At first it seems like the dream place. It’s spacious, open loft with every single piece of entertainment millennials whose parents have young money can dream of.
Maxime is not all that sure he wants Pari around.
But he still invites her to blow bubbles with him.
In the time it takes him to go check why the doorbell ran…
… the emotionally exhausted Pari has already fallen asleep.
Later she sleeps in Aurelie’s bed. Her first real bed since the bear attack on the parlor.
Pari managed to get by, presenting a nice face to the world. She washed her clothes in an inside tub, and spent most of her days outside on the green plaza.
On one such day, she runs across her old friend Aurelie, who learns about her situation.
At first, Pari doesn’t want to talk about it, but Aurelie is smart and savvy, and she figures it out. So she tells Pari she can come live with the group of friends at their loft.
Pari agrees.
As it turns out, Pari and Aurelie used to be in a relationship; and judging from the action in this Windenburg bush, they are ready to rekindle it.
So that you get where this decision is coming from, let me rewind a little. Here’s what I learned about Pari the last time I saw her.
After she left our house, she went back to the city she was born in, Windenburg. Her old childhood home was a ruin with an overgrown garden — but her tattoo parlor had been burned down by the Gang of Bears, so she had nowhere else to go.
It was not a pretty sight.
At all.
Without the funds to get her tattoo business back on track, Pari had to turn to other methods to get by.
Pari knocks at our door on a cloudy evening. She’s paler and she has bags under her eyes. I also notice the tremor in her hands. I know part of what she’s been through, but we haven’t seen each other in years.
I’m worried about her, and I’m even more worried about what she has to say.
She has something to ask, actually. She says she’s in a bad position, a really bad position, and she needs my help again.
She tells me her story, from the last moment we saw each other in that Arts District loft, up until now.
And then she asks if, even though she knows it’s asking a lot, I would be willing to give her my hospitality again.
When we come back we still have a few things to fix in the newly repainted and remodeled bedroom — and Hannah sneaks into see what’s changed, and what’s the big deal about her two new siblings.
They scream a lot. Especially Cyril.
She’s not convinced they’re all that great.
“Mom,” she asks me that evening, as I get her hair ready for bed, “are you and Dad going to pay more attention to the twins than me, now?”
“Oh, sweetie, no. We’ll never… We’ll take care of them because they’re very small and they need us, but none of you will ever come second. We’ll still love you just as much, you know that?”
“Will I be allowed to take care of them, too?”
I smile. She can’t see it, but my eyes are watering — what part of that I can blame on the residual hormones I’m not sure. I disguise my choking up as a chuckle.
“Well as long as you dare neither of them to go walk on embers with you, sure, baby!”
Hannah grins.
“Swear I won’t! I’ll at least wait until they can walk.”
Go to sleep you mischevious little one.
After that talk, she’s much more relaxed, and overall goes back to being a curious, self-assured child.
Hannah got moved into what was the guest bedroom; we remodeled it for her, broked down a few walls, starting with the wall that used to shelter the closet. I have to admit Hugo and I are glad to get rid of this closet, we’ve done too many things in there to be completely comfortable with the idea of it staying intact in our kid daughter’s bedroom.
Anyway her bedroom is fully remodeled after her tastes and preferences, and though it’s a downgrade in size, she loves it. And tonight, for the first time, she gets to sleep in her very own double bed.
Still a small human, such a gigantic bed.
“So I am going to be a big sister? And they’ll have to do what I say?” she asks me in the living room we were much too lazy to strip of its decorations the day before.
“Most of all you’ll have to set an example, darling!”
“Oh…”
We’ve barely finished talking that the contractions begin.
For Hannah’s sixth birthday, we have an obnoxiously large party. It involves decorating the whole first floor, or more precisely, making Hugo decorate the whole first floor.
And our little princess is pleased.
The princess and the pirate — why do I feel like I’ve seen a movie or two about this?
The kids and I are drinking alcohol-free cocktails, obviously, but there are so many cups sometimes you have to taste-check you’re about to drink from the right one.
So many kids. The red-head I’m talking to is Nolan, after his incredible growth spurt.
He’s also apparently staying a ginger. Miranda says now she knows for sure who his dad is, at the very least. She’s only ever been with one ginger.
You can count on Grandma to watch over the kiddos.
Apparently it’s been a while since Miranda and Mam have seen each other, too!
And now comes the moment everybody has been waiting for.
The Stewarts Family (and other shenanigans) 