Page 19 of Stone

His dad had been trying to tell him then that they were finished with this world and he couldn’t believe how much he missed them already and they were still around. His parents, like his brothers, were his life, and he couldn’t imagine a day without seeing them all, even if it was just for a few short minutes. But he also knew that they needed this more than he did them being miserable and hanging around when they wanted to be elsewhere. To be resting up for the next stage of their life. It was while he was sitting alone in the kitchen when Hailey came to talk to him.

“What does it mean to fade away?” She crawled up into his lap and cried. “I don’t want them to die. I don’t want them to leave me without any grandparents who love me and want me around. I don’t know what I’d do without Grandpa Charlie giving me nuggies. Or Grandma Luna showing me how to knit.”

He held her until she looked up at him. Christ, he thought, there was such love in his heart for this little girl that he didn’t know if he was going to have room for anyone else there. Kissing her on the nose had her giggle, and he tried his best to explain to her what fading meant.

“They don’t die so much as they become spirits of this world. We’ll even be able to see them on occasion, but they’ll forever be watching over us. Mom told me once that they’d be able to whisper in our ears when we needed it. To give us a hug, a tightening in our hearts when we’re thinking too hard on something. But the most important thing is, they’ll be around for us when we need them the most.” She asked him how that was different than dying. “I’m not sure, really. But I do think that knowing that they’re around forever for us is better than thinking that they’re going to just die and not be there at all.”

“You mean like my parents?” He said that he thought that it was like that. That humans believed that they died and that was the end.

“Shifters believe that they don’t die; they just fade. We also believe that they watch over babies when they come along. That they give us the boost, like I told you about. That they’re there for us even though we can’t see them, but know, within our hearts, that they’re keeping an eye on us all the time.” He thought that was the best way to live without not having them there, believing that they were around to guide them in their lives. “You know how sometimes you have a thought about doing something, but for whatever reason, you change your mind because it might have been something terrible or dangerous for you? Well, I believe with all my heart that that’s what our ancestors do for us. They keep us on the straight and narrow so that we’ll be there for them when they want to take a nice visit.”

Hailey laid her head on his shoulder and didn’t speak for some time. When she did, he could have kissed her for having a better outlook on things than he was having. He had only been focused on losing them when he should have been happy that they were still around for him all the time.

“It’s like blowing bubbles.” He didn’t ask her what she had meant but held her tightly. “When you blow a whole bunch of them and some of them land on the grass but don’t pop. That’s them, I’m betting, if you look really hard at the bubble, you can see them there, looking at you and wondering what you’re about. Isn’t that right, Dad?”

He nearly didn’t answer her. She’d never called him dad before. When he was able to get his tongue working with his mouth, he told her that he’d buy her bubbles so that whenever they needed to talk to Grandma and Grandpa, they could go into the yard and blow lots of bubbles that they’d be in.”

Stone went into the house to find Sage. She needed to hear this as well. That bubbles you blow with your breath would be like having your family right there in the beautifully colorful bubbles. He liked that more than he thought of anything to do with fading.

~*~

Charlie walked along the well-worn path. He knew it like the back of his hand but watched where he was stepping so as not to disturb the creatures that might well be on the same track as he was on. He just wanted to see his children. Today had been a hard day in that this was the anniversary of his fading from twenty-five years ago.

The woods that he was walking in were just as he remembered all those centuries ago when he’d met up with Roman, a man who would change his life forever. He had hated the man for leaving him but after a while, he began to marvel at the things he was able to see. And the boys that he had with his wife and mate Luna.

“Grandda, are you around?” The grown woman was sitting on the same log that he’d seen her on the last time he’d come to visit her. Little Hailey was now a grown woman with a family of her own. He watched as bubbles, he so loved watching them float through the air and land on the toe of his worn boot. “There you are. I knew you’d come.”

He reached out and ruffled her hair slightly. Touching one of the rainbow bubbles and making it pop had her giggling. As she laid the small child on the ground, he couldn’t have stopped himself from moving toward it had he been shot like the first time he was in this very same woods.

“I wanted you to meet your grandson. His name is Charles Wolf Griffin.” The little boy turned and looked at him and smiled. Reaching down to touch his little head, he was rewarded with a soft giggle from him and laughter from his mother. “He’s a good boy and full wolf. Stone couldn’t bemore proud than if he’d delivered him himself. We’re going to call him Wolf because one of Edwin’s grandchildren is called Charles, too.”

