Chapter 27 - Gen 2 - Tapestry

JUST A NOTE - I have managed to squeeze in another chapter while I'm still rebuilding the rainbow file.  This chapter I had decided to skip over because I didn't like it very much and so we could get onto them being back in Sugar Valley ... but as it was already part written I decided to finish it off and throw it out anyway.
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It had taken me hours to calm down Crystal and convince her that Dad and Mulberry were not the bad men that she thought they were.  Which is now really making me worry about how she is going to handle her move to Sugar Valley.

I know she is really going to struggle to start with, there are going to be a lot of new people around her, and she won't have me to cling onto either ... I am going to be a stranger to her again just like everyone else will be once Jazz has wiped her mind of the time she's spent here with us.  She is going to feel totally isolated and alone until she reconnects with me again.

I am hoping ... and praying ... that my Mother and Affair, with them both being colourless, will make it easier and help her to readjust to her new life very quickly.  The hardest thing is going to be getting her to understand that everyone in Sugar Valley are not bad people and that they are not going to treat her like they do in Rainbow Valley.

Once she has figured that out, then she should be able to live a normal life without any more fear.

Once she's pulled herself together we end up lying on the floor together.  She is lay on her back looking up at me while I lie on my stomach, my head resting on my hand, staring down at her as we are talking.

Crystal is really struggling to take in the family relationships - Brother, Sister, Aunt, Uncle, Neice, Nephew, Cousins, Grandparents, Grandchildren, Husband, Wife ... it doesn't matter how many times I try to explain all the different relationships to her, she doesn't understand.  Mom, Dad and parents is the only thing she does seem to get ... I'm not sure that she even understands the brother connection between me and River anymore.

She has never had a family ... only parents that she vaguely remembers ... and as usual I'm doing a really bad job of explaining it ... I am definitely never having any children ... I would make a rubbish parent and they would grow up even more confused than I am!!

"Tell me again!!"  she says for about the twentieth time, I roll my eyes at her and she giggles at me.  She gets who my Dad is, I showed her the photograph, she seemed to understood that straight away  ... but she can not get her head around Mulberry ... I suspect it is because he is purple and my Mother is colourless, and me, Dad and River are all orange.  The whole colour mixing thing confuses her as she has never seen a mixed berry before.  She thinks that Mosaic and Coral look really strange, and I guess they would to someone who has never seen a mixed berry before.

"Mulberry is my Moms Brother ... like River is my Brother.  Your parents brothers are your Uncles ... so Mulberry is my Uncle."

"Too complicated!!"  she says as she pulls a face to me.  How can I make it any less complicated?!  I pull a face back at her and am beginning to wander if she is not just playing me up.  She starts pulling childish faces at me then, pulling her eye lids down and sticking her tongue out and making silly noises ... I wish she would hurry up and grow up!!

"Take those orange things off your eyes!!"  She is staring into my eyes again ... she is fascinated by my colourless eyes.  I tell her I am not taking my orange contacts out because Denim is around, but she doesn't seem to be listening. She reaches up to my face while she's pouting like she intends to take them out herself because I won't.

"DON'T!!"  I snap at her loudly.

Her hand stops abruptly as it touches my face.  She seems to hesitate for a moment then she softly and slowly runs her fingers down the side of my face before she moves them away, nervously grabbing for the end of her ponytail which she starts to continuously twist around her fingers.  She's smiling at me as she continues to stare into my eyes.  I can't help but stare back as a strange feeling washes over me because I can still feel the trail of tingles that her fingers have left on my face.

Why does she keep doing this ... she holds the eye contact, hardly blinking, she's smiling and has this dreamy look on her face and as I'm staring back into her eyes I can't help but go cross eyed.  Sometimes I actually think she understands what she's doing!  Does she know what this looks like to me?

This is exactly how Honey used to look at me sometimes, but when she did it, I didn't take much notice - when Crystal does it, I can't help but get drawn into the stare.  Lately Crystal has been making me actually question my feelings for Honey because now I'm not so sure they were actually what I thought they were.

