Page 58 of The Dawn

I went over and glanced at the cover. “That was my favorite when I was younger, the Chronicles of Narnia. Do you think your nephews have heard it? I could read it to them, that would be fun.”

“Ye would read a book tae the nephews?”

“Or you could read it to them, or I can read it to all of you.”

“Aye, twould be verra good. I daena think they have read it.”

I put the books in the suitcase.

He said, “Ye told me ye were goin’ tae read me a book about... dost ye remember?”

“I think it was Twilight, do you want me to bring it?”

“Aye.”

I brought that book and I pulled the Hobbit from the shelf. “This one has a dragon.”

He asked, “Tis a true story?”

I stopped, my eyes went wide. “A true story — are dragons real, Lochie?”

He grinned.

“You’re joking right? I swear, if you told me dragons were real right now I would be like, sure, I guess they are — really?”

“I hae never met one.”

“That doesn’t totally set my mind at ease.”

I scrounged through my address book and found my parents’ phone number. I called using the burner phone.

Mom of course hadn’t noticed I was missing because she lived a few states away and I had only been officially gone for about fifteen hours. When she picked up she was excited to hear from me, but also busy, she asked if she could call me back.

At her voice, I got kind of overwhelmed, tears pooling in my eyes. I remembered walking down the riverbank in a medieval Scottish forest and how I had gone back to the compound because I hadn’t wanted to disappear, I hadn’t wanted to break her heart — I said, “No worries, Mom, I’m going out of town for a week, but I’ll call you when I get back on Wednesday.” My voice caught.

She said, “Are you okay, honey?”

“Yeah,” I took a deep breath. “I’m good, just a late shift at the bar, my voice is cracking.” I hated to lie to her, to not tell her that I was caught up in something big and dangerous, that I was going to get married.

I had been so caught up in getting married in front of Lochie’s family that I forgot about my own. But then again, his family wondered why we were waiting — my family would be horrified that we were marrying so soon.

I said, “Mom, just really wanted to tell you I love you.”

“What made you want to say that? And I love you too.”

“I don’t know, world events, tired, just wanted to tell you, I miss you and Dad.”

She said, “I miss you too, desperately. When you get back on Wednesday, call me, let’s get a date on the calendar for you to visit, pronto.”

“I’ll try to come in the next few weeks, I promise.”

“Perfect, good, very good?—”

“Kiss Dad for me, okay?”

“Of course, honey, talk to you on Wednesday.” Then we hung up. I stared at my phone for a moment, blinking back the tears. It felt weird and evasive to have so much going on and not tellher about it. I usually told her everything, mostly... but in this... no. Not yet. She would never understand. And I didn’t have time to explain.

I looked over at Lochinvar, his nose in the fridge. He said, “Dost ye hae a bag for some groceries?”

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