“Will that change things?” she asked, as they passed a block of little shops with the sidewalks shoveled clear and cheerful displays glowing in every window.
“I hope not,” Erik said.
“What brought you here?” she asked him.
“A couple of people I served with are from this area,” he said. “And when I decided to start the Homecoming Heroes Center, it seemed like a perfect spot—far from the city, but with a tight-knit community.”
“That’s really nice,” she said honestly.
“Well, that was the whole downtown,” he laughedas they passed the shops. “It winds around the corner there, but that’s about all there is to it.”
“What’s that?” she asked, pointing to a collection of larger stone buildings surrounded by fields.
“That’s the community college,” he explained. “They also own acres of woods behind the campus and the fields.”
“Beautiful,” Jenny said again.
“In a few minutes, you’ll get to see the countryside,” he told her.
As they continued, the houses spread out further and further.
“This is Route One,” he told her as he made a left. “And from here on out, it’s all basically farmland.”
Sure enough, they passed nothing but snowy fields and little farmhouses here and there. The night was clear, and the sky was bright with stars.
“It’s like something out of a book,” Jenny murmured.
“It’s hard not to fall in love with this place,” Erik agreed, nodding. “I know I have.”
She smiled and gazed up at him, glad that he seemed happy with his life here.
“We’ll be there soon,” he said. “If you want to wake your son.”
My son…The words never got old.
“Good idea,”she told him.
She turned around and saw that Gael had drifted off at last, his head resting against the window.
“Hey, Gael,” she whispered. “We’re almost there.”
He blinked and sat up.
“Erik was just thinking you might want to wake up a little bit now,” she went on. “So you’ll be ready to go in with our stuff.”
“Okay,” Gael whispered, rubbing his eyes. “That was fast.”
She had to smile at his good attitude. Their journey had been anything but fast, but she was glad it felt that way to her exuberant nine-year-old.
“Can I have a snack when we go in?” he asked.
“Of course,” she told him. “But first we need to get our things inside and check in with Miss Trudy.”
“Okay,” he said happily.
She turned forward in time to see that they were following a narrow road around a dark lake. The moon and stars reflected in the glassy surface, and beyond it was a gorgeous old inn, hung with twinkle lights.
“Wow,” Gael said.
