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“I want to. If that’s okay with you, Ade?”
“Okay, but you have to tell me a story.”
“You drive a hard bargain...but okay.”
“It’s that or give me pocket money. Mama’s kind of stingy with that stuff.”
“Ade!”
“Goodnight Mama, goodnight new family.”
“Ade, they’re not...we’re not…”
“Sure we are Mama. Anyone can be a family. You just have to love each other and feed each other.” She tuts and shakes her head like it’s the most simple, obvious thing in the world and then stares pointedly at the empty pizza boxes. This girl is wise beyond her years.
Ade gives her mum a kiss and a cuddle, and then surprises me by giving Quilo and Yas a hug too. Peewee gets the most kisses but I know that as soon as we move to her bedroom, the dog will follow for story time.
Sure enough, he does. Ade is so excited, she holds back the covers and pats the mattress beside her for Peewee to jump in. I quickly intervene and stop him, encouraging him to curl up on the end of her purple bedspread instead. Ade pouts a little but seems happy to have him in her room at least. I hope Lumi doesn’t mind, Ade certainly doesn’t.
“What story are you going to read to me?”
“I’m not.”
“But you said—”
“I’m going to tell you a story instead. Is that okay?”
“Yeah.”
She settles back against her pillow and smiles at me. Sitting on the floor beside her bed, I reach over and stroke Peewee as I spin her the tale of my kingdom.
“Once, in the northernmost kingdom of the world, there was a small city in the sky. The land was ruled over by the king and queen of the North. They could control the wind and their only son, a prince, was set to inherit the throne one day.
“Only, their son, had been blessed by the Winter Sprites and was given extra powers. He knew from a very early age that he was special, and that he had powers other people didn’t. He also knew that he had to keep them secret.
“You see, this Prince, Boreas Whittaker the Third, had a secret affinity for ice too. And by combining his powers, he was able to make frozen bubbles which could trap and contain light. The mix of his unique magic meant that he could create prisms of rainbows which mimic the Aurora Borealis. Do you know what that is?”
“The Northern Lights,” Ade replies.
“Exactly.”
I grin at her and snap my fingers, a glowing orb of rainbow light appears, suspended in the air in front of her face. Her eyes widen, and she sits up excitedly.
“You’re him! You’re the prince!”
I grin.
“Better lie back down and see.”
I click my fingers again and again until a dozen beautiful orbs light her room, and then with a wave of my hand and a gentle brush of my air magic, I send them around her room to glow gently with their protective light.
“Now, it wasn’t until he was older that the prince discovered the purpose of these glowing orbs. One day, his best friend was scared and so the prince created an orb and gifted it to his friend, telling him to keep it hidden. The friend put the orb under his bed, and found that from that very night, his fear was gone. It took years for the prince to work out, but the bubbles of northern light were protective, and anyone he gave one to was safe from harm. Any fear, any threat, seemed to vanish as fast as a bubble can pop. The orbs would glow and glow and never fade until the owner had no need for them anymore.”
“Why did you—I mean the Prince—end up in Silver Springs?”
“Well that’s probably a story for another night, but the short version is he’s hiding in Silver Springs because he was supposed to be marrying an evil ice queen that his parents picked out for him.”
“No!” she gasps.
