Double Fated (Book One)

by C.K. Mullinax

  Chapter Fifty Two

  “Alrighty let’s kiss soulmates and sealed family members. You’re excused, once the rounds are made. Get some sleep! Then, all of you can try to catch up with those schedules that I’m sure are in complete shambles…” Grandma Edie told us, comically.

  We snickered and breathed a sigh of relief.

  My brothers’ and my dads’ all whispered the same reminder when they took their turn with me. The pointing arrow needs to be removed from my body and Victoria would like her secret back under-wraps. I heard all five of them call Filgro separately and order him to check my appearance before he ­trans-verses me away from home.

  I made my way to grandma, who kissed me and hugged me then, ordered me to sit back down. My heart jumped into my throat. How did she find out??

  “G-mom, did you tell on us??” I whispered as quietly and casually as possible.

  “Tell what on us??” she responded, giggling.

  “Tell grandma what happened to me and what we’re up to…”

  “No Bunny…our secret’s safe to my knowledge. She’s ordered all the girls to stay behind. We’ll just have to wait and see what’s happening.

  The guys finished making the rounds and waited to escort their wives out of the meeting.

  “Go on ahead. We’ve got some business, still…” Grandma Edie politely encouraged the men to leave us.

  But, after the admonishment they just received they weren’t about to leave their soulmates behind…not without obtaining some type of permission from someone in charge.

  “Lemme help, Edie. Sorry men…wrong gender…she saying scoot it without using the actual boot…love you all,” g-mom interpreted.

  They exited and the silence was deafening, once again.

  “They’re all out of earshot…have at it…whatever it is,” g-mom said.

  “Krista, count for us…” Grandma Edie requested without telling me what I was supposed to count.

  Then, a noise like a roll of distance and familiar thunder, sounded.

  “Okay…that’s one…two…three…four…” I kept counting the subtly distinctive thunder noises.

  They ended at thirteen.

  “Thirteen…keep that in mind. Now, everyone show me your pearly whites. Krista, count smiles…starting with yourself…”

  “Eight…” I told them.

  “My beautiful daughters, in this room we have eight smiles showing and thirteen strong hearts beating. Can anyone guess as to how that might be our female reality??” Grandma Edie inquired, impishly.

  My sisters and my mommas stared at grandma in complete confusion. My dads’ and brothers’ are gone…did they leave their heartbeats behind??

  Wait, I think I know what it means! But, I’m not about to say it – not with my luck, lately. I don’t want to blurt out what I’m thinking and jinx it, somehow.

  Boy and how, I want what I’m thinking to be true…

  “Oh my Creator and heaven’s angels…I might just have to admit defeat today! Let me add five babies to Pritchard’s love count!” g-mom shouted the answer, thrilled.

  The realization leveled us and our jaws dropped.

  “This is real!” I exclaimed – my voice and body finally catching up with my doubtful brain.

  The split second of shock, swiftly turned into squeals of excitement and tears of happiness and elation. We huddled into a hug and awkwardly, jumped up-and-down while in our joint embrace. Then, all eight of us climbed up on the sturdy dining room table and performed the happiest, happy barefooted dance in the history of histories. We were so amazed, excited and astounded that we couldn’t seem to catch our breath or think, clearly.

  “We’re having five babies!” we randomly kept repeating.

  “Five new family members – must’ve been some meeting I just missed. That explains the new looks and outfits, I suppose.

  “Hold it…did anyone think to call me before making that announcement in a family meeting??” g-mom questioned us, suddenly sounding hurt.

  “You didn’t miss the announcement, Lizzy. You just made the announcement…” grandma informed her.

  “What? How? Yikes…no, I know the how, of the how…but, huh on the what? Emmy, what exactly did you order our married sons and daughters to do in that meeting on Monday night??” g-mom asked, perplexed.

  Grandma doubled over laughing. After bringing g-mom up to speed with what transpired, she joined in the hysterics. The laughter was contagious. All eight of us were doubled over and crying, again as we giggled.

