Rivers and Roads

Mom goes up north with her best friend Nikki every spring and fall.  Usually, I have to stay at home with my dad and my little brother, but this time, mom says that since I’m almost twelve and not too much of a pain in the butt, I can come along.

Most days, mom’s tired and sort of grumpy.  She’s always telling me to clean my room or do my homework.  But today she is laughing and even her eyes are happy.  The further away from home we get, the more I like her.

When we get to Nikki’s dad’s place, it’s dark and starting to snow a bit.  Gord gives them both a big hug and kiss and we all pile into the little cottage where they start drinking wine and talking, talking, talking.  I have a Coke and sit quiet, hoping they’ll forget about me so I don’t get sent off to bed.

The next day we go hiking through the bush.  We push through tree branches that try and snag us, cross marshes, climb hills and stumble over tree roots.  Gord teaches me how to tell the difference between a balsam and a spruce, and I listen - even though I doubt I’ll ever need to know that.

Mom takes pictures of everything: the trees, the river, the birds, the squirrels.  She even takes a picture of the wolf poop Gord finds (he can tell it’s from a wolf by all the fur in it).

When the sun starts to set, we’re resting on the river bank.  There isn’t any sound except for the rushing water and every now and then, a bird.  I feel different here, and I sort of get why mom started to change on the way up.

It’s a good place, that’s all. 

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Welcome to this week's edition of Mostly Fiction Monday. What's that, you ask? It's a little something Stranger and I cooked up, you can find the story here, however you've probably realized that I've gotten a little lax about the word count requirement.  Whoops.

Today's post was inspired by the prompt Childhood. I'm late with it because I was (hopefully) helping to enrich someone's childhood.  Now, that someone may not have had the thoughts I am attributing to him here (and that's where the fiction part kicks in), but I hope I'm at least close...

Don't forget to swing by Stranger Upstairs to read another take on the prompt, and come back next Monday, when we'll be writing something inspired by Growing Up.   

Maybe you'd like to play too?  We'd love it if you joined in.  Make sure you leave a link in the comments so we can come see, if you do.