Page 92 of Prayers for the Prickly

My parents, several of my siblings, Uncle Curtis and Uncle Atlas have all signed up to learn hedgehog, after Olly found a class. He’s already several lessons ahead of them, but yeah, everything Aunty Eunice said. I had him sign me up, too.

My face started to ache, I started grinning so hard.

“What’s so funny, August?” Mom asked. “You might want to start thinking about taking them, too.”

“I didn’t even know anyone offered any,” I admitted. “And I will. I was laughing because my mate just informed me that several of his family members are doing the same thing and learning hedgehog and that he’s already beaten me to the punch by signing up for classes.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Mom said as she smiled over at him.

“He also gave me the go ahead to tell you the names we picked out, though I might need him to help decide who is who,” I replied as I reached for the driftwood box he’d made that held the tiny, knitted bands I’d made for each one.

We’d decided to color code until we could determine distinguishing features, that way there would be less of a chance of mixing them up. Well, at least until they figured out how to kick their bands off, then we might find ourselves with a situation and a story to tell them later, along with all the other memories we’d collect over the years.

I lifted the first, sky blue band, so small it rested on the tip of my finger. “Blue is for True,” I explained. “Gregor and I decided on gender natural names for all of them, so no matter who they grew up to be, they’d have a name that fit.”

“True,” Aunty Eunice said, “that’s beautiful.”

The moment I’d said the name, Gregor swung his head to look at the little girl along his side before he gently nuzzled her. I got it without needing the words he spoke in my head.

“Yeah, definitely,” I said and slipped the little crocheted band on her little paw.

“Welcome to the family, True,” Mom said, having come to kneel on the outside of the nest, near Gregor, where she’d have a clear view of them as they were being named, and take pictures for me.

“Grey is for Echo,” I said next, peeling the blanket back so Gregor and I could study our little ones.

I think Echo is True’s twin, or at least, our little wolverine son,I said.

He cocked his head, laid his ears back and flashed me a fanged grin before nodding his fuzzy head.

I think you’re right, he replied.

“Echo is our other little wolverine,” I told them before slipping the gray band on his paw while Mom took more pictures.

“Another precious little addition,” Aunty Eunice said. “Welcome, Echo.”

Of course it was just a case of perfect timing, nothing else could explain the way our little son decided to nuzzle one of his siblings when she said it, and kick one of this little feet.

“Next is orange, for Halo, and now that our little wolverines have been named, we know Halo is a hedgehog, but which of our little whelplets is Halo, hmmm, let’s see.”

I bent close, as did Gregor, studying them, bumping noses, then rubbing them as we struggled to decide. Then the middle baby squeaked and squirmed beneath Echo, one foot sticking straight up to make the decision for us.

Hi, Halo.

Hi, Halo, indeed,I replied to Gregor’s voice in my head.

“I think little Halo just named themselves,” Aunty Eunice said. “It’s lovely to meet you, Halo, welcome to our family.”

The little one squeaked again, but with their sibling on top of them I couldn’t tell if that was our son or one of our little daughters. Either way, they’d definitely proclaimed themselves Halo.

That just left two little bands. The lime green one and the lavender one.

“Izzy will wear the lavender band,” I explained, while Halo let out a few more tiny squeaks.

I wondered if they were trying to encourage Izzy to introduce themselves, but neither of the two sleeping hedgehogs on either side of them moved. Something did catch my eye, though, despite the wrinkled brows on each of them, there was a gray spot on one tiny hedgehog face.

“I think I’ve found Izzy,” I declared as I moved the band toward the hedgehog farthest away from me, then glanced up into my mate’s eyes, just to see him nod. “Yup, Izzy it is.”

“Welcome, little Izzy,” Mom cooed. “I love these names.”

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