Ellida (54 page)

After thirty minutes of standing ovations and
a dozen curtain calls, Astrid had bowed to the audience for the
last time, and, looking at her husband and daughter from under her
lashes, mouthed,

“I love you.”

“We love you, too,” Jack whispered back.

THE ROOM was bathed in the golden light of
the gentle autumn sun. Astrid rolled over and faced her husband.
“Jack, remind me why we stopped using condoms a while ago?”

“Hmmm, let’s see. We are lazy. We are
married. Therefore, we have the right to be a bit irresponsible. We
like it bare… You’re breastfeeding Rosie, so that’s a sort of
protection—”

“That’s the most unreliable protection of
all.”

“We used condoms before, and you got pregnant
nonetheless.” He lifted himself on his elbow and looked at his
wife. “What are you trying to tell me, Miss Spock?”

She giggled and, taking his big, warm hand in
hers, guided it to her abdomen. “So there are the consequences for
being lazy, irresponsible and liking it bare.”

“Consequences? You mean…” Jack stuttered, his
eyes gold and shiny with a rush of emotions.

“You knocked me up, gorgeous, for the second
time in less than a year and a half!”

“I did?”

“The night we came here, I think. Or maybe
the morning after, I can’t say precisely. It would be too early for
me to know, but not for Louise. She told me. ”

“Yes! I’m going to be a father again!” Jack
fist’s punched the air in triumphant excitement, pure male pride
written all over his face. With a swift movement he pulled Astrid
on his chest and rolled her until she was firmly tucked under him.
“We’re getting a son this time, you’ll see.”

Astrid shook her head and smiled. She didn’t
even bother to explain to Jack that the pulsating grain she carried
inside her wasn’t more than a few growing cells no bigger than the
head of a pin. After all, he’d been so sure about Rosie, and now,
when she thought about the tiny life in her uterus, she suddenly
saw threads of dancing light, blue, and green.

“You know what, Jack Canagan?” she murmured,
“you might be right.”

Hands and legs entwined, lips touched, and
soon they didn’t know where one ended and the other one began.

THERE WOULD be always roadblocks lying
ahead, Astrid contemplated later, as she listened to Jack’s heart
gradually slowing down to perfectly match her own heartbeat. They
had been granted a long life purposely: to make it better for
themselves as well as for others. There would surely be more
challenges to face, more problems to solve, new battles, big and
small, to fight and win.

“Life throws you a curve when you’re least
expecting it,” Jack liked to say. Well, when you were an Ellida and
Einhamir, the twists and turns of life were part of your job
description. They had both accepted that when they’d met, knowing
they were up to the challenge.

At this moment, however, nothing else
mattered except the precious, wonderful, timeless slice of life
here and now
. Through the open window, a gentle September
breeze carried the sound of waves rolling over the pebbled beach
and Rosie’s delighted shrieks.

Astrid pressed herself firmly against the
solid body beside her.

With every cell of her body, every thought in
her mind, every emotion in her soul, with her lips over Jack’s skin
and his arms around her, Astrid felt life’s bliss secured in the
present.

Not unlike her characters, J.F. Kaufmann
leads a double life: by day she is an employee in a public library,
mother of two teenage boys, a friend, a colleague and the Queen of
her kitchen. When the moon rises however, she shifts into her other
self, as Queen of the Night, and reigns in the magical world of
Langaer.

Born and raised in a tiny, fairylike country
far, far away, J. F. Kaufmann made Calgary her home twenty years
ago.