Chapter 60: Fun Times

  "Come on Grandpa!" Noelle called out.  "It's lots of fun!"  It hadn't taken Noelle very long to talk her grandpa into taking her out ice skating at a local lake, but it was taking her a little longer to talk him into actually coming out on the ice.

 

  "Come on Grandpa!" Noelle encouraged.

  "I'm working on it."  Alder muttered.

 

  He looked down at the ice.  Would it hold his weight?  He wasn't a little peanut like his granddaughter.

 

  "You've got wings Grandpa, you can't possibly fall."  Noelle reminded him.  He brightened, he did have wings, so why was he hesitating?  He glided onto the ice just as his granddaughter came by.

  "I wasn't afraid of falling." he told her loftily.  "I was simply looking for the best place to get onto the ice."

  Noelle giggled.  "You're funny Grandpa."

 

  "Catch me if you can!" she called out.

  "Oh, I'll catch you." He threatened playfully.

 

  Despite his big words, catching her proved to be a trifle more complicated than he had expected.  His legs and feet kept betraying him.

    Alder decided he'd had enough of skating for one day, and he enticed Noelle off of the ice with just a few words.  "How about we roast some marshmallows?"

  Noelle squealed.  "I love marshmallows!"

 

  "Grandpa, what are you doing now?" she asked, exasperated.

  "My butt is cold." he told her.  "I'm warming it up."

 
  "Ahhh."  Alder sighed happily.  "I'm feeling warmer already."

  Noelle stood up, and then copied him.  "You're right Grandpa!" She said with a grin.

 

  "And now to get down to business."  Alder pulled out a bag of marshmallows and handed Noelle a few before poking one on his marshmallow stick.

 

  "Did you roast marshmallows a lot when you were a kid Grandpa?"

  Alder shook his head no.  "Sadly, no.  My mom liked to eat marshmallows, so we had them every once in a while.  But my dad, he couldn't stand the sight of marshmallows.  He never did say why."  Alder mused.  "I should ask him sometime."

 
  "What about Daddy Grandpa?  Did you and Daddy roast marshmallows together?"

  Alder sighed.  "No, I never roasted marshmallows with your dad.  He traveled with me a lot though, we saw the pyramids in Egypt, the nectaries in France, well, maybe he explored the ruins, but we did other stuff instead.  But this is nice."  Alder smiled at Noelle.

  "Grandpa?"  Noelle said suddenly.

  "Hmm?"  Alder distractedly said, he was still thinking of all the fun he had with his boys, Ryder and Niall.  Where had all the time gone?

  "Your marshmallow is on fire!"

  "Ack!"  Alder waved the stick around, blowing on the fiery marshmallow, trying to put the flames out.

 
  Noelle giggled.  "Oh, you think that's funny do you?"  Alder asked her.  "I'll have you know, this is exactly how I like my marshmallows.  Well done."

  Noelle giggled again.  "You're so silly Grandpa.  If you like it so much, how come you're not eating it?"

  Alder took a bite and chewed.  "Mmmm, yummy."  He choked out.

 

  Noelle giggled some more.  "I don't think your face believes you Grandpa!"

  "You don't do you?"  She shook her head, her eyes alight with merriment.  He reached over and tickled her, and she broke into full laughter.

  "Grandpa stop!" she laughed.  "I don't want to burn my marshmallows, I don't like them that way, unlike you!"

 He tickled her once more.  "Brat." he said affectionately.

  "Takes one to know one!" she said in a sing song voice.  "Now these are the perfect marshmallows." she declared.

     "Ha!  They're barely cooked."  Alder argued.  "Unlike mine."

   Noelle took a bite.  "Perfection!"

 

  "How's your marshmallow Grandpa?  Are you enjoying it?" she teased him.

  "Never better.  Best marshmallow I ever had."

 

    Noelle grinned at him, and he grinned back.  "Come on Squirt, it's starting to get dark out.  I'd better get you back home, you still have homework to do."

  "Kill joy."  Noelle grumbled.  "Can't we just stay here for a little longer Grandpa?" she wheedled.

  Alder laughed.  "Are you trying to get me into trouble? Come on Squirt, homework time."

  Noelle pouted on the way home, then reluctantly sat at the dining room table with her homework in front of her.  "Dad, this homework is stupid.  I think my time would be better served doing something more important, like Mommy does.  She has that fun machine she gets to play with, while I have to do boring old homework."

     "When you go to college to be a doctor, you can have homework like your mom's.  Until then, you get to do boring old homework, and then it is bedtime for you."

  "That's unfair."  Noelle said crossly.  "And I can't think when you have that bright red glow around you."

  "The bright red glow actually helps you think."  Ryder said mildly.  "You're just trying to get out of your homework and it's not going to work.  Now finish it up, and off to bed with you."

