Wednesday Addams looked at the object in front of her with the same calculating trepidation with which one would look at a coiled rattlesnake.
"You know, I still find it kind of comical that after all this time you're still averse to phoning home," said Enid.
"It's a crystal ball Enid, not a phone, there's no phoning involved."
"Semantics. Magic or not it's still like a video call," replied the she-wolf, "Now, go ahead!"
"Why are you apprehensive about talking to Father and Mother?" asked Woe. The rest of the Wednesdays were behind them in the room, watching attentively.
"Wednesday has mommy issues," said Enid, with a mischievous grin.
"I don't have mommy issues," growled Wednesday before turning her attention back to Woe, "But a couple of years ago my adolescent impulses led me into a form of rebellion born of the mistaken perception that my parents were trying to mold me into a replica of themselves, especially my mother."
Woe merely looked at Wednesday with folded arms, raising an eyebrow, "Pff... teenagers."
"Aren't you a teenager too, Woe?" asked Enid.
"Obviously a more mature one in psycho-emotional terms."
"Emphasis on psycho," added Wednesday.
"Of course.”
"Okay, okay, that's enough," Enid interjected, recognizing the signals to stop the verbal exchange before it escalated, "Activate the ball already, Weds."
The crystal ball began to glow with a blue hue. Gradually in its center an image began to materialize and soon two figures were visible through the crystal as if they were on the other side of a slightly curved window.
Gomez and Morticia Addams had changed absolutely nothing in the last two years. The same lively spirit in him, the same delicate dignity in her. All wrapped up in a swirl of passion, love and abundant drops of macabre madness. The couple looked smiling at their daughter, not without some surprise at seeing her face materialize in the crystal ball in their possession at the Addams Mansion.
"My little viper!" greeted Gomez, effusively.
"Wednesday, darling, it's good to see you," said Morticia, "But I confess surprise, you only usually call us on Sundays, has something happened?"
"Always observant, Mother," replied Wednesday, "Needless to say, the situation is under control. I am calling you because I need the services of..."
"Oh, for the love of...!" exclaimed Enid, sticking close to Wednesday and looking directly into the crystal ball. On the other side Morticia and Gomez saw the werewolf appear next to her daughter, "At least explain to them what happened, Weds! Hello Mr. Addams, Mrs. Addams!"
"Enid, lobita, we told you it's just Gomez and Morticia," Gomez replied.
"You're family, child," Morticia added, a warm smile on her pale face, "No need for formalities."
"Aaaww, I know, I know... it's just the habit," said Enid, with a little blush on her face, "You see, these last few days here have been... Gosh, I don't even know how to begin to explain it..."
"Maybe we'd better show them," said a voice that the Addams patriarch and matriarch didn't recognize, but sounded dreadfully familiar. A third figure materialized in the crystal ball next to Enid and Wednesday.
The face was different. The age was different. The voice was different. But the pallor, the pigtails, the clothes, the presence... Morticia had always been a woman of remarkable poise, but even she could not disguise the extreme surprise on her face when she saw another version of her daughter and recognized her instantly.
Gomez went through a similar mental process, although he had no qualms about exhibiting an open mouth from sheer astonishment. The ashes of his cigar falling unattended to the ground...
"Wednesday?" asked Morticia.
"In the flesh," said Woe, "But there's more.”
Wednesday brought her hands to the crystal ball and slid her fingers delicately around the curvature. From the perspective of the ball in the Addams Mansion, the image seemed to expand showing more of the room and the other individuals present. Gomez and Morticia were suddenly confronted with the image of four other doppelgangers of their daughter of varying ages, features and clothing. But all unmistakably Wednesday.
"It looks like you've certainly been through an interesting few days, daughter," Morticia said. She watched each and every girl carefully. The first one to introduce herself was the one who seemed to have the most similar aura to her little raven. Another, dressed in blue greeted frenetically and with a shark's grin that reminded Morticia of Fester's younger days. Another, in pink (what a curious contrast!) waved with an effusiveness that in this case made Morticia think of her own sister, Ophelia. A fourth wore a white scientist's coat and had a pallor that made Morticia admire how cadaverous she looked. And finally, standing in the center, a little girl of about six years old that caused a palpitation in the black heart of the Addams matriarch, as she was so similar to her own Wednesday at that age, before she...
"Oh Tish!" exclaimed Gomez, elated, "Look at them, our very own snake pit!"
"I can see them, mon chère," said Morticia, delighted.
"Tish! That's French!" cried Gomez, as he took his wife's hand and...
"Not now!" exclaimed Wednesday. The couple stopped dead in their tracks and parted slightly while still smiling at their daughter, although there was a certain aura of apology coming from Gomez.
A shadow of a smile appeared on Woe's face, "It's fascinating to see how some things don't change."
"Certainly!" said Needler, "Just as with us the differences and similarities are a wonderful object of study!"
"Me, I'm glad to see familiar faces even if they're not exactly the same!" said Friday, "Is Pugsley around?"
"Oh, I'm afraid not darling," replied Morticia, "He's gone on a fishing trip on the lake with his new shipment of C-4."
"Oooh, C-4," said Pup, "You only let me use dynamite. Well, I mean, not you..."
"We understand, pequeñita," said Gomez looking at the youngest Wednesday tenderly, "I'm sure as soon as you get a little older your parents will have no qualms about letting you play with explosives of a greater variety."
"As interesting as this strange family reunion may turn out to be," interrupted Wednesday, "I'm sorry to have to remind you why this call was made."
"Oh, by all means, Wednesday darling," said Morticia, "Tell us what happened."
"Every last gory detail!" added Gomez.
