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 Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 10:58 pm
"Sure you don't wanna cookie, Delly?" The tall, lavendar-skinned woman once more bent over the stroller with a tempting gingersnap. She waved it dramatically and was rewarded with just a faint coo and pale blue eyes tracking the motion. She sat back with a sigh. "Now I know you're not a normal kid," she giggled. "All kids like cookies. It's a fact."
Delilah delicately placed her first finger of her right hand in her mouth and began sucking noisily. With her free hand, she clutched at one of the brightly-colored petals surrounding her and pulled it as if to cover herself better. Her "mother" smiled indulgently and put the cookie in her own mouth, trapped between her lips, while she helped the child with her petals. Then she straightened and removed the cookie. "Well, I'll bring some along with us, huh?" she asked. "Just in case you change your mind."
Then, feeling as if she had properly done her duty as a mother, Kova settled back in her chair to sip at her oversized mug of hot cocoa, her tail swaying idly through the hole in the back of the chair. It was so nice of this cafe to be on the way to work and it was even nicer for Mr. Athan and Ms. Reyna to let her bring along little Delly-do.
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 11:09 pm
"Come along Manny, come along," Estelle cooed as she waved one hand to the girl lagging along behind her. They had been walking around the ciry since early morning, distributing flyers for a support group the congregation had started. It was called New Beginnings, and was aimed toward new immigrants that were having trouble adjusting. The child had been remarkably complacent throughout the day, and as a reward she had promised her a brownie on the way home. Holding the door to the cafe open she ushered Manny in, taking care not to get her long linen skirts caught in the door.
Manny rushed in the door as soon as it was open, heading first to the cork bulletin board that held announcements about all sorts of school activities and community hot spots. "Momma, this one says poe-trie," she explained, pointing the flyer out. "Maybe we could put one of ours here, you think?"
"No baby, I don't think that's a good idea," Estelle responded warily, cringing at the look the woman at the counter gave her, "And I think maybe you should quiet your voice a little bit."
Manny nodded quickly, zipping her lips before she pulled herself up into one of the high stools. She had chosen the place because of its proximity to a pair of very interesting looking people, and despite her mother's frequent reminders not to stare, she couldn't help herself.
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Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 2:26 pm
After a few moments, the staring was noticed and Kova looked up to see the little girl watching with wide eyes. Smiling and not at all bothered (she was, after all, used to it), she raised a hand to wave and winked. Then, with a foot, she angled the stroller so that Delilah could see the little girl, too. The baby peeped over the top of a colorful petal and blinked slowly.
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 3:02 pm
Manny climbed up onto her knees on the stool so she could lean over toward them and still keep her balance. She smiled to the colorful baby, then looked back up to the equally colorful woman. "My name's Manny," she said poignantly, then paused to uncrumple a piece of paper from her pocket. Once it was again readable she reached to hand it to the woman, not seeing anything odd with intruding like this, "Maybe you could come?"
Just then Estelle had gotten out of the line, carrying the girl's brownie on a small plate. "Manuela," she said sternly, raising an eyebrow to the girl whose back was turned to her, "What did we say about bothering people?" She set the plate down and looked toward Kova apologetically, "I'm sorry, she's just a bit excitable."
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 7:16 pm
"Oh, don't worry about it." Kova's smile bolstered her words, bright as sunshine and twice as honest. "She didn't interrupt anything. I'm just havin' coffee and Delly here is refusing cookies because I guess her fingers taste better or something. I don't know." She angled her smile down at the baby fondly. "She's a strange one." Then she looked back up and laughed before holding out a hand. "Sorry. I get away from myself sometimes. I'm Kova and this is Delilah, my lil cabbage-puss."
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 9:52 pm
Estelle smiled, taking the woman's hand with both of hers, "My name is Estelle, and this is my daughter Manuela." She ran the thing over in her head again, then looked a bit confused. "Cabbage you say?" she asked curiously, not knowing if it was just a nickname or something more.
Manuela however, wasn't really one for introductions. As soon as the plate was set down in front of her she scooped the brownie up and took a bite. Yummy. She was watching the two out of the corner of her eye, but soon switched to Delilah. She child was still more interesting.
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 10:27 pm
Delilah peered over one of her petals, meeting Manuela's look eye for eye. Slowly, she blinked as if to say hello. Then she crossed her eyes. One could only wonder what that meant.
"Oh, yeah, I said cabbage." Kova shook her head, smiling. Then she pointed to the stroller's precious cargo with one hand while the other adjusted a piece of green hair behind her tapering ear. "She went from a big ol' cabbage to, well, a cute little flower-girl. I suppose that's what she is. All I know is that she's precious, quiet, and this planet is amazin' if you all get kids out of vegetables." She paused for breath and, suddenly, tilted her head to one side. Her brown eyes widened a bit as she caught on to Estelle's choice of tone. "So you know all about the cabbages, too?"
