“Hey,” I whisper, raising a gentle hand to his face. “Time to wake up, handsome.”Victor goes still for a second and then frowns, not opening his eyes. “No,” he decides, bruskly turning his head away. “No. More sleep. Never getting up.”I laugh a little and rest my chin on his chest, smiling up at h
“Mama!” Alvin cries again, tucking himself tight against me as one of my arms goes around him. Ian almost knocks us both over as he comes to my side, shouting “mom!” as he slams into me in his eagerness to hug my shoulders. Alvin snuggles against me, his eyes pressed closed in happiness, but Ian loo
“And then,” Ian says, hopping down from Victors arms and coming to wrap his arms around my leg while I use a knife to cut a warm loaf of crusty bread, “we heard a rooster crowing, and we knew it was time to get up. Because you would be coming home.”“Really?” I ask, looking down at him. “That’s weir
We troupe out of the cabin about an hour later, headed west through the pines towards where we sense we last made camp. I look over my shoulder one last time at the run-down little cabin sitting alone in the woods, mouthing a little thank-you to it. It’s truly given us so much - fed and protected us
“Sure,” I consider, shrugging. “I just…don’t want it to put undue pressure on them. I don’t want them to think they have some kind of destiny to fulfill, just because of some kind of astral design.”“But what if they do have a destiny to fulfill?” he probes, not really contradicting me, just wonderi
We get to work, then, all of us. The boys gather firewood while I check our supplies in the tent. They went untouched by wildlife by some continued magic with which the forest blessed us. I gather some dried meats and granola bars to supplement the forest’s gifts and head back to the fire circle whe
I am less happy a few hours later when I wake up quite stiff after my night on the forest floor.“Ooof,” I groan, sitting up and stretching out my stiff muscles. “That’s it,” I declare to the men in my life, who each blink awake next to me. “I’ve had enough of the forest. I need to go home, where th
The ride home passes slowly, probably because I am distracted with all my thoughts. The forest was stressful in its own way – we had to do hard work uncovering and facing our deepest doubts, learning what we are to each other. But in many ways it had been a reprieve. Lots of people, I think, would