Reply To: Lili & Danni Stories

[JR19759]

An Unusual Guest

“Lili are you ready yet? They should be here soon.”
“They?! I thought it was just JR coming round?”
“No, apparently he’s bringing someone else with him. He said that he’d like us to meet her.”
“Okaaaay. Wonder why.”

“I do wish you’d stop doing that James.”
I take my focus away from my notebook and look over to Sempi standing next to me, wearing a disapproving look on her face.
“Oh come on,” I say in a playfully exasperated tone. “How am I meant to set the scene if it starts out with us on some street? It’s much more interesting to know what Lili and Danni are doing before we turn up. Besides, I need to have some sort of build up for your appearance. It’s not like you’ve been in this story before is it?”
Sempi shakes her head and sighs.
“I have no idea how Lili and Danni can understand half the things that you say sometimes. I struggle sometimes and I’m a Veil. Reality is my thing, but you’re going off the deep end.”
I give her a knowing smirk and we continue walking.
“And anyway,” she continues. “I don’t quite get why you need me here. I have other things to do you know. Surely you of all people could deal with this problem?”
“That’s exactly why I need you here,” I reply flatly as we enter the apartment building. “I couldn’t give them a straight answer. You know what knowing your own future can do to people. I’d rather stay away from all of that. No spoilers and no looking at the script.”
“But I know my future,” Sempi said indignantly, stopping in her tracks. “Are you treating me differently to them?”
“You’re a special case,” I reply softly. “Your story wouldn’t work if you didn’t know the end. Besides, you don’t know the whole story anyway, but that’s not important at the moment. Now come on, we’re going to be late.”
With a small indignant huff, Sempi reluctantly follows as we enter the elevator and head upwards.
We spend pretty much the rest of the way walking in silence. Of course, Sempi keeps giving me sideways glances to check I haven’t got the notebook out again, which makes me chuckle.
“Here we are,” I exclaim as we stop outside an apartment door and I knock. The sound of footsteps from inside the apartment grows quickly louder before Danni appears in the doorway.
“JR, you’re here,” she says in a chirpy voice. “Excellent.”
“Yup,” I grin back. “Though how do you know it’s excellent? For all you know I could be writing that something terrible is gonna happen.”
“Oh shut up you,” Danni replies, giving me a playful shoulder bump, before turning her attention to Sempi. “So, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”
“Of course. Danni, this is Sempi Turner. Sempi is another one of my creations, she’s a Veil, a…. reality guardian I guess would be the best way to put it. She’s the reason I can come visit, very useful to have a reality manipulator at hand, isn’t it Sempi?”
I give Sempi a playful wink, to which she rolls her eyes.
“Oh lighten up you, this is a social call, not a death sentence,” I say shaking my head. “Anyway, I’ll leave you two to get acquainted. I assume Lili is in the lounge?”
Danni nods and indicates down the hall. I make my way down towards the second to last door on the right. Sempi will relax in a bit, I think to myself. I mean, I’m sure not her favorite person at the moment, not with everything that is happening to her, but she knows the score. It is what it is.
I make my way into the lounge and find Lili sprawled lazily on the couch, staring at me with a disapproving look.
“You’re late,” she says, completely deadpan in her expression and with a stony edge to her voice.
“A wizard is never late, “ I quote. “Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.”
“Really?! Did you really just do that quote?!”
The look on Lili’s face was half one of exasperation and half one of amusement. I give her a cheeky wink and she cracks, her face breaking into a wide smile.
“It’s good to see you,” she says as we share a quick embrace. “I’m glad you could make it. Um, if it’s not too much trouble, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”
“Later,” I whisper as Danni and Sempi walk into the room. Sempi has obviously relaxed slightly; at least she’s smiling now. I take a seat in my usual place, the seat by the window, as Danni takes up her place on the sofa next to Lili leaving Sempi to take the chair opposite me, next to the TV.
“Lili, this is Sempi,” Danni says warmly. “She’s another one of JR’s characters.”
“Another one huh?” Lili says with an impressed tone. “Does he put you through as much rubbish as he does with us?”
“You have no idea,” Sempi says with a shake of her head. I notice her glance over at me, but she avoids eye contact. I’m in for hell for this later, I can tell. She is not going to be co-operative after we leave. Oh well, worst comes to worst I either have to bunk here for the night or I’m not gonna be able to work on her story for a few days, either way it’s manageable.
“So what is it then?” Lili asks, leaning forward intently. “Screwed up family, neuroses, anxiety, we got ‘em all.”
“Bit worse than that.” Sempi gives a small, slightly sad, smile. “I’ve got to save one of six universes that are meant to be crucial to keeping all of reality in balance. To do that I’m supposed to help the chosen ones, my friends, to overcome a whole series of disasters that I set up, in order to prepare them for the final battle, at which I am destined to die. And because I’m not prepared to go along with certain aspects of this plan, my people have unleashed the dark part of me and are using it to do all the things I won’t, meaning I’ve got to fight them, and in part myself I guess, as well.”
I watch Lili and Danni’s reactions whilst Sempi is speaking. They are quite amusing. Lili just sits there, open jawed and dumbfounded, whilst Danni just stares at the floor. Sempi quickly notices their reactions and gives another small smile.
“So yeah, I think I got it a bit worse than you.” She again glances over to me and I shrug non-commitally. “Sorry for being such a downer.”
“No, not at all,” Lili exclaims, quickly regaining her composure. “We don’t get to have these sorts of conversations often, so it’s interesting to hear about what else he’s up to.”
She signals over to me as she speaks and I pretend to be suddenly very interested in the stitching on my seat. I can tell I’m about to get double teamed here, but fortunately for me, I can always rely on Danni.
