Chapter 40 - part 5 - Gen 2 - Tapestry

The rest of our vacation seemed to flying by very quickly.  Before I know it we only have two days remaining in Sandy Shores before we are due to fly home.  Shadow's photograph aside, and my two days of sulking, I have really enjoyed this vacation and in a way don't want it to end.  I now am totally in love with the sun, sea and sand, I could quite happily live like this forever, and can see why Forrest loves this place so much.

The most amusing and challenging thing about the vacation was getting Crystal to go out onto the sea in a boat.  She was too scared because she can not swim.  I have been dying to take Vanilla and Snow on the glass bottom boat trip, but Crystal has refused to go.  She would not even let me go alone, or let me and Phoenix take either of the kids on the trip because neither of them can swim.  She thinks it is not safe, not even them wearing armbands persuaded her.

Forrest has a small rowing boat, which has been sat anchored close to the beach house, bobbing about on the water, which has been driving me mad.  While Phoenix watched the kids I carried Crystal kicking and screaming onto the boat, determined to get Vanilla on that boat trip, because she is fascinated by the fish in the tank at home, so I think she in particular would really enjoy it.  I also wanted to show Crystal boats are relatively safe, even if you can not swim.  

After sitting on the boat for a while she calmed down and even let me row it out a little way.  Secretly I think she even started to enjoy it, even though she did not admit it, and she finally agreed that we could take that boat trip the next day.

We decided to take the boat trip after dinner so me, Phoenix and the two kids spent the morning just lazing around the beach house, while Crystal made a start on our packing to go home.  I tried to help her but she shooed me away, telling me I am interfering and packing necessary things that we would need over the next few days.

I am starting to get a little nervous, knowing what is a head of me.  Only a few short days after arriving home after this vacation, I am due to fly out to Rainbow Valley, with Prelude, ready for the madness that will come with the release of my solo single, which is now out there.  So any spare minute that I am getting now, I am continuously playing it.

Vanilla and Snow are sat not too far away, playing together, on the decking, where I can see them.  Snow is clanking away on the xylophone and Vanilla is playing with the shape block toy and nattering away to the still silent little boy.  Phoenix and Crystal are stood watching me playing and singing.

I have been playing the same song over and over when I notice Crystal start pulling face.  I think they might be aimed at me because she is fed up of hearing me playing the same song, but it is not like I am making her stand there and watch me!!   Getting fed up of the repetitiveness myself, I decided to start playing some other stuff.

My change in songs still does not improve her face pulling, her hand keeps rubbing across her stomach, she no longer looks happy, and I am beginning to think she might even be in pain.  She is not saying anything, so I just continue to watch her.  

As I see her holding her stomach and grimacing, I get a sudden dreaded feeling, and wander if she has stomach cramps because she might be about to start a period, which is very late and well overdue, which is nothing unusual because they are so random and irregular.  I dread them because they are never very pleasant for her and put her into a totally fowl mood, because that is a sure sign that there is no baby.  She has surprisingly actually calmed down, but only a little, in that department, I think she might be finally listening and has not pushed me too much to be baby making outside of the days when I say we can.

Suddenly Crystal starts to run off, she looks like she is heading in the direction of the beach house, but suddenly stops, she doubles over and I watch her throwing up in the sand.  This turns my stomach a little and I stop playing as I watch her bent over continuously throwing up like she is never going to stop!!  Me and Phoenix just look at each other and pull faces, he goes off onto the decking to play with the kids.

When Crystal does stop throwing up, she straightens herself up and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand.  She stands pulling faces at me for a moment before she is off and running into the beach house quickly, still holding her stomach and mouth.

I ask Phoenix if he can stay outside and keep an eye on the kids and follow her inside.  Vanilla in particular has a very bad habit of wandering off down towards the water, so we can not take our eyes off her for a second.

As I walk into the beach house, I hear her before I see her.  She is in the bathroom throwing up again.  The sound and sight of her on her hands and knees with her head down the toilet is turning my stomach and I think if she does not stop soon, I am going to be joining her!!

I start to wander what she might have eaten that has made her so sick.  We have tried to be careful and stick to normal food, Forrest has seriously warned us about eating seafood, especially if we are cooking it ourselves, so we have avoided it and stuck to what we know.  Besides the odd Pizza or a meal out in the Bistro, Crystal has been doing most of the cooking.  My Grandmother has been teaching Crystal how to cook and she is actually turning out to be very good at it. 