“He’s so lovely. Just as handsome as you are beautiful, my child.”She was the only one that came to talk to him anymore. Or he to her. She had been talking to them and bringing them news since the day that he and Luna had faded. Then he’d go back and tell Luna if she didn’t come with him and they’d spread the news far and wide to the other Griffins that were with them.

Charlie had learned a few tricks so that she’d know that he was around. A breeze through the trees that would send leaves chasing each other. A branch would fall from the tree would allow her to know that he was thinking about her and her family. All were things that she’d noticed, and then she would tell him that she knew that he was around for her.

“Dad and Mom have gone on a trip—they’re traveling to another pack for Uncle Edwin. I think I told you how he had the biggest pack in the world, didn’t I? Anyway, Dad is excited to be doing this. He’s retired from teaching again and he said that this is the end of it. He’ll not go back. But we both know that it’s only a matter of time before he wants to go back and do it again.”

He had known that he was ready to retire again, but this time, he thought it might stick. Stone had grandchildren now, two of them, and more on the way. They—Sage and Stone had been, like his brother Harman, a person who helped kids out by taking them into their home for one reason or another.

Harman, too, had grandchildren but he loved to study things. Several times in his search for his next book, he’d been to places with his children and wife. It wasn’t normally a place that he’d go, calling it a family trip, but they enjoyed it so much, and the kids, most of them adults now, were well versed in several languages as well as how some of the other world lived.

All of his boys were doing well. Edwin loved being pack leader but had been training his son to be the next great one. Eddy had been ready to take over but fearful that when he did, his dad would fade away like they had. He doubted that would happen but he was proud of the young man all the same.

“Oh, I nearly forgot. Storm has been working with the ground with Aunt Grace. They’re replenishing some of the earth that had been damaged when the rains came through the other country. They do such great things together, her with Aunt Rain.” She blew some more bubbles that reminded him that he wasn’t sitting right there with her. “Did I tell you that I’ve found a way to make bubbles with flavor? They’re a huge hit right now. I even put on the bottle that they were a perfect way to talk to the dead. And how I knew long ago that I could call upon you when I just needed a little bit of reassurance.”

“I will be here with you forever, my heart.”When she inhaled sharply, he had a moment where he thought that she could hear him. When she told him that she was there for him as well, he had to smile and wipe at the little tears that would replenish the earth as much as his granddaughter did.

Charlie was just about at the end of his time with her. He couldn’t stay long—well, he could, but he’d be too worn out to talk to his life mate, Luna, about what they’d talked about. Hailey had told him about his other boys and their families. How much they were getting done for the earth and the packs around them. Even the little town was thriving better than it ever had and he was happy for that too.

“Grandda, I hope that you are well. And that you’re not taxing yourself too much. I wanted to also tell you how much I love you. Even though you weren’t that much a part of my life growing up, these times that we get together make such a wonderful addition to what I know about you. You have a kind and loving heart and I hope someday my children will be as kind and good to people as you and Grandma Luna had been.”

He made his way home, floating on the breeze that would take him back to his faerie garden, where he shared the magic with Luna. By the time that he had arrived, he was about as exhausted as he’d ever been but he wasn’t so depleted in his energy as he usually was when he returned from his trip.

“It’s the babe.” Charlie asked Luna what she meant. Not because he was questioning her, heknew that she was right on everything, but because he’d not understood what little Wolf had to do with him being more able to stay awake this time. “They’re full of a special kind of energy that we can feed off of. Not enough to exhaust him too, but enough that we can hang around longer than we should know better than to be.”

“I have a feeling that wasn’t meant as a compliment for me leaving you to yourself for a while.” She reached out and touched him on his cheek. He would swear that it felt as good to him as the first time they’d met. “I don’t tell you this enough, Luna love, but I love you with all that I am and more.”

“Good.” The same answer that she gave him when he said the same to her over the years. The love that he felt for this woman was beyond measure. And even though they didn’t speak daily, his love for Luna had grown and grown over the last few years because of the things that his granddaughter told him and they were able to share. “Tell me about the little baby.”