Part Sixteen

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The two adults and two children sat around the kitchen table with a large bowl of steaming soup in front of each of them, they occasionally reached into the centre to retrieve a segment of crusty bread to dip. A multi-coloured, gypsy style tablecloth had been spread over the worn wood and a cluster of candles accumulated by the bread basket.

"Isn't that a fire hazard?" Adah conscientiously pointed out.

"Not if we keep an eye on it," Danny said.

She nodded in agreement and lowered her spoon slightly, looking past Danny's figure, out of the window and into the blackness behind him.

The seasons were changing and changing fast. In the short amount of time they had spent at the cabin on that particular visit, the evenings had already started growing noticeably darker as the days passed them by. Temperatures outside had dropped lower and they woke that morning to a sprinkling of frost on the grass. Adah shivered at the thought of leaving the warmth of the cabin that night, with the heat of the fire in the living room twisting through the entire house and warming her down to her bare toes. But she knew that she'd regret missing out on the familial tradition that had been going strong even before she was born if she decided not to participate.

Together they cleared away their dirty plates and left the pan to soak in the sink while they bundled themselves into thick winter coats and headed out of the back door. Jessica held her torch between her teeth while she tucked Ilse's woollen scarf into her coat as they waited for Danny to lock the door. Adah kept Jack on a short lead and she and Ilse amused him by aiming the light of their own torches at his curly paws, causing him to leap up in astonishment, endeavouring to catch the mystery source that illuminated the ground beneath him.

Danny tucked the keys into his pocket and lifted a large flask of hot chocolate from the windowsill where it had been resting and walked over to the railings, looking out at the woods below. The trees stood stoic and silent, the quietness seemingly reverberating off every leaf, while the girls buzzed with excitement behind him.

"And you guys do this the night before you leave every time you come here?" he asked.

The girls nodded enthusiastically, eager to make a move.

"Even in the rain," Jessica said, gesturing to Adah and Ilse to lead the way.

Jessica and Danny followed behind them as usual, though this time the five of them remained close. Jack trotted obediently at Adah's heel, knowing that he would not be permitted to roam free of his lead from past experience, and so was quite content to stick close to his pack.

The powerful beams from the three torches illuminated the route ahead of them, creating a bubble of light that was almost cosy, despite the bitterness of the cold. Danny wordlessly placed his arm around Jessica, gently cupping her far shoulder in his hand, and they listened to the leaves crunch beneath their hiking boots as they strolled along.

"Where are we going?" he asked after a while.

Jessica paused briefly, before saying with a shrug: "Anywhere."

They continued on in silence for a good half an hour until they reached a small open space, in the centre of which a fallen trunk of a tree had landed. The girls immediately rushed towards the strong structure and sat heavily, taking themselves incredibly seriously and dramatically exclaiming how "utterly exhausted" they were, while Jessica smirked into her gloved fist.

Danny cracked open the flask and passed it round, ensuring that everyone had consumed at least a lid full of the welcoming warmth of its contents, before sitting down on a lonely tree stump opposite to where Jessica took her place between her granddaughters. Jack plopped himself down at her feet and rested his chin on her knee, his eyelids heavy and telling of his advancing age.

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