The Lightning Kid and the Father of the King - What Would Have Been

As the year drew toward Yuletime, the King's thoughts always turned toward his own father who had passed away around those same holidays over 10 years before. The King always missed his father but the pain was usually sharpest around Yuletime.

Since the birth of the Lightning Kid, the King had wondered how his father might have reacted to the young prince. It went beyond wishing that the man could have gotten to know his grandchildren; the King figured that his father had very little experience with special people like the Lightning Kid and he was afraid that their bond would not have been as strong...

While the King knew this kind of speculation was the province of the madman, he couldn't help himself, and in quieter moments of the year gone by the doubts preyed on his mind. Would the King's father have held the prince at arms length? Pitied him perhaps?

Now that the Lightning Kid was over a year old, one could see many dimensions to his personality.  He was energetic and dynamic.  He had a mischievous sense of humour.  He liked to be LOUD.  He was persistent (this would have been one his grandfather's favourite qualities).  And so the King realised that even if his father wouldn't have known what to make of a boy like the Lightning Kid, he would have fallen in love with the boy that the Lightning Kid was becoming.  In fact, the King suspected that somewhere up there, he was.