Fragile | ✓

1.6 | New Start

16 | New Start

→ Let's put the past behind us, eh? 

→ Move into the future without turning back 

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"So, how about we go hiking today?" Daddy asked while rinsing my bowl and rubber spoon in the tap water. It was the last day of thanksgiving break, a day before I would have to start daycare once again. Daddy had suggested that we finish off thanksgiving break with a fun end, thus why we were at a weekend camp with no service, three hours away from our home.

The camp we had arrived at just yesterday was a plain clearing in the middle of a dense forest. There was no civilization for miles on- no cars and no houses- so just the sound of birds chirping in the morning and crickets creaking at night. We had set up our blue two person tent, hammering stakes into the ground so the tent wouldn't blow away in the heavy winds.

Now, we were sitting on logs across from each other, the campfire blazing high in the middle. Looking back, nothing else was visible besides the silhouettes of the trees and the tent lit by lanterns, all confined in a tiny portion of the camp. The chilly wind made me shiver and I tugged my jacket closer, watching daddy pour the water out of the bowl onto the dirt, making it muddy.

"Yes, I'll get my hiking boots!" I exclaimed, running off into the darkness. I picked up the heavy boots from the corner of our tent, bending down to shove it onto my tiny feet. The laces stretched all the way to the ground. I pulled on them trying to make the rabbit loop like daddy had taught me but the other lace was just not cooperating.

"You need help there, bumble bee?" Daddy appeared, pushing open the flap of the tent.

"Yes, please." I replied, still tugging on the second lace. Daddy bent down, doing the knot without stumbling once. "Thank you!"

I skipped out of the tent, back into the cold night air and daddy followed, close behind. The twigs snapped and leaves crunched beneath my hiking boots as daddy and I marched up the moonlight lit path.

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I woke up with a start in the middle of the night, sitting up in the tightly wrapped sleeping bag. Daddy's arm carelessly lays around my waist. I gently lift his hand back onto his sleeping bag and he stirs slightly before rolling the other way, back into his sleeping bag. A rustling sound of leaves outside and a shadow makes me shiver, this time of fright.

"Daddy?" I whisper, tugging on his sleeve but my eyes not leaving the tent's wall.

"Hm?" He asks sleepily, sitting up in his sleeping bag.

"There's someone outside." Another loud sound comes from outside and I jump onto daddy's lap.

"It's just the wind, princess," he says but I wasn't convinced. I wrap my hands around him and bury my face into his chest. The stubble on his chin tickles the top of my head as he chuckles deeply. I whimper each time I hear another rustle"It'll be over soon." Before we know it, we fall asleep in the same position: me in daddy's arms and daddy's arms around me.

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Stepping out of the two stepped platform of Caden's car towards the church for my mother's funeral was just about the hardest thing I had done.