One minute Crystal is acting like a silly child ... the next she's acting like a woman who knows exactly what she is doing and feeling.  I'm not sure who is actually confusing who here ... because she has my stomach flipping and all I want to do now is kiss her!!

I have to move away so I jump up onto my feet quickly.  If I had stayed there staring into her eyes for a moment longer, I wouldn't have been able to stop myself from kissing her.  Crystal jumps up straight after I have, grabbing my arm and asks me where I'm going.  So I tell her we should be taking showers, getting dressed, and I remind her that she hasn't had any breakfast yet.

Her mad obsession for food has now faded away, having regular meals for months she is no longer hungry or looking for food all the time.  At one point I think she was constantly eating just because the food was there and she was scared that it would disappear if she didn't eat it.  She is no longer animal like with her eating habits either and I've even noticed she's starting to put on a little weight - her bones are not so noticeable now like they were to begin with.

"I want to show you something ... close your eyes."  she smiles at me shyly.  I laugh at her inquiring how am I supposed to see what she is showing me if I've got my eyes closed.  But she insists I have to close my eyes or she can't show me, so I humor her and close my eyes.  "Are they closed tight?"  

"I think you can see they are!!"  I laugh at her  "but I can't see anything with them closed!!"

"You don't need to ... It works ... I've seen it in a movie."  she says which makes me suddenly start to feel nervous wandering what movie she has been watching and what she's about to do. 

I can hear her giggling briefly then I feel her breath on my face just before her lips brush against mine gently then remain there motionless.

Oh fudge!! I suppose I should have known or seen this one coming.

My eyes spring open and I can see her bright eyes staring back at me nervously waiting for my reaction.  Her lips feel warm and soft against mine making my stomach do mad somersaults that I can't control.

I totally lose my head for a moment and do something that I told myself I am not going to do until after we have returned to Sugar Valley, when I know she understands all of this properly. 

I wrap my arms around her pulling her closer to me and start kissing her.  She surprises me as she pulls me even closer and starts kissing me back like she knows exactly what she's doing and this isn't the first time she's kissed anyone like this.  I'm now worrying about what else she's seen in this movie that she's been watching as my senses are going haywire by the way she is kissing me.

She is scaring me to death.  She knows nothing about life and has seen hardly anything of the world, she is also very childish in her mind.   What does she know about relationships, love, kissing, sex ... probably only what she's been watching in movies and what, if anything, that River has told her.

It worries me that she might be still an innocent child in her mind and doesn't understand these 'adult games' even though she's kissing me like she does

 

"I told you it works!!"  she flashes me a coy smile.  At least she has not given me a thick lip this time, like she did the last time she tried this.

"What movie have you been watching?" I ask her but she just carries on smiling not answering my question. 

"I think we can start doing romantic kissing all the time now!!"  she says and I can't help but go a little weak at the knees as she stands there like a timid little mouse, the cutest expression on her face.  She is telling me that we can now do romantic kissing ... I don't know whether to laugh or cry!!

"As long as you promise not to kiss anyone else like that!!"  she shakes her head quickly saying that she won't. 

I hope to berry she understands what we have just been doing.

I spent most of the weekend in a daydream after the kissing stared with Crystal.  She now has a new game that she now constantly wants to keep playing ... kissing me ... she won't leave me alone.  I'm not complaining because I love kissing her, she is stirring up emotions that I've never felt before ... but it's killing me ... I'm finding it very hard not to let this go any further.

Crystal doesn't care where we are or what we are doing, or even who's watching.  Denim and Mulberry find the way she keeps jumping on me highly amusing, especially Denim who said he knew this was coming from the very first day after I brought her home and blurted out that I thought she is pretty.

