Extended Epilogue - Seth
Dare you to Move - Adam Doleac
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Five Years Later
“Grandad, grandad ... GRANDAD! Mum and Emma have been taken by aliens. Come and help us save them.”
My youngest grandson Chase yells at me from across the entrance to the barn. I can see him standing there with his older brother, Levi. Henry is nearby with Dante and his twin daughters, Ellie and Evie, getting war paint spread across their faces. Meanwhile, Ace emerges from the house carrying at least twenty assorted wooden guns in his arms and a grin on his face, excited to play invasion with the kids.
“Dad,”
Levi calls to Ace, “are we going to send a decoy and flank them?”
A chuckle escapes me at how much Levi takes after Ace, biology be damned. I'm so proud of how well the kids have settled and how far they’ve come. After everything their biological parents attempted, they thrived and overcame that fateful night back at the motel almost five years ago. I knew something was off about the family that was living there and I asked Nova and Ace to keep them safe temporarily while we figured out a nearby foster family, but they said the kids weren't moving from their house. If I didn't already understand what Ace gets like when his protective instincts kick in I would have been scared for those kids, but I knew. I knew that this would be the safest place for them to stay. After creating a few backdated documents, and calling in a favour to a judge, everything moved through the system fairly quickly and they were officially adopted a few years ago now. When little Emma pulled my face to hers and asked to call me grandad, it damn near split my heart in two. The boys followed soon after and it was like we had never not been a family.
Today is our sunshine day, or at least that's what we call it. The memorial of Martha's passing used to hit harder until we started this tradition. We dance, play and eat our fill, surrounded by the sunshine Martha gives us from where she waits for me. I'm a little bit slower these days, my knees giving me grief but Easton, my nephew, has done a fine job since he took over as sheriff. I never thought my nephew would even entertain the idea but I'm proud of how much he has managed to accomplish in such a short time. It takes a certain type of man to overlook the law when justice needs to be served and he has more than proven himself.
Emma's voice drifts across the meadow where she plays, while Mila and Nova watch over her. She calls out, “Mum, watch me do a cartwheel. MUM, WATCH ME!”
Nova turns to her, making big oohs and ahhs, confidently saying, “Wow, look at that landing, how creative, Em.”
She goes straight into a forward roll where she somehow ends up with a leg behind her head. An awkward mess of limbs and enthusiasm. “Great floor work, honey, keep it up,”
Nova encourages. My baby girl is never one to dull someone's light.
I look back to the driveway, the sound of Porter's motorbike carried by the breeze. Charlie hops off the back of it, unzipping her jacket to reveal a little puppy they found on the roadside several weeks back. I give her a look of disapproval, she knows better than to travel on the bike with him like that.
“I promise this is the last time,”
she yells to where I'm standing on the wrap-around porch, “but in my defence, he likes the wind in his hair.”
I deadpan her, “Roll the window down in the truck then,”
but she just laughs off my common sense reply.
Porter opens his saddle bag and pulls what appears to be thousands of water balloons out, calling over to the kids in the barn. “Let's kill some aliens,”
as the chaotic cheers of the kids squeal out. Charlie puts the puppy down and in a cloud of dust Mr Wobbles, the three legged dog Nova and Ace adopted a few years back skids to a halt before they both run off toward the large tree out in the meadow. Ragnar passed away last year and he's buried next to Attlia underneath it, the two dogs seeming to play with their spirits below its protective branches.
It's not long before there are recharge stations set up all over the meadow, wooden guns, water balloons and umbrella force fields scattered at different points.
Taking my place on the porch swing, my knee aching a little more than usual today. I've already been dubbed the ruler of the universe by the kids, where my job is to watch over everyone while they play.
Mila must have been given the signal to start because she lets out a very theatrical scream, yelling, “Oh no, I've been taken by some very handsome aliens. Whatever shall I do.”
She places the back of her hand to her forehead, like she's going to faint, grinning while she looks at Dante who is turning different shades of red. Ace laughs at him until Nova yells, “Oh my, Mr Alien, what big muscles you have.”
His face now matching Dantes in colour.
“Let's fuck some shit up!”
Charlie yells and all the adults turn in unison, shouting “Language!”
While the kids smirk overhearing a swear word.
I watch their military operation unfold, as squeals of laughter and giggling travel across the valley.
Moving slightly, I pull out the photo I keep of Martha and I on our wedding day, safely tucked away in my wallet. I stroke my thumb over her image and will the tears not to fall.
“We did it, my angel. We have the best family, and I wish with all my heart you could have met them. I hope you're ready for me because I think I might be joining you sooner than expected.”
The tightness in my chest cramping slightly over the thought.
“Grandad,”
Emma calls out as she hops up the porch steps. Climbing onto the seat next to me and snuggling into my side. “Please don't be sad, grandad. Mum says that today is only for happy thoughts.”
“I’m not sad, sweetness. These are happy tears,”
I sigh, cuddling her closer.
She lays her hand over mine, her small thumb resting on the picture I’m holding.
“Do you think she would have liked me?”
she asks hesitantly. A little pocket of vulnerability shining through.
My voice breaks when I reply, “She would have loved you, baby. She would have showered you with so much love you wouldn't know what to do with it. She would have loved everyone here so much.”
She takes a moment to think about what I've said, carefully taking the photo from my hand and staring at it.
“You know I love you like that, grandad, so, so much. You saved me,”
she whispers.
“I love you too, baby girl. With everything in my heart.”
The End.