Life After Death

Lionel: married life

{Lionel}

Some days I wondered just how old my wife was. She was from the past, and a different timeline, and thinking about her idea of a 'normal' day, made my head hurt.

Porphia was gone now, and had left me with the children. She hadn't left a note, but she had taken Alessa Sade, so she wasn't going too far. So all I had to do was sip my tea, sit at the kitchen table, and keep the other two children from dismantling the backyard after school.

"Dad, can we have pancakes?"

Eira and Finran peered from the doorway with hopeful expressions.

"Pancakes are not dinner," I told them. "Your mother should return soon and will think I'm spoiling you two."

"But I'm hungry now," Eira pouted. "Please Dad?"

"Please?" Finran chimed in.

Porphia joked that neither child was hers. They both looked like me with their black hair and blue eyes. But the mischievous expression on both of their faces was definitely my wife's.

"Are your rooms clean?" I inquired. I reached for my tea and sipped it, as if I was unmoved by their pleas.

Finran and Eira looked at each other and then raced away. A few moments later, I could hear toys banging against the toy box and little feet racing around the bed, straightening the sheets. My children appeared at the doorway once more, breathing heavily.

"All clean," Finran panted.

"And the living room?" I asked. "Are your books and shoes picked up?"

They raced off again.

"You're quite the slave driver," Porphia remarked, appearing behind me.

I set my tea down to stand and kiss her. Alessa Sade wrinkled her nose at us. She looked about twelve, six years older than she was supposed to be.

"I like pancakes too," she said. "And my room is never messy."

"That's not quite fair," Porphia told her. "You don't spend as much time here as they do. And most of the time, you're still a baby."

"That's not my fault," Alessa Sade replied. "I'll heat up the griddle for bacon if Dad will start making batter."

She stomped off into the kitchen.

"Where did you go?" I asked Porphia.

"I forgot to pick up Dagonet's wedding present," she told me, holding up a wrapped box. "It was finished last week, so I grabbed it. Only Juliet had a question about Alessa Sade, and so we stopped to chat with her."

"Why does Dagonet need a wedding present?" I asked. "I thought Nimue and he broke it off."

"As far as Adele knows," Porphia replied. "In actuality, nothing was cancelled. I was thinking we could go tomorrow, because the children will be in school and Alessa Sade is not an infant right now."

"Works for me," I agreed. "I guess I should get started on pancakes."

Porphia took my teacup and shook her head. "You're the most unambitious husband," she told me. "I leave and all you do is drink tea and coerce our children to clean house."

"I'd do the fun things with you," I smiled. "Come on, or Alessa Sade will have her way and cook the bacon too crispy."

I loved cooking with my family. I wasn't very good at it myself, but Porphia never bothered with recipes and Alessa Sade, as long as she was tall enough, loved to grill. Eira and Finran were a bit too young to be handling knifes, but they would carefully set the table and then decorate each plate with sauces, whipped cream, or whatever else they happened to get their grubby hands on.