The hot summer days of late August were upon them, and even the seaside of Cornwall was feeling the warmth. Farraway Mist didn't get as warm as the village of Point Rosen, and the afternoons still brought the wind and clouds, so they didn't suffer as much as rest of the coast, but Scout still knew it was summer. She was careful with Alis, and always put sunscreen on her whenever they'd venture outside, covering every inch of the sensitive baby skin with the lovely smelling stuff, which always brought Scout memories of her own childhood summers on the New England coast.

"Oh my god, don't you just love baby skin?" she asked, rubbing her face on the baby's tummy as they sat outside on a blanket. She smiled at George, who smiled back. Her freckles seemed to have taken over her face, making her more beautiful than ever to him, though she detested them as much as she ever had.

"Yes," he replied, leaning over to kiss Alis' tummy himself. Alis smiled at him, showing her two brand-new bottom teeth, which had just appeared three days before. George had never seen a more beautiful smile, or indeed more beautiful teeth in his life, a fact which he told Scout about once every four hours or so. Scout teased him mercilessly about how besotted he was with his daughter, but he didn't care. He knew he was.

Sunil, Alfred, and their parents were coming over for tea in an hour or so, to talk about their "surprise". The boys thought they were getting a trip to Euro Disney, which indeed they were, but they were getting something else in addition, something they didn't know about yet, which Scout and George had been very careful to keep from them all summer while they'd arranged the details.

Harry and Hermione came and began licking Alis' toes, something they loved to do, and this caused her to chortle. In fact, her first real, out-loud laugh had come from the puppies licking her feet, an act which George had managed to record on his phone and send to both sets of grandparents, which had pleased everyone to no end. Everyone had already met her, of course. They'd traveled to Connecticut for the fourth of July, and up to Surrey a couple of times already, but of course grandparents could never get enough of a grandchild.

And Alis was the jackpot as far as grandchildren went, everyone agreed. Her skin was pure white, nearly translucent, and her hair was fine and shiny brown, with the loose curls that would straighten out with time but for now held the tiny ringlets that baby hair twisted into because it was so thin. Her gorgeous eyes had indeed clarified into an azure blue the color of cornflowers, somehow darker blue than even her father's, appearing nearly purple sometimes. And her lips were like the color of ripe raspberries, like her mother's, her cheekbones high like Scout's also; no freckles decorated the bridge of her nose, however, which disappointed her father, though her mother rejoiced.

None of this would've mattered, however, the beautiful complexion and doll-like features would've been irrelevant had her disposition not been so sunny and beatific. Alis had been blessed with an angelic disposition pretty much since the day she was born. Scout had heard stories of colicky, cranky babies, and certainly wouldn't have held it against her own if she'd been so, but Alis rarely cried, and seemed so sad when she did, as opposed to upset or angry, that neither she nor George ever felt anything other than horrible about it.

George, in fact, had cried himself a couple of times when Alis had cried, which had endeared him even more to Scout.

No, for the most part, Alis spent her days wide-eyed and looking around her world, curious about everything, and smiling and laughing as soon as she'd learned how to do so, which seemed the most natural thing in the world. And George and Scout, for their part, could easily spend their days simply being with her, endlessly fascinated by her, by her tiny, reaching starfish hands, by her huge, curious eyes, by her forever curious mind.

"My god, Scout, look at her," George murmured, leaning over his daughter as she beamed up at him, showing her two teeth. "Have you ever seen a more beautiful child in your life?"

"No," Scout answered placidly, smiling at George and her baby as she scratched Harry's tummy. "But we'd better get this beautiful child and ourselves inside and changed before the boys and their families show up for tea, don't you think?"

George nodded and picked up his daughter, and they headed in to get dressed.

**************************

"Smashing tea, Miss Scout," Alfred said, while chewing the delicious cake.

His mother slapped his arm. "Your mouth is full, son," she said in obvious agony.

Everyone laughed.

"So, you guys know why we invited you here, I suppose?" George asked the boys with a smile.

Alfred and Sunil grinned at each other.

"We think so, yeah," Sunil responded with a grin. "We're going to Euro Disney, like?" He looked around the room. "That's what everyone says, anyway."

George shook his head. "Not exactly, boys," he said, looking over at Scout.

Alfred, who was holding Alis, looked up, blinking. "Really?" He looked over at his friend, while the parents looked at each other. He saw his mother and father smiling at Sunil's parents, and began to smile again. "Wait a minute. I know." He looked at Scout. "You didn't get us tickets to Disney World, did you? In Orlando?"

At his words Sunil looked surprised.

Scout smiled at Alfred's pronunciation of "Orlando", but shook her head.

Sunil held his arms out for the baby. "My turn, mate," he said to Alfred, who passed her over. Alis looked up at Sunil, whom she loved as much as she loved Alfred, and smiled. He smiled back at her.

"No? Not Orlando?" He kept going on this tack, and came up with, "Disneyland, then? In Los Angeles?"

Scout shook her head again.

Sunil picked up the idea. "No? Not Disneyland? Where else, then, Alfred?" He stared as he thought of something. "Mate! I know!" He turned to George. "Not Tokyo! You haven't gotten us a trip to Tokyo Disneyland, have you, Mr. Wilder?"

