by Natasha Lowe
“Have a nice day,” Lucy called after him, just to sprinkle a little more positive energy around. She was starting to feel rather hopeful, especially after catching the leash of a runaway poodle and returning the dog to its owner.
“Oh, you are nice,” the poodle lady said. “I was so worried Tami would run into the road.”
“Happy to help,” Lucy replied, beginning to feel a bit like a superhero.
She held the door of a bakery open for a woman in a wheelchair and then stood there like a door monitor, shivering from the cold, while five more people walked in. As she passed a bus stop Lucy smiled at a tired-looking mother with a wiggly baby in her arms who looked remarkably like the Toad, and judging from the smell, needed its diaper changed too. “What a beautiful baby,” Lucy gushed, pulling a funny face and making the baby giggle. “I just love babies more than anything else in the whole world,” Lucy fibbed, wishing she were the sort of girl that did. “They are adorable.”
“Well, aren’t you nice,” the woman said, giving a worn-out smile.
When Lucy got to the corner of her street, she stood for a moment, not wanting to turn and see if their car was parked out front. If it wasn’t there, she didn’t know what she would do. It had been hours and hours since her mom went off to the hospital. Her parents had to be home by now. They just had to be.
The O’Briens’ minivan pulled up alongside her, and Mrs. O’Brien stuck her head out. “How are you doing, Lucy?” she asked, looking all motherly and kind. “I saw Chloe this morning, and it sounds like she’s taking great care of you.”
“Just till my mom gets home,” Lucy said, glancing through the back window. She could see Billy staring at his book, turning the pages and chattering away, while Toady (who seemed to have acquired Billy’s sucking habit) was chewing on Sammy’s stuffed bat. “In fact she’s probably home right now,” Lucy added hopefully, as the bat came flying past her, landing in the Schniders’ front yard.
“You stink bomb,” Sammy yelled. “Toady threw Bat out of the window, Mom, and I gave it to him to be nice.”
“I’ll get it,” Lucy offered, grabbing the chance to practice more good juju. She darted over to the Schniders’ lawn and picked up the drool covered bat by his soggy chewed up ear. Transferring her grasp to a less soggy wing, Lucy, with a grimace, dropped him back in the car.
“You’ll turn into green goo,” Micky announced, peering out at Lucy.
“I don’t mind,” Lucy said. And she didn’t. Not if it meant that her mom and the babies would be okay.
“Tell Chloe I’ll bring over a macaroni and cheese later on,” Mrs. O’Brien said softly. “And come over if you need anything, Lucy. Anything at all.”
If she walked backward and didn’t step on any of the lines, then everything would be all right, Lucy told herself after Mrs. O’Brien had driven off. Turning around, she walked slowly backward along the street, being extremely careful not to step on any cracks in the cement. It took a long time, and an as an extra safeguard Lucy closed her eyes and turned three times clockwise, then three times counterclockwise.
When she finally felt brave enough to look, Lucy’s spirits plummeted and all her good juju slipped away. The car wasn’t there, and now she had to face going inside and getting bad news from Chloe. And Lucy just didn’t think she could bear that.
ARE YOU PLANNING ON COMING in?” Chloe said, opening the front door and calling over to Lucy, who had been sitting propped up against Mrs. Minor’s fence for the past twenty minutes. “It’s freezing, Lucy.”
“No, thank you,” Lucy called out, huddled on the damp ground. There had been a January thaw a week ago, but the temperatures had dropped again and the piles of snow that had melted like ice cream were now frozen against the fence. “I’m very comfortable out here.”
Chloe opened her mouth to speak, and Lucy hung her head, covering her ears with her mittens. “I don’t want to hear what you have to tell me, Chloe. I’m not ready for that sort of news.” Suddenly looking up Lucy burst out, “Can we go and visit your dinosaur footprint? I need to know that everything is going to be okay, Chloe, because right now I’m not feeling at all sure that it is.”
“That’s an excellent idea, but you need a snack first,” Chloe said. She disappeared inside, returning with a glass of milk and a cupcake, wearing a long puffy orange jacket that came to her knees. Chloe walked over to Lucy and sat down beside her. The cupcake looked homemade, covered in vanilla frosting with sprinkles on top.
