Dear Reese,
Today, your teacher tells me that maybe you’ll be a gymnast. The way you move, the way you sit. For me, the way you tumble around during every diaper change. MorMor was a gymnast. I never really managed a cartwheel. You are probably a kid who can manage a cartwheel someday.
You cry again at daycare drop off, and I desperately go to my parents’ chat at work for advice and reassurance because it’s breaking my heart to leave you like that. The consensus is that everyone goes through it in some form. The first comment: “My approach was: Be strong, normalize leaving in front of her, cry in your car.”
Sounds about right.
A few hours later, I get a text with these pictures, so I think you had a pretty good day.
Love,
Mama
The Knight & The Cursed Forest, Part 3
You follow the narrow and winding animal path through the forest, off the main trail (to avoid trolls!). After walking a while, you see lights up ahead through the veil of rain. Fireflies? No, not in this weather.
You go closer and see three fairies glowing with brilliant white light. They’re hovering off the ground, little humans with wings even smaller than you! The rain doesn’t touch them but rather is repelled from them, giving the fairies the appearance of floating in magical glowing orbs.
You’ve never met a fairy before, and you call out to say hello.
The fairies fly to you and as they draw near, their magic envelopes you and the duck, repelling the rain from your skin and surrounding you with warmth.
“Hello there,” one fairy says.
“Are you lost? The trail is not far,” another says.
You tell them you are on your way home to try to break a curse on your family. You’ve strayed from the main trail to avoid a troll.
“Trolls are nasty,” says one fairy.
“And we know all about curses,” says another. “We too are cursed.”
“Perhaps,” the last fairy says, “if you help us break our curse, we could offer aid in return.”
This sounds like a fair exchange, but you have no idea how to help a fairy. “What is your curse?”
“Well,” one fairy begins, “it’s our sister who cursed us. We can never feel the rain.”
“Forever dry,” bemoans another.
“My skin is cracking!” says the last fairy.
“So you see,” the first fairy continues, “it’s become awfully dehydrating to have all water repelled from us at all times. But our sister is being unreasonable, and she’s the only one who can remove the curse. Every time we go to talk to her, she sets one of her trolls after us before we can get a word out.”
“She’s very good friends with those trolls,” another fairy says with an eyeroll.
“We can show you the way to her,” the last fairy says. “She hangs out in a woodpecker hole not far ahead. Will you help us break our curse?”
The duck chimes in: “She’s a green knight! And I’m her squire!” he says proudly. “We can help!”
You nod resolutely. “Show us the way.”
To be continued.