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Viola’s eyes followed to find Hope standing with Sia and Flower in her arms.
I loosened my hold on my sister. Just enough so that she could breathe, and explained, “That’s how Hope doesn’t cry. She prides herself on the fact that she never cries,” I continued. “She chooses to snort and huff like a wounded ox instead.”
Hope sent a watery, slightly manic smile in Viola’s direction and gave her a double thumbs up. “I’m happy,” she wheezed.
Viola laughed through her own tears. “Me, too.”
Hope
Hope
After a few weeks, I moved confidently on the path of our new normal. Though it was not that normal considering our life resembled an extended vacation.
Ares assured me there was no rush to get back to work. And he wanted me to consider going back to Greece for a few weeks before getting serious about the job search.
He, too, had plans to revamp his entire career. If he wanted to, he could retire and live quite comfortably, but he had plans for our girls.
Yes.
Both of them.
Brayleigh took to her role of big sister like a duck to mud.
In other words, not at all. Her biggest complaint? “Her doesn’t answer me when I talking to her.”
Ares’ house lost its’ designer edge amid toys, fridge art, and noise. So much noise. I wasn’t the quietest person in the world. Brayleigh took after me, and Sia found her voice. Her will. Her feet. Her drive.
And her temper.
Viola became a regular staple. After the first couple of visits, and a long talk, the haunted look both of them wore in each other’s presence dissipated, swept away by new memories.
His dad came, too, but the trifecta of guilt, remorse, and suspicion weighed heavily, and would not so easily be moved.
Lucky, Minty, Ava, and my parents rounded out our numbers making our home a veritable beehive of activity.
Ares spent hours looking at his photo walls.
Not hours cumulatively.
Hours at a time.
In the beginning, it freaked me out how much time he spent walking back and forth along the wall, examining each picture.
The third or fourth time he did it, I couldn’t stand the silence.
“What are you looking at for so long?”
His eyebrows went up. “The pictures.”
“But… why for so long?”
“I’m not sure…” he mused. “I’m trying to figure that out.”
“You like it, though?”
“I love it,” he replied simply, turning back to his wall.
So, I left him in peace to do what he had to do. The first time I added a picture, he returned to me quickly with a huge smile on his face.