River and Dad, however already look like they are going to become a double act.  They are both really not impressed with all this making out that we are doing for everyone to see.  I can't quite work out what their problem is.  All I can think is that they are hiding something from me as usual, or maybe they have a reason that they think I'm too stupid to understand - they could just think it is too soon after Honey or even that I didn't realize that River is a prude like Dad.  Dad has never been big on public shows of affection ... whatever it is, they both have a problem that has them watching me like a hawk and whispering in corners.

Needless to say both Dad and River have separately dragged me to one side and given me a lecture telling me to slow down ... like they think I haven't learned any lessons from my relationship with Honey ... now I've got two of them to peck my head, I can see I'm going to have some fun - not - when we get home!!

I hardly spent any time with Dad or River over the weekend, other than our group visits to see the old man in the hospital.  Both me and Mulberry left Dad and River very much alone and gave them the space that they needed to get on with their bonding and getting to know each other.  It is pretty comical watching them together, they are so alike it is almost spooky.

It also confuses me.  How can they be so alike when they have always been apart?  They think in the same way, they act the same, they react to a situation in the same way, but it is the silly little things that I never noticed when they were apart but can already see now that they are together ... like the faces they pull, their stressed out neck rubbing, they even eat in the same strange way.  I have sworn out loud a few times within their earshot on purpose - just to watch them both pull exactly the same expression at the same time, which cracks me up!!

I find it strange when me, Coral and Mosaic who have grown up around him are really nothing like him ... I can only think that the three of us must take more after Mom, we are definitely Orchids and River is a Muffin.

Dad and River have a lot in common, both being clever, musical bookworms and especially their medical careers.  Dad has always been very disappointed - not so much with me because he has never thought I am capable of achieving anything - but he's always been disappointed that Coral or Mosaic have not shown the slightest interest in medicine.  Now he has the son he wanted, River who he can be proud of and spout his medical garbage to all day long.

I can see River knocking Coral and Mosaic's nose out of joint, they have always been jealous of me saying I'm Dad's favourite and calling me a spoiled brat.  I think River might just tread on all of our toes a little, they are two alike for him not too, and secretly I hope he does, because then it might keep Dad off my back a little.

One thing that had to be sorted out over the weekend ... how we are getting around the problem with Grape Orchid moving to Sugar Valley.

There was no way round it, with me, River and Winter to hide, there was nothing else that could be done other than to virtually tell him the truth.

The old man is quite happy about keeping mine and Rivers secret, he knows only part of the truth, obviously he doesn't know anything about the vampberry's.  He has been told about the abduction from Storms funeral and that River managed to get me away from Manderine, and the only reason we've had to do this is to keep River out of prison, because of the police thinking that he's involved in the abduction with his mother Maizie helping Manderine to abduct us, which isn't too far from the truth anyway.

He knows how serious it could be for me Dad, River, Winter, Sunny, Mulberry and now even himself, it could land us all in prison if it all goes wrong or if the truth ever comes out.  He also understands how much it would upset the rest of the family if they found out the truth about Dad and Mulberry knowing where we have been all this time while they have been having to let the rest of them suffer.  The old man was highly amused when he found out that River is the father of Winters baby.  The old man seems to have taken quite a shine to both me and Winter for some reason.

His main concern seems to be Prelude and Manderine ... after he was filled in on everything that she has done to everyone since they were at school together and that we are pinning EVERYTHING onto Manderine so if she ever gets caught she will be spending eternity behind bars ... the old man just wants that evil green woman kept away from Prelude and everyone else, so he's happy to keep our secret ... the secret that he knows is the whole reason for him getting a second chance with life and his family ... if I hadn't been here because of all that's happened, he would probably have faded away before his time and alone.

Just to be on the safe side, Jazz will be wiping his memory of the past six months when they can get him near the old man ... I'm not sure that Dad and Mulberry will ever trust him completely.

Monday morning was here in a flash, the weekend flew by way to fast!!  Mulberry and Dad left town along with the old man in the air ambulance, which was taking him quite happily to Sugar Valley for his liver transplant and to see his family.  Me and River stood miserably watching them fly away until they were just a tiny dot on the skyline, both of us really wishing we were going home with them.

