Tag Archive | charles

3.8 Stir Crazy

Charles made it to toddlerhood in the way much like his less ghostlike family members.

And the rest of the clan got busy teaching him and showing him more about life.

Charles’s first word was “food.” Good eating boy.

(Or is that “bowl”? “Spoon”? Help me here!)

There was plenty of help with Charles. Zahra loved him very much, and she was fascinated to see this strange new life form growing every day. But she now had learned the hard way — she was not meant to be a stay at home mom.

Zahra had been climbing the walls so long that you could see her fingernail marks in the plaster. But no matter what she tried, she couldn’t persuade the Science Center to take her back a day sooner. Zahra couldn’t contain her frustration. There was so much science to be done!

She tried to distract herself with her favorite leisure activity.

Or well, that was now her second leisure activity.

Her old friend Fabian Branch called her up a few times to cheer her up.

That was nice, but Fabian was busy at the police station, and he didn’t have a lot of time to drop by.

At last, the interminable maternity leave lifted, and Zahra was off like a shot. With the amount of preparation she’d done at home and her fresh enthusiasm to be back on the job, she got a promotion her very first day back.

That was that. She’d taken the career hit for having a family. Now was time to make science.

3.6 It Takes a Village

Jun23

So…. what is a ghost’s baby? A baby ghost. Zahra’s mystery was solved.

In any other family, this would have caused a stir. Well, all right, even here there was a bit of a stir. But these were the Samples. Samples are brave. Samples love nothing more than to sit down and have a fireside chat with the ghosts of their dead relatives.

When Zahra told her father that she had married Cycl0n3, he blinked and said, “You don’t think he’s a bit old for you? Seeing how he dated your grandmother, and he’s dead and all?” One she’d convinced him that she was truly happy, he shrugged and gave her his blessing. Before that moment, he hadn’t really thought of Cycl0n3 as any different than Susie or Connor. Ghosts have a right to be happy too, after all.

That’s just a bit of context to describe why the freakout at the Sample household wasn’t particularly freaked or out.

Lance was particularly delighted with his grandson. He’d have been delighted if Charles were green with tentacles.

Adjo couldn’t stop tickling and cuddling the new arrival.

All-in-all Zahra had plenty of help. Whenever Charles whimpered, someone was there with a bottle and a diaper, and for all that nobody really had to lose much sleep.

And of all of the Samples, Cycl0n3 was the most beside himself with pride and joy. Charles was his son. He’d made a new life, if a life was what this was, and if it wasn’t who cared anyway?

He’d longingly cared for Zahra, then Adjo and Shanni as babies, always figuring that his time was past. Now he had a wife and a new son. All was right with the world

3.5 Welcome Charles

Jun19

The Sample house was aflutter about the arrival of a new grandbaby.

None were more aflutter than Cycl0n3.

Everyone tried to prepare as much as they could.

The big question that nobody was asking was exactly what Zahra was carrying. A ghost’s baby would be… what? Zahra alone seemed unbothered by this. If anything, she was more excited by the big unknown. Her pregnancy was part impending motherhood and part science experiment, and that suited her just fine. She would have been disappointed if the child turned out to be an ordinary baby.

What she wasn’t ready for was just how much maternity leave was going to drive her crazy. She was climbing the walls for tasks to do. She took over most of the gardening from Layla.