“Now, it probably won’t taste anything like your mom’s, but I did make these from scratch,” Chloe said, balancing the cup and plate on the ground. “Jack gave me this nice easy recipe which they use at the diner. And I’m really proud of myself. I didn’t burn them.”
“Oh no,” Lucy groaned. “You have something awful to tell me. That’s why you baked cupcakes, Chloe. It must be terrible news if you made them from scratch and didn’t use a box mix.” She covered her ears again.
“Lucy,” Chloe said, and then in a louder voice, “LUCY.”
Lucy shook her head. “I can’t hear you.”
“Your dad called.”
“La la la,” Lucy hummed, beginning to cry. “I am not good with bad news.”
“Your mom is doing fine,” Chloe said, and Lucy dropped her hands from her ears.
“What about the babies?” she whispered, shivering from the cold. “How are they doing?”
“The babies have to stay in the hospital for a little while longer, because they are too small to come home. But,” Chloe added quickly, seeing Lucy’s lip start to wobble, “they will be just fine. I promise.”
Lucy felt as if a hot, heavy weight had been lifted off her chest. She could breathe properly again without her insides hurting. “So there aren’t any problems?” Lucy said, sniffing.
“No, the only problem is I’m freezing my tail off out here,” Chloe said, and Lucy laughed. “Actually, there was something unexpected,” Chloe added. “With one of the babies, I mean.” And before she could finish, Lucy burst out dramatically “It has three arms?”
“No, Lucy.”
“Two noses? Twelve toes. Which doesn’t matter a bit, Chloe, because we will love it just the same.”
Chloe clapped her gloved hands together. “Lucy, will you keep quiet and listen for a moment?”
Feeling her appetite return Lucy started to peel the paper off the cupcake, which wasn’t easy to do wearing mittens. “I’m sorry, Chloe. I’m just preparing myself for the worst,” Lucy said. “That way whatever it is won’t seem nearly as bad when you tell me.”
“One of the babies,” Chloe said, smiling. “One of the babies is a boy.”
“You mean it has a … ?” Lucy couldn’t finish. She spluttered out cake crumbs. “That is just not possible. I was there at the scan. There were no little boy bits in sight.”
“Well, those scans are not always accurate, Lucy. That’s what your father told me on the telephone. Apparently, the little boy bit was hiding between his legs.”
“I knew it!” Lucy said, taking another bite of cake. “I definitely saw something wiggling on the scan, but no one believed me.” She licked vanilla frosting off her fingers and gave a contented sigh. “This is delicious, Chloe. You are definitely improving.”
“I still need to work on my spaghetti though, right?”
“Cakes are far more important than spaghetti,” Lucy said, a mellow feeling of happiness spreading through her, as smooth and satisfying as the frosting. She looked at Chloe crouched beside her, pink hair poking out of a red woolly hat, and Lucy couldn’t believe she had ever thought Chloe was anything but wonderful.
“Hey,” someone yelled, and turning around Lucy saw Mrs. Minor leaning out of an upstairs window. “I know you’re both over there. You’re leaning against my fence, aren’t you? You’ll break it.”
“It’s a fence,” Chloe shouted back, but the girls scrambled to their feet and moved away.
Mrs. Minor gave a curt nod and slammed the
window shut.
“I mean, seriously!” Chloe grinned at Lucy. “It’s a fence!”
“I used to think she was a witch,” Lucy whispered, brushing snow off her jacket, “because she was so mean. But now I agree with Rachel, and I think she’s lonely. No one comes to visit her, and she hardly ever goes out. That’s what makes her so grumpy.”
“Well, putting up a fence doesn’t help,” Chloe remarked.
“But it will be great for the twins to plant magic beans up against when they get bigger,” Lucy said.
“Yeah.” Chloe grinned. “It’s a pretty cool beanstalk-growing fence. I’ll give you that.”
“You know, we would never have become friends if it wasn’t for that fence,” Lucy said as Chloe picked up the empty plate and glass. “I’m becoming quite fond of it.”
“That’s the thing,” Chloe said. “You can’t change what life throws at you, you just …”
“I know,” Lucy finished for her. “You just have to make the best of it!”
