Planteria

Chapter 10

The day after Wendell returned, my family and friends got together to spread mother's ashes. We decided to scatter them in the ruins on the other side of the grove. That's where she would always go on walks, and she said she loved exploring there as a kid. I accidentally tuned out just about all the speeches everyone gave about her, including fathers. I was too busy looking around, trying to picture mother climbing over the broken bark, piles of abandoned wood, and enormous scattered tree branches. I've been here before, just never with my mother. When we scattered her ashes, some settled on the ground a bit, but most blew away on the wind. I watched them, wondering where they were going to end up. Then, I felt a nudge and looked over to see Wendell next to me.

"I know I just asked you yesterday, but I'll probably be asking you a couple more times besides now too," he said. "How are you holding up?"

Of course, my first instinct was to say I was fine, but it's Wendell. I didn't want to give him a random answer he knew was a lie.

"I've been better," I said. "But I'll be fine."

"You know, for a minute there I was scared you were going to say you were fine," Wendell told me.

I smiled a bit, "I almost did, but then I thought better of it. What about you?"

Wendell shrugged. "Not fine, but not horrible. Somewhere in between."

Alexa climbed down from the scattered tree branches and walked over to us. "What are you guys talking about?"

"How we're not fine," I told her.

"What?"

"It's okay," I said, "being not fine is okay."

"Really?" my sister sounded so confused.

"Of course! It's a normal reaction," Wendell told her.

"That makes sense in a weird way," Alexa said. "You guys want to explore the ruins with me?"

Wendell and I looked at each other. We've explored the ruins a thousand times already, but what's it going to hurt to make it a thousand and one?

"Of course," I said.

"You lead the way," Wendell told Alexa.