The last two weeks of our stay in Rainbow Valley dragged on and felt more like months rather than weeks.  I quit my piano playing job at the bar and just lulled around the house with Crystal and River counting down the days to when Dad and Mulberry returned to take us home.

I spent two weeks being relegated to the acoustic guitar because Dad had to take my iconic jam guitar back home with him when he flew back with the old man.   We have to leave everything behind that we have collected up over the past nine months, even our clothes ... but that guitar I was never going to leave behind!!  Dad took the guitar with the cover story for the family that he'd spotted the guitar in a second hand shop in Rainbow Valley so he brought it for me because he knows I've always wanted one.  Both me and Mulberry had a right laugh over Prelude, imagining him asking for first dibs on it if I never make it home ... only we know ... I will be making it home.

Storm seems to be getting very restless about going home and I can't work out why.  He won't tell me either, it is almost like he is dreading or doesn't want to go home.  I'm not sure if it was Dad and Mulberry's visit that unsettled him or if it is something back home that is bothering him.  I noticed he hung around Dad and Mulberry alot while they were here, I get the feeling he might have overheard something that has upset him.  Either way, whatever it is, for the past few weeks he has been very quiet and acting strangely, burying himself in music which I haven't seen him do once since he faded.

His constant piano and guitar playing has kept freaking out Denim, he's walked into the room thinking it's me or River playing but all he can see is the piano playing itself.  I think Storm forgets sometimes that he's faded and he really shouldn't be doing things like that to attract attention to his presence.

As the time comes closer, I'm beginning to really worry about Crystal.   Crystal doesn't have the slightest idea about what is going to happen to her.  River and Dad both think that it's best not to tell her, she wouldn't understand and there is no point upsetting her now when she won't remember once Jazz has wiped her memories.  She is getting really excited about her new life with me in Sugar Valley, and I know I've made it worse telling her about all the things we can do and places that we can go that she's never been able to do in the coded world.  While I'm worrying because I know to start with it is not going to be anything like how she thinks it is going to be, she is going to have to reconnect with me before any of the good stuff can happen.

I'm now kicking myself for letting all this kissing start.  Since it did start, I can feel it happening, every day we are growing closer and closer to the point where I think I already know I've fallen in love with her.  I've tried not to talk to her about it too much, but I suspect she might even be feeling the same way as I am, especially as she is the one who naturally keeps trying to step past the kissing while I'm trying to do everything that I can to stop it ... I'm confused ... I don't know if she actually does understand what is happening between us or not.

It now scares me that she is not going to know me when we get to Sugar Valley, but I am going to know her.  I will have to act like I don't know her ... how am I ever going to do that now.  What scares me the most is that this might all be one sided, this could just be me feeling like this, for her it might be different, because I am the only option that she has got at the moment.

What about if we don't get this back when she no longer knows me?  What about if she goes off in a different direction when she has Mom and Affair and everyone else around her.  What if she doesn't even notice me?  What if she falls in love with someone else?

This is scaring the hell out of me!!

The old man's liver transplant has provided the perfect cover story for why Dad and Mulberry are taking another trip out to Rainbow valley and spending three days here ... as far as the family are concerned they are sorting out the old mans house, putting his furniture into storage and moving his clothes and personal affects to Sugar Valley.

The old man so far in the two weeks that he has been in Sugar Valley apparently has been the model Dad and Granddad.  The only person he's been arguing with is his ex-wife, our Grandmother, but everything seems to be going okay so far and he says he wants to stay in Sugar Valley permanently with his family.   Something that Mulberry and Dad still can't get their heads around.