Everything that Crystal has eaten over the past few days, me and Phoenix have also eaten and neither of us are sick ... yet.

"Are you okay?"  I ask her when she finally stops vomiting and flushes the toilet. 

"Not really!!"  she mumbles as she wipes her mouth  "I feel terribly sick!!"

"You have probably eaten something dodgy!!"  I smile at her sympathetically  "You might even have overdone it in the sun, you did sunbath most of yesterday!!"

"Yeah probably, because it is never going to be a baby is it!!"  she laughs sarcastically.

Fudge, I never even gave that a thought. I thought about her period but not the fact that she could actually be pregnant and this is morning sickness.  My mind flies back to Honey, throwing up for half of the day, everyday, when we were in the vampberry den.  It could be, but then I am going to keep my mouth shut, because I don't want to encourage her into thinking that and start her off.  I am actually surprised that she does not already think she might be pregnant, and is not loudly demanding a pregnancy test!!

"Maybe I got sea sick from the boat!"  she says suddenly and because of how seriously she says it, she has me doubled over in hysterics!!  It took me ages to calm down enough to actually speak, while she just stands there scowling at me in confusion.

"Crystal you went on the boat last night, if you was going to get sea sick you would have done it last night when you was on the boat, or just after you got out of it, you wally!!"  

She rolls her eyes at me and I am howling with laughter at her again, because she seriously thought she might be sea sick!!  Crystal just stands there pulling faces at me while I laugh, but I soon stopped laughing when she bends over the toilet again and has another bout of throwing up. 

"Maybe you should go back to bed and try to sleep it off, if you are still the same in the morning, we will have to get you to the doctors before we go home."  

I know Dad always gives sickness 24 hours before he starts to worry about it, and at home it would have been so easy just to get Dad, River or Winter to take a look at her.  Crystal smiles at me and agrees and takes herself off to bed with a glass of water.

Me and Phoenix spent the day trying to keep the kids occupied, indoors because I am now worrying about the sun, it has been a lot hotter these past few days, and maybe a little too hot for them to be sat out in it at their age.  I was a little disappointed because of Crystal finally braving going out in the rowing boat last night, we had planned to take the boat trip in the glass bottom boat, today.  After nearly two weeks of trying, just as I get Crystal to agree to it, she goes and gets sick!!  I felt like we could not really go out anywhere now because I did not want to leave Crystal in the beach house alone while she is being sick just in case it develops into something more than just vomiting.

Phoenix amuses me a little because I still do not think he can fully get his head around the colourless thing, he makes a beeline for Vanilla every time.  I think he feels a lot more comfortable with her, being a mixed berry, than he does with Snow being colourless.  However, Phoenix keeping Vanilla occupied has given me the chance to work on trying to teach Snow how to walk and talk without Vanilla getting too jealous of me spending so much time with him.

In such a short space of time, Phoenix is now almost like part of our little family.  He has scrubbed himself up and is learning to live a normal life again, and excited about what lies ahead of him, especially checking out Sugar Valley, which should be quite an eye opener for him!! 

He will be coming home to Sugar Valley with us only temporarily, then he will be flying out to Rainbow Valley with me, when I am due out there for work, and he will be moving in with Denim.  Phoenix is going to be a little more of a challenge for Denim, with him only being eleven when he landed on the streets, education wise he is very behind, he can read and write like an eleven year old, but knows little of much else, he missed out on his teenage education years and has a lot to learn, just like Crystal did, he knows very little about how the world works.

 
Having Phoenix around is a little like having another child in the house, which suddenly makes me feel like a grown up!!  Me and Crystal are virtually having to play Mom and Dad with him.   He has to be reminded to take showers, change his clothes and brush his teeth, and tidy up after himself,  just like a child, and everything is a learning curve for him, he especially struggles with all of the electrical equipment and does not have the slightest idea about how to cook anything, most things we have to do for him.  Sometimes he forgets things have to be cooked, he will quite happily open a tin and eat the contents cold and uncooked, or try to eat something raw, because that is what he has been used too for half of his life.  Watching him chewing on a dirty raw potato, like it was an apple, was quite comical.

While his head is pretty sensible most of the time, when it comes to living a civilized life, he is a little at a loss.  Not only is he out of practice but his mind still works a little too much like an eleven year olds most of the time, and when they were alive his parents did most things for him, being a child, so he never learned to be anything other than a carefree eleven year old, being taken care of by his parents.

