2.3: The Wedding, the Witch, and the Cure

    NOTE/WARNING: There's one picture of a Sim in the shower. (But, it's blurred out).
     I closed my eyes, taking a breath. I gripped the vial tightly. The cure. Francois's cure. I opened the mausoleum's door, it creaking loudly. The old musty smell filled my lungs once again.
    "Francois?" I called out. I groan was my greeting. I walked further,
to the back of the crypt. A zombie began moving towards me. I tried forcing him to drink the cure, but he wouldn't. I pushed him onto the ground and sat across his mid section. I unscrewed the lid of the vial and poured it down his throat. Soon, we'd know if it worked. If he'd be cured.
    I only created the cure yesterday. I hope it worked.

Yesterday...

    I took a deep breath as I punched the button to Bea's floor number. I gripped the small piece of paper and took a deep breath. Evelyn had given me the fairy's address yesterday morning; it took some time, and I'd eagerly been wanting to visit ever since. But I couldn't. To create the zombie cure elixir, I had to become a better alchemist. I'd been practicing for hours upon end and finally had become skillful and I could cure him and go to Paris  and it would be romantic, and, and, and I....what if he'd mad? If we hadn't done...it...he'd never have been a zombie. But we probably would still just be friends. Stuck in the friend zone.

experienced enough. It was June; I'd been practicing for a few months.
    "Hello?" A voice crackled over the machine.
    "Um, hey. I'm a friend of E
velyn's she told me-"
    "Evelyn Wilks?"
    "Yeah, we um,"
    "That's great! And you're a friend, you say?"
     "Yes, I hope you don't mind. But,"
     "Mind? Evelyn and I were superb chums. I'll be right down." Guess that went well. The elevator chimed and a bright bottle blonde, or more accurately, yellow headed girl stepped out. She wore black and yellow and looked like a bumble bee. "Hello." She cheerfully said. We shook hands. "So, what brings you to my neck of the city?"
    "My boyfriend," and I begun to tell her the story. The vacation, the zombie, everything. Except for the sex part. That was a little personal to tell a stranger. "And now, I need fairy dust to cure him."
    "Aw." She wiped her eyes. "Quite a romantic story you've got yourself there."
    "I 'pose."
    "And you need fairy dust?"
    "Mm-hm. I do."
    "Well...normal I charge a price. But...."
    "But? I have money. If you wanted some, I could give-"
    "No, no. Money is of no interest to me. I usually play tricks. Evelyn and I, we were quite little tricksters."
    "Evelyn was a fairy?"
    "No, no. We'd pull silly little pranks, you know, kids stuff. I acted like her mother....I was, am twenty-five. I took a potion and I don't age, now. Evelyn was like a daughter, with her being ten years younger...her mom had the child when she was old. Forties or something. Maybe fifty. It was insanity and seemed impossible. The customer didn't care. Left the poor kid."
    "Customer?"
    "Don't you know? Evelyn's mum was selling her body for money. Evelyn was an accident."
    "What?! She seems so...perfect. Evelyn does."
    "I might have had a little something to do with it....I took care of her. I worked as the live in nanny; cast a few spells to help her grow up better."
     "She said you were a roommate..."
     "Oh..." She blushed. "Probably shouldn't have told you that....I'll give you dusty and The Great One's address, you keep quiet. Deal?"
     "Okay, I wouldn't-okay." I wouldn't say anything, anyway. It was personal.
     A few moments later, I had the dust and location of the Great One. I was almost done with the spell. The cure. Francois's cure. The man I love. Do you? I began to doubt myself. Did I love him? Yes.....I think..... It doesn't matter. I'm curing him. I though as I drove into the secluded woods. What is love? What is it? Do I love him? He's my first real boyfriend. It may just be jitters. No! No, you love him. I reached the creepy castle like structure and parked. I got out of the car and slowly walked over to the front porch. I knocked.