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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:16 am
Estelle nodded, lowering her voice as she gestured to Manuela, "She came from one. I thought I was just losing my mind. Had it up on the table and one day poof, I come upstairs and there's a child mucking around." Her voice took on a more sullen tone as she looked down at her knotted hands, "I thought it was a miracle, so I named her after my late brother Emanuel." So it wasn't a miracle after all, then what was it?
Manny nearly choked on her brownie when the girl crossed her eyes, nearly falling out of her chair as she tried to do the same. But all she ended up doing was making her own head hurt. So instead she flipped her long puffed tail up to her side and wiggled it at the girl, giggling madly.
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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:42 pm
Delilah chirped in surprise and carefully reached out a hand for the other girl's tail. Her hand-eye coordination, however, proved to not be up to the challenge and she only closed on empty air. With a faint huff, she drew her hand back in to grip the edge of a petal. She paused for a moment and then she bent the petal outwards as if to show it to Manuela better.
Kova glanced at the two children absently and smiled. Then she tilted her head as she refocused her attention on Estelle's question. "I dunno," she admitted. "Kids come in all things, though, right? Cabbages are just... Well, not all cabbages have babies, right? Or there'd be baby farms and that's not happenin'. So they're special cabbages. Maybe you got Manuela outta the cabbage because the cabbage knew you'd be a really good mama to her. It trusted you or something."
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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:47 pm
Manny seemed entranced by the girl's coloful petals, reaching a hand out to touch the offered surface. Odd, it kind of felt like velvet, but waxier. It was nice though, and warm. "Very pretty," she told her, giving a kind smile.
Estelle thought about it for a moment, unsure of the implications that made. "I went to ask the people at the center about it once," she explained, "And they said that we could run tests, but the most likely answer was that Manuela was part of me, and part something they didn't know. They said its a rare case, but it happens." She paused, then added, "In fact, I haven't met any other children that look like their parents."
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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:04 pm
Kova nodded understandingly. "Delly doesn't look a bit like me," she agreed. "It must be nice if she looks a bit like you, though, because then you don't look like a babysitter. You look like a proper relative. Not that blood is better than love or anythin' but it makes it easier for people to match her to you." She looked over at her own child with a faint expression of contemplation. Delilah had just offered Manuela a sleepy smile in gratitude for the compliment. "Not that it's hard to describe them, I guess. Manuela and Delly are too pretty to fade out on us. That and Manuela's got a tail and Delly is, well, a flower."
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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:29 pm
Manuela moved to lean off her chair toward the girl, sensing that she was tired. That was ok, she was kind of tired herself from walking around all day. "What do you like to do?" she asked, figuring they'd be fine to just talk until their parents were done.
"Yeah, I've actually asked about that," Estelle noted, "It keeps growing, but they say it's going to stop soon. Does Delilah have any trouble walking?" Well, she may not have started walking yet, but it was an interesting theory.
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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:52 pm
"Walking?" Kova smiled sheepishly and shook her head. "Delly hasn't even tried to walk yet. Well, that I've caught her at, anyway. She wriggles a bit but she mostly sleeps and watches things. I don't know if it's 'cause she's so little or if there's something wrong. I've never been a mama before. They should've given us instruction books with the cabbages."
Delilah regarded Manuela and appeared to give the question a lot of thought. Then she put her hands together in prayer position and set them against her cheek to mimic sleep. She raised her head again after she felt the point had been communicated and pointed at Manuela's necklace. "Pitty," she whispered. Pretty.
Kova looked down and blinked. "Did she just say something? Like a real word?"
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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:58 pm
Estelle smiled, looking down at her daughter, "I was lucky, I took care of my younger brother Emanuel for a long time, he's her namesake." She didn't seem to be worried about the girls, they were getting along fine, and if the one hadn't started walking then maybe that was her perrogative, it looked like it would be a difficult thing to start. At the comment she raised an eyebrow, "You mean she hasn't started talking either?"
Manny grinned at the compliment, removing her coral drop necklace for closer inspection, "Mama gave it to me." She had a lot of jewelry, mostly fashion and costume stuff, but she never tired of people commenting on them. This particular piece looked like it sort of matched Delilah, colorwise at least.
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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 10:06 pm
Delilah touched her little hands to her own throat and smiled crookedly. Then she pointed up at Kova, trying to indicate the pearls set into her mother's skin in a loose collar around her throat. "Pitty," she repeated.
"No, not a word." Kova looked down at Delilah and smiled. Relief shone in her big brown eyes. "I thought she just didn't wanna because I was so sure she could, y'know? It's not like I don't talk to her all the time. We found a show with puppets that she likes, too." She sighed. "I'm glad she's talkin' now. Even if it's just to your Manuela."
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