Chapter Text
Mrs. Van de Kamp lay down to sleep next to her husband. He says: ‘’you’re a good mother’’ patting her face. She smiles.
‘’He is a good boy. Have you noticed how good he is? He rarely cries during the night, only when he feels wet. He is never scare or feels alone, like others babies. Sometimes, I think he has a Guardian Angel that makes him feel safe, do you think he has an Angel protecting him because her mother didn’t want him?’’.
Her husband holds her with love: ‘’He has, now, the best Mom he could dream and he is the real and only Angel in this house’’.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
William is never scare.
He cannot remember it but he has never been alone because one day, his father, Mulder, left; and a little girl decided looking after him.
The first time that she appeared, her mother, Dana, was taking a shower and the window in William’s bedroom was open, so an airflow closed the door violently and that scared him.
He started to cry and Dana could not listen him, with the water running and the door closed.
The little girl appeared next to his baby coat and took his hand, speaking to him softly:
‘’Hey, William, I am here with you. Don’t be scare! Don’t be scare!’’. She says that, cradling the baby and smiling to him.
When Dana finished, she saw the door closed and, alarmed, walk in to the room. The baby was smiling, with his arms raised like if he wanted to be hold.
‘’My baby’’ Dana said, smiling to him ‘’I thought you were scare and look how happy you are!’’.
William giggled when he saw his mother, glad. She hold him in her arms and took him to the kitchen with her.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He went to live to a farm when his mother Dana gave him up and he felt sad there the first days.
Unrecognizable faces; a baby coat that was not his; a food with different taste and voices singing that he could not recognize. When strange hands hold him and changed his clothes. When he couldn’t recognize the smell of the woman that looked at him with that eyes, plenty of love.
The only person that was still there with him was the little girl.
She was every nap next to his baby coat, taking care of him. He liked to listen her voice, even when he did not understand yet what she was speaking about:
‘’William… Hello little William…Hey...Hey’’ and the little girl cares his belly until he fell asleep. It was good for him that she was there those days, when he could not understand why everything was so different and why the red haired woman that smelled so well never went to pick him up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One day, William says his first word :
"Mom’’ and Mrs. Van de Kamp let tears of happiness drifting on her face: God did not want give her the gift of to be a mother. She was born without that organs that make you become a mother. But she was Mother now, because the person she loved most called her Mom.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Van de Kamp waits.
He wants to listen the magic word: ‘’Dad’’. The baby already can say ‘’Mom’’. His son can say Mom and he wants to be his second word.
For that reason, when William looks next to his baby coat and starts scream, glad and happy ‘’Ily’’, ‘’Ily’’, Ily’’…their parent do not understand what he says.
The little girl next to his baby coat is laughing because she recognizes her name and that makes her happy:
‘’William…That’s my name! Emily! Emily!’’. She screams jumping, excited because she is listen her name on his little mouth. Every time that she jumps, screaming her name, William repeats ‘’Ily! Ily!’’.
Mr. Van de Kamp is not disappointed. He is wondering what ‘’Ily’’ means to his son.
A few days after, William says ‘’Dad’’ and Mr. Van de Kamp squeezes her wife’s hand.
How a single word can make him so happy?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is a rainy Saturday and William is having his breakfast in front of the TV. Mom is in the kitchen, cooking cookies: Christmas is coming.
Dad is with him, helping him with the spoon, because it is not easy for him to manage to take, together, the cereals and the milk.
Emily is next to him. They are watching cartoons and some kids appear in the TV, they are going to sing something. The kids starts:
‘'Singin' joy to the world All the boys and girls now Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea Joy to you and me’'
William opens his eyes. He remembers something…that song…
Mr. Van de Kamp looks at the TV and at his son again and says, smiling:
‘’You like the song, William?’’.
William nods and looks at Emily.
She smiles.
She has notices that he has remembered but he doesn’t know what.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
‘’Emily?’’ he is on the bed, tired after a day playing with his toys and helping Mom to cook bread.
He is already three years old, ‘’A big little man’’ Dad says.
Emily is on the bed with him. She whispers:
‘’You ok?’’.
William nods. ‘’You know that song?’’.
‘’Yes, it’s the song that Mom Dana song for you when you were with her’’.
William nods.
He has grown up listening Emily speaks about Mom Dana and Dad Mulder.
He knows they both love him that much that they were worried for him and they gave him to the Van de Kamp because they could not keep him safe from the bad people.
He is glad because he has two fathers and two mothers, like Emily, his sister that nobody can see.
‘’I want for Christmas a doll with red hair like Mom Dana’’ William says.
Emily laughs.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next day, Mrs. Van de Kamp tells William that he does not need to wait until Christmas for a rag doll with red hair, so she starts to sews quickly, experienced, for him.
He wants to sleep with his Mom Dana but he cannot say it to anybody because Emily thinks they can be sad if he does it.
Mrs. Van de Kamp sews a small doll that wears a black dress because Emily said to William that Mom Dana always wears black dress and William told her Mom he wants the doll with a black dress.