    "Who is it?" A grouchy voice replied.
    "Tiffani Janes." I replied.
    "Who's that?"
    "I-I need a spell."
    "What?" The door flew open. "No one's needed a spell in three decades! My powers and I have been left to rot away in this place. What makes you think that I"ll suddenly start the magic makin' again?"
    "My boyfriend's a zombie. I need a cure. I have fairy dust."
    "Love. Pfht. Am I suppose to weep and give you what you want?"
    "No, I just thought-"
    "What? You though I'd get your sob story and give you one of the most powerful spells to create an elixir?"
    "A trade. We could trade."
    "A trade....fairy dust?"
    "Yes." I held the three jars.
    "Give me the dust."
    "I need reassurance."
    "You want the spell?"
    "Yes."
    მომეცი ძალა. მომეცი გადახვევა. მე გთავაზობთ შენ ძალა დღესასწაული საფუძველზე. გახსნა მსოფლიოს ჯადოსნური და მისტიკური. წყნარი და ნეტარება. გახსნა მსოფლიოს დუმილი და მშვიდობა. მომეცი გადახვევა განკურნება ცოცხალი მკვდარი." A scroll mystically appeared. "Here." She handed it to me. I took the scroll and read it. Eye of newt, butterfly wings, mushroom caps, and a diamond. All things I had on hand. I'd stocked up on magically supplies from a small shop in the poor part of the city.
"No reassurance, then." I gave her the jars and she began speaking in an odd tongue. Symbols appeared in an order I didn't understand and light began to swirl."
    "Thank you."
    "Do not tell anyone where I am. Or I will curse you."
    "Really?"
    "No. She laughed. "I move cities every time some one finds me. Tell whomever you like they'll think you're bat crazy."
    "Uh, okay." With that, I felt a wave of oddity.  The land began to spin and spin. I felt like I was moving through a wall of brick. I woke up in my car in the garage. Had she just teleported me? 
    I ran to the backyard and gathered my supplies. Eye of newt, butterfly wings, mushroom caps, and a diamond. I began mixing and adding this and that, until the potion bubbled a blue-green color.
    "Give me strength. Give me a scroll. I suggest to you based on the strength of the holiday. The opening of the magical and mystical world. Peaceful and bliss. The silence and peace in the world. Give me the scroll to cure the living dead." The words made no sense, but then again, they didn't have to. The potion began bubbling and sizzling. It was complete. I poured it into a vial and placed it in my pocket. I had the power to cure him.
     "Guys, guys!" I ran inside. I stopped and gasped. Cassie was standing their, in her lingerie, marrying Jamie. 
    "I do." She said. They kissed and I gasped. Cassie had officially married my brother! Cassie was my sister in-law....Jamie rubbed Cassie stomach. Cassie was pregnant. Again? "Tiff!" Cassie gasped, turning to face me. "Jamie and I...."
    "Are married. And are you pregnant?"
    "Yeah...." She blushed. "Both. Twenty weeks."
    "Wow...five months. Did you not think to tell anyone?"
    "Uh, w-w-we were gon-n-na. But-t-"
    "We're moving out." Jamie interrupted Cassie's rambling, stutter of her explanation.
    "What?! When?"
    "Tomorrow...we bought Mom's old home."
    "Do you never think to tell anyone anything?"
    "Harry knew. Mom knew."
    "Oh."
    "We were going to tell you. Honest...it just happened."
    "Congratulations." I smiled, my surprise wavering away. "I always wanted a sister."
    "Tiff!" Cassie blushed, hugging me.
    I sighed. The most likely to never marry couple had gotten married. And they were both eighteen with one baby and another on the way. I wasn't jealous, but I felt odd. Alex and Evelyn, who I assumed would be married and mother of five by know, were still dating. It didn't seem like marriage was close.