  “Well, I can hardly stand myself, Emmy! Let’s go seal our unborn babies, right this second…” g-mom demanded, excitedly.

  “I’d love nothing more and that can certainly happen while they’re still growing inside their mommies. All five of them can be sealed to us. But ladies, we have a few issues to toss around and put to bed before we leave this room. Let me put this matter to rest before we start mulling the other things over. There are no sets of multiples being carried. This means all five expectant mommies are ordered to remain on hallowed ground. In earth’s realm that means the Ava’shay Houses or you can go to the Ava’shay realm, anywhere on the Vaydem Preserve, Rising Light in Terria Tarrish…I don’t want any of you to stray away from our actual House, though…” grandma no sooner got those words out before the remaining seven of us riddled her with frantic questions, simultaneously.

  Some different challenge or issue occurred to each one of us. No one could be heard over the noisy chaos, but we couldn’t seem to stop asking.

  “Whoa, hold on baby girls! Other matters will be put to bed before we leave. I didn’t expect to have to say this to my daughters…only my expectant sons. We take hurdles one at a time…until we dead end…” she attempted to restore the peace, but only g-mom got silent.

  One less voice of panic only made the rest of us grow more frantic, for some reason. The tension skyrocketed.

  “My daughters’…deep breaths…and complete silence, now!” grandma exclaimed. “That’s better…

  “All mommies focus only on your relaxing breath and the sound of my voice. Don’t forget, you’re surrounded by a protective, permanent breathless ascent channel…

  “Krista and Liz, a Vaydem breathless ascent channel also surrounds you both. In the event you get pregnant and find yourself in trouble, the channel will send you sailing skyward to remove you from the danger. It works lightning fast to move mom and baby out of a predator’s channeling range.

  “The ascent channel sends threatened mommies sailing faster than a channel can reach you. A strike of lightning is expelled, snail’s pace slo-mo, in direct comparison. Stress works identically because it is perceived as a danger by the channel. Ascent will not be able to differentiate. We are inside…mommies…think…multiple ceilings in my way, at all times!

  “Good…with that in mind, every daughter of mine in this room can choose. Either calm down and let’s casually toss around the issues we face. Or, you can have a channel driven nap courtesy of your eldest mommy…”

  Slowing our breathing, and considering the ten floors-worth of ceilings they would have to rocket through, worked. We resumed with a peaceful, quiet, Zen-like state of mind.

  “Now, as I was saying…” grandma prepared to resume.

  “Hold that ditty for one skinny minute, Edie. Why, on earth or anywhere else for that matter, do I need a pregnancy channel to permanently surround me??” g-mom asked, astonished.

  “It might be needed…but, don’t lose that chill you’ve got going, my sister. I’ll explain. Other realm travels make procreation possible for both sexes for millennia…”

  “I know that, but I’m human no matter where my tushie is located. And so was Pritchard for that matter. He’s not physically with me and I’ve got no plans to cheat on him no matter where I go. And, even if we place that insurmountable baby-making issue aside, procreation for thousands of years is exclusively for spiritually gifted beings…even
if my aging clock winds backwards and my reproductive organs begin anew,” g-mom revealed, humorously.

  “You are spiritually sealed to me, Lizzy. You and Krista might not be capable of channeling or performing rituals, but you are no longer purely human. I think you’ve forgotten that there are plenty of gypsies who are not channel or ritually gifted this day and time. All pure-bred gypsies are human beings from earth’s realm like you, anyway. Full-heritage, blood born gypsies sometimes get skipped in the spiritual giftings department, altogether…

  “My Journey was born with a few rudimentary gifts. Nominal gifts though they were, she managed to taint what little she had through drug and alcohol usage. Even if I had urgently wanted to, I couldn’t seal her spirit to mine, even when she was a newborn. You’ll recall, Journey could channel…was half-Ay’sha and half-Vaydem…she came from my matriarch-body and from the seed of His Highest Majesty, Vaydemic Shaman Lukas Quinton. Even given all of her extraordinary lineage and channeling abilities, Journey couldn’t be sealed to me, her dad or anyone.