Phoenix is worried and thinks he will not be able to look after himself in the civilized world, which to me is stupid thinking!!  If I can do it, anyone can!!  He has Crystal as a perfect example in front of him, who knew even less about how the world worked, and I know he has it in him, he just needs to believe in himself, he would never have survived on the streets for eleven years if he didn't!!  Right now he is scared that he is going to mess things up and land himself back out onto the streets.

He is overly fascinated with the television and the xbox, and can not get enough of them.  Neither of which he said he had as a child, when his parents were alive, which I found very strange, because he is not much older than me, so they were around and available then, it was not like in my Grandparents time, when very few people had a television and games consoles did not exist.  When he told me that his Father was a Vicar and he had a very sheltered and strict religious upbringing by his parents, I did not know whether to laugh or cry.  

He used to live in the house next to the church over on the other side of Sandy Shores.  Televisions, game consoles, not even the radio was allowed in his house, the only music he ever heard back then was the choir and the hymns being sang in church, he was even home schooled, so sheltered away from the sins of the world.   Needless to say, after what happened to his parents and the homeless life he had been dealt, he lost the faith that he continuously had rammed down his throat by his parents, and he no longer believes in Berry or religion.

 

Crystal got up quite a few times during the daytime to throw up, then she went straight back to bed and did nothing but sleep.  

The sickness lasted all day and night, which I secretly became very disappointed about.  I was hoping she might be pregnant, but as the sickness has lasted all day and into the night then I think it can not possibly be morning sickness, and kick myself for allowing myself to be stupid enough to even think it possibly could be.  

So I now think she has to be ill.  She must have a bug, could have overdone it in the sun, or it is something she ate, which worries me, if she has a bug, I am worried about her passing it onto Vanilla and Snow.  The thought of her being like this tomorrow night for our plane ride home, also worries me, how often she is being sick, it is going to create a nightmare!!  I can see her throwing up all over the airport, as well as spending all of her time during the flight in the plane toilets. 

She got up for a short time in the evening, I hoped it was because she was feeling better, but she said she wasn't and felt just as bad.   She wanted to spend some time with the kids who she had hardly seen all day.   She just lay on the couch quietly and watched the kids playing, as well as tried to watch the movie that me and Phoenix are watching on the television.  However, she was not up for long, she was soon running for the toilet to be sick, then she went back to bed.

As Crystal is still sick, I am on night feed duty alone with both kids, and while Vanilla is not being a problem, Snow is being an awkward little nightmare like he has been most nights since he has arrived.  It is 3am in the morning, I have not had a wink of sleep yet because of him, and am sat out on the sand with Snow who just does not seem to want to sleep.

I think he is really struggling to settle into our way of life properly, we are not sure what kind of life he has had so far, but we get the feeling that it has not been a nice one.  Crystal has been reliving what she can remember of her early life, which is quite vivid in her memory, because it affected her so much it scared her mentally.  Crystal thinks that this little boy might have been treated very much in the same way.  Shut away alone, starved of love, comfort, attention and company.  Compared to Vanilla sometimes he is a very strange child, but I guess that is understandable. 

The first few days that he was with us, he acted like he did not want to be touched by us, backing and shying away from us, especially me, always trying to hold himself at arms length away from us.  Then he suddenly switched, almost like he could see that we were going to treat him differently and he has now become very clingy.  The second that he is left alone in a room he starts to scream the place down, now he loves to be held and that is the only way we can get him to sleep most of the time.  Even if we are just popping to the toilet, we have to take him with us, he now hates being left alone for a second.

  

He is happy when Vanilla is awake, and when he is with her he is no trouble, but the moment that she wanders away from him or she is in her cot and asleep that is when the trouble starts.  It is almost like he is scared if he takes his eyes off us for a second we might disappear and not come back.

It is his sleeping habits that puzzle us a little.  He would rather sleep on the floor than in a cot.  He screams the place down if we even try to put him into one, or to bed like Vanilla.  Vanilla will sit or lie and natter to herself until she falls asleep, he just sits there screaming from the second he is put into the cot.  We can not work out if he has only ever lived his life on the floor, or if he is scared of the confines of the cot, because he has never been in one or has spent his life constantly in one, either way he is terrified of cots.