Back in France, Today...

    A change was occurring. The rotting, vile skin of a zombie turned into Francois's smooth skin. There was a sudden flash. I was blinded; stuck shielding my eyes with my hand. I opened them, once the lighting of the room had gone back to pitch dark; my only light my iPhone. His eyes where closed, but his pulse beat. Francois was human. He was cured. I leaned forwards and kissed his lips. He had dirt covering him and a slight odor, but I didn't care. He was mine. I sat back up, into my original position.
    "Mm..." He began stirring.
    "Francois?" I whispered. "Francois, it's Tiff. Francois, can you hear mee? Are you okay? Please be okay..."
    "Tiff?" He groggily asked, opening his eyes. "Tiff." He smiled, then tried to sit up. He couldn't since I was pinning him down. "Could you?"
     "Oh!" I blushed, realizing that I was in quite the awkward position. I moved off him and helped him stand.
     "I love you." He whispered. "Tiff...I-I...I don't want to rush things..but. I thought I was gone. That I'd lost you. Tiff. I can't-couldn't stand the thought. I love you so much."
     "I love you too." I wiped away the tears of joy. I hugged him and started kissing him.
     "Tiff." We pulled away. "I'm dirty."
     "I don't care." I pulled him close again.
     "Tiff." He laughed.
     "Fine. We can go back to my hotel. You can shower and then-"
     "I'm all yours."
     We walked back to the car, holding hands. He was back. Francois was human again. As I drove to the hotel with him riding shotgun, I started thinking. What was our future? Sure, I had my plan, but Francois may have a different one. Our future...I was eighteen and naive, yet somehow I didn't feel that way. I felt older. Like the future wasn't this whatever happens happens thing, it could be planned. You couldn't plan everything, but you could plan something.
     "Francois....do you ever think about the future?" 
     "Future...oui. Sometimes. It depends what oo are thinking about in zee future."
     "Like, what? Career," Marriage. Family.
     "Tiffani...I like you very much. I love you. I have you, zat ez enough. I do not need to think about zee future quite yet." He smiled. "Besides, you are eighteen. And I am twenty-one. We have years ahead of us; it'ez empossible to plan everything. We live for the now. Make a choice."
      "Okay.... I just....never mind." I focused on the road.
      Back at the hotel, I laid on the bed in my bra and panties. Francois was showering. Live for know...make a choice. I heard the water running and made a choice. I took off my flimsy scraps of undergarments, stood up, and opened the bathroom door. I glanced at his backside. He had a cute butt.
      "Hey." I whispered, slipping in the shower with him.
      "Tiff." He said, surprised. "What-" I kissed him, softly. The rest wasn't words. We entered bliss as I let him inside me. Live for now. Don't need to plan every moment. 
      "That wasn't bad, now was it?" I asked him, toweling myself off.
      "It wasn't..." He had a dazed look on his face, as if he couldn't believe everything that just happened.
       I let the towel drop and I moved myself onto the counter. I tried posing sultry, teasing him to come and get it. He did. We kissed. I whispered in his ear. The evening became a blur. I stayed with him in France for three months, our relationship becoming highly physical. Six months away from one another had left us both animals yearning for each others touch. 
      Finally came the day I had to leave. I packed up everything I'd bought and brought, sighing. I didn't want to leave him. Yet, I had to. My publisher was constantly nagging me to write, which I did. I just did very little of it. I'd published a book of short love poems and a children's story, but nothing new and notable.
      "I'll be back. Soon." I promised.
      "One of these days, I vill have to come to America to zee you." 
      "Come to America? But France is so gorgeous. Besides...it's kinda embarrassing....but I live with my parents, still.  And we can't," I whispered the dirty things we'd done, "At my parents."
       "True." He smiled. "True, we can not. But I could still meet zem. Your parents."
       "Meet my Mom and Harry, my step-dad....Maybe." I laughed. "They can be kinda crazy at times."
       "Aren't they all, though?" He asked, joining in with my laughter.
       "I haven't me your parents."
       "My parents..." A look of sadness over came him. "My parents are dead."
       "I'm so sorry!" I gasped. "I didn't mean to-"
       "It is okay. It happened a long time ago.....they in an accident. I was a leetle boy, about a year old. My parents owned a tiny shop. It was torn down after there death. All zee money was used to pay for funerals and some went to me for university. In zee shop, my parents baked a few goods to sell to tourists. One day, a fire started....they did not escape. I was told that my Mother kept me in a crib in their office to watch during see day; all my relatives where gone, so they had to watch me. I was lucky zat they left me napping to go to the basement and bake...I do not remember anything. Zee fire had not moved to the first floor, when a customer noticed and called zee fireman. It was to late for zem. everyone else was okay, but not zem...." Tears weld up in his eyes.
       "Francois." I hugged him. "I'm sorry."
.      "She called me Franc...I remember zat. And she would rock me to sleep and sing me a lullaby. I do not remember the lyrics, but I remember her voice. She was a good singer...."
       "Francois..." I looked him straight in the eyes. "I love you. And I will come back."
       "I love you, too, Tiffani." Tiffani. My full name. when he said it, it sounded...so romantic. I loved it. "You do not mind I call you Tiffani? Zee name is so pretty."
       "I love it." I smiled.
       As I bored my plane, I felt regret. I wish I could stay in France forever. My vacation, not to mention my visa, could only last so long. At the airport in America, I gathered my luggage and went to the pick-up zone. Jamie, James, and Cassie plus one were waiting for me.
      "Hey guys." I greeted them. Jamie took my baggage and put it in the trunk. He sat in the drivers seat, next to Cassie. In their Toyota Sienna van, I sat in the middle row, with James in his car seat next to me.
     "So, how was your trip?"
     "Great." I smiled. "Cass, you look about ready to burst!
     "Thirty-two weeks." She giggled. "I'm getting kinda nervous." 
     "You still have a month to go." I reassured her. 
     "I don't think the twins agree."
     "Twins!" I gasped. "Congratulations."
     "Thanks." Cassie said.
     "We're a little nervous." Jamie said. "But ready. We went to the baby store and bought two of everything."
      "Two cribs and changing stations and clothing and toys." Cassie sighed. "And an eight passenger van!"
     "Wow..." We parked in their drive way.
     "You don't mind if I drop Cassie and James off, do you?" Jamie asked.
     "Little guy's hungry." Cassie commented.
     "He's an adorable baby."
     "Thanks. Do you want to hold him and carry him in?"
     "Can I?" I gasped. I hadn't held him yet.
     "Sure. you're his aunt, after all." I held him as we walked inside. I gave James back to his daddy and we chatted for a bit.
     "So how's your boyfriend?" Cassie asked me.
     "Great, actually. He's better...." I smiled.
     "What's his name?" Jamie asked. "Wait, wait." He snapped his fingers. "Fran-swa, right?"
     "You're lucky." Cassie sighed.
     "Hey!"
     "Jamie, no need to shout." Cassie rolled her eyes. "He's so overprotective with the twins and me."
     "I just want to make sure that you're safe..."
     "I know, sweet." She kissed his cheek.
      I wonder what Francois would be like a father...not that I was thinking of children anytime soon. I had my plan. I couldn't help but wonder. He surely would be. He was so kind and sweet. Little girl. Little girls. I had no idea how I would handle a boy. I grew up with two brothers; two annoying brothers who liked bugs and pranks. Sweet little girls to paint with me and write poetry....I was a twin, so that increased my chance of multiples slightly. French. France. I'd love to be wed underneath the stars in Paris...who knows. I just might be.