"Sarai, perhaps we could eat before we go home," he said in a gentle voice, trying to sooth her fear.
"I'm sure both the children will promise not to go near the water again without your permission."
"I promise," Mali said quickly, and Able nodded in agreement. Sarai sighed, and ran a hand through her hair. It trembled slightly, and Jax averted his eyes.
"You know, you might find the water less frightening if you knew how to swim," he said. "I could teach you, too."
"I don't think so," she said with a sigh. She looked up at him, her face full of strain; seeing her like that made him ache. He had to do something to relieve her pain. Without pausing to think, he stuck his tongue out at her. Able and Mali burst into laughter. Her mouth twitched for a minute, then she turned away and walked over to the basket she'd packed their lunches in. He set Mali down, and the three of them exchanged a wicked look.
When she turned back, Jax and the children were all sticking their tongues out at her. Her mouth twitched again, and on impulse Jax raised his hands, spread out his fingers and waggled them along the sides of his head. She burst out laughing, and then they were all cackling.
They laughed until tears ran down their cheeks, and by the time they stopped the tension seemed to be gone. Mali got the hiccups, and Sarai gave her a drink to help her get over them. Inevitably, it didn't work, and the next time she hiccupped, bright red juice came out her nose and they were all laughing again.
By the time they had finished lunch, a sumptuous picnic Sarai served on a large blanket, Mali's eyes were starting to droop. Able was also looking tired. Exchanging a knowing look with Jax, Sarai said, "Do you want to lay down for a little while, Mali? I can scoot over on the blanket so there's room?"
"No, I'm not tired," Mali said instantly, sitting up. Able gave her a superior look.
"Young children need regular naps," he said, his voice a perfect imitation of Sarai's. His mother laughed softly, and padded the blanket next to her.
"I'll tell you what, Mali," she said. "All of us can lay down for a little bit, and I'll tell a story. If you fall asleep, that's okay, but if you don't we'll go for a walk before heading home. Sound good?"
"I want Jax to tell the story," she said, lying down. Sarai raised a questioning eyebrow at Jax, and he nodded back at her.
"Do you want to hear a story that my mother used to tell me when I was a little boy?" he asked softly.
Mali nodded. Sarai lay down next to her, on her side.
"Able, you have to lie down, too, before I start," Jax said. Able flopped back on the blanket, and Jax lowered himself to his stomach next to the boy. He propped himself up on his elbows, and started speaking softly.
"Once upon a time there was a beautiful planet where every season was wonderful in its own way. In the spring, all kinds of new plants would grow, and there were parties to celebrate new life. In the summer, everyone would take the time to enjoy the beautiful weather. They would go swimming every day and eat yummy fruits that were only ripe for a few weeks every year. In autumn, they would harvest all the grains, makes piles of leaves to jump in and store up lots of wood to keep warm when it got cold.
In the winter they would gather in close next to the warm fire and tell stories at night. During the day they would go sledding and ice-skating. They'd even build giant castles made out of snow and ice, and throw balls of snow at each other. Everyone who lived there was very happy.
"Now, the most amazing thing about this planet is that there were four different kinds of people, and each group had their own king or queen. The winter people had very pale skin, so pale that you could just almost see the light blue veins in their arms. They were ruled by a beautiful queen, who had long, straight black hair and eyes like blue diamonds. Her husband was the king of autumn. Like all of his people, he had dark skin, and beautiful hair full of orange, red and brown streaks. The summer people were all golden, from their skin to their hair. They were the most fun loving of the groups, hosting fairs and dancing from morning until night."
"Every day?" Mali asked, popping her head up to look at him. Sarai reached an arm out to gently pull her back down, and Jax nodded.
"Yes, every day," he said solemnly. "Now, the last group was the spring people. They were magical, because they could make things grow. They had a beautiful queen who was all green, even her hair.
Everywhere she walked, little plants would sprout out of the ground and flowers would grow. She was married to the king of the summer people.
"Now, every year all of the kings and queens would take turns ruling over the people. For three months every year, they would open their palaces and have parties and feasts. It was a wonderful place to live, and everyone was very happy all the time. But then one day, something bad happened."
"What?" Able asked, enthralled.
"Well, you see, every 20 years or so they would pick new kings and queens."
"Why?" Mali asked, her face twisted in confusion.
"Well, I think it's because being a king or queen if probably very tiring," Jax said, trying not to laugh.
He'd never considered the question before. "But this time, the winter queen they picked wasn't a nice queen at all. All the people had gotten together for a special party to honor the new kings and queens.
Now, that new winter queen didn't want to take turns ruling, she wanted to rule all the time. So she invited all the other kings and queens to a special party, and served them a special kind of cake that she made herself.
"What they didn't realize, until it was too late, was that she had put poison into the cake. All of them died that night, except for the king of summer, who didn't eat any of the cake."
"Mommy's cake is very good," Mali said solemnly. "No one ever dies from eating it. Not ever."
"That's good," Jax replied. "Now, because the winter queen wasn't able to kill the king of summer, she put a spell on him, freezing him deep down inside. You see, she knew that if she froze the summer king, there wouldn't be any more summers until he woke up. Since all the other kings and queens were dead, she declared that from that day on, it would only be winter. All the summer, autumn and spring people had to work for the winter people. It was very hard for them, because it became cold all the time. They were very unhappy, but they didn't know what to do to fix things.
"A thousand years passed under the rule of the evil queen, and it was winter the whole time. They learned how to grow all their food in greenhouses, and everyone was cold except for the winter people.