Bagpipes on Parade

I.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, can’t these people drive any faster?!” her wife shrieked at the traffic that ensnared the family car.

“Langu-”

“Shit, I could probably read A Man with Two Souls from start-to-finish by the time this old lady moves!”

“Blake!”

“What?!”

“Summer’s here, remember? ” Yang Xiao Long pointed at the backseat of their sedan, where their adopted daughter sat. The blonde watched as Blake followed the direction of her finger and did a double-take at the sight of their child staring wide-eyed back at the two. Had this been any other child on Remnant, Yang probably would have found the whole affair to be quite hilarious. However, Summer Xiao Long was their daughter.

“A-are you okay, Mama?” the poor girl asked slowly.

“S-summer! Oh my god, honey , I’m so sorr-” Blake froze in the midst of her scrambled apology and inhaled slowly before she finally continued. “Yes, Summer. I’m okay. Mama is just a little… angry … at the traffic we’re in.”

Yang’s heart sank deep as the tiny girl turned her gaze to her, silently asking if she’d done anything wrong. She forced out a big smile and said, “You did nothing wrong, sweetie. Mama’s just mad that the mean old lady is keeping you from your first Annual Patchian Fair.”

Summer scrunched her tiny eyebrows tight and seemed to ponder over what her mothers were telling her. Yang felt her lips curve up as her daughter gasped suddenly, as though she’d had some sort of glorious epiphany. “Can we get some ice cream for Mama? To cool off her flurry?”

F-flurry? Yang stifled a giggle. Their daughter was too cute for her own good.

“T-that’s brilliant, Summer!” Yang offered slowly. She had to contain herself. “Let’s do it then! When we get to the parade, I’ll treat you and Mama to some ice cream. That way Mama can cool down from her… flurry… and we can reward Remnant’s biggest hero for bringing her back to normal! That sound like a plan to you?”

“Yeah!” Summer’s reddish gold dog ears flopped as she nodded her approval with fervor.

“Atta girl!” Yang grinned and reached out to offer her daughter a high-five with her gloved hand, only to be flung back as the car came to a sudden halt.

“For fuck’s sake, we have places to be, old woman!”

“Mommy, Mama’s having another flurry!”

In hindsight, Yang wondered if perhaps it would have been better if she had been the one to drive…



II.

With the traffic now far behind them and Blake’s 'flurry' finally quelled by the sweet taste of Green Tea ice cream, the Xiao Long family happily trekked into the Eighty-Second Annual Patchian Fair. Yang watched as her daughter practically inhaled her cup of Cookies and Cream and then rushed towards the line of a Merry-Go-Round. She sighed and quickly finished her own waffle cone of Rocky Road, then followed in pursuit. “Summer, you need to stay cl-”

“Mommy! Mommy! This ride is pretty!” the child beamed.

Yang let out something between a groan and a laugh.

“Oh honey, you’re killing me here,” she said with a smile. “We’ll go ahead and ride it now, but you gotta stay close to me and Mama while we’re here at the fair, okay?”

The little girl nodded.

“Awesome.”

As they drew closer and closer to the front of the line, Yang noticed the growing beam of excitement and joy in Summer’s eyes. It was also in her feet, she noted, as the poor girl wouldn’t stop jumping up and down. Quite honestly, it all reminded Yang of her own vague memories of fairs long ago with her father and Summer Rose. She muttered to herself, “Was I this hyper back then?”

A question to ask her father some other time, Yang decided, as they finally arrived at the front of the line and got onto the circular platform. She smiled and said to Summer, “Go on, honey! You pick which one we’ll ride, okay?”

“Follow me, Mommy!” Summer dashed over to a large black pony and began to point at it, exclaiming, “This one! This one!”

Yang raised an eyebrow as she noticed the golden irises on the horse, but shrugged and chuckled as she hoisted her daughter up onto the metal horse and joined on after her.

“Can I wave to Mama if we see her?” Summer asked suddenly.