"Jesus," George said, running his hand through his hair, "how do these conversations with you two always end up going completely off the rails like this?" He looked between the two boys. "You two lose the plot faster than anyone else I've ever met, honestly!" He looked at Scout. "Just tell them, darling, before they start thinking we've bought them a trip to bloody Mars or something."

Scout shook her head, laughing, and pulled out two envelopes, and checked the names on them before handing one to each boy. George took Alis from Sunil, who dropped a kiss on her head before handing her off to her father.

"First of all, you and your girlfriends, Allison and, um, Nessa?" She looked at Alfred, who nodded. "You'll be going to Euro Disney for a week, next month, on us, okay?"

The boys grinned and thanked them profusely.

"Now open those," she gestured to the envelopes they were holding.

They did, and began reading, while their parents watched them, smiling, and crying a little.

"Oh my god, Mr. Wilder, Miss Scout, are these for real?" asked Alfred, looking at Sunil before looking at Scout and George. "Does his say what mine says?"

"We're going to Yale?" Sunil asked in an awed voice. "For four years of uni? Then medical school? Seriously?" He was looking at all of the adults in the room.

"Now listen, you two," Scout said in a serious voice, though she was smiling. "All I did was get your applications looked at after some deadlines had passed. You guys got in on your own merits, you understand? And George is providing the money, that's all. If you screw up while you're there, you'll be out on your asses, is that clear?" She looked back and forth between the two of them.

They were staring at her and George, blue and brown eyes wide.

Alfred spoke next. "What do you mean, though, all you did, and that's all, like it's nothing? You got people to take us, even though we were months late, and Mr. Wilder's paying for all of it? For years and years of Yale? Like our living expenses and all?"

Alfred's face began to crumple as he looked around the room, and Sunil was blinking rapidly.

Oh no.

Scout hadn't known what to expect, but she hadn't believed that both boys would simply break down and cry.

"Listen, you two," she said with mock sternness. "I expected more from you. Mr. Wilder, now him I'd expect tears from, you know?" She smiled at George, who grinned back at her as he held his baby in his lap.

"Look at baby Alis sitting there in his lap, you guys," she said softly, gesturing.

Sunil and Alfred looked at where Alis sat, bright-eyed and alert, beaming and drooling a little, two tiny teeth showing, in her father's lap, in her light green sun dress with the giraffes walking around the hem. Little feet in matching socks poked out of the bottom. Chubby arms ended in hands which grasped her father's fingers as she smiled out at them.

"We have her, because of you," Scout said. "Who knows what would've happened if you hadn't arrived when you did?" She leaned forward and put a hand on each boy's knee. "We can never, ever repay you, do you understand? If I can make some phone calls, and George can write some checks, and we can begin to make a dent in our debt to you, well, we got off cheaply, that's how we see it."

George couldn't even talk, so he just nodded, smiling.

There wasn't much to say after that, so the parents, after more profuse thanks, left, so the boys could work for a few hours, though really there wasn't much for them to do.

The first thing they did was take video of Alis on Sunil's phone while she was lying on a blanket in the lounge, bracing herself on her forearms, laughing and smiling at the two boys.

"Look, look, Alfred, I got her smiling, you can see her teeth and all!" Sunil laughed as he looked at his phone. He suddenly got quiet as he looked at the playback.

"What's wrong, mate?" Alfred asked. "Let me see." He reached for the phone.

"What's that?" Alfred's voice was quiet with shock.

"Dunno." Sunil's voice was equally quiet.

"Should we show Mr. Wilder or Miss Scout?" Alfred asked.

"Show us what?" George asked, coming into the lounge with tea for everyone.

"Yes, show us what?" Scout echoed, following behind him with a clean diaper for Alis.

Alfred bit his lips together. "Erm, something weird on the recording of Alis," he said hesitantly. "Just a strange bit of dust or something."

"Let me see," George said, trying not to sound upset. He held out his hand for the phone.

Sunil handed it to him, then took the diaper and wipes from Scout, going to change the baby while they watched the playback.

George watched it, while Scout looked over his shoulder.

The video showed Alis on the floor in a patch of sunlight, laughing at Alfred as he spoke to her, making faces. She obviously adored the boys and was practically cackling with delight as he entertained her.

Then, suddenly, her attention was caught by something amorphous that could be seen hovering just over his head, something shapeless and cloudy. She was no longer looking at Alfred, but was staring at the thing behind him.

George clicked the volume button, turning it up as high as it would go, and Sunil, who had finished changing Alis' diaper, picked her up and came closer.

The staticky sound of the phone filled the room, along with the sound of the baby's laughter, and the goofy sounds of Alfred's noises.

The gauzy, nebulous shape above Alis and Alfred was moving, morphing into something almost familiar to George.

A woman. But bony, skeletal, decayed, putrefied. Reaching for Alis.

And now they could hear chuckling. Laughter. Low and mocking.

Then, suddenly, the thing on the phone disappeared. The entire playback disappeared. It was gone.

As if it had never existed.