Epilogue
Kellan
Five Years Later…
“And how was ballet?” I ask as my three year old, Kendall Amelia Kenningston, jumps into my arms.
Amelia’s parents were touched and honored when we asked if they minded about our middle name choice. While coping with the death of their youngest has definitely been an ongoing process, they’re doing better than I’ve seen others do. They’re giving all they can to the child that is still alive while making sure to never forget the one they lost. We don’t see them as frequently as we did when Amelia was live, but we are still very much in touch and do occasionally meet for lunch or dinner.
“Wonderful!”
“Did you twirl?”
“Yes…”
“And spin?”
“Yes…”
“And twinkle toes across the room?
She giggles and puts both her hands on my cheeks. “Yes. Now ice cream, please…”
Are you honestly surprised? You’ve met her mother.
“Your Uncle Guy wants frozen yogurt.”
“Bleh.”
I smirk. “That’s what mummy said too.”
After adjusting her on my hip, I start up the stairs of the academic building of the orphanage where Brie teaches with Vincent and Kage behind me.
Getting Hannah’s Hope in my desired time went flawlessly once Felicity left. Alarmingly so. Guy casually mentioned the idea of her purposely postponing progress, which would have forced us to spend more time together and caused an even bigger wedge in my marriage. He of course waited to announce that theory to us until she accused him of lying about his sexuality to sleep with my wife without my knowledge. Her desperation tactics continue to get pathetically lower, attempting to start rumors and slander primarily about Brie in order to protect my reputation, you know just in case I ever changed my mind in the future, but she never tried to take Hannah’s Hope. I guess she believed my threat as she damn well should’ve.
“Can Uncle Trist and Aunt Soph Soph come too with baby Olivia?” She questions just on the other side of the door.
“We can certainly call and ask,” I answer, taking the staircase directly to the right of the entrance. “But you know Uncle Kris is very busy lately.”
From a professional standpoint, their cancer foundation has changed hundreds of lives. While it originally was dedicated solely to research, treatments, and studies that could help prevent, fight, or cure, it recently expanded to include financially helping those families who need it once a member has been diagnosed. Kris hates to admit it but the decision to branch out came from watching the difference MINOH and Hannah’s Hope have made, not only to individuals but to our country’s morale. Regardless of the fact he still has many years before he has to take the throne, he’s fully committed to continue a positive change for the people of our nation. Over the past several years blogs and media sites have spent more time boasting about the improvements that have been made as opposed to criticizing frivolous things like when our wives dresses are too low cut for some of those with more modest taste. Don’t get me wrong. The internet still loves to insinuate lies like brotherly rivals or more recently we’re wife swapping, but they also report things like Kris’ addition to his company and Hannah’s upcoming graduating class. Oh and of course things like my father advocating for better standards for our veterans. Nowadays he either spends the majority of his time at the restaurant he invested in, talking and sharing pints with those who once fought for this country and now strive to find a place in or endlessly spoiling his grandchildren. Pretty sure he may have ordered Kendall a real life My Little Pony. Not telling Brie about that. That’s all on him.
“No busy,” she tries to argue.
“Very. Remember he almost missed dinner at Grandpa’s on Sunday.”
Kendall pouts her displeasure instantly causing her to look more like Brie than me.
Aside from her bright blue eyes that get us both into trouble, she’s a dead ringer for her mom. Even though her hair is a golden color, it’s wavy like her mother’s. She has the latte colored complexion. Even the way her brow creases when she’s frustrated or unhappy. I thought I was done for when I fell in love. Ha. Turns out I was dead wrong…
“What do you want me to do? March into his office and demand he eat ice cream?”
“Yes.”
I roll my eyes as we continue up the stairs, passing the faculty wall.
The moment she spots Brie’s photo, she points, “There’s mummy!”
Of course she has an accent, though her choice when to use American English versus Doctenn has no actual consistency. Not sure if she’s confused or bloody brilliant and is mocking us.
“And Uncle Guy!” She points again.
Once I got past the ludicrous notion he was in deed after my wife, things between us smoothed out quite nicely. He helped Brie pick out a stellar staff that hasn’t quit or had to be let go for any reason. He also helped pick a solid, uplifting group of people to run the boarding side as well. His incredible ability to read people has fortunately for me helped employ only the best around the children who have agreed to our care and rules. While originally he was set to be an English teacher, it was obvious he was meant for a Headmaster position. I think his husband, Stephen, enjoys the naughty role play. Can’t say Brie and I haven’t played out that fantasy once or six times.
At the top of the stairs we start for the end of the hallway where the art classroom is located.
All the other arts such as dance, drama, and music are downstairs. Brie insisted hers be on the second story to allow for a view worth painting or drawing some days. Out of all the teachers she’s probably the most creative with how she teaches. For instance last week, she packed up each of her classes and took them to water paint in the garden while it was drizzling, insisting to use what the sky provided. Crazy I know, especially for a woman pregnant with twins. We had quite the disagreement about her actions. And quite the makeup…Believe it or not, twins run in their family. Viper and Candice had a pair of their own last year. Both sides of the family are growing quickly. What I find most amusing is all sets of grandparents seem to come with built in inability to deny the little ones anything. It’s maddening some days.
