Kathryn Hummel’s son was 9 when she realised that something was very different about him. It wasn’t the elf-like ears, or the way he lingered in the shopping mall to look at the clothes for longer than little boys normally did, or the fact that he dressed up Barbie dolls and had fashion shows with them, rather than play with the Action Man dolls that Burt had bought him for Christmas years ago, and were now collecting dust in Kurt’s toy cupboard. Kathryn had always known that Kurt was different in that way to most of the other boys who lived in Lima. And sometimes, when she saw him at the swing park, watching other little boys as they raced after little girls, she knew he was different in more ways than just personality. But at 9 years old, she knew there was something very different about her son. He would spend sometimes hours in his room, seemingly having no contact with any other human beings. He would sit on the couch with  her and Burt as they watched television, but every now and then his presence would fade from the room, and Kathryn would turn to see him looking down, a smile making his lips quirk several times. Burt noticed too, and assured her that he would grow out of it- he was still young after all.

But Kathryn knew better.

She remembered, as a little girl, her grandmother sitting her on her knee, Kathryn’s head resting against her chest, a soft night breeze cooling her skin as they sat on her grandmother’s porch. Every night she stayed at her grandmother’s house, the woman would tell her the same tale. She would start in the 1800’s, when Kathryn’s ancestor Julia was born. Julia had been born illegitimately from a faerie father and a mortal mother. Julia looked fairly like any other human being, as faeries do, but she had special powers, all of which she used in a good way. However, there was one that she could not control: since birth, Julia had heard a voice in her head, a boy’s voice, a boy who called himself Thomas. They could talk simply by thinking things, and grew tobe good friends. Julia’s mother feared that her daughter would be sent to a mental asylum, Julia’s mother knowing that it was simply another faerie gift, and so told Julia never to speak of it to anyone. Julia grew into a brave, strong, successful young woman, with many friends, yet she always took time to talk to Thomas, who she felt she could trust with anything. One day, Julia was in the market when she dropped her bag, the contents spilling out. As she bent to pick them up, a young man stooped to help her. He picked up her hankerchief to see her initials embroidered into it. The man was Thomas, and as soon as they looked at each other they knew they were each others soulmates.

Kathryn had sighed contentedly, whispering: ‘It’s so romantic’, to which her grandmother chuckled, and said: ‘Some say that their connection moved from their heads to their hearts.’

Over the years, Julia’s family tree progressed. Not every member inherited her faerie traits, and eventually they almost all vanished from the bloodline completely.. Except one.

Kathryn’s grandmother had told her that many of her ancestors had acquired the trait of mind connection. It seemed that whoever they connected to they were able to speak to using their thoughts, and that person could speak right back. It was also evident that whoever they connected to was their soulmate, who they were destined to meet someday, which they always did. As soon as they met, their connection was broken, and they were able to go about their lives as a happy couple.

‘The last person like that,’  Kathryn’s grandmother had said, ‘was your great great great great grandfather Jeremy. But Jeremy was unfortunate.’

Kathryn’s grandmother went on to explain that Jeremy had a connection, but it was to a person who he realised was not his soulmate. This had increasingly been happening in the most recent generations, with hardly any people with the gift connecting to their soulmates.

Kathryn used to pout, and moan about how she didn’t have the gift, and would never meet her soulmate, but her grandmother simply smiled and said thar the gift wouldn’t stop her from finding her soulmate, simply let them get to know each other first.

And so Kathryn knew when her son blanked out in the car on their journey to the mall that he was talking to someone; she could sense it.

One day, while they were sitting on a park bench eating an ice cream, Kathryn turned to Kurt.

‘Kurt honey?’

‘Uh huh?’ Kurt said, licking a drop of chocolate ice cream from a cone to stop it dripping onto his clothes.

‘Do you…..Do you talk to people? In your head?’

Kurt stopped licking, and looked up at her.

‘You don’t have to be scared honey. Please, tell me.’

Kurt nodded, and Kathryn pressed her lips together.

‘Are you mad? I know it’s a bad thing,’cause I saw it on the TV so I didn’t tell you ‘cause I didn’t want you to think-‘

‘Oh no Kurt! Kurt, you know that me and your father would love you no matter what!’ she said, and pulled him into an embrace, which he reciprocated, ‘But Kurt, darling, you’re……you’re not like those people on TV.’

Kurt sat up, looking at her, confusion filling his eyes. And so she bought him another ice cream and told him the stories her grandmother told her all those years ago. And when she was done Kurt was smiling.

‘So I’m real special?’

‘You already were Kurt.’

Kurt smiled and hugged her.

‘So does that mean that me and Blaine are gonna’ get married?’

Kathryn sucked in her breath. Blaine. This was the person her son has been speaking to for all these years. The person that might just get her son’s heart.

‘I don’t know Kurt. Anything is possible. But I think that you’ll most likely just be friends.’

Kurt thought for a moment before nodding.

‘Is it okay for boys to marry boys?’

Kathryn smiled.

‘I think its just fine.’

Kurt nodded and sat up, looking at the swing park for a few moments in a daze, before looking at his mother.

‘Mommy, can I go play on the swings?’

Kathryn nodded, and watched as her son began running towards the childrens area before stopping and turning towards her.

‘Mommy?’ he shouted

‘Yes honey?’ Kathryn shouted back.

‘Blaine says hello!’