Flower Girls

Chapter 12 - The Teenager

When I arrived home with Jade, I received various "congratulations" cards from friends and colleagues. I noticed there was no card from Matthew, and of course no card from Lily, who seemed to have disappeared completely from my life.

My heart and soul became dedicated to bringing up Jade the best way I knew how. She was a logical little girl, who liked to know how the world worked, and asked endless questions about everything. My parents were the best grandparents, as I knew they would be.

I cried on her first day at infant school. With her clean and ironed school uniform and little blonde pigtails, she looked so grown up. And I didn't want her to grow up. She reminded me of Simon in so many ways. The smiles, the questions, the intelligence. I tried to nurture everything about her personality.

We needed money of course, and I continued to work at the lab in order to secure an income for us. Matthew and Amanda continued to work there too, although Matthew never forgave me for the time crystal project being discontinued. In fact, he didn't seem to talk to anyone any more. I felt sorry for him but didn't dare approach him in case I made things worse. I hoped that at some point, he would understand and break out of the shell he'd made for himself.

Jade continued to grow up into a sweet and kind little girl that I was so very proud of.

When she was six years old, she inevitably asked why I bought the calla lilies every week.

You must never tell anyone about me. No matter how tempted you are.

So, I simply answered, "Because I really like lilies. Aren't they pretty?" to which she nodded.

It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either. I couldn't tell her the whole truth. I couldn't tell anyone.

When she was eight years old, we were playing in the park together. She wanted to go on everything – the swings, the slide, the roundabout. I tried to keep up with her, but she was so active!

She was running across the park in excitement as she was trying to get back to the swing again, when an older boy let off a firecracker with a loud bang. Suddenly Jade was at my side again, sobbing that he had given her a fright.

I gave her a cuddle and comforted her, not realising how fast she could move when she wanted to. I dried her eyes and tried to explain that the boy had just been playing, and it made a loud noise, but it wouldn't hurt her.

Over time I noticed that whenever she ended up in a situation that frightened her, and gave her adrenaline, she could move faster than most children. I watched and listened, and by the time Jade was ten years old I was convinced that she had the ability to slow down and speed up time around her.

It made sense – Simon's DNA had been changed by the time crystals, and that DNA had been passed on to his daughter.

Knowing that Simon had died because of this, I got some tests done with the doctor. Her tests came back normal. As far as I could tell without telling the doctor anything, it seemed she wasn't going to die from this.

We made sure we practiced her abilities in private, so that we could keep them secret. I didn't want anyone using my baby for experiments, which I knew would happen if anyone found out about her, so she needed to learn to get herself under control.

I thought back to my own childhood and wondered whether Lily's abilities had also somehow managed to come from exposure to the time crystals. It would certainly make sense. Perhaps a little exposure to these crystals created these abilities, but Simon had had too much which overloaded his system. I would have given anything to be able to contact Lily now, to see whether she could teach Jade how to control it properly.

But given that I had no idea how to find Lily, I just had to do this on my own.

By the time Jade was a teenager, she had practiced enough to know that adrenaline was the driving factor behind her ability to speed up and slow down time. She was also adult enough to understand why I had asked her to keep it a secret.

At sixteen years old, Jade was able to earn some money for herself while studying at school. I talked to Amanda about getting her a little science job in the labs, which Jade was pleased about. She liked science as well, which wasn't really surprising, given who her parents were.

Jade wasn't given any projects to do on her own, but she was able to help in other ways, like fetching equipment, putting it away, and cleaning up. She was soon known by all the staff as a bright, friendly girl, and most of them would do anything to help her if they could. She also learned plenty about science while she was there while she was studying at the local school.

As I watched her grow into a young lady, I thought about Simon and how proud he would have been of his daughter.