When we arrive outside of Brie’s room, Kendall immediately presses her face against the glass to search for her mother. The students giggle and wave at my daughter who is returning the joyful gesture.
They love when we come for a visit, though it’s not as often as I would like. Due to the growth of MINOH and the constant flooding of investors looking to have something like Hannah’s Hope created for their territories or countries, I’m at the office a bit more than I care to be. While working with Wes to create, maintain, and create a sister branch of Hannah’s Hope in the states has been nothing but fantastic, it has also been time consuming. Thankfully, because he himself has a family he is determined to put first, he never requires anything too outrageous. Most of the time, I arrive home just as Brie and Kendall do from Hannah’s. One of the suggestions made by Guy was to have an additional area for children of the staff who are under school age. Of course because of laws, we have to have them in two classrooms. One for toddlers and younger, the other for three to five. The free childcare not only provided much needed assistance to some of the staff, but gave my wife and I a much bigger peace of mind than a full time nanny. We agreed early on in her pregnancy to aim to raise our children a little more on the ‘normal’ side. While we do in deed have a nanny, Lena, who I’m sure we will need lots of help from when the twins are born, we aim to do more of the basics such as allowing her to be in childcare and making dinner without the assistance of cooks every night. I may have mastered the art of quite a few foods, but Brie has nearly lit the kitchen on fire four times and been banished from attempting further.
“There’s Tiff Daddy!” She exclaims, tapping her index finger on the glass. “Hi Tiff!”
I lightly chuckle at her in ability to say names that begin with the letter C.
My father says not to worry. That I went through the L instead of Y phase for quite a bit.
Cliff gives me a small wave seconds before Brie calls on him to answer the question.
Out of all those who originally came from MINOH, I have to admit, Cliff is my favorite. And even though Brie will never admit it because she ‘loves all her students equally’, he’s hers too. We even discussed adopting him. It wasn’t that we decided against it. It was that he did. He wanted to be a part of Hannah’s Hope. He wanted to make his own path. He didn’t want to be ‘rescued’. With that said, he has spent and does spend a lot of his free time with us. It’s wild to me he’ll be graduating in just a couple of months. He’s asked me to help him look into universities and even asked if I could help him find the right suit for potential interviews. The latter may have filled me with a bit more joy.
After he provides her with the requested information, she turns to give us scowl.
“Ot oh,” I mutter to our daughter. “She’s making the mean mummy face. Give her the big Kendall smile to make it go away.”
Instantly, she grins comically wide, which sends my wife into a laugh.
The classroom joins and the two of us high-five.
Finally the bell rings, dismissing everyone for the day. I scoot Kendall and myself to the side to allow for the class to exit. Despite the looming guards, the students greet us warmly as they scamper towards their after school activities.
Upon Cliff’s exit, Kendall excitedly shouts, “Tiff!!!”
“Little Princess!” He says back in the same tone. She reaches out for him and the moment he has her in his arms, he asks, “How was ballet?”
“Fun! Now it’s time for ice cream! Wanna have ice cream with us?”
“Can’t,” he replies giving her hair a ruffle. “Gotta get to football practice, but how about we play this weekend? Maybe your dad and I can take you to another rugby match.”
“No. No. No,” Brie chimes in unexpectedly. “She was making weird grunts at the dog and it was a nightmare.”
The two of us laugh at her response resulting in another frown.
I lean over to plant a kiss on her lips and then one on the top of her high, very round stomach.
According to the dozens of elderly women that have been hounding my father about my wife’s progress, a stomach this high can only mean boys. I can hardly imagine…I mean two children no matter what they are going to be are enough work, but then two boys to teach the gentleman rules to, including proper suit wear, seems extra exhausting. Though, I would rather that then having to allow Vincent to shoot on sight every male who even looks like he may be picturing my daughter or future daughters without their clothes.
“Ice Cream!” Kendall chants again this time climbing into Brie’s arms.
“Manners…” I fuss.
“Please, mummy.”
Cliff gives me a hard pat on the shoulder before strolling off backwards. “You coming to the game tomorrow night?”
“We all are. You better bloody win too. My wife’s pregnant. Do you have any idea the bargains that have to be made to come watch you? Not to mention a very active three year old with a fleeting attention span…though she does seem to like sports.” A grin appears on my face at the thought of her following in my footsteps in that department. “I’m expecting at least two goals.”
He laughs and cockily retorts, “I’ll score three. One for each of you.”
“That’s five you, blockhead.”
Rather than back down he shrugs. “Five it is.”
With a wink, he turns on his heels and heads for the stairs.
It’s actually much bigger than the five of us. It’s much bigger than the Kenningston name. Our family encompasses those who protect us, those who support us, and those who love us. Being with Brie and building a life together taught me that. Together we have not only rewritten a pivotal point in my life but essentially the entire story. Our adventure, while messy and unpredictable, is filled with endless love for one another and those who’ve helped make it possible. And while this is far from the ending, I have no doubt the next chapter of our odd fairy tale will be just as amazing as this has been.