“Wei, I think you need another day off,” said Vega. She was hoping to visit the Knacks and later go to the Summer Festival.
While the Knacks lived close beforehand, they moved into the roomier mansion across from the Ironstars soon after Harwood passed away. And while Vega insisted that Wei enjoy himself by having fun, he insisted that he got fun out of tutoring Susanne for her final exams.
Instead, Vega found some fun in a newborn that was resting in the kitchen: Julienne and Harwood’s last child, born nine months after his death. She saw a bright future in the little slug, who was apparently named Rebecca.
But after a morning with the Knacks, Wei and Vega headed out to the Summer Festival. Vega wasn’t very steady on her skates, but she had a husband who could help in spite of his own shakiness. She didn’t want to think of him ever passing.
She attacked him with a kiss. It was all getting to her head.
While they were out, Screwtape made his first real estate purchase. “If the culinary artisans here can hear me, I will be the top chef here once I exit my adolescence!” he said after he signed the contract. Vega thought that Screwtape wanted to be a chef, and stayed out of the kitchen until she learned something different about him.
Screwtape loved the kitchen, but he had an even bigger passion: graffiti. He started in the yard, which Vega didn’t mind. It was just grass, but she crossed her fingers in hopes that he wouldn’t go onto public property. Not when she still had to deal with juvenile court with him if he misbehaved.
He had a much-more-mild side to him. Screwtape otherwise went to school, posed for sculptures for his auntie Eva, and took after his dad with a healthy love for gaming. He was still a well-meaning kid. In a way, Vega wanted him to grow up. She almost looked forward to the day when he was an immortal old man, spending centuries rambling on about trivia, and she would love every moment of that. And maybe he would even grow out of that graffiti phase.
But she visited the Knacks every day, and seeing their littlest ones made Vega wish for either Screwtape’s toddler days to be back, or him to grow up even faster and give her a grandchild.