“Hey, Lucy, do you mind if we warm up first before going down to the river?” Chloe said, blowing on her gloved hands. “I’m just so cold.”
“I don’t mind at all,” Lucy said. “Your dinosaur footprint isn’t going anywhere.”
The house felt warm and comforting, and Lucy slid off her jacket and gloves, leaving them in a damp heap on the hallway floor. Chloe didn’t mind about things like that, which made her an excellent babysitter, in Lucy’s opinion.
“I’ve just had a really great idea, Chloe,” Lucy said, following Chloe into the kitchen. She had a feeling she should probably run her “really great” idea past her parents first, but it was bursting to get out, and Lucy couldn’t believe they would mind.
“I think you should be a godmother to the babies, Chloe. All babies need fairy godmothers, and I know you would be an excellent one. Aunty Karen is my godmother. She gives wonderful presents and never forgets my birthday or Christmas, and I think you would be perfect for the twins. You could bake them delicious cakes and make them wonderful elf outfits when they get older. And when they’re sad and worried about their futures, you could show them the dinosaur footprint and explain that everything will probably be okay.” A wide smile spread across Lucy’s face. “Which it is, Chloe. I’m just realizing that. You would be the world’s best godmother.”
“Well, that’s up to your parents, Lucy,” Chloe said, looking pleased but a little uncomfortable. “They probably have someone picked out already.”
“I don’t think they do, and I’m certain they’ll agree with me,” Lucy said with confidence. But now that she’d spoken her idea out loud, she wasn’t quite so sure about this. Maybe her parents would think pink hair, nose rings, and elephant tattoos weren’t suitable things for godmothers to have.
GODMOTHER?” MR. CASTOR SAID THOUGHTFULLY, putting the key to the grandfather clock back on top of its case. Lucy and her dad were winding all the clocks in the house, trying to synchronize the different times before Mrs. Castor came home from the hospital. The babies would have to be in a while longer, because they were still too small to leave.
“She took very good care of me while you were gone,” Lucy said. “And I think she’d be an excellent godmother. Besides, we all love Chloe, don’t we?”
There was a rather long pause. “Well, let’s talk to your mother about it, shall we? See what she says. But I’d like to wait a few days if you don’t mind, Lucy. She has enough to think about right now with the babies.”
“I might have mentioned the idea to Chloe already,” Lucy confessed. “Just in passing,” she added. “You know how these things can slip out.”
“Ahhhh,” Mr. Castor nodded. “Ahhhhhhh,” he said again.
“I shouldn’t have done that, should I?” Lucy said, beginning to sound a bit frantic. “I know what you’re thinking. It’s up to you and Mom to decide, and you don’t know if you want the twins’ godmother to have tattoos and pierced eyebrows and pink hair.”
Mr. Castor made the sort of throat clearing noise that could be interpreted many ways.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Lucy whispered. “Now I feel like a stressed out octopus. I want to chew my arms off.” Lucy closed her eyes and groaned. “Mom’s going to have a fit, isn’t she?”
Surprisingly, Mrs. Castor didn’t have a fit when Lucy and Mr. Castor mentioned the idea to her. She was lying on the Nest with a cup of tea, having just been sent home from the hospital.
“I think asking Chloe to be godmother is a really lovely idea,” Mrs. Castor said. “I’m so grateful to her for looking after you, Lucy. Chloe has been a lifesaver for this family. I honestly don’t know how we would have managed without her. I’ve been wanting to do something special as a thank-you, and this is perfect. She’ll make a wonderful godmother.”
“She’ll certainly make an interesting godmother,” Mr. Castor remarked, and Lucy gave a relieved smile.
Over the next few weeks Mrs. Castor spent most of her time at the hospital, sitting with the twins and feeding them, and then after school Mr. Castor, or sometimes Chloe, would bring Lucy up to visit. She made her mother regular thermos flasks of a special sage potion, because according to Nature’s Magic, sage leaves steeped in hot water made an excellent tonic to help people get their strength back. Especially when combined with a magic spell, Lucy decided.
There was nothing she could do for the twins though. So far she had been able to view her brother and sister only through a little window, because the nurses wouldn’t allow anyone but the parents to hold them. They were worried about germs, so the twins had to be in a special room with all the other babies that needed looking after, each one lying in a little plastic tank, wrapped up like sausages with tiny caps on their heads.
