*THIS PIECE CONTAINS SPOILERS*

*Sixty-some-odd years in the future*

Seven-year-old Miraina dodged one of the adults stepping her, trying to find her parents in the crowd. She was related to everyone here, but right now she was tired and grumpy and wanted Daddy.

It was a big party for her great-grandparents Aralyn and her husband. Something about sixty years. Miraina didn’t really understand. But there were new cousins to meet and play with. They had taken a long, long plane flight to be here, she was tired of the noise and activity. Maybe she could slip inside and find somewhere quiet to lie down and nap.

Hmm, she studied the front porch. Her great grandparents were sitting up there in their rockers, holding hands-Miraina didn’t know old people could still hold hands. A few feet away from Aralyn was an older man, with white curly hair and bright blue eyes. The last of the ‘old group’, whatever that meant. Her great-great uncle, Bobby Belden.

A famed explorer and archeologist who had discovered one of the oldest Mayan temples known to man, many years before. Miraina had heard her parents talking about how did he ‘book tours’ until just a few years ago, when his health declined. One of Miraina’s cousins was his caretaker, but she didn’t know which one. A couple of them looked similar and there were a whole bunch of ‘twins’, but most of the cousins didn’t look alike. A number of them had been adopted, then married and had children.

Miraina had no idea how truly enormous her family was.

She ducked around a pair of adults talking, and still didn’t see her Daddy. Or Mommy. Miraina could feel the crankiness setting in. She just wanted to lie down and take a nap! Of course, she could just tell any adult and they’d see to it, but she wanted her parents, not one of the random cousins, or aunts or uncles.

A rustling in the bushes caught her attention. She looked carefully, and saw the pair of golden eyes staring at her. A tiny gray face emerged and the cat meowed at her.

“Hi, Kitty,” Miraina reached out a hand but the cat pulled back and vanished.

That didn’t help her mood. She liked kitties. Usually they liked her.

With a heavy sigh, she started for the porch, as two of the rowdier cousins ran by, playing a gag of tag.

There were people everywhere, and she wiggled her way through the crowd. There was elderly cousin Tiffany Duke-Buchanan, the best friend of Aralyn, her white hair smooth and elegantly twisted up, looking posh and gorgeous in her pretty green suit. Miraina knew the family owned some sort of clothing business, and Tiffany had helped run it for years.

And there was cousin Tim Mangan, another of Aralyn's best friends, leaning on a cane with one hand as his other hand waved wildly while he talked. Miraina knew he was a hero of some sort, and the cane helped with his ‘peg leg’ as he had called it the night before.

There was great-uncle Sean Duke, sitting by himself in a chair, sketching, lost in his own world.

There was cousin Mabon, former President of the United States, accompanied by her husband, one of her children, and even her ever-present Secret Service detail.

Miraina studied the steps and slipped between two older people she couldn’t remember. She only knew the others because Mommy had gone over the family tree with her several times, and she remembered those amongst “The Next Generation”, as they had been called.

The doorway was blocked by more people and she sighed in irritation.

“Where are you running off too?” a quiet, elderly voice asked.

She looked up to see she was standing next to Bobby Belden.

“I wanna nap,” she said. “I wanna go in.”

“I know I met you yesterday,” he said, “but I can’t remember who you are. Will you come sit with me and tell me?”

His blue eyes were lonely, she thought, and she smiled. “Okay.”

She didn’t see Aralyn look over, smile, and use a series of hand signals to her uncle.

“I’m gonna bet you’re one of Aralyn’s,” his blue eyes crinkled as he smiled at her. “You look a little like her when she was little, which means you look a little like me.”

“She’s my great-gramma.”

He had a blanket over his legs and held out his arms to her. Willingly, she climbed up in his lap, and made herself comfortable.

“Do you know me?” he asked.

“Uncle Bobby.”

His delight was genuine. “You’re a smart one!” he said in admiration. “Where do you live?”

“Hawai’i,” she said shyly.

“I was there once,” he smiled at the memory. “We worked a dig off the Maro Reef, but we never found anything. Beautiful water though. The color of your eyes.”

She giggled.

“Bobby?” Aralyn called. “You all right?”

He waved at her. “I’m fine. Just getting to know one of my nieces.”

Aralyn smiled and turned back to her husband, glancing over her shoulder occasionally at them.

“Do you have stories?” Maraina asked.

“Have I got stories?” a grin spread across the face once known for its mischief. “I’ve got stories to tell you about all sorts of things! Digging in the dirt, and the witches we find sometimes in the jungles, and volcanoes, and tribes of natives that chased us!”

Her eyes were wide as she looked up at him. “Really? Will you tell me one?”

“I sure will!”

One of the older cousins overhead and turned to toward the crowd. “Hey! Story time from Uncle Bobby!”

Bobby Belden laughed with joy as he was suddenly swarmed by children, ranging from four years old to early teens, with every shade possible of hair and eye coloring. There were the Asian kids, and the black kids, children of the children adopted by Natala and Dean Acklen. There were the redheads, the brunettes, the blondes. The rebellious ones who dyed their hair ridiculous colors, and pierced their faces. The ones who wore glasses because they were too young for laser surgery to correct their vision. Tall, short, skinny, chubby, fair skinned, dark skinned. All of them cousins, siblings, making up the youngest generation of the family Bobby called his, crowded around him, jostling for a good position.

While the children settled around him, he looked up and saw Aralyn and Tiffany both smiling at him. He remembered when they were the little ones he was telling stories too.

He had been about eighteen when those two, and Tim were born. He remembered the coming home from college and meeting them for the first time. He remembered the months his team had been lost in the jungle, without any way to contact his family, until one day, they were found. The years he had worried he’d never see any of them again.

His eyes met Aralyn’s, two sets of blue, and they smiled at each other.

Aralyn squeezed her husband’s hand.

“Look at all of them,” she murmured. “Look at our family.”

He brought her hand to his lips, and kissed it lightly. “I told you we’d have that happily ever after.”

***
Author Notes
- A huge thank you to Ronda, my lovely editor who did a super fast edit for me.
- This was written for photo #27 of the CWE 3: A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words Challenge. Thank you to the CWE team for coming up with this fun challenge!
- This scene is in the far, far future.
- You didn't really think I'd give away the identity of Aralyn's husband, did you? :) - A super big, humungous thank you to MaryN for coming to my rescue last minute to make the background seamless for me while my Photoshop is acting wonky. You're the bestest, Mary!
- Word Count, 1198

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