tmp0 by home

Author:home
Language: eng
Format: epub

“Do you have a family?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me about them.” She really had to coax him to give her even the tiniest crumb.

“My mother is Anastasia. My father is Brian. I have three brothers, older than me. And one bratty sister. Happy?”

“Very.” So it went. She queried. He gave her the basics. She bugged for more. He gave her a long suffering sigh, then spilled. It was great.

“So you actually celebrate birthdays?” she asked, when he mentioned his most embarrassing moment was when he accidentally knocked over the cake his mother baked for his brother onto his grandmother, who, slightly senile, flipped into her crocodile self and went after him to teach him a lesson on being careful.

“Not so much anymore. But when I was a kid, my mother made a big deal about them.”

“I don’t remember having a birthday. Actually, I don’t recall ever having cake.”

The car swerved. “What? But you’ve had dessert, right?”

“We got the occasional sweets over the years, usually snuck in by one of the guards or nurses who felt sorry for us. I had vanilla pudding once. It was yummy.”

“I wished you’d told me that before,” he grumbled. “I don’t keep that kind of stuff at my place because it’s not healthy. But I would have bought some for you, if I’d known.”

Renee smiled. “I don’t mind. Food is food. Actually,” she revised. “It’s not. Your food is marvelous compared to the goo they fed us. I can’t imagine anything tasting better than that.”

The subject changed after that, but it remained comfortable, even if she shocked him a few more times with her lack of experience in certain matters, and too much experience in others.

He made one stop in a small town, mostly because she just had to go! Emerging from the washroom, that was a far cry from the pristine one at Viktor’s house, she caught him slamming the trunk of the car shut.

“Did you buy something?”

“Just a few extra supplies. Nothing for you to worry about. Let’s go. We’re almost there.”

The car left civilization behind and wound up a road bordered by the tallest trees imaginable. The asphalt turned to gravel, and the vehicle bounced to her giggling delight. When they emerged at last from the canopy of foliage, she clapped her hands in delight at the sight of the cabin. With a frame comprised of logs, a shingle roof and a wide porch, it appeared inviting.

“Oh, it’s so pretty.”

“Functional,” he corrected.

“Pretty,” she stubbornly reiterated. A tree in the front yard with a tire hanging from a rope caught her attention. “What’s that for?”

“Swinging.”

When she threw him a puzzled look, he smiled with all his pointed teeth. “Come on, little fox. Time for you to be a kid.”

He slinked out of the car, and Renee followed, only to falter at the open sky overhead. Big, and blue, it made her heart race. I really need to get over this fear. No one else hesitated at the sight of all that vast space. She’d not noticed anything falling from it to hit people on the head.

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