Zephyra Point of View

"Dad," I whispered, as I touched my still flat belly lovingly.

"There was a time when I was in the same place as you are now." I sighed nonchalantly. "Difference is, I won over all brothers and sisters and took place inside mom and now, you won over all your brothers and sisters and activated yourself as my child."

Thinking about this, I started to feel nostalgic. Look at life, look at the cycle it maintains. Once, I was his child and now he is going to be mine.

Mysteries of life-cycle!

I wonder if dad will be born with the memories of precious life or start afresh without any memories.

If he was born with the past memories, then it would be easy to make him accept grrrgal as his son-in-law who is also his father now.

If he is born without any memories, then I don't know if I should tell him all the secrets of the heaven or not.

This is such a difficult dilemma!

Nevermind! Since I still have a batch of ancestors still online in the spirit whispering house, I can take their advice.

However, the main issue right now is grrrgal.

After receiving the news of my pregnancy, after knowing he was going to be a father, he did not speak to me, talk to anyone else and worse, he was not seen until now at all.

And to think that he still lives in the same house and he has been in the house locked up in his study room; I don't know what he was thinking.

I think he is preparing himself for both the roles he is going to play in the future.

I strongly think, he is practicing to switch between being a father and son-in-law smoothly according to the situation.

I think he is –

Before I finish my thinking, I heard a thunderous sound of someone clearing his throat. And when I say thunderous, it was really that loud and that powerful.

I turned around to look at the man who has locked himself up in his study for all these days standing before me with a very unusual look on his face.

His legs seem to be invisibly visibly anxious.

I don't know if my eyesight got a little shaky or if his hands are minutely shivering but his legs and hands are indeed out of coordination.

No, every organ in his body is acting very differently and out of coordination at this point that I suddenly wonder if I was the pregnant one or he is.

He cleared his throat again, like it owed him an apology.

His right hand was clenched in what I assumed was meant to be a confident fist, but it kept twitching like it was trying to escape this conversation altogether. His left foot pointed east. The right foot pointed to regret. And his eyes?

Those eyes darted around the room like they were searching for the Emergency Exit sign in a love confession gone terribly, metaphysically sideways.

Then he spoke.

He opened his mouth and—

"Demon girl... No, Zephyra" he began, then paused dramatically, like he was in a telenovela about to confess to a secret twin. "I... need to... say a thing."

A thing?

"What thing?" I asked, blinking like a baby owl who had just been told she's inheriting a shipping empire.

"I—well—"

"About the thing. The baby thing."

"Our baby. Who is also..."

"Maybe... your dad. Possibly. Allegedly."

Oh sweet ancestral spirits, we lost him.

"I, uh. So. Pregnancy. You are. That is to say... we... did the thing. And now you're... doing another thing. Internally."

I blinked slowly. "Are you trying to congratulate me or what?" I'm seriously and genuinely confused at what he is talking.

"No, no—I planned this. I practiced! I had lines. Notes. A draft! I even rehearsed in front of the mirror, but the mirror got judgmental, so I panicked and started pretending I was brushing my teeth."

I tilted my head, genuinely impressed. "You emotionally malfunctioned in front of yourself?"

He nodded solemnly. "Twice."

There was a silence. The good kind. The kind where two people stare at each other, and one of them is wondering how exactly her genius, scary-smart, no-nonsense CEO husband turned into a blubbering fortune cookie with a low battery.

"I wanted to say..." he took a deep breath, squaring his shoulders like he was going to declare war on a diaper. "I'm happy. I think. No, wait, I am happy. And also confused. But excited. But terrified. But—like, logically terrified. Not emotionally terrified."

"Okay...."

Grrrgal ran a hand through his hair. "Zephyra. We're going to be parents."

I know that.

Grrrgal, what exactly are you thinking to say?

I tilted my head, blinking at him like a curious squirrel trying to understand trigonometry.

"I mean... yes," I said slowly, rubbing my belly again. "We're going to be parents. And?"

Grrrgal blinked.

I blinked.