Lucy had been every day for the past three weeks, but this was the first day she was finally going to be able to hold the babies, who were still called “the babies,” much to the nurses’ dismay, because the Castors hadn’t officially named them yet. Lucy felt it extremely important that she should be able to see the twins close up before giving them their names, and Mr. and Mrs. Castor had agreed with this. Because what if the name didn’t fit? Lucy had said, and how would you know that until you studied the baby’s face and tried the name on for size? Names were something the twins would have for the rest of their lives, and it was important, Lucy told everyone, that they got them right.
The Castors had been allowed to use a special room for their visit, but first Lucy had to scrub her hands with lots of soap and hot water and put on a hospital gown. The moment had finally come when the babies would meet their big sister face-to-face, and Lucy was feeling all twitchy and nervous as she waited for them to be brought in.
“Here we are, then,” one of the nurses said, wheeling a clear plastic bassinet into the room. Another nurse followed, pushing the second baby. Lucy’s stomach clenched. This was the part where Ella would be skipping around the room, clapping her hands in ecstasy. But Lucy wasn’t Ella, and even though it was now clear the babies were going to be all right, she still didn’t feel like skipping. She just wasn’t a baby sort of person, and that is all there was to it. Maybe, Lucy tried to tell herself, it would come with time.
“Ready, Lucy?” Mrs. Castor said as the first nurse picked up a baby.
Lucy nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She held out her arms like her mother had shown her, and the nurse slowly and carefully lowered the baby into them.
“Meet your little sister,” Mrs. Castor said.
The baby was smaller than one of Ella’s dolls, all wrinkled and prunelike with white flaky skin. She had a mottled red face, a squished nose, and her eyes were shut tight. Peering under her cap, Lucy saw tufts of soft black hair, and sticking out from her head were two rather large ears. Her hands reminded Lucy of tiny chicken claws, curled up and skinny with long, shell-shaped nails. She looked just like an ancient old man. And she was, without question, the most beautiful thing Lucy Castor had ever seen.
“Hello,” Lucy whispered, feeling an ache in her chest. The baby opened her eyes and stared up at Lucy, and the ache inside Lucy grew bigger, swelling and swelling until she could hardly breathe. “She looks just like an elf princess,” Lucy murmured, kissing the baby’s nose. “There is nothing Toady about her at all. And I’m so happy, because I don’t have to pretend to like her,” Lucy said, flooded with relief. “I really, truly do.”
“So any ideas for her name?” Mrs. Castor said. “Since you’re not all that keen on Elizabeth, and we really have to start calling these babies something other than ‘baby.’ ”
“Petunia,” Lucy whispered, breathing in the warm baby smell of her new sister. “I think we should call her Petunia. Petunia Elizabeth is a lovely name.”
“Yes, it is,” Mrs. Castor agreed.
“And what about this little guy?” Mr. Castor said, cradling Lucy’s brother and sitting down in the chair beside Lucy. He looked identical to Petunia, but Lucy didn’t think he would appreciate being named after a flower.
“How about Ginger? We could call him Ginger after my guinea pig? That would be a great honor.”
“No,” Mr. and Mrs. Castor said together, rather too quickly, Lucy thought.
Lucy mulled on different names for a minute and then said, “I’ve changed my mind about William. It’s quite a nice name, even if it is a bit royal. He definitely looks like a William.” She smiled at her new baby brother, who gave the most enormous gummy yawn back.
CHLOE FLUSHED AS PINK AS her hair and said she’d be honored to be the twins’ godmother when Lucy and her parents asked her. Chloe had gone with the Castors to visit the babies in the hospital. “Not that I’ve got much experience with this sort of thing,” Chloe said, twisting her rings around her finger.
“Well, there are a few rules,” Mr. Castor said, sounding serious but smiling with his eyes. “No taking the twins out for tattoos or nose rings, or buying them bottles of hair dye before their eighteenth birthdays.”
“Honestly, Mr. Castor. Do I look like the kind of girl who would do that?” Chloe replied, smiling back. “I will take great care of my godtwins.”
