Invisible Paradox

By Douglas Faber

now that ellen and eva are both pregnant, a battle among other fae courts will determine which child shall survive and which shall be eliminated. ellen begins to record her first jazz cd, they visit milwaukee to see a popular jazz singer, madeleine peyroux and become involved with the old gods again. plus, michael's family re-enters the picture, not all having warm and fuzzy feelings towards the newlyweds and their soon to be born children. old gods, old friends, deaths, births and the pitter-patter of little feet will fill these pates and your hearts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Douglas Faber
• Release date: May 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301424245

Douglas Faber

I am 54 years old, born in Wisconsin, married a second time to Marie.I have a daughter, Kayleigh, 18 years old, three cats who drive us nuts and are or will be in my books. I love music, reading, writing, cats and my family. I work at Wal-Mart(8 years & counting) and hope to write full time for a living.

Book preview

INVISIBLE PARADOX

D.D. Faber

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Douglas Dean Faber

License Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Excerpts from Invisible Empires Copyright 2013 Douglas Dean Faber

Cover Design Michael and Ellen Copyright 2013 Paula Simmerman

Cover Design based on an ugly sketch by the Author(really Ugly)

Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

Table of Contents

PROLOGUE #1

PROLOGUE #2

CHAPTER ONE

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

CHAPTER TWO

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

CHAPTER THREE

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Prologue #1

December 24th Your tests are indeed positive, Mrs. Iskarios. I'd say that you are about three weeks along, give or take a few hours. That's a prenatal joke, a very small one I'm told. So, very early days yet. An especially delightful and surprising Christmas gift for you and your husband, yes?

"Yes, yes it will be a most excellent surprise. Particularly when I tell him tomorrow, that is.

He's in for quite the shock." Ellen began to get dressed again while the Doctor typed up her notes on her laptop. The Doctor looked up at her patient, and remembering her blindness, offered to call her a cab.

No thank you, Doctor. I'm here with my sister-in-law. She's in the next room with your nurse right now.

"Yes, yes, she is my next patient, as a matter of fact. That's certainly a stroke of luck, having someone to share the good and bad times of your pregnancy with, someone you are related to.

See my desk nurse for your next month's appointment, Ellen, and have a Merrier than usual Christmas you bad girl you. Are you really going to spring it on him as a present?

Oh yes, Doctor, most definitely. Michael truly deserves to be surprised, even shocked. He's a notorious prankster himself, so... Ellen grinned, then exited the small examining room.

Doctor Youngstone closed the door quietly behind her and walked to the next room down.

Ellen smiled happily to herself as she gathered her purse and cane. She did as she was told, setting another appointment with the desk nurse for a month out from the holidays. Then she settled onto a comfortable sofa to quietly wait for Evangelose. From her purse Ellen slipped out a Walkman complete with small earphones, an early St. Nick's present from Michael and started listening to disc two of Louis Armstrong's Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man.

Thinking of the pleasurable surprise she was going to share with her husband tomorrow on Christmas Day, Ellen smiled mischievously in anticipation and started tapping her feet to the groove of the trumpet.

Prologue #2

December 24th-Evangelose waited, nervously, for her pre-natal physician to finish with Ellen her sister-in-law, and come to check her out. Pax Verum, her lover and the Father of her child, was still Christmas shopping with her brother, Mikos (Michael), and like Mikos, was totally unaware that she and Ellen were both pregnant.

She had read through all the magazines in the waiting room, all the pamphlets in this sterile exam room, even the signs on the wall and the older magazines in the door holder. Eva would have started counting the strands of hair on her head, if not for the fact that she wasn't the best at mathematics.

