“Maya, we are without Daddy’s charms, so it is obvious that the witch is here for him.”
Juan and Kyle concurred with Nina.
Juan continued with his analysis, “In other words, she wants to steal Daddy from Mommy and therefore…” to which Kyle chimed in, “We cannot let her have her way.”
Maya blinked, all wide-eyed, “But, what are we to do? I don’t want Daddy to be with the witch. I want him to play with me.”
“Daddy would be able to play with you if we could chase off the witch,” Juan declared quite assuredly – a sentiment Kyle seconded as he nodded in approval.
Nicole, who had been looking on, was quite bewildered by the audacity of these kids. She went on to confront them with a stern warning, “Your father will handle his personal affairs on his own, so I will not have the lot of you getting into any funny business here. Have I made myself clear?”
Gracious. Someone is going to steal Daddy from us, and Mommy would not let us intervene? Unbelievable!
The four kids looked briefly toward Nicole and seemed to acknowledge her warning. Then, they used hunger as a pretext to lure her away to the kitchen before they resumed their conferring behind closed doors.
“I’d say, we should let the witch…”
“I think we could…”
Each expertly tried to one up the other as they proposed one devious scheme after another.
The discussion extended over the day as the kids were determined to not let Sylphiette off easy.
Nicole was contemplative as she busied herself with her meal preparations. Who owned the painting? And apart from inquiring, what could help establish the identity of the boy, Tye, from years back?
As she pondered, something struck her. She recalled that back in the day while attempting to aid Tye, she had mistakenly bitten him on the shoulder. If Evan was Tye, should he not have borne tooth marks on his shoulder?
Was he bitten on the left shoulder, or the right?
Nicole thought carefully and concluded that it was on the left.
With that in mind, she just needed to figure out a way to inspect Evan’s left shoulder in order to ascertain his identity. “Evan, do you think just by outright denying it, I would not be able to discover whether you are the owner of the painting or not? Ha! Just you wait!”
The following day, as Nicole was leading the kids through the front yard after returning from school, she saw Sylphiette badgering Evan to help her weave a garland. “Evan, I can’t quite reach those flowers up there. Will you be a dear and give me a lift?”
“How dare you ask Daddy to hold you, you witch?” The kids fumed. Having exchanged knowing glances, all of them then ran in the direction of the trellis.
While Juan and Kyle pestered Evan to join them for a Lego building session, Maya stubbornly held on to the half-finished garland and kept it from everyone else. Amidst the commotion, Nina shot a dirty look sideways at Sylphiette.
Sylphiette was incensed at this unexpected disruption. Despite wanting Nicole to remove her four little rascals from her presence right away, she had to restrain herself from flying into a rage in front of Evan. Turning toward Nicole, she eked out a smile, “Nikki, I suspect that the kids should have homework to attend to. Since Evan and myself have work to finish up, do you think…”
Before Nicole could respond, Juan chirped, “Our homework from school is a parent-child bonding session, so we have to play with Daddy!”
Sylphiette was slightly flustered at their continued fixation at hogging Evan’s attention, “Could you not do the same thing with your Mommy?” With that, she looked purposefully at Nicole, who appeared quite amused at Sylphiette’s eagerness to avail herself of their company.
The more Sylphiette wanted to be rid of them, the more resolved Nicole was to not grant her that satisfaction. “To a child, there is a difference in the nature of the love coming from each parent. Sylphiette, would you really bear to deny the kids of their father?”
Nicole’s final statement sounded as much a line of lamentation as it did a questioning.
Sylphiette was cautiously aware that Evan loved his son dearly and if it occurred to him that she could not share in his devotion to his children, that could seriously diminish his esteem of her.
