Delia packed all her babies things, the entire
contents of the basement and a few of her things for the movers. She kept a few of her most secret things in her own suitcases. The rest of the home, she left to her son Alex
and his new wife Jane. She burned the horrid statue of Goodwin Goode, her late husband, and put his ashes in an urn that she
kept alongside her mother and her previous two dead husbands, Francisco Wilbur and
Nicholas Riverhawk. She picked up her babies, Pierre, now 3
and Hope, just an infant, and piled them in the “car” and headed to Bridgeport.
Delia had found a home in Bridgeport in a
quiet residential area just outside the city.
The city lights could be seen from her house at night. This was something Delia had never experienced
in the other towns where she had lived and thought they were absolutely fascinating. She would sit and wonder what everyone was
doing in each of the thousands of windows that were lit up each night.
Her little blue house sat on a tiny lot as space was a
premium in Bridgeport. However, it was a 2 story with
2 bedrooms and a bathroom which, for now, was plenty of room for her and her children, Pierre and Hope. She easily added a hidden basement, as she was now accustomed to
doing, to store the remnants of her past. Delia had contracted the construction of the secret basement prior to moving in, so the modest amount of money she had managed to save while she was married to Goodwin was
now depleted.
Hope and Pierre would
share one of the bedrooms, for now anyway.
Unfortunately, the movers “lost” the collection of gems and seeds she
had stored. All she had left was what
she had packed herself, including the remaining elixirs. Therefore, the first
thing Delia did was to start a garden with what little seeds she had left. Plants take so long to grow and she wanted to
have some fresh food for her and the children.
She promised herself this new life in Bridgeport would be "magic" free and
devoted to raising Pierre and Hope.
Delia had to get a job as soon as they arrived due to
the home expansion and severe lack of money. She decided to take
a job at the local restaurant waiting tables. She figured since she was an
excellent cook that she would be able to move up quickly. She was advancing, but not nearly quick
enough to keep up with mounting bills. She had to pay a sitter to watch the
Pierre and Hope and that took a chunk out of her paychecks. Delia did manage to make friends with her
boss, Barry Tenderlove, which helped some.
Things were definitely much more expensive in a suburb
of Bridgeport than the little run down cabin in Twin Brook. To supplement her paycheck, Delia reluctantly
sold a few of the elixirs she had left in the local Elixir store– except for
the Youth Potion, it was simply too powerful.
Things continued to go along uneventfully
for a couple of years. Delia worked out;
she worked around the house, worked in the garden, did laundry and went to work
every day at the restaurant.
 |
| Hope |
 |
| Pierre |
Pierre discovered the fishing pond which was just two blocks from
the house. He found that he loved to fish. He kept his favorite fish, a goldfish he aptly named "Goldie" in a bowl in his and Hope’s little room.
Work was still progressing but slowly so Delia invited
her boss, Barry, over for dinner. He asked
her to go to the “Grind” with him. Delia was afraid to say no for fear of jeopardizing
her job. The Grind was a local hangout
and lots of interesting people could be found there. He told Delia she might make some new friends
there and it could help with the restaurant business. Delia reluctantly agreed to go – but as
friends only. She was NOT looking for a
relationship. Relationships had not
served her well, except for Francisco - sort of.  |
| Francisco Wilbur |
Francisco was her first husband, whom
she adored and had three beautiful boys with. The "sort of" came when he fathered
two more of her children post-mortem before she realized she wasn’t
dreaming. The first, Francie, was a
beautiful girl and a very
normal child. Delia had been forced to
flee Appaloosa Plains when she found out she was pregnant to avoid scandalizing
her three grown children.
 |
| Nicholas Riverhawk |
This led to
her second husband in Hidden Springs, Nicolas, a witch who only got close to
her to find out more about her apparent ability to read people and to be sure
she wasn’t a rival coven. He only
married her because she had become pregnant with his child and it could have
been a witch. He died an accidental death by electrocution repairing the
dishwasher. Years after his death she found out Nicholas was a witch and why he
married her. She also figured out that
their son was indeed a witch. While she was grieving over that, Francisco
appeared in a “dream” and impregnated her again with what turned out to be a ghost
baby. Once again she had to flee the
town and hid out in Twin Brook to take care of a child that may not live.
There she met Goodwin Goode, who seemed to be
too good to be true, no pun intended. He helped her cure her child, they married
and had a wonderful honeymoon in
France. She conceived Pierre in
France. Goodwin never wanted children
and when he found out she was pregnant with Pierre their marriage began to fall
apart. Then to make matters worse, the one night when he surprised her and came
to her bed in an apparent attempt at reconciliation, she conceived Hope. She figured out that he too must have been using her when she found him dead in her basement where he had been snooping. Goodwin didn't tell Delia what he had found which made her believe he knew the basement must have been there. One couldn’t accidentally ‘find’ the hidden door unless they were looking for it.
Now here she is in Bridgeport, running away once again with two small
children this time. No ghost or witch
babies, just two beautiful tow headed children; innocents in all of her messes:
the basement, the cauldrons, the elixirs that she continued to experiment with,
the dangerous philosopher’s stone and the youth potion that kept her young the
last 150 years or more. All of this would
stay where it is, locked in the basement behind the bookcase door.
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