=Yes Eva, she's on her way to see you now. Are you nervous? You sound nervous.=

=(giggles)No. I've been thinking about the look on Miko's face tomorrow morning. It's kept my mind pre-occupied. How are you planning to tell Pax?=

=Eva, sister, relax! I might not know Pax as the rest of my family, but I'm sure he'll be thrilled to know he'll be a Father! You know, continuing the Family name and all that macho stuff!=

=Not at all! We 'Fae' really aren't too fussy (anymore) about unmarried pregnancies, there's not enough of us to be against repopulating the species, no matter how they come to be. Kids are kids, a generation of Fae continued for another lifetime or ten.=

And how are you feeling today, Miss Iskarios? You seem a little nervous.

Just a bit. Eva admitted.

Will this be your first child?

Yes.

Okay, okay, let's start with your pulse and heartbeats...

.

Evangelose came away from the Nurse's desk with an appointment card for the same day as Ellens and linked their arms together as Ellen rose from the sofa to greet Eva. The two women exited the professional building straight into the parking lot.

Dr. Youngstone stripped off her gloves after her last examination, poked her head out into her nurse's office and told her she was taking a cancer stick break,.grabbing her cell phone before ducking out the back exit into an alley abutting the rear of her building.

She lit the cigarette, took a few drags then reluctantly punched one number for a speed dial on her cellphone and listened, waiting for the other party to answer.

Yes?

Both women were here, both will continue to see me as their primary gynecologist for the length of their pregnancies.

Excellent. How are they doing?

Both are very healthy, happy, only the Airwalker is nervous.

Interesting. And our prognosis was correct, three weeks along?

Yes.

Continue to monitor them and keep us updated, Doctor.

What about-(Click)-Damn it. The Doctor flung away the half-smoked cigarette and turned to go back into the building but hesitated. She turned back around, feeling like she was being watched.

Now who's being nervous? Then she laughed, a little high strung giggle and reentered the building. The alley was silent with snow beginning to fall and stick on the garbage dumpsters.

A small, very localised yellow drizzle fell on the smoldering cigarette until its' meager fire was doused and the remainder of the tobacco was reabsorbed into a hardy, scraggly bush close up to the wall of the building.

CHAPTER ONE

ONE

Please, pretty please? It's snowing outside, dark, no-one will see us. Please?

Do you have any idea how hard it is to say no to a beautiful red-headed Fae Princess who is also the love of your near-immortal life? Well, it's nigh impossible. Especially on Christmas Eve, especially when she's been giddy all day waiting for the morning like an innocent child, but it's for the delight of seeing me, the one she loves, opening my presents? That's right, she wasn't excited about her presents, no no, Ellen was fit to bursting about giving my gift to me.

Still, I did have a reputation to uphold, so I sighed heavily and deeply and took her in my arms, went invisible, spread out my wings and lifted us skyward. We flew a goodly distance above the store fronts of Prairie Du Chien, where the four of us had been shopping and headed west towards the River, the mighty Mississippi. A well-lit ferry was making its way south, for the poor people who wanted to gamble their holidays away. Ellen sighed, content, while we hovered five or six hundred feet above Terra Firma. She was warmth incarnate in my arms, wearing an Irish woolen coat, a woolen green tam on her head, a scarf (guess what it's made of) and insulated jeans, tucked into fleece lined black leather boots...all of the clothing had been an early Christmas gift from my sister and her beau, Pax Verum. My sister had promised more gifts of the same kind for me but that I didn't deserve to get them early.Sisters. Women. I will never understand either of them.

I love you, Mikos. I know I've only known you for about four months and...we've had more excitement in that time than most couples have in their entire boring lives. I feel so warm, so blessed, so loved. Ellen rested her head back against my shoulders as I watched the snowflakes come to rest on her face. I kissed a few of them, tasting the cold water mixed with the salt of her skin and I was content.