He screams so much, just even at the sight of one if he thinks that is where we are putting him, we can not even attempt to put him to bed at the same time as Vanilla, so while we are putting her to bed at her usual time, he is having to stay up so she can get some sleep.   He does not have a set sleeping pattern, he cat naps, not sleeping for long periods of time and does not seem to know the difference between day and night.

To stop him from keeping Vanilla awake with his crying and screaming, we have to keep him in our room.  The only place that he seems to be able to sleep comfortably other than on the floor, is in bed with us, which I know is not a good habit to let him get into, but it is the only way we seem to be able to get any sleep ourselves at the moment.   We are hoping when we get him home and into a routine we can get his sleeping problems sorted out.

Other than the crying and screaming, he is pretty much silent, there is no laughing or nattering, most of the time he just sits there looking at us with a gormless look especially when we are speaking to him, almost like we are speaking a foreign language to him.  He can not do half of the things that Vanilla does, we still can not get him to eat solid food, and trying to teach him to walk and talk is just not happening.   I think this little boy is going to be hard work and we are going to need the patience of saints. 

I can not wait to get him back home so that medically Dad can take a good look at him, because I am worried that there might be something wrong with him, but Crystal thinks he just needs time to get used to a normal life and to catch up.   I hope she is right.

As I stroll slowly along the beach holding Snow, while I am singing to him, he lies his head on my chest, which is a sign that he might be thinking about going to sleep.  I can not help but think that Crystal is really going to have her work cut out for her when I am away working and she has to look after the two toddlers on her own, especially with the way that Snow is right now.  I am due to go to Rainbow Valley in a few days and if she is still sick like this, she is never going to cope!!

When I glance down at Snow again, he has finally nodded off to sleep on me.

I take Snow into the bedroom where Vanilla is sleeping, I can not let him come to bed with me, like he normally would, just in case whatever is wrong with Crystal is catching.  The only good thing about having him in bed with us, it has stopped Crystal from constantly pestering me to be making babies, which amuses me a little.  There is no way that I can put him into the cot without starting him off so I have to make the floor comfortable for him.  I disturb Snow a little messing about in the room, while I am still holding him.  After rigging up a make shift bed for him on the floor using the mattress out of his cot, I have to lie on the floor with him until he falls back off to sleep again.

I tiptoe out of the room, taking the baby monitor and holding my breath, trying not to wake him, doubting that it will be long before he is screaming the place down and waking Vanilla up, when he realizes I am no longer there with him.  

I wander back out onto the beach, worrying about Crystal and how ill she might be.  I think I need to talk to River about it, he's a doctor he might be able to give me some idea about what it might be.  I stare at my phone, and hesitate, especially because of the time, but I have not really spoken to anyone at home since the photograph issue.  I have only spoken to Dad once briefly, because I had to explain to him about Phoenix and Snow coming back with us, and I refused to talk about the photographs.  

I search down my contacts for the big 'R' and hit the dial button.

"Oh Finally!!"  River starts laughing down the phone  "My little brother finally graces me with a phone call and he does it at stupid o'clock in the morning!!"  he laughs, I am surprised he is not shouting at me for waking me up!!  "Although it's no wander you haven't had time to phone me or answer my calls, Dad has been telling me about the eventful time you are having out there with the engagement, Phoenix and Snow!!  You just can't help yourself can you!!"  River continues laughing  "So have you finished spitting the dummy with me and are you talking to me again now?"

"Only because Crystal is sick."  I mumble

"How sick?"

"She keeps throwing up quite badly, she can't keep anything down, not even water, she has been like it all day, and all she wants to do is sleep."

"Well if she is still like it in the morning, take her to see a doctors, you will probably have to take her to the hospital seeing as you are out of town."  he mumbles  "What has she been eating, I hope you have kept away from the sea food!! 

"We only had squid and crab when Forrest was here, but that was nearly two weeks ago now.  She has been eating exactly the same things as me and Phoenix and we are both fine.

"Does she have a temperature, any chest or stomach pain, shakes, sweating, dizziness, headaches?"

"No none of that!!  Her temperature is fine and she has no pains, she just feels sick all the time and keeps throwing up."

"What about her bowls, constipation, the runs?"

"No they are normal." 

"Mmm that's interesting, so she just feels and is sick?"

"Yeah, thats all, other than she's washed out and tired."

"I take it she is still on her neurotic pregnancy test mission every morning without fail.  As we have heard no baby news, I am guessing she is still not pregnant, so we can rule morning sickness out."

