oh no,” I whispered, and I buried my face in Kale’s shoulder. The last thing I wanted to do was to talk to Zest.

“Cressy?” Zest’s voice became louder, and then he must’ve realized something was wrong, since his voice went from calm to surprised and worried almost instantly after I didn’t reply. “Crescendo? Kale, what happened?”

“Some…” Kale struggled for the right word, I could feel his body starting to tense beneath mine. “Devil’s wife, who was older than the dinosaurs decided to…give us a piece of her mind about our baby.”

“Oh, go bite the rainbow, you’re kidding me,” Zest said. “But why is she…” Zest’s voice trailed off suddenly, and I knew exactly what was going on.

“You better not have just mouthed pregnancy hormones, Kale,” I said, and my voice came out a little harsher than I intended.

“Uh…”

Lucky for Kale, Zest interrupted him. “I’ll go trip her, Crescendo,”

“This could work out; you can trip her into the coffin that I promised her I’d make.”

Zest chuckled and clapped his hands. “See, Crescendo? This’ll work out perfectly.”

I lifted my head and sniffled. “You can’t go around tripping everybody who says something or gives me a look into coffins. The whole town would be gone.”

Kale gets this look in his eye as he looks over at Zest. “Was it just me, or did you hear that we CAN go around tripping everyone into their graves?”

Zest grinned at him. “I heard that too, bro,” I rolled my eyes at them, pretending to be annoyed.

“Oh you guys. I’m going to be in trouble if the baby is anything like you.”

They were crazy, irritating, and sometimes I just wanted to hit them…

But they were my boys, and by far they were the best guys I could’ve ever asked for.

~~~~~~~~~~

It happened. At the beach. The miracle. Or the dream, considering there is no possible way that it could have really happened. Kale and I were at the beach weeks after the Strawberry Park incident.

“Riptide, gimme the toy. Love, he won’t drop it,” Kale complained to me.

I just laughed, finding it hilarious that Riptide only seemed to obey my commands. He didn’t take Kale seriously. “Riptide, drop it.”

I turned around to go sit in one of the chairs because my back was killing me, but I stopped  in my tracks.

It was the green berry from Strawberry Park, the one that appeared to be ashamed and full of regret, along with another berry that I didn’t recognize…and they were actually waving at me.

“Hi Crescendo!” the green berry said.

“Hiya!” the other one echoed.

“Oh my berry, Kale,” I whispered, and then jumped a little when I noticed that he was right next to me.

“I know, I know,” Kale answered, mesmerized by the sight before us.

“Should we wave back?” I questioned, but some part of my mind told me that this was a sick joke, a twisted prank that they were pulling on us. But their smiles seemed so genuine…

“I don’t think I remember how to wave,” Kale whispered to me.

“Kale,” I hissed. “Uh…hi,” I called, cautious. They smiled once more at us before walking away.

For several moments, neither one of us spoke.

“This…is clearly an illusion.” Kale stated.

Stunned, Kale and I sat there in the sand silently watching the sun as it set lower and lower in the sky. Slowly, he placed his hand on my stomach and then kissed my cheek.

I beamed up at him. “I kind of like that as a baby name,”

“Like what as a baby name, love?”

“You’ll find out,” I answered as I snuggled in closer to him.

Maybe things really were turning around after all.