Lilac Valley

A Reunion of Sorts

The inside of Amethyst Café looks like somewhere Barbie would work.

Everything comes in shades of pink and purple.

Hot beverages are served in teacups.

Most of the employees are fairies and mermaids.

Amber and Kyle sit at a booth in the back.

Amber wears a navy short sleeve button-down shirt with pink, red, and light blue swirls, white polka-dots, and denim shorts.

Her son wears a yellow polo shirt and turquoise shorts.

Eddie and Con enter. Con is now wearing jeans and a Led Zeppelin T-shirt.

Amber waves. Eddie smiles. They walk over to their table and sit.

"This is Eddie Rosen and Con McAllister," Amber introduced them. "This is my son Kyle." They look at each other. Then back to her.

"Nice to meet you," Eddie says. Kyle smiles.

"Wow," Con says. "How old are you?"

"Ten," he answers. He looks at this boy, with brown curly hair and blue eyes. He can't tell if the kid looks more like him or Eddie.

"Where have you been living?" Con asked.

"Greenwich," Amber answers.

"That's real nice." Con puts up all his guards. "And let me guess you have a summer home on the Cape."

"Con," Eddie warns.

Amber can tell this is not going as planned.

"Where's Autumn?" Amber asks.

"You know she's always late," Con says. "Marty tries. And they have a three-year-old. They're pretty busy."

"They stayed together?" Amber asks. Eddie nods. "You're an uncle?" Eddie nods again. "What do they do?"

"Marty teaches history and Autumn teaches English," Con answers. "I'm a cop. He's a dental resident." He points at Eddie. "What do you do?"

"I'm a lawyer," Amber answers.

"No surprise there," Con says. "How did you get this job?"

"I felt like I had some unfinished business in Lilac Valley," Amber admits.

"No kidding," Con mutters under his breath.

"I really want to help improve relations with humans and magical creatures," Amber explains.

"You couldn't even make it a school year here," Con says. "How can you be on the board?"

"I'm trying," Amber tells him.

Autumn rushes into the café. Her long wavy red hair flying behind her. She has on a light pink sundress with white sunflowers.

"Sorry, I'm late," she apologizes and hugs everyone at the table, except for Kyle. "I'm Autumn."

"Kyle," he says. She sits at the edge.

"Is Marty joining us?" Amber asks.

"Our babysitter canceled," she says. "I have a kid, a daughter named Winter."

"I heard," Amber says.

"Who's this?" Autumn asks.

"Amber's son Kyle," Con answers. "He's ten."

"Where's Carter?" Amber asks.

"Carter is on the town board," Autumn explains. "He's very busy. I guess you'll see him tomorrow and every day after that since you'll be working together."

"Is that the time?" Amber spots a clock. "We better be off." She pays at the counter and leaves with Kyle.

"She has a son," Autumn says. "A ten-year-old son. She left in January, which means she was already pregnant by then. I wonder what it's like to be a human raising a child who is a quarter vampire. I wonder what those photo albums look like. I mean we're raising a fairy/witch/vampire/human and it's a lot. And she was only eighteen when he was born. Eddie, did you know?"

He shakes his head.

~

"Which one was my father?" Kyle asks.

"Why would you think either of them is your father?" Amber asks.

"Things were really awkward at that table," Kyle explains. "Mom, I'm not fully human. I need to know who my dad is."

~

"Can you believe it?" Con fumes. "A ten-year-old son. She hid a son. How is that fair to you? Would you have raised him if you knew?"

"Of course," Eddie says. "This is too much. Roger and I just broke up and now a son?"

"Did old feelings resurface?" Con asks.

"Yeah," Eddie answers. "I mean we could be a family."

"But a human really?" Con continues. "Could you be happy with a human?"

"I am half-human," Eddie points out. "Marty is half-human."

"But you understand our world," Con says.

"The world is changing Con," Eddie says. "You can date a human."

"I can make out with a human," Con begins. "I can sleep with a human, but I can never date a human. Humans hate us."

"What about Amber?" Eddie asks. "I know you liked her back in high school."

"She was the exception," Con says. "Not the rule. I can't like her. Especially not now. If you have a kid with her...maybe that's why she's back."

~

Carter sits at the bar with Con, Eddie, and Marty.

"A kid?" Carter asks. "She has a ten-year-old kid?" He looks to Eddie.

"I have to talk to her," he says.

"Why didn't she tell you?" Carter asks. "He would be a quarter vampire."

"I'm an uncle," Marty says.

"She obviously did not want me to know," Eddie says. "She left. She didn't want a relationship with a half-vampire."

"I'm sorry," Carter apologizes. "Do you want me to talk to her?"

"No," Eddie answers. "I can do it myself."