This kid was after Yang’s own heart. If her daughter kept at it, she’d be dead before the age of thirty from a cuteness overdose.

“Of course, Summer! Mama would love that,” she smiled.

The sound of an old Wurlitzer Organ stirred into life as the Merry-Go-Round finally began its jolly rotations. The mother and daughter cheered as their ebony mare ‘leapt’ up and down along the circular path.

Now all Yang had to do was make sure that Summer didn’t fall off the damn horse before the ride was over…

III.

After the ride drew to an end, the Xiao Long family made their way to the town streets of Patch. If Yang had any complaints about how the annual fairs were managed in Patch, it was that their parades were only done once during the whole affair. This alone wouldn’t have been an issue for Yang, save for their notably short time length. If you weren’t there to catch the parade in its fleeting moments, it would be a whole year before another chance was provided- and each year the parades brought a drastically different sort of parade.

“So Mama, any guesses on what they came up with this year?” Yang joked as they waited. “Maybe they’ll all be in salmon costumes this year?”

“What can I say, Yang?” Blake shot back with a grin. “Nothing will top the Tuna-themed parade from two years ago.”

“Not even if they’d actually bothered to give out free tuna to everyone?”

“Okay, you have m-”

“Mommy, what’s tuna?” Summer interrupted, her eyes full of curiosity.

Yang blinked and then offered, “It’s a type of fish, sweetie. Mama’s favorite, actually.”

Before any further questions could be asked by her daughter, a strange, shrill sound began to rise from one end of the street. As the odd noise drew near, Yang felt a sudden tug at her jeans. She looked down to find Summer holding onto her, slowly looking back and forth between the direction of the noise and her two mothers.

“Yang, look!” Blake pointed towards the sound with a small laugh.

“You have got to be kidding me…”

Only there was no kidding to be had at all. No, there was only the bagpipes and kilt-dressed marching band as they paraded through the streets of Patch. Yang wasn’t sure if she should laugh or scream. While it was impressive that the town had managed to collect a bulk order of the bizarre instrument, it was also equally notable how little experience any of the band members had playing the instrument.

“What the hell were they thinking?” Yang whispered, staring incredulously at the masterful mess before the family. “Where did bagpipes even come from anyway?!”

“I… Heh. Actually, I have no clue,” Blake answered, laughing all the more as she tried to think of an answer to the instrument’s origins. “As far as I can tell, it’s just… always been there.”

Yang shuddered at the thought. Finally she offered, “Maybe Aunt Ruby will find out the answer one day, right Sum- Oh my god, honey are you alright?!”

Summer was locked tight onto her Mommy’s leg, quietly shivering and sobbing into her jeans. Yang quickly scooped up her daughter and handed her over Blake, then began clearing a path through the crowd for her wife and daughter. Of all the things that Yang could have guessed that her daughter would be scared of, bagpipes were simply not on the list.

Though, admittedly, Yang found them a bit creepy herself.

IV.

Once the Xiao Long family began the drive back to their log cabin home, Yang looked over into the backseat of the sedan and watched as her daughter nibbled another small serving of ice cream. The blonde made a note to avoid giving Summer too many sweets in the near future. However, all things considered, she was just glad that they’d been able to calm down the poor child from her panic attack.

There would be another time to talk about that matter though.

For now, all that Yang was really interested in was spending quality time with her two favorite people in the whole world. She reached down into the glove compartment with her prosthetic hand and produced a colorful looking disk. She smiled at Summer, “Hey… wanna listen to some pirate songs?”

The girl looked at her slowly and smiled. “Mhmm!”

“You up for singing along with some crusty old pirates, Mama?” Yang winked at her wife.

Blake smirked and merely answered, “Y’argh!”

“Well then, anchors away and ahoy mateys!” Yang cheered and placed the disk into the car player. As the small family drove on and sang silly pirate tunes, Yang wondered once more to herself… just where did bagpipes come from?