"She has not actually taken a test since we have been out here, I banned her, but it can not be that, she has been sick all day and night, she would have stopped by dinnertime if she was pregnant."

"Who's told you that you wally!!"  River laughs  "Just because it is called morning sickness, it doesn't mean it only happens in the mornings.  For a majority it does, some don't get any morning sickness at all, but some get it really bad, morning noon and night - which would just be about Crystal's luck!!"  he laughs  "I suggest you get a test done, just to confirm or rule it out, it is the first thing the doctor should do anyway, with her lack of other symptoms."

"So it could actually be morning sickness?"
 
"It could be if her only symptom is the nausea, but, it is more than likely not if she still has you at it like rabbits!!"  he laughs  "I've told you I would imagine you are firing blanks now, how often you are performing!!"

"Actually I think I have finally talked some sense into her.  She is on a sex ban."  River starts howling at me  "So no we have not been at it like rabbits we have been doing it like the hospital told us to, once every three days."

"I'm shocked you have actually got her to listen finally - now you might actually get somewhere - but don't expect it to be instant Tap!!"

"I know, unlike Crystal, I have been listening!!  I know it might take us years."  I laugh at him  "What if she is pregnant, then what do I do?" 

"Oh Tap!!"  he starts howling at me  "It's not like you haven't been there before!"

"No idiot, I meant about her being sick as badly as she is."

"There is nothing you can do, if it is morning sickness, it will pass eventually."  he carries on laughing  "Just get her to do a test in the morning, if she is not pregnant then get her to the hospital."  he goes quiet for a moment  "Oh and if by some miracle you have actually done it and she is pregnant, then stop her medication straight away.  You are home tomorrow night, so we will deal with the rest when she gets home."

After the call with River has ended I just stand on the sand staring out at the sea and listening to the waves crashing onto the rocks and beach, while my mind goes off on one over what River has just said. 

"Tap what are you doing out here?  It is the middle of the night"  I hear Crystal behind me  "Who was you on the phone too?  I saw you through the window."

"I was talking to River about your sickness."   I smile at her  "Snow has had me up all night, he has finally gone to sleep, but I don't know how long for.  I have put the cot mattress on the floor and I had to lay on the floor with him until he went to sleep.  I could not let him come to bed with me because of you being sick. "  I roll my eyes  "Are you feeling better?"

"Not really, I've just been sick again!"  she pulls a face

"Is the supermarket here open 24 hours?"  she frowns at me and says she thinks so  "Are you up to watching the kids while I just pop to the supermarket, I'll be quick."

"What do you want from the supermarket?"

"River says we need to do a pregnancy test, it could be morning sickness, if all you are feeling is sick without any other symptoms."  she just laughs at me sarcastically which surprises me  "If you are not pregnant, then I've got to take you to see a doctor."

"That will teach you trying to be clever!!"  she laughs  "I had some test kits and you binned them, if you had left them alone, we would know already!!!"

"Okay!  Okay!!  But I can't take all the blame, if you had been listening in the first place then I would not have disposed of them!!  I am sick of watching you getting upset over every negative you get, we came on vacation to get a break from this remember!!" 

It only took me about half an hour to run to the supermarket, buy a handful of pregnancy test kits and return to the beach house.  While Crystal goes to the toilet, I wait out on the beach, pacing about nervously.  I never normally bother too much when she is taking the tests at home in the mornings, probably because I am always expecting nothing other than the negative that we get ever time.  For some reason this test is really bothering me, maybe because of the sickness, I am hoping that there is more of a chance than normal, that she might actually be pregnant this time.   

I seriously want this sickness to be morning sickness, because it will mean all our stress of this baby problem is over, and I might finally get the old Crystal back.  Also if she is pregnant then it means that she is not ill which is what is worrying me more right now.  

I know I can hope that this time it is going to be different, but all I am really expecting is yet another negative and Crystal to come out here crying her eyes out, because we are never going to get that lucky, especially not so soon!!

Suddenly I hear Crystal scream as she burst out of the doors and comes running towards me.  I can not judge by her face what the test might say, but she is not crying.

"Look!!"  she squeals as she holds out the stick to me

"I can't read remember!"

"It says Pregnant!!"  she starts laughing  "I did all of them and they all said the same!!" 

"Seriously?!"  I am shocked

"Yes we are getting a baby!!"  she squeals.