  “She was held to the bonds of her very earthly marriage, until Striker released her, only because of my direct intervention. She wasn’t bonded to her husband. Obsession kept them together…not love. The Creator ordains unions and sealings through love and decision. Biology or giftings are of no importance to Him – period and end of story.

  “I don’t have a biological sister but if I did, you, Liz would be ‘more of’ my sister than she would be. My spiritually sealed children are ‘more of’ my babies than Journey ever was – even though I watched Lukas cut the umbilical cord with my own two eyes. Journey was bred to be a surrogate for my children. That fact kinda hurt my human feelings for a number of years.

  “You all remember my discussing this a few days ago. I mothered her and took excellent care of her, all the while knowing that she wasn’t my daughter. She was in my mothering charge. Lukas kept hoping against all odds, but he couldn’t find a good girl inside that surrogate we created. Striker would have never been attracted to a good Vaydem girl…in fact, he never would have met her at all.

  “As things unfolded, the Creator allowed me to understand that my first sealed babies, Traywick and Ember, needed Tarrish bloodlines. But, I didn’t start out delivering a girl child with any intellectual understanding as to why that baby wasn’t destined to be mine and Lukas’ daughter.

  “We see the small picture…like how will we manage our very, unplanned family population explosion that we already love and adore. Or, we’ll decide when to share this wonderful news with others outside of this room. The Creator sees the whole shebang…from now, until He decides to end time. Our questions, panics, worries, elations, celebrations and well, everything we think about are trivial, insignificant details to Him – think, tinier than the tiniest miniscule matters. He gives the itty-bitty stuff to His kids. That way He can work on the priority matters while He keeps us busy and entertained.

  “So, I’ll grant you this, Sis…I have no plans to cheat on Lukas either. But, if the Maker has other things in mind then, it won’t be cheating that I’m doing. Plus, if the Creator were to conspire with my soulmate there’s no telling what I’d wind up involved in. My agenda for today was to be the Tarrish Queen from sunrise to setting and perform my royal crownly duties that I neglected for a week. Here I am, sorting through yet another Pritchard Stewart love count for my sister because she already lost track. Fortunately, I didn’t. I actually think our soulmates might be in cahoots together…because I never saw this coming. That’s frightening…

  “And, you might be fooling our daughters but you’re not fooling me. The only reason you stopped your frantic ramblings was because you hit the second, nineteenth minute. Just since that nineteenth, Pritch’s count is up to 1,290 or 1,295 if you want to re-total in our hidden snuggly-bunnies.

  “If I were you, I’d gracefully accept defeat before Lukas and Pritch decide to do something else…” Grandma Edie stated.

  “Pish-posh, why would I, do that, when I have you right here to count for me??” g-mom inquired.

  “Even with my assistance, Krista’s future mate has a better shot of getting through all that I listed for him, previously along with swimming underwater from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, without coming up for air…than we have collectively winning this counting challenge…”

  But g-mom is more stubborn than Tray. She’s had more years to perfect the craft. She flatly refused to wave the white flag. Plus, she loudly dared both Grandpa Lukas and g-daddy to do something “that floors” her next time because this was only slightly surprising.

  Holy smokes…she’s asking for it! And, knowing them, she’ll get it and then, some. I wonder what that big ole IT will be…

  G-daddy’s love count was up to 2,730 when the staff delivered the healthy snacks grandma ordered. Before our private, all-girl family meeting ended a few things would happen.

  We would establish a plan of containment…

  The massive platter of fruits, cheese and veggies would be totally consumed…

  Happily, the evil Polecat would be chained to his office post for four solid hours, waiting…

  And, I wouldn’t think about Audrey, guest passes or freeing the enslaved captives at SizZle again until 1:50 in the afternoon…

  I’ll be following the Creator’s schedule from now, on…

  That’s what I arrogantly thought, too…until my human side got right back in my way.