    "Yes Daddy."  Noelle answered glumly.


~<>~


  Cherie was right in the middle of her research when her second child decided it was time to join the family.  He came out with a wink and orange sparkles, and Cherie really hoped  that this child was not going to be a handful.

 

  Spring decided she wasn't old enough to have grandchildren, so therefore, she didn't have any.  In fact, old age just plain stunk, and she was not going to give in gracefully.  Just look at her, with her wrinkles, and she had seen some grey hair!  On her head!  While her husband looked exactly the same way as the day she had met him.

  It simply wasn't fair, that her beauty was fading, and she was getting old, and staring death in its face.  How could she keep Alder tied to such an old woman as her?  He was still young.  She had asked Monty if the fact that Lia didn't age much while he grew old and grey bothered him at all.  He had laughed and said it was every man's dream to have a pretty young thing on his arm.  But what of a young man?  Would he want an old woman on his arm?

  She saw the way the other women threw themselves at him.  He politely refused their offers, but for how long?  The whole aging thing infuriated her so much, that she couldn't help herself, the words that came out of her mouth.  At night she would lay in bed, feeling ashamed of her actions and words from that day, and yet the fury remained inside. She grabbed her megaphone.  "Death sucks!" she hollered.

 
  Wasn't that why her Daddy left?  Spring remembered seeing her mother cry buckets of tears.  She remembered her mother's words, how she would say between sobs and fits of anger that he didn't want her anymore because she was old.  He had found someone younger and prettier.  Her father never called, or came over to see Spring.  She only knew he was dead because he had made the front page news.  Millionaire Mogul dies in tragic car accident, leaves wife and two kids behind.

  Except it wasn't her or her mother shown on that paper, no, it was some unknown woman, with her faceless perfectly groomed kids.  The prettier, younger woman that had stolen her father away.  Well, Spring would not have it.  She would defy age somehow.  She would defy death itself!  "Death is a big ole piece of caw caw!" she shouted louder.

 

  "Spring!"  Alder said irritably.  "Would you keep it down?  The Squirt and I are doing homework."  Alder wasn't particularly paying attention to what Spring was ranting about.  She was always ranting about something, he just wanted her to tone it down a little, so he could concentrate better.

 
  "Death you have no power over me!" Spring screeched, ignoring Alder.  Suddenly, she felt a little light headed, and she dropped her megaphone to the floor and crumpled over.  She felt so weak, "Death, I spit in your eye!" she whimpered.

 
  And then she was silent.

 

  It took a few moments before anyone realized that something was wrong.  Ryder was the first to fly over to his mother.  "Mom!" he yelled frantically.  "Mom!"

 
 At Ryder's cry of alarm, everyone stopped what they were doing and ran for the living room.  Alder took one look at his wife lying lifeless on the floor and he fell apart.

 

  They heard an eerie hiss.  "Who dares speak of me with such disrespect?"

 

  Her family could only watch in grief; they were powerless to help her overcome death.

 

  "You foolish woman!"  Death pointed to the still form of Spring.

 

  "I will show you that you are powerless against me, today your very life will be taken from you!"

  Spring smiled.  She had done it.  Alder would never get the chance to leave her first, for she had left him first.

  Death noticed her smile.  "You are happy about this?  That will never do."

 

    "No, that will not do at all, I have a reputation to uphold!  You have forced me to do something quite drastic, I have changed my mind, and I will give you back your life."

  Spring backed away, and she violently shook her head no.  Come back?  Undo her plans?  Then she would have to deal with her fading beauty, and watch pretty girls flirt with her husband, she couldn't bear it!  It would be much better if she just died!

  Death chuckled, her look of horror was more the type of reaction that he had been looking for.  

 

  Spring frantically shook her head no some more, she even mouthed the words, "No!  Please no!"

 

  To no avail.

 

  It was a done deal.  She was alive again, whether she wanted to be or not.  Now she was doomed to getting older and weaker, while Alder remained unchanged.  She couldn't bear it, the thought of him leaving her for a younger, prettier model.

  Alder knew exactly how he felt about it.  He hugged Spring tightly to him, and kissed her.  "I thought I lost you." he whispered brokenly.  "I'm so glad you came back to me."

  It's all an act, Spring thought to herself.  That's all it could be.


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  Notes:  Spring is being a pita, lol  She's been such a pain in game, I was almost sad that Grimmy didn't take her!  Her diva-ness is in full force!  I chalk it all up to midlife crisis, since she was perfectly normal until she aged to an adult.  Now she is obsessed with her appearance, primping, accusing everyone of something, arguing, she is just being generally disagreeable.  So that is how I have written her, lol

  Alder and Noelle are awfully cute. <3 

  A blast from the past:

 

  Thanks for reading! =)