Mulberry and Dad arrived back in Rainbow Valley three days before we were due to fly home.  We did have to sort out the old mans house, but with the four of us it didn't take too long.  Crystal also came with us and helped a little, but most of the time she spent in my Mothers old bedroom, playing with all the toys and trying to read the books, she was particularly fascinated with the rocking chair.  Amazingly Mulberry said the room has never been touched, that is how my Mother had left it when she left for boarding school.  Even her child sized clothes were still hanging up in the wardrobe and her tiny shoes stood in a neat row underneath her bed.

This totally amazed my Dad.  It also made me think ... they must have at least TRIED to look after Mom in a way even though they failed miserable.  She had a nice bedroom, toys and books and nice clothes, they didn't treat her totally badly, they didn't try to hide her away from everyone or throw her out on the streets like most parents of colourless children do ... Crystal being the perfect example of how most colourless children end up according to Rocky.

Mulberry starts to unzip the back of one of the large stuffed toys that is sat in the corner of the room and he pulls out a book, that was hidden inside the toys stuffing, which he hands to Dad.  Dad frowns as he opens the book and starts reading.  I stand and watch as Dad looks up from the book and exchanges a weird glance with Mulberry before sitting down on the bed and carries on reading.

At first I didn't think too much of it until I notice the tears rolling down Dad's face as he carries on reading the book.  It turned out to be a diary or journal that Mom had kept when she was young, a book where she wrote all her thoughts and feeling.  Mulberry said he had found it when he was a child and he's read it from cover to cover so many times ... it helped him in a way to put everything into perspective.  Dad put the book in his back pocket and said he would take it home and lock it away for safe keeping but Mom is never to see it ... it would upset her too much. 

The old mans house also gave us a safe place to be away from Denim so that he couldn't hear what we were discussing.  For three days Dad and Mulberry went over and over what we had to do, say and go through from the minute we step off the plane.  They went over and over it so many times that I was beginning to believe the lies we would have to tell.

It is what we are going to have to go through in the vampberry den the day before we resurface that is worrying me!!  We have to be made to look like we've been held captive for all this time and miss treated.  When we resurface we are going to be dirty, cut and bruised, wearing dirty torn and bloodstained clothes and just to leave the police in no doubt that River has been held and treated like me, he is going to resurface with a knife in his shoulder.  A knife that is going to have Manderine's finger prints on.

I really don't like the idea of the knife at all, it bothers me more than it is bothering River, and Dad says not to worry because both he and River being surgeons know exactly where it has to go, in a safe place that will not fade him or leave any lasting damage ... exactly the same place where Pine stabbed Mosaic.  The knife is to make it look like there was a struggle when we escaped Manderine.  I don't like it but Dad says it has to be done ... I'm just glad it's not my shoulder they are planning to use!!

The hardest part about leaving Rainbow Valley was saying goodbye to Denim.

Half of me wanted to take him with us, it upset me to leave him behind.  Besides Crystal, Denim really is now my only 'living' friend and he has taken me for what I am and not only seen my problems.   Not that my problems really show too much any more because if I look at myself now I'm far from the person that left Sugar Valley nine months ago.

I plan to go back to visit him and when this is all over I guess there is nothing stopping him from visiting us in Sugar Valley.  I know it won't be the last time that I see him but it won't be the same not having him around all the time.  I should imagine I will have to spend quite a bit of time in the future in that town once I've started working on my music career with Grape Studio's being situated in Rainbow Valley.

Denim made me laugh when he told me he was going to carry on with what I'd started, he'd asked Winters permission and she said it was okay for him to rent out the two spare rooms, so he plans to take a few of his homeless friends off the street and give them the chance to sort their lives out ... the chance that I'd given him.

The journey away from Rainbow Valley was nothing like our long road trip towards it, while it took us months to get there, it took us only a few hours to get back to Sugar Valley.  We flew into Raspberry Hill airport then had an hours drive to Sugar Valley.