“Does anyone want a drink?” Danni asks, breaking Lili and Sempi’s conversation before it can really get going. “Orange juice JR?”
“Yes thanks,” I say with a grateful smile.
“What about you Sempi?” Danni turns to face my companion. “We have juice, Coke, wine, a few bottles of beer.”
“I’ll just have water.” Sempi gives Danni a small apologetic look. “Sorry, I haven’t had anything alcoholic before, I wouldn’t really want to risk it, reality hoping when drunk doesn’t seem like a good idea. And fizzy drinks make me feel funny.”
“That’s ok,” Danni says with a kind smile. “One glass of water it is then. I guess you’ll be having a beer then dear?”
“In the bottle please,” Lili says with a small wink, to which Danni rolls her eyes in mock despair.
“You could at least have it in a glass, considering we have guests over. Oh, are you guys planning to stay for dinner? I bought extra in case, we were planning to have Chinese.”
“I don’t see why not,” I say glancing over to Sempi. “I don’t have anything urgent that I need to get back to and I don’t think Sempi does either.”
Sempi shakes her head to confirm my statement and Danni smiles.
“Awesome, I’ll make a start on that after I’ve got the drinks. Does eating at half five sound good to you?”
“Sounds fine, thanks Danni,” I say with a smile.
Danni leaves the room and an awkward silence falls over the three of us. I can tell what Lili is thinking, but Sempi is harder to read. Fortunately Danni doesn’t take long, returning a few minutes later with a tray full of drinks.
“I’m gonna have to go out quickly,” Danni says as she sets the drinks down on the coffee table in front of the sofa. “I forgot to pick up the beansprouts. Sorry about this, I don’t know why it just slipped my mind. I’m usually very good at remembering things.”
“That’s fine, everyone forgets things occasionally,” I reply quickly. I can already tell Sempi has figured out my little plan, but fortunately Danni is clueless, which is helpful.
“I shouldn’t be too long, 10 minutes maybe,” Danni says as she walks out of the room into the hall and grabs her coat and keys.
“Ok,” Lili answers, still staring off into space.
“Back in a few,” Danni calls as she opens the front door.
None of us move or say anything until we hear the front door close. Once the lock has clicked shut, Sempi looks over to me with a slight smirk on her face.
“I guess that was your doing,” she says with a slightly impressed tone to her voice.
“Yeah,” I sigh as I turn to face Lili, who looks slightly confused. “Sorry for being a bit presumptuous Lili, but I assumed that you’d rather talk without Danni around, so I had to make an excuse to get Danni out of the house.”
“Oh.” Realization dawns on Lili’s face and she tenses up slightly. “Well, thanks, I guess.”
Her voice is very uncertain and it is easy to tell that she wasn’t going to be the one to start this conversation, so I decide to take the straight forward, to the point approach.
“So, you wanted to talk to me about the conversation you had with Danni round your mothers a week or so ago and the dreams you’ve been having since.”
“How did… oh forget it,” her eyes go wide with surprise before settling back to a resigned expression. “I gave up figuring out how you know this stuff ages ago.”
“Um, do you mind if I ask what this conversation and the dreams are about?” Sempi interrupts before Lili can say anything further. I nod to Sempi, indicating that it’s ok to tell her, and Lili sighs, slumping back into the sofa and putting her hands up to her face.
“Well, my mother has been pressuring me to consider having children, which is something I’ve always been kinda against,” she starts, her voice almost shaky, but she manages to hold it together. “Last week it came to a head and I ended up finding out how Danni felt about the whole thing.”
“I guess she doesn’t feel the same way as you.” Sempi interjects. Lili nods her head to confirm Sempi’s statement before continuing.
“I kinda promised that we could have kids at some point, but….”
“But you’re still worried about it aren’t you.” Sempi finishes for Lili as Lili words trail off at the end of the sentence. Again Lili nods, before looking up at me.
“Is there any way you can help?”
I sigh.
“Sorry Lili, there’s nothing I can do. I’m not sure exactly what you’d want me to do, but either way my hands are tied. I know what is going to happen, but I can’t really tell you. No spoilers I’m afraid. Sorry.”
I swear my heart actually hurts with the completely defeated expression Lili gives me. She looks like a puppy that had just been kicked or something, it’s awful. Luckily, I had come prepared for this.
Sempi is immediately by Lili’s side, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders.
“Hey, don’t be like that,” she says softly.
“But I don’t know what to do,” Lili says, almost on the verge of tears. “I can’t let Danni down, I promised, but I’m scared. I don’t want to end up alone like Dad.”
“Listen,” Sempi says firmly, putting both hands on Lili’s shoulders and turning her so they are face to face. “James would never do that to you, he cares for you too much. And Danni loves you, that’s obvious to anyone with even half a brain. So you don’t have to worry about ending up alone. And let me tell you something else, you don’t have to worry about having children. Sure it’s a big thing and it’ll be tough, but it’ll be worth it. I have friends back in my dimension who are in a similar situation to you guys and they have a kid. I helped them with that and they couldn’t be happier and they are closer now than they ever were, so you shouldn’t worry.”
Lili took a moment to process Sempi’s words but, slowly, a small smile worked its way onto her face.
“Thanks Sempi,” she says softly. “Thanks, that actually does make me feel a lot better. You’re right, maybe I’ve been worrying too much. I still don’t think I’m ready yet, but I’m not going to let Danni down, I’m sure of that.”
I leant back in my chair with my orange juice as Sempi shot me a satisfied smile. I smile back and at that moment I hear the front door unlock.
“Hey guys, I’m back,” Danni chimes as she crosses the threshold. “Anything exciting happen while I was out?”
“Oh not really,” I reply, glancing over to Lili and Sempi with a knowing smile. “Just us talking.”