=Sister, come join us over the Mississippi. It's such a wonderful feeling and a beautiful evening for flying.=

Evangelose teased,

=Your husband is a spoilsport, sister, leave him at the car and come join us!=

=(Sighs) Yes sister, it is hilarious, truly. At the beginning of the month I gave Mikos a list of items as gift ideas for me for Christmas and he thought he could pick and choose among them, as if not buying the whole list was an option.=

>Someone's going to be awfully disappointed come tomorrow morning, I think, eh Pax?<

(xx)S-sorry, I have to agree with Eva and your wife on this one, Michael!(xx)

=Mikos! We've decided to call him by the Greek derivative of his given name, Pax, get with the program!=

>Sister, are you dangling him off a storefront again?<

=Now sister, I seem to remember somebody elses reluctance to dance at that club in La Crosse last weekend...=

=Okay, okay!(laughter). I think that it's time to head back home anyways, everyone; we have to finish decorating the tree and the windows and...=

<>(xx)(Groans)(xx)<>

=You are all spoilsports! Hmph.=

>I love you too, Eleanor, Princess of the Fae.>

=Mikos...=

I put my hand behind her head, pulling her lips closer to mine for a proper kiss as we floated above the Earth, then I rearranged her body in my arms and flew us back down to the car. As we materialised just outside a closed hardware store, I felt my sister and Pax land just beyond the car, in an alleyway between the closed for the night businesses.

We do have the correct ingredients for the hot buttered rum drinks, don't we dear?

Yes, Mikos, you've already asked me twice about that. They are already in the trunk, dear, along with some Christmas gifts, so no peeking, Here she thumped on the trunk a few times for emphasis, Eva and I will unload everything we purchased first, then you men can bring up the rest.

I looked at Pax all innocent like and he shrugged, comically, back at me as if to say 'what presents, we didn't buy anything for you ladies', 'so therefore there's nothing in there for you'. Evangelose swatted him across the back of his head as both ladies settled into the backseat of our car and Ellen just smirked at me, confident that I had bought out an entire jewelry store for her. Well I can tell you, it really burns me when she is so confident about these sorts of things, like she knows just how tightly she's got me wrapped around her little finger, especially when I had done exactly(well not exactly) as she had 'requested' me to do. Besides the small store of jewelry I had bought out for her, I had also purchased half a high end Apparel store, too. And most of it, being imported from Ireland, had already arrived earlier this week, was wrapped and waiting under the tree. Since Pax and I had thought ahead to pre-decorate the tree in our large, shared family room, and without telling our ladies, we both hoped to spend the rest of the evening sequestered with Ellen and Eva, respectfully, and apart from one another. The four of us had been nearly inseparable since last month's 'fun' in the Apostle Islands, our two women particularly having bonded like the sisters(in-law) they had become in fact.

We pulled away from the curb at last, with Ellen sliding in a Christmas CD by the classy jazz artist Diana Krall into the player and to our delight, began to sing along with the traditional songs on the disc. The rest of us stayed silent as Ellen sang, so as not to ruin the beautiful ambience her gorgeous voice created. This wasn't just my prejudiced pride in my wife overriding all opposition to the contrary, no, Pax and Evangelose had also exclaimed in wonder when Ellen had consented to lead us in some Christian Christmas hymns a couple of weeks ago. The four of us had started to sing along together, but once Ellen had begun to outshine us as a star outdoes a firefly, one by one we fell silent and just listened. Ellen hadn't noticed our nonparticipation until she had half finished the disc we had been singing along to, then she had flushed magenta red all over and refused to sing anymore by herself that night or any other night, despite our protests and our pleading.

Eva managed to have a one on one sisterly talk with her the next day and when we gathered for dinner that night, Ellen shyly announced that she would sing more carols that night only if Eva would join her and that there would be no more applauding, as that had embarrassed her.

Mikos, honey? Ellen began.

Yes dear?

You're driving awfully slow. I'd say, about 10-15 mph under the speed limit. What's up with that?

It's snowing, sweetheart. I'm just driving to the conditions of the road.

Snowing heavily?

Um, no. Not really.

Maybe even lighter than before?

Um, er, maybe?

Mikos, is it possibly because you want to hear me sing? My Princess was smirking.

I sighed. Guilty as charged.

Eva and Pax cringed, awaiting the inevitability of Ellen's punishing response.