Mrs. Van de Kamp takes two green buttons and William says:
‘’Mom, please, I want my doll with blue eyes’’.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William speaks with his sister every night.
‘’Emily?’’ He asks and waits until she answers. He cannot see her until she answers.
‘’William, I am here’’ She always speaks softly to him.
‘’My Dad Mulder is you Dad too?’’ He asks.
‘’I don’t know…’’ She bites her lips ‘’I think so, because he was with Mom Dana all the time when I was sick. He has to be my Dad too, I think’’.
‘’Tell me things about him’’.
‘’He is veeeery veeeery veeery tall and he knows how to make Potato’s face’’.
The next day, William asks her Dad how to make Potato’s face and they play together until William runs to her mother:
‘’Mom, look my Potato’s face!’’.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some kids in the town have siblings and they are always fighting. Some kids do not have and they would like to have them.
William is the luckiest boy.
He has a secret sister that only he can see and she looks after him because Mom Dana looked after her when she was sick in the Hospital. Now, Emily wants to takes care of William because Mom Dana cannot; she has a jewel in her neck and the bad people can connect their phones to her jewel and find her, so she cannot live with William.
But Emily is the best sister in the World because she spend the nights looking after him and he will never have any monster walk in to his room.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William has a new gift: 25 brilliants pencils in a box. He thinks he has never seen so many colours. He is going to draw his family as a gift for his Mom: Mr and Mrs Van de Kamp and himself.
He is sure his mother will set up the picture at the fridge, where she set up the important things, like dentist appointment or the shopping list.
He asks his sister about Mom Dana and Dad Mulder and he draw them with Emily and himself.
This one is important only for him and he hides it in his secret box under his bed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everybody knows already that he has an imaginary friend: Emily. He says "sister".
The pediatrician, Dr. Page, says is fine. It's absolutely normal at his age.
He can play now with her around the whole house.
But he cannot speak about Mom Dana and Dad Mulder because Emily told him not to do it. He cannot wait but he does it.
Do their parents know about them?.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mrs. Van de Kamp finds his secret box cleaning and looks inside: some stones, some sweets, some pictures.. .
One of them is a family that she does not remember to see in the Town: a small red hair woman, a tall man, a blonde little girl and a boy.
She asks to William about them.
He is embarrassed and a bit upset: it's his secret box.
He says: "My friend's family, Mom".
"Emily? " She is puzzled.
" Emily. This is her second mother and her second father". He says, pointing the figures.
Mrs Van de Kamp freezes.
"Honey, we can have only one father and one mother". She says quiet.
"No, Mom. Sometimes your first parents die or they have to give their kids to someone because they cannot take care of them. But they always love them".
Mrs. Van de Kamp feels panick in every single muscle.
She just hope William has not listened about his adoption in the town yet.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Dad" he asks to his father "if bad people put a jewel in the neck of a woman and they can know all the time where she is, what is the name of the job that a person has to have for take the jewel out and save her?".
Mr Van de Kamp opens his eyes surprised.
"William, I-I don't know. I think... Scientist or... or engineer".
William smiles.
That night, when his mother gives a good night kiss he says her:
"Mom, I'm going to be an scientist".
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Emily" he says. They are playing outside, next to a door where Mrs. Van de Kamp signs every year how tall William is growing up.
"Why can't you grow up? I'm taller than you now".
She looks surprised.
"I don't know. Maybe because I was very sick".
He notices that she looks sad and says:
"No worries, you will grow up soon and everyone will see you".
The both laugh.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Mom" he starts while he is helping to his mother to set up the table for dinner :
"Emily wants a book for Christmas," Moby Dick".
Mrs Van de Kamp smiles and tries to look serious:
"I thought you only wanted a bike this year".
"Yes" he says like if it were something so obvious "the book is for Emily".
Mrs. Van de Kamp smiles "Let Santa knows, honey".
Emily wants “Moby Dick" because Mom Dana read it for her when she was sick.
In Christmas Eve, Mr Van de Kamp reads the book for William and he is happy because his sister is next to him listening.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
‘’Emily?’’ William is already five but he cannot sleep. He is four years old and he is worried.
‘’Are you ok, William?’’
‘’Emily’’ he tries to content his tears ‘’I miss Mom Dana and Dad Mulder. I don’t remember them and…’’ He sobs ‘’ I love my Mom and my Dad more than I love Mom Dana and Dad Mulder. I’m very bad boy, because Mom Dana and Dad Mulder are good'’.
Emily sits next to him on the bed. She understands him.
‘’I loved more my Mom than Mom Dana too’’. She says whispering ‘’I was with my Mom more time but…William, I think Mom Dana is not angry if we love more to the others. She loves us anyway’’.
But William feels guilty because he loves more his mother than Mom Dana and his father more than his Dad Mulder and he feels he should loves then same.
‘’William’’ Emily says softly ‘’don’t cry, please’’.
He finally falls asleep with his face plenty of dry tears and holding Emily’s hand.
To be continued