MJ's Story.
If you've read 'My Daughter, the Gymnast', this tale follows on from there. That tale ended with Paul's (MJ's father) death in 2022. MJ (Molly Junior) was just 19, and although she didn't know it yet, she was pregnant with her second child.
Some of these events, therefore, occur sometime in a projected future.
All characters are over the age of 18.
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Do you have any idea what it's like to grow up with someone else in your head?
I remember the day of my birth. Weird, huh? My mum Molly held me for a few brief moments before she passed away. In those moments, as her life ebbed away, I felt her spirit enter my mind and meld with me.
People often felt sorry for me because I grew up without a mother. There was no way of explaining to them that I was closer to my mum than probably anyone else because she was literally in my mind.
As I grew older, I realised that I was unique, and all telling anyone about my mother being with me did was bring me visits to doctors and psychologists. I learned to keep what I know and how I know it to myself.
It was a little lonely, but my dad, Paul, was awesome. I know that every girl thinks their dad is the bestest in the world, but mine was. Dad was tall, athletic, and strong. He was handsome, well-educated, and well-spoken.
But most of all, he was calm, loving and steadfast in his love for, and belief in, his four children.
I was devastated when he lost control of his car and went to join mum. What made it worse was that mum left me then, too.
Her spirit left to be with dad. I was happy for that, but after more than 19 years of talking with her all day, every day, it was lonely.
I have three older brothers. Patrick (whom everybody calls PJ because my grandfather is also Patrick), Thomas (Tommy), and Robert (Robbie). Dad never had to discipline any of us physically. If we messed up, and we did, as all kids do, he would take us aside and speak quietly to us about why we had done what we had done, why it was wrong, and tell us how disappointed he was in our behaviour and how much he loved us.
Awesome, eh?
None of us four kids ever did the same thing wrong twice.
I went through a bit of a rebellious phase in my early teens. That's when having your mum inside your mind is both a boon and a burden.
It was a boon because it stopped me from doing anything really stupid, but I think every teenager deserves a few dumb things to laugh and reminisce about when they get old.
I heard dad talking to Nana Val and Poppa Pat about how I would stare at him much as my mother did and how much it unnerved him. I wanted to say, "It's not just me admiring you, dad, it's mum. And she desires you just as much as she did the night you and she consummated your love for each other."
But how do you tell your father that without sounding crazy?
I'd had numerous conversations with my mother about Dad and what he meant to her. How she had loved him from the first day she had met him when she was just five years old and how she had to wait another thirteen frustrating years before she could consummate her love for him. That's why she kept her distance from him she didn't trust herself to be appropriate.
Talk about soulmates!
When I turned eighteen, my feelings for my father changed. I wanted to experience the intensity of feelings my mother had experienced the night she and my father took each other's virginity.
I had 'lived' that night in my... well... mother's... memories and dreams many, many times. It was her favourite memory of their time together. I longed to experience something like it myself.
I discussed it with mum in my head. 'Honey, the problem is that your soulmate hasn't been born yet,' she told me.
'I'm eighteen, mum. If my soulmate hasn't been born yet, and even if he was born today, I'm going to be 36 before I can be with him. You're saying I'm going to have no one but dad for another eighteen-plus years?' I thought at her.
I could feel my mum smiling, 'There's one for you that will be yours until your soulmate arrives in your life. It will be a marriage of love and friendship until your soulmate is ready. You'll have four kids with him. It will be good for you both.
Then, when the time is right, you and your soulmate will join together.'
'When will 'my one' be here?'
'Soon, my baby girl. I want you to do something for me first, though.'
'Anything, mum. You know that.'
'I need you to seduce your father.'
'What?'
'You heard me, Molly. Your father is lost, and I can't seem to reach him because he's falling into despair. If we lose him too soon, your soulmate won't be born.'
'Dad's going to father my soulmate?' I asked.
'Something like that,' my mother mysteriously said.
'Isn't having sex with your father wrong?'
'Our family is different, Molly. We are more than family, more than related. We are kindred spirits that have found each other time after time over the millennia, and it's time for us all to be together again.
Your grandmother, my mother, Val knew this, but the time wasn't right for her, so she had her 'one' in Patrick. She decided he was enough for her, and that was as far as she went. Now it's our turn.'
'What if I decide my 'one' is enough for me, mum?'
'The choice, as it always has been, is up to you. If you decide your man is enough for you, it will fall to your daughter, your daughter's daughter, or... on down.
You, my girl, have the chance to bring the four of us who are one together. I don't know when the next time after that will come.'
'And the first step is to save my father?'
'Yes, Molly.'
'By seducing him?'
'By bringing him back from the edge and opening him up to me so I can reassure him that our time together is close.'
'Am I going to lose dad, too?'
I could feel my mum's reluctance to answer. Finally, she thought at me, 'Unfortunately, my dear, yes. He has to die so he can be reborn and we can all be together.'
'We all? You, dad, me, and my soulmate?'