She throws herself into my arms as she is squealing with excitement, while I am still a little numb from the shock.  I am not sure that the baby news has hit me properly yet, I seriously can not believe it or take it in.  Even though I was hoping, I was still expecting tears, not this!!   Crystal had taken me a little off guard when she dived at me and I only just caught her, I nearly dropped her, trying to keep my feet firmly planted on the floor after she hit me with quite a force.

"Should you be bouncing about like an idiot?"  I laugh at her  "I think you need to start being a bit more careful now if you are pregnant!"

"IF!!  I am!!  Put me down!!"  Crystal starts to giggle  "I need to phone Lilly!"

"It is too late to be phoning my Mom now!!"  I laugh at her  "Wait until in the morning if you can't wait until we get home."

She starts dancing around in excitement which makes me laugh at first.  As I watch her jumping around like a coiled spring, I begin to worry about how I am going to calm her down, now that she is pregnant, how am I going to stop her from constantly bouncing around like a hyperactive child, which she does most of the time with her childish nature.  

Crystal stops jumping about and doubles over suddenly and starts throwing up in the sand again.  Relief suddenly washes over me, knowing I do not have to worry about her being ill anymore, because she isn't.  I think that is when it hit me properly!!  Oh Berry!!  We have done it ... we are having a baby!!

"I'm going to phone your Mom!"  she says as she wipes her mouth, she now does not seem bothered about being sick anymore, she has a huge grin on her face.

Before I get the chance to stop her she is off running towards the beach house in excitement, heading for her phone.  I am not sure that either of my parents will be too impressed about Crystal waking them up at this time, even with the baby news.  I start to chase after Crystal, trying to stop her from bombarding everyone with phone calls, if I know Crystal, my Mother will not be the only person she will be phoning.  

I have to stop chasing her when my phone suddenly starts ringing.  It is a very strange time in the morning for anyone to be phoning me, so I guess it must be important so I just answer the call straight away without checking to see who it is.
 

When I say hello there is a short silence before anyone speaks.

"Hello ... me Shadow."

I just stand there, shocked, confused, even thinking I'm going mad, hearing what is obviously a child's voice that I know I have heard before.  His voice haunts my dreams.  I suddenly become scared that I am dreaming the baby news and this phone call.  I pinch my arm really hard just to check that I am actually awake and not asleep and dreaming.

"HELLO!!"  he says again  "Tappy is you there?"

"Yes I'm here."  I mumble, hardly able to speak.

"What you doing Tappy?"  he asks and I just stand there silently not quite believing this call is happening.  "Is you still my friend?"

"Yes."  I mumble.

"Me and Stormie sees you singin loud with your green friend on the television.  I have a green friend like you."

I almost choke!!  

He mentioned Storm, calling him Stormie just like Vanilla and Magnolia do.  So he must be able to see spirits too.  Does he actually know that he has phoned me, he is calling me Tappy like he did in the cemetery.  He says he has seen me singing on the television with Rocky, he must know he is talking to me.   How the hell did he get my phone number?  Is he even old enough to know how to use a phone?  

This is just stupid!!

  

Suddenly I hear someone talking in the background.

"Shadow who are you talking to?"  I think I am going even madder because the person who spoke and is now laughing his head off sounded just like Cosmic.  "Hey mate, the little monkey has only gone and lifted your phone again!!"  It is Cosmic!!

"How the hell does he keep doing it without me even noticing!!  You know he only went and phoned Sunny the other day, asking him to come round!!  I should never have let Lime teach him how to read!!"  somebody else speaks.  

Again I recognize this different voice straight way.  Hearing Jazz's voice sends really cold shivers through me, realizing that this call is coming from the vampberry den and Jazz's phone!!

"Shadow what have I told you, my phone is NOT a toy and you are NOT to keep playing with it!!" 

"Me wants to talk ...."  the little boy starts to say

"Yes we know Mr Chatterbox, you always want to talk!!"  Jazz laughs  "If you want to speak to your Granddad, you know you have to wait until he has the time to come round and see you!!"  Jazz says seriously  "I have told you, you can not keep phoning your Granddad to ask him to come round, especially not at this time, he will be asleep!!" 

"No Daddy, me speak to Tappy!!"

"Since when ... has your cat had a phone!!"  Jazz and Cosmic both start howling with laughter  "Tappy is downstairs curled up and asleep on Lime's bed, so I will take you down to meow with him if you like!  Your cat does not have a phone, so you are just wasting my battery AGAIN!!"  Jazz continues to laugh and the little boy laughs with him.  "Now give me my phone you little monster before I tickle your bones!!"

