The Struggle Of Our Lives

Chapter 7, continued

Tomorrow's gonna be a good day too, I bet.

..

We woke up to the sun shining on our faces. I woke up Teddy and Char, and gave him his medicine.

He hated it.

And me, for a few minutes.

We walked around for a bit, looking for a place to make an "outhouse" area. Instead, we found a beautiful creek not too far from our fort.

I crouched down to look at the water. It looked exceptionally clean, and I could see the weathered rocks at the bottom.

We drank a bit of water, before going off into the woods to do our business. I made a mental note to come get some water from the creek some time.

When we came back, we got to work by putting the other four branches into the ground. Now we had the beginning of walls. Time to build our foundation.

I took the trowel and used it to dig out the first layer of dirt from the inside of our house. What was left was a primarily rocky surface with minimal dirt left. I threw our blankets outside the traced outline and re-placed the dirt under where the bed would be for extra support.

I set down the trowel and went to pick up leafs for more padding. The twins helped me with this, and carried large bundles of leafs in their tiny arms.

I left the leafs Charlotte had gathered aside for now. I could use them later for a fire.

We positioned the leafs so there'd be more padding where our heads would go. I thought of the possibility of sewing pillows together with any clothes that we'll outgrow.

We finished packing the dirt and leafs onto the bed area, and we made the bed on top of it. We flopped onto it to feel if what I had done worked to make the bed more comfy, and it did.

The twins stayed down, eating some snacks I had smuggled from the house. I got up and went looking for more sticks and braches I could use to line the sides of the fort.

It took a while, and a few trips to find all of them, but I threw them all down into a pile in front of the makeshift doorway. I continued to dig out holes in the ground, and one by one stick the skinny branches into the ground.

The sticks used to outline the doorway and the corners were thick, while the ones to act as support were thinner. The ones I was then using to line the sides of the structure were smaller than both, acting as panelling.

Eventually, the front was done, and both the sides were done also. Now it was about time I made a way to cook real food.

I Collected the leafs I had set aside from earlier and placed them near the roofless hut I'd made, but not too close as to set it on fire.

I asked for Charlotte to come help me look for firewood, and she complied. She had been watching me intently the entire time I was putting the house together.

We found a bunch of tiny sticks and placed them into the pile of leafs. I went back "inside" to find my lighter. I came back out and Charlotte asked to light the flame. I scooted behind her and held my hands over her own and showed her how to place her thumb over the switch, and roll it back to create the flame.

After a few tries, she got it all on her own. She looked at it with amazement before hovering her hand at the bottom of the pile the pile. Soon, the leafs caught on fire, and it had spread onto the twigs. We sat and warmed our hands for a bit.

Then before I returned home, I filled the bucket about halfway. I stood up and shuffled back to the camp.

I sat the bucket down near the campfire, and went to go find some sticks again. I rummaged through the woods, and found two sticks that were straight and tall with a small broken twigs branching out of them. Then I found a near perfect branch, which could fit into the notches from the first two.

I shoved the two longer sticks into the ground, and took the bucket by it's handle and slid it onto the straight stick.

Now the bucket was acting as a pot, and the water started steaming.

I went back inside to find some packaged noodles, and dumped the contents into the bucket, making sure to keep the spice packets from falling in.

I looked around for something to use as silverware. When I couldn't find anything, I had an idea.

I crouched into the hut and dug through my suitcase to find some of the canned chicken I had stolen from our old home. I dumped out the contents of the three tins into the soup, and went to find something to file down the edges of the tins.

I asked Charlotte if she had any ideas, and she suggested a nail file. It was a good idea, I told her, but I didn't pack one. She gave me a little smile.

"I did."

She rummaged through the hut and handed me a large pink nail file. "Why'd you bring this?"I laughed.

"I wanted to look good for my vacation!" She said.

I quickly turned to file the tins, and fought the tears welling up in my eyes.

They never should have had to go through this.

What If this is all my fault?

I was a mistake after all.

Trinity said it herself.

Huh? Trinity? I thought to myself.

When did I ever stop calling her Mom?

I stopped filling and felt the edge with my finger to make sure it was safe, and continued to the second and third cans.

I really can't wait to eat this chicken soup..