Well, pick up the speed, Mikos, and maybe I'll sing some more at home, yeah? Is that okay?

Putting the pedal to the metal now dear. The CD started up again and, with my sister joining in on the harmonies, Ellen sang the rest of the way home. Too bad it was such a short drive.

TWO

Pax cooked up the hot buttered rum concoction but rather surprisingly, neither of our ladies would partake. So he went back to our kitchen and made a non-alcoholic version, which caused both women to embarrass him with their effusive thanks.

Ellen's parents had sent her old-fashioned Gaelic Christmas ornaments the week before and Eva had searched for Native American oraments suitable for the occasion so now we were further decorating the tree with international, multi-religious and non-religious symbols of peace. Evangelose had burned a mixed CD of various Christmas hymns by an eclectic assortment of artists including Tony Bennett, Josh Groban, The Blind Boys of Alabama, ELP, Kathy Mattea and others, with the end result being we were all singing passionately along, garbling the lyrics and once in awhile, handing out small gifts to each other.

The time slowly ticked towards midnight and Pax was kept from making any more hot buttered rum. Not that we had imbibed too much, both women told us, but before we did. They wanted us sober in the morning and the night was 'still young'. My sister led Pax away to their half of the apartment, saying good night and wishing us a Merry Christmas.

We faded from the family as well, leaving Tarot and Cassandra(Cassie), our new American White feline that had been another St.Nick's gift from myself to Ellen, to play with discarded wrappings and a few loose on the floor ornaments.

You're sure we should leave those two down here alone? Ellen nodded without considering what I'd said and tugged at me to get me moving in the direction of our bedroom. The extensive remodeling that her parents had performed on our derelict townhouse had left the bed as it was, but with a lot of changes to the other décor. Mostly in the form of paintings on the wall, including one by Roger Dean and another by Jim Fitzpatrick, both artists from across the pond or lamps disguised as chandeliers above our head; the majority of them were well out of Ellen's comfort zone, thus not interfering with how she remembered and thus navigated the room.

I'm going to slip into something a lot more comfortable. Don't go anywhere. Ellen lectured me, then disappeared into her very own walk-in closet. Her family and Evangelose had set up her clothes in a color scheme with-in a style scheme for Ellen and Ellen loved it. She kept her basic everyday clothes in her old, warped clothes cabinet, just as she'd had it before. Her system for all the shoes she owned not even Sarah Jessica Parker could comprehend, so how could I? More to the point, if Ellen did, everything was just fine and dandy.with me.

While Ellen was gone, I took off the Irish sweater I had gotten from the King and Queen, draping it over a chair on my side of the bed. It was soon followed by my shirt, pants and socks, having taken off my shoes the minute we had returned home.

Why don't you put on those silk pjs my parents sent you? drifted from the depths of her walk-in closet, so I divested myself of my boxers and began hunting for the pjs. Since they were but a drop in the bucket of clothes her parents had sent me(what were they trying to say?), I had only found the bottoms by the time Ellen finally emerged from her search for something 'far more comfortable'.

Well? How do I look? Ellen was barely wearing a scarlet red camisole with a pair of 'were they really there' matching panties and as had become the norm, I couldn't produce accolades worthy of how beautiful and sexy my wife was to me. I just let my jaw hit the floor as usual and eventually managed a wolfish whistle, like the cartoons, to the point of stomping my foot several times to add to the cacophany. Ellen made a curtsey that was nowhere near proper and decidedly closer to being rated NC-17 and strolled over to where I was standing, enthralled. She put her hands to my chest, discovering that I hadn't put on the top and whispered seductively that I had made a wise choice.

I tried to tell her I hadn't found the top but further conversation didn't seem to be on this night's schedule of events. Merry Christmas to all and to all, a good night. Or however that saying goes.

.

