This is Nathaniel's mother's POV. Her name was Grace Whittemore.
I pulled the scarf a little lower over my head as I headed toward the Seer's shop. I had an odd feeling of paranoia that I couldn't seem to shake off. I knew it was silly, but I couldn't get rid of it.
I jumped at the little tinkle the bell made as I came in the door.
"Hello, my dear," an old woman's voice said, floating through the dark, musty air of the shop, to me, where I cowered by the door. "How may I help you?"
I steeled my nerves and moved forward. "Um... Yes, hello. I'm here to get some of the (what-ever-the-heck-the-bracelets-are-called. Insert there.)."
The old woman nodded. "Yes, of course."
"I have one son who is turning 13. But I have two other sons. They will be 7 and 10."
She cocked her head to give me a quizzical look. "Hmm. Well, if you're here after the bracelets you must know how they work. And about the age you give it to your boy. So, does that mean you know what will happen in the next few years."
Yes, I had been right to feel paranoid. I shrank back into the scarf again, feeling overwhelmed with guilt and pity for my boys and little girl. "Yes," I whispered. "I have a year, at best."
She nodded. "I won't pry, if you prefer."
"Thank you."
"If you are getting all three now, I need to ask you all the questions. So, let's start. Please sit down."
I found a chair on my side of the counter and sat.
"First, how many children do you have and what are their full names, including middle, and ages?"
"I have four children. My eldest is a girl. Her name is Charollette Sophie Legard, she's 18. My oldest son, the one turning 13, is James Ethan. My 10-year-old is Thomas Arthur. And my youngest, who will turn 7 at the end of October, is Nathaniel Ian."
"Those are very nice, but we will need to disregard the girl for now. Now, do any of your boys have any ideas of what they will become, when they're older?"
"Not really. I know James wants to be a professor, or something of the sort. He's so smart. I don't think Thomas has any ideas, though. Nathaniel has been playing with the idea of becoming a musician. He has played guitar for two years now and he is amazing at it. He's written so many songs!" I smiled at the memory of his first song, dedicated to his older sister and me. He had been so proud of himself.
"Okay. Could you please describe them? After you describe them I would like to see some pictures, but only after."
"Well, James has black hair and black eyes, like his father. Thomas is the same. Nathaniel also has black hair, but his eyes are green, like mine, and his sister's. They all have fairly pale skin, but so do I and my husband."
Then I pulled the boys' school photos out. James was wearing his favorite deep green, button down shirt. Thomas was, sadly, wearing a t-shirt. And Nathaniel was, for some reason, wearing one of his father's tie, over a deep blue, button down. His hair still wasn't brushed. I could never get him to brush his hair. Maybe he already knew that even though I complained about his hair, it truly did suit him, the messy, black hair.
The woman smiled. "You have three very good looking boys. Now, what are each of their two favorite colors?"
I had to think about that for a moment. "I know Nathaniel's are black and dark blue. I believe that James's favorite colors are dark green and a kind of gold-orange color. Thomas likes silver and red."
The old woman nodded to herself. "Yes," she said looking back at me. "Those sound right. I'll be back in a moment. I need to find your sons' bracelets."
I waited quietly, looking around, but not really seeing. I knew I would not meet the girls these bracelets went to, if they ever did end up some where, but I hoped they would help my boys make the right decision about who they spent their lives with.
After about 15 minutes the woman came back. "I have found your boys' bracelets," she said, handing them to me. I looked down at them.
One had silver and red beads, along with three blue and brown beads. I hoped that didn't mean the girl Thomas would love had blue hair, but I had a funny feeling it might. James's had three green and orange beads, with three plain brown beads. Although, I could detect a slight difference in the shades of brown. And Nathaniel's... It was very interesting. It had his three black and blue beads, but the other three were quite strange. They were black and a gold color that I had never before seen as hair, but I certainly couldn't see how she could have gold eyes. That was absurd. Wasn't it?
I left the shop still feeling jumpy.
Creepy, isn't it? Poor Grace. She already knows that she's gonna die, and she didn't tell her kids! :-( And she doesn't know how horrible her husband's gonna turn out! (Dieudonne Legard tries to kill Artemis a lot.) And she doesn't know that her little boy's love really DOES have gold eyes! Poor Grace. Her dying made James change his mind. Till she died he wanted to be a professor, with a Ph.D. and stuff. When she did die he decided to be a doctor of medicine, to make people better, and not have little kids go through what he did. Poor Grace. :-(
