From the Ashes

[25] By Thunder

We eventually join the adults outside on the lower cabin, visiting with them for a while over bowls of various snacks. Roman and Sage seem to be a magnet to the little cousins, especially the girls, which I find increasingly adorable. One particularly affectionate one, a 4-year-old blonde cousin of Roman's, has taken a liking to me. Janie is her name, and she likes to climb up on my lap whenever I'm sitting. She has a wide-eyed fascination with my hair, and plays with it constantly. I have zero babysitting experience, and am a little stiff and awkward with her 4-year-old lack of personal space. I have never been a huge fan of small children, but the brood here is generally very sweet. Especially Janie.

We sit in conversation with an aunt and an uncle of Roman's, his mother, and Sage's parents for a while. Other groups of adults of the family trickled off to go down to the lakes, or hike with some of the children, stuff like that. After a bit, we all pitch in to help grill hot dogs and hamburgers for lunch, accompanied by more laughing and visiting.

"Allie! Play birdie with me!" I raise my eyebrows and smile as I lift my empty paper plate that I carry on my way to a trash bag at the end of a picnic table in the front lawn, peering down at the blue-eyed Janie.

"What's that, hun?" I say in a sweet voice as she tugs at my shorts.

"Biiiiiirdiiiiiie!" she crows excitedly, waving a badminton racket up at me, pointing toward a net set up beside the big shed.

"Have another racket?" I ask as I let her lead me by the finger to the net. She scrambles to grab me one, and we stand on opposite sides of the netting. As 4-year-olds tend to do, she fumbles with serving the shuttlecock, and soon just tosses it over the net that's been lowered to accommodate all these small children. She has such a hard time hitting it, that we end up ditching the rackets to just toss the birdie back and forth.

"Are you kicking her butt, Janie?" Roman's voice floats in a laugh from behind me. The little girl screeches as she tosses the birdie my way, and I make a show of diving for it and missing.

"She's an all-star, wearing me out!" I call from where I lay collapsed in the sun-heated grass, and Janie ducks under the net to pounce on me. She squawks and giggles as I tickle her, and out of nowhere, we're both assaulted by Roman. Ganging up on me, Roman holds me securely on his lap while Janie's tiny fingers tickle my sides. I'm practically in tears as I beg for mercy. Sage leaps in to my defense, scooping up Janie in a trail of little-girl laughter as he twirls her around in the air. I overtake Roman by using his own fatal weakness of tickling.

The whole day is spent just at the cabin property, kicking balls around, visiting with everyone when we get tuckered out, and romping over the large boulders on the hill in the back yard. By the time dinner comes, the parties from hiking and the like are back to join everyone. We dine in the lower cabin, where the kitchen and large-family dining room are, and eat delicious steaks grilled by the Spade brothers and Sage's dad.

After dinner, Roman and Sage and I sit on the stairs of the lower cabin porch, watching the little kids play a variation of volleyball with a blown-up balloon and the badminton net. The setting sun is covered by rumbling clouds that roll in overhead.

"Your little cousins are so cute, Roman," I say as I nudge him.

"You should see them when they act like terrors. They're in the sweet phase now," he smirks, jabbing me back with his elbow.

"Now, which ones are yours and which ones are Sage's?" I ask, still not being able to keep track.

"Well, all three of my siblings have brown hair," Sage says with a chuckle, and I recognize the small brown-haired girl that clung to Roman's leg earlier.