The boy squeals with laughter and the call is cut off.

As the call cuts off, my mind starts to explode.  Something suddenly comes back to me from the night in the cemetery.  Shadow had been playing with my phone, him just saying  'Hello me Shadow'  reminds me of that.  I wander why I had forgotten and not remembered that part of our conversation when he was playing with my phone.  

Suddenly I think about him seeing the photograph of Vanilla and thinking she was in the phone.  I took a photograph of him didn't I!?  Something else that I have not remembered until now.

I start to flick back through the mountains of photographs that I have taken since that night, trying to find it.   As I plough through the photographs ... this vacation, pictures of Snow, Vanilla, Ocean, Lyric, Crystal, photographs I have taken while I have been out on the road at work ... I am doubting myself, wandering if I really did take a photograph of him or am I just imagining it.

Suddenly I stop, as I stare in confusion at a photograph of Honey and my babies graves which I really do not remember taking.  I have to tilt my phone to look at the photo properly, because the photo was taken from a strange angle.

I flick back to the next photograph ... and there he is!!!  

I am staring at a photograph of the little boy from the cemetery.  Shadow is sat there smiling at me.  His eyes are shining, I knew I had not imagined this!!  All this time I have had this photograph on my phone, and my stupid brain had not remembered or even thought about it!!  

As I look closely at the photograph I spot something that shocks me.  I pull the phone closer to my eyes, just to double check that I am not seeing things.  Not only are his eyes shining, but I spot the two pointed fangs, either side of his mouth, that are hanging slightly over his bottom lip.  He just told me he sees Storm!!  He was very cold.  I have thought since that night, about the strange wind that I was hearing and blowing over me, and I think now that it sounded like the noise a vampberry makes when it moves at speed.  I thought that night in the cemetery he was hearing my thoughts, which I think might be my imagination, because not even the originals can hear me, I am silent to them.  He is in the vampberry den with Jazz, for berry's sake!!

That kid definitely has to be a vampberry!!!

Vampberry babies do not exist ... my ass!!  

As I continue to stare at the photograph of Shadow, I get the nasty feeling that I might have just uncovered more of their cover ups and lies!!  

Sunny said I was sat in the cemetery talking to myself, but I wasn't, this photograph proves it, so why did he tell me otherwise?!   Why ever since that night, have I had Storm, Cosmic, River, Dad and Sunny constantly pecking my head trying to convince me that this boy is not real, when he so obviously is!!

Why would they want to hide the existence of this boy from me?  Sunny obviously knows him according to what Jazz said??  Storm and Cosmic, neither of them have ever mentioned this boy to me, why?  

The more I think about it, the weirder it gets.  Why does my baby and this boy have the same name??  He also has the same colouring, all orange with red eyes.  A lot of things that have been said are bugging me.  He called Jazz, Daddy ... since when!?  According to River vampires reproductive systems don't work, so Jazz being the boys Dad, is impossible!!  The Granddad that keeps being mentioned is also really bugging me, if he sleeps he is mortal.  Jazz thinking that Shadow was phoning his Granddad to ask him to visit, not realizing he had actually called me.  Jazz also mentioned that Shadow had lifted his phone before and called Sunny to ask him to visit.  I am sure that Shadow said his Granddad was yellow when he was sat there teaching me my colours ... is Sunny actually Shadow's Granddad?!  

I think about something that he said when I asked him where his parents were and he had pointed towards the bushes and said  "There, me hears them.  Daddy is mad again!!  Honey naughty, she bring me outside and she burn Shadow!!"  Saying Daddy I now know he was talking about Jazz, so Honey is that his mothers name?!  Honey ...

Alarm bells start ringing in my head, something seriously is not right here!!  

What I am starting to think, even for me is seriously stupid!!

Sunny ... Honey ... Is that boy .... my Shadow?!

I need to confront them and find out the truth!!  Now that I have thought that, I am seriously going to drive myself crazy until I find out!!  I know I am probably being an idiot but ... there are just too many things that point my head in that direction.
 
I now know that I definitely have the proof to prove that the little boy in the cemetery was not the drunken hallucination that they said I was having ... me sitting there talking to him was real ... he is real!!

I also now know exactly where to find him ... in the vampberry den!! 

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