Mom (Present me): This is the field the girls wanted to meet in. Let’s see what they’re up to…

(I walk out into the field to see a pop up canopy set up in the field. Lark is checking the corner poles and winding vines around each of them. Bloom has taken her fairy form and is flitting around the roof, decorating it with flowers. A buffet is set up under the canopy with a variety of foods, and a dining table is set up in the middle, complete with a chair for each of us. Libra is nearby in her fox form, bringing another dish to the buffet table.)

Mom (excited): I’m impressed, girls! You really went all out!

Lark (20s me): Hey Mom! We’re just about set up!

Fairy Bloom (High school me): Just a couple more flowers and I’ll be done!

Fox Libra (College me): Have a seat, Mom!

Mom: I couldn’t — how can I help out?

Fairy Bloom: You don’t need to help, Mom! We’ve got this under control.

Lark: I guess it still makes us uneasy to sit around while others are working.

Mom (sheepish): It does, yeah. I’m a little surprised though — you’re still in human form?

Lark: Being a fox appealed to me less and less as time went on, remember. I wanted to be a girl more than a fox.

Mom (smiling): And now here you are.

Lark (smiling back): Indeed I am.

Fox Libra: Okay, the food is served! Let’s eat!

(Lark and Libra motion for me to start the buffet, so I take a plate and look over the feast that Libra’s prepared. Bloom jumps down gently from the roof as I start to fill my plate, and before long all four of us are sitting at the table, digging into our meal.)

Mom: Libra, this is all delicious! Thank you for preparing lunch.

Fairy Bloom: Yeah, thanks sis!

Fox Libra: Lark helped.

Lark: Oh, not that much. You did most of the work.

Fox Libra (content): I’m glad you all like it.

(For a few minutes we eat in relative silence.)

Fairy Bloom: Hey Mom?

Mom: Yes Bloom?

Fairy Bloom: How come we can’t be fairy foxes? Or fox fairies?

Fox Libra: What are you talking about, Bloom?

Fairy Bloom: I was trying to be a fairy and fox at the same time, but I couldn’t. I can only be one or the other.

Fox Libra: Huh, that doesn’t make sense. Are you sure?

(Libra closes her eyes and concentrates. After several seconds she opens her eyes and looks at herself again, but sees no change.)

Fox Libra: You’re right; I can’t either! What gives?

Mom: That’s just the way those forms work. You can only be one or the other.

Lark: But they’re both different parts of us — I mean, ofit’s all ultimately us. We should be able to combine them.

Mom: I don’t know what to tell you — it’s never worked that way for me. I’ve only ever been the fox or fairy on their own; never both together. I’m not sure why.

Fairy Bloom: But that doesn’t make sense! I agree with Lark; we should be able to combine the different parts of ourselves!

Mom: You’re separate from Libra, aren’t you? And neither of you are Lark, even though all three of you are all part of me. Technically the parts of me you all represent *do* combine — into *me*. But you’re all still distinct expressions of my personality, and if I just started smashing the parts together without regard for how things actually work in my head, this place would cease to be a useful avenue for self discovery. So you’re stuck with the same limitations and quirks I seem to have in my brain.

(Disappointed but otherwise satisfied, Bloom continues her meal, and the rest of us soon follow suit. It isn’t long before we’ve all finished and are sitting full and content at the table.)

Lark (enthusiastic): Okay then! Here’s to Spring, and to an entire season of *Family of Me*!

Fox Libra (smiling): Here’s to the people we’ve helped and those that have helped us.

Fairy Bloom (relieved): Here’s to having a space where I can feel secure as myself.

Mom (proud): And here’s to personal growth, and walking this path together. May we have the resilience to follow as far as it goes.

The Girls (cheering): Hear Hear!