My first plane journey was very nerve racking and not because I was scared of the flight, it was more the fake passports that me and River were using to travel on that I was nervous of, and Crystal, who was traveling with my Mothers passport.  We had to tie her hair up like my Mothers and dress her in some of my Mothers clothes so she matched the photograph on the passport.  I think I was more worried about Crystal than anything because she had to sit with Dad and Mulberry while me and River sat in a different part of the plane away from them ... and of course Storm got a free ride, which kind of amused him.

I never thought I'd see the day when I would have to sit and watch my Dad breaking the law in so many places it is becoming comical.

Me and River had to keep our distance from Dad and Mulberry, we trailed behind them at a safe distance so nobody could tell that we were all together.  Crystal had to be sedated for the journey and Dad pushed her round in a wheelchair.  Crystal being out cold tied in with my Mothers black outs, so after a flash of her medical papers by Dad, nobody paid any attention to her being out.

It was her lack of colour that bothered everyone.

I had to stand back and watched the horrible looks and the comments that were being made and sometimes shouted in Dad's direction at both airports because of him having a colourless person with them.  It amused me that neither Dad or Mulberry batted an eyelid, they didn't take any notice of their narrow minded ignorance ... I am just happy knowing that I am leaving their cold unkind world ruled by colour, I really can't wait to get back to Sugar Valley even though I am nervous of what we have coming to us before we finally get to sleep back in our own beds again.

I was surprised when we get to the airport in Raspberry Hill and we were split up into two cars for the journey back to Sugar Valley.  Mulberry took me and River in his car while Dad took Crystal in his.  I couldn't work out what was going on at first, especially watching Storm jump in with Dad and Crystal.  Then Cosmic suddenly appeared from nowhere and jumped in with us.

Mulberry reminded us that we are still in a coded town and Crystals might attract attention to us until we get to Sugar Valley and the last thing we need is the police stopping us now, so it's safer for us to travel separately.  Cosmic told me, with a big grin on his face, that he is along for the ride just in case, to dispose of any police officers that might try to interfere with our journey.  This amused me no end!!  Is there nothing that they haven't thought of?!

Mulberry pulls the car up behind the old deserted warehouse building and me and River have to jump out quickly.  Just seeing that building again knowing what is hidden inside it makes my stomach churn and my nerves start gangling.

As Mulberrys car moves away quickly we both leg it off the road and through the trees and into the meadow.  I don't have a clue where I'm going, it's pitch black and River has my hand and is leading the way threw the undergrowth, keeping us well hidden.  I get the feeling this isn't the first time he's taken this route as we move swiftly along until he pulls me behind a huge rock where he stands to catch his breath.

He pushes a brick in the wall, the wall starts moving silently, a gap opens suddenly, I stand staring at it in amazement. River quickly pulls me through the gap in the wall before it starts to close behind us, I fall on the floor because of the force he's pulled me through the wall.  I lie on the ground and start laughing out loud ... so this is how they get into the vampberry den.  He jumps on me, his hand moves quickly to cover my mouth and he tells me to be quiet.  He pulls me to my feet and we move through the over grown undergrowth over to a door in the side of the warehouse, he pushes a sequence of numbers into a metal box that has a number keypad inside and the door slides open and we go through it.

As soon as the door slides shut behind us I can't help but notice the cold and that horrible unforgettable smell ... the smell of blood hanging in the air.  It makes me feel physically sick and a load of horrible memories come flooding back to me.

I start panicking inside and start backing towards the door, I just want to get out of here!!  I had hoped I would never have to see this place again, but I know I have to spend one more night here before I never have to see the place every again!!

There is no way on this planet that I will ever be paying our vampberry friends a visit in the future!!  River also seems to be frozen to the spot in front of me like I am not the only one who is struggling with being in this place again. 

"Oh Berry!!  I really haven't missed this place!!"  River says as he turns to face me and we both just stand there for a moment staring at each other.  I think he must know just the feel and smell of the place is disturbing me.   

"Come on Tap, keep taking deep breaths ... it will soon all be over!!"

He takes my arm and starts leading me down the cold dark corridor.

I am really not looking forward to this!!!


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