Page 39 of Jace

He was a smart baby. He really was.

She got him into a fresh diaper quickly, thinking to herself that they both needed a nice bath as soon as he was fed.

Soft light filled the living space on the way to the kitchen. The space was small, but in the warm glow of morning, it was even more pleasant than last night.

She reached out a hand as she passed the bookshelves flanking the wood stove, lightly caressing the spines of the books.

Assuming they had time to read in addition to farming, she was certain she would soon be intimate with the whole collection. Later today she would investigate to see if there were any books or authors she recognized.

But for now, her son was hungry.

She grabbed a cell of milk from the ice box and used the food replicator to warm it, since Jace wasn’t here to do it with his magic breath. She tried not to think about how warm that breath had been on her skin last night.

Once Zeke was settled in her arms with his breakfast, she decided to step outside and have a look around.

Instinctively, she knew Jace wouldn’t like them to leave the cabin without him.

“But it’s just the porch,” she murmured to Zeke.

And even though everything seemed peaceful, she felt a strong need to look around a little and reassure herself that a giant tree hadn’t fallen on their equipment, or a swarm of locusts arrived, or some other stroke of bad luck indicating that the curse had struck again after all.

She released the sensor and opened the front door. A fresh breeze entered the house immediately, bringing with it the refreshing scents of the forest and damp ground.

Zeke let go of the cell long enough to make a happy squeaking sound.

“Yes, it’s lovely, isn’t it?” she asked him, stepping onto the porch.

The only thing different from last night was a white bowl full of red berries on the table between the rocking chairs.

“I knew your daddy wouldn’t sleep longer than me,” she said, smiling. “I can’t believe he went out and gathered these without waking me.”

Zeke chuckled around his cell.

She grabbed the bowl of berries and brought them into the kitchen, placing them on the table.

They weren’t much, but the bright color probably meant they were delicious and rich with vitamins - a great addition to the terrible, processed food goo they had been eating.

“We’ll clean them and make something after we have our bath,” she told the baby.

She rocked him a little as he emptied his cell, then she took it and disposed of it.

“Let’s burp,” she told him, lifting him to her shoulder.

She tried to imitate the gentle circling tapping motion that Jace used but nothing happened, and she had to resort to using her whole hand.

After a moment, Zeke let loose a massive burp.

“Good one,” she told him. “Come on, let’s take a bath.”

She filled the tub in the hallway with a few inches of warm water and then stripped herself and the baby.

“I don’t really know how to do this,” she explained to Zeke. “So, we’ll learn as we go.”

He studied her with a serious expression, as if he were also uncertain how to proceed but ready to learn.

She lowered herself into the tub, baby and all, and then sat him in the water between her legs.

He chirped happily and began to splash with his little hands.

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