For the first time in our short life together(I think) Ellen got up earlier than me the next morning and she left notes behind for me to decipher. The first one read Put your pj bottoms on- this was an easy one to figure out. The next note was on the back of the closed door—-Find me. Easy to decipher, not so easy to execute. Ellen might have been blind but that was no hindrance to her survival skills, including the adult version of Hide and Seek. I went down the stairs and into the kitchen, where I found the next note magnetized to the refrigerator. It read,

'Your Present and Future are ready to be unwrapped, under the tree.' Hmm, was my wife my present? After last nights activities, I would have thought her too exhausted for any more 'adventures of the sensual kind', but I had recently decided to not underestimate my dear wife's desire for making love.

I descended the flight of stairs to the 2nd level common room/floor/family room where we had sang and drank only a few hours before and was startled to see my wife lounging comfortably on a padded lounge chair, with a pillow under her head and the same red camisole and panties, along with a big red ribbon, completing the ensemble she wore.

You've finally found your present, husband. Care to unwrap it now or later?

Now would be the best time, I think. I came to kneel by her chair, carefully turning her face to me and kissing her oh so delicately, then with increasing passion until Ellen had to raise her body from the chair to continue kissing me.

Mmm, wow. You are such a great kisser. But you haven't unwrapped your gift yet...

I'd hate to shock my sister and Pax with our 'shenanigans', as they have put it, in the past...

Mmm, well, she and I have an understanding, Mikos. They will stay in their half of the building till noon, while we're down here enjoying Christmas morning. So? She displayed the wrappings and the 'gifts' underneath, so I reached for the camisole straps but she slapped my hands away.

"Start with the bow', Ellen whispered, she asked, she begged and cajoled, all with only those four words. I did as my Heart told me, undoing the bow from her stomach, revealing words written there in red Sharpie: BABY INSIDE, with an arrow pointing towards her flat belly.

I stood there, stupid with the bow in my hand, trailing to the carpeted floor before her shy smile and confident nod shook me out of my stupor. Putting my knees on each side of her narrow lounge chair, I slowly lowered my face to Ellen's belly and kissed her there, telling her and our child to be that I loved them both, over and over and over again. I heard Ellen start to cry and I kissed all the flesh, all the salty skin between where I'd been, all the way up to her glowing face. By the time I tasted the happy tears on her lips and cheeks, the tears had stopped and a smile lit her face like a beacon from a Door County Lighthouse.

Now unwrap the rest of me, my love, and let us celebrate our baby by recreating its creation. Ellen brought me up to her level and we flipped onto the floor, my body taking the 'impact'. I believe I was on top that night, too.

Just as we were finishing making love for the second time that morning, I heard whoops of happy laughter and sounds of celebration echoing down the halls from their half of the building. Ellen gasped at that precise moment, moaned long and low, drawing blood with her fingers from my back, arched her back and tightened herself around me, bringing me to a deliriously wonderful climax. We fell back down to the floor and lay together, sweating, until she flipped me to my side, complaining that I was 'crushing her with my weight'. I did notice that she didn't disengage from our conjoined position, though, so I didn't pull out either.

As we let the sweat on our naked bodies cool, Ellen cast an ear towards the sounds continuing to come from Pax and Eva's half of the building and told me, I guess your sister told Pax her good news.

Again, I was confused, then stunned. You told my sister about our baby before you told me? That's seriously under-handed, even for you. I teased her tummy with my tickling fingers and she laughed before holding up her hands in the classic 'surrender' style before she managed to gasp out:

No-oo, you big goof! Ellen smiled an Angel's smile. Eva is pregnant too! Can you believe we both conceived (we think) on the same night? Yesterday, in Prairie du Chien, we were at our initial Doctor's appointment while you two men were shopping at the mall! Ellen"s jade-green eyes were sparkling with mischief as her fingers trailed a razor-thin line that burned, between my chest hairs and down to my navel, as she explained everything she and Eva had been hiding from Pax and myself for the last three weeks.

My eyes were lit with the joyous prospect of becoming a father for the first time, at least in my truncated memory, that is. "I wish I could tell you just how excited I am about this wonderful news, but I can never find the proper words to do your beauty or this moment and our baby