And there certainly were gory details. Wednesday told the whole story quickly but without leaving anything out, with occasional interventions by Enid or one of her variants. Woe's arrival, the successive appearances of the other Wednesdays, the nicknames, the book stolen from the Nightshades' library, Isadora Laslow's failed plan, the nocturnal battle... and how they finally needed Grandmama's help to find a way to return the girls to their respective home dimensions.
"I'll let mamá know right now," said Gomez, "With this challenge you present her with I'm sure she'll meet you there in a few hours."
"My thanks, Father, Mother," Wednesday said.
"Thank you so much!" added Enid.
"Please inform us as soon as the situation is resolved, we would like to know more details," said Morticia, casting a last glance at Wednesday's counterparts, "It has been an unexpected pleasure to meet you, my girls. I'm sure your mothers will be looking forward to showering you with affection as soon as you are reunited. Please, don't deprive them of it even if you are reluctant."
"Don't worry, the only ones with hug allergies are Wednesday and Woe," Friday said, "And maybe Needler."
"I like hugs, but only the strong ones," said the mad scientist, "The ones that knock the wind out of you and fracture your rib cage."
"What she said," added Shark.
"It will be all right, my little death traps," said Gomez, "I will notify my mother and you will soon be reunited with your families."
The crystal ball twinkled and the faces of Gomez and Morticia Addams dissolved into a bluish haze until finally the crystal sphere was plunged back into darkness.
Thing leapt from one of the shelves onto the table and stood next to the ball, gesturing.
"Well, that went well, didn't it?" he asked.
"The first step, yes," said Wednesday, "Now we can only wait for Grandmama's arrival and see if she can help us."
"I'm sure she can," said Enid, "I've only met your granny a couple of times, but she always seemed very capable as a witch to me."
"I found it interesting that she's Father's mother," said Woe.
"Oh? Another case of altered kinship?" asked Needler.
"If she's Father's mother, I presume your Grandmama is Eudora Addams," said Woe, turning to Wednesday.
"Indeed," said Wednesday.
"Mine, too," said Needler.
"And mine," Pup added.
"Hum..." said Friday, "Mine is Hester Frump, she's Mother's mother."
"My Granny Frump's name is Hester, but she's not Grandmama," said Pup.
"Funny... my Grandmama is a Frump too and Mother's mother, but her name is Griselda," said Woe.
"The multiverse needs a notebook," said Enid, fascinated by the conversation.
Friday turned to Shark, who had been quiet up to that point, "And your Grandmama, Shark? What is she?"
"The truth, Sister Friday... I haven't the faintest idea," said the dark blue-clad Addams, "Father thought she was Mother's mother and Mother thought she was Father's mother. In the end it doesn't matter, she's an Addams. That's all that matters."
"A big notebook," muttered Enid. Wednesday patted her gently on the shoulder for encouragement.
They decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in quiet conversation, playing impromptu games and simply enjoying each other's company. They exchanged stories of their respective realities, each more outlandish than the next.
Woe recounted in more detail how her Uncle Fester's fiancée and then wife turned out to be a psychopathic gold digger serial killer who managed to send her and Pugsley to a vomitous summer camp that they eventually burned to the ground. The murderess, who tried to end the family, was finally killed by her baby brother Pubert, in an accidental electrocution. Presumably accidental.
Friday recounted how she was kidnapped during a visit from a group of young students. What was remarkable about her story was not the kidnapping (which turned out to be rather mundane), but that the group of teenagers had a talking dog and were apparently traveling the country solving mysteries.
Needler told them about how her version of the Addams Mansion had been an old mental sanatorium (of which Lurch was a former patient) and also about the time she managed to resurrect all the frogs they had to dissect in class, causing a general panic. Currently, before the dimensional leap, she was trying to create a serum that would allow her to inject genes from her pet octopus Socrates into other living beings.
Pup's anecdotes were more domestic. Play sessions with Pugsley, visits from strange relatives, judo training with her father... although she was particularly proud of the time she taught Lurch to dance. She demonstrated some of her moves, which seemed extremely adorable to all present, though only Enid and Friday were open about it.
Shark told them about how she was the champion of the family's annual joust (which consisted of donning armor and hitting each other with spears by running from one end of the mansion's longest hallway to the other mounted on self-made vehicles). But her most interesting story involved a potion created by Pugsley that turned her into different animals for a limited time. Crushing her brother in her rhinoceros form was a memory she would always hold close to her heart.
Thus, barely an hour and a half after the crystal ball call, the air in the dorm room seemed all at once charged with electricity. Enid was the first to notice it, suddenly standing up with her claws outstretched.
At the other end of the room, appropriately enough next to the entrance door, golden sparks began to shine in the air that soon gave way to a floating glowing ring of light. All the Wednesdays stood on their feet, on guard.
The portal, for that is what it obviously was, gave a glimpse on its other side of a crypt of sorts that Wednesday recognized as part of the family cemetery. A figure in the shadows on the other side walked through the portal and planted herself in the room with a single step.
It was an elderly woman in dark clothes, with long gray hair that would have been straight if it had been combed. Short in stature, covered in wrinkles but still with a smile that seemed to denote the energy of youth. One of her eyes was visibly blinded, but the other shone with a sharp intelligence, watching the group of girls before her.
Eudora Addams, Grandmama, placed her hands on her hips as the golden portal closed behind her.
"Well, well, well... What a bunch of little monsters I meet," she said, "Aren't you going to say hello to your grandmother?"
NOTES
Translations:
lobita (spanish): little she-wolf
mon chère (french): my dear
pequeñita (spanish): little one [female], small (affectionate)
mamá (spanish): mom, mum, mother, etc.
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