We blinked together. Like synchronized owls in a forest of confusion.

Then he exploded—verbally, not literally, because that would be messy and traumatic.

"I MEAN I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FEEL, ZEPHYRA!" he burst out, waving his arms. "I've run companies worth billions! Negotiated with people who make sharks look like kittens! But this—this little jellybean growing inside you—he scares me!"

"He's the size of a grape, actually," I whispered helpfully. "At least that's what my pregnancy app says. Unless it lied to me. Wait, do you think the app lied to me?"

He ignored that entirely. "I don't know what to say! Do I say 'Congratulations' to you? Or 'Good luck' to myself? Or should I start calling your belly 'Sir' now? Or maybe 'Dad'?!"

Oh dear stars and moons.

"Um..." I looked down at my belly and gave it a polite pat. "He hasn't applied for any formal titles yet."

"Do I salute the bump? Should I write him a letter? Introduce myself properly?" He was pacing now.

"You don't have to do all that," I said quickly. "He's very small right now. Probably doesn't know how to read. Or blink. Or do taxes."

Grrrgal froze mid-step. "But he's... your dad." As if he wished it wasn't true.

"Yes," I nodded solemnly. "That's what the ancestors said."

"He's my father-in-law, Demon girl!"

"And now he's also your child!" I beamed brightly, thinking I was being encouraging.

He sat down beside me and dropped his face into his hands.

I reached over and gently patted his back, like I was burping a very large, emotionally constipated baby.

"Don't worry," I whispered. "I'll teach him everything again from scratch."

"I know. I know." He nodded vigorously.

"Starting from face reading, making amulets, reading palms, ghost gossiping... everything. I will hand over all the virelle heritage to him and will make him a great - "

"Impossible. Never!" He shouted. "My son will not be a ghost hunter or the likes. He will become anything that science allows him to be."

I blinked at him. Hard.

"Impossible?" I repeated slowly, like he had just declared he wanted to replace our rice cooker with a typewriter. "Why is it impossible?"

Grrrgal shot up from the couch like it had grown spikes. "Because my son—our son—who is also your father—needs to grow up in a rational, normal, scientifically accurate environment!"

I scooted a little closer to Grrrgal and gently rested a hand over my belly. "Listen, grrrgal... this child... he's not just being born because we made googly eyes under the starlight and forgot basic biology."

Grrrgal's eyebrows knit together like two very confused caterpillars.

"I mean, yes, that also happened," I admitted with a small nod. "But this," I patted my belly like I was activating a divine button, "this is different. This is a soul chosen by the universe."

He gave me a look that said: "The universe needs to start sending memos."

I pressed on bravely. "There are things in this world, Grrrgal, that don't happen just because of science or logic. Sometimes... souls find their way back. Especially the important ones. Especially when there's unfinished work. Or unlearned lessons."

"Exactly. He will continue the unfinished work of great scientists and inventors. He will learn the unlearned lesson of management. Don't you think it is quite different from his past life?"

"No - " Before I could retort back, he continued.

"Just think, he has already done the supernatural job in his past life, if he does the same in this life too, wouldn't be making him bored of life?"

I looked at him as if he is not in his right mind. I wonder how he can get such twisted ideas in his mind.

"Bored?" I repeated, "You think souls get bored? He's not coming back to re-run his life, he's coming back to upgrade it!"

"My son is not a smartphone that needs an upgrade!" he snapped, eyes wide with exasperation.

"He's not?" I blinked.

"No, he is not!"

"But you said he should go for science," I replied, tilting my head. "Which is basically just upgrading reality, isn't it? Oh, how funny!"

My son will becomes exactly like my dad from the past. Even better and upgraded.

That is for sure.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Hello Sweeties,

Next chapter is here. Enjoy!

What do you think about the chapter? Boring?

Idris is so confused and haggard. I don't know what to make of him.

Zephyra has answers to every argument. Isn't she eloquent?

So, what will the baby become? Scientist or metaphysicst?

Please shower me with votes and comments.

Share my books with your friends.

Lots of Love

Lady Prim