The Rabbit's Den

Epilogue

Bastean laid on the green grass looking up into the bright blue sky, he was watching for the fluffy white clouds that lazily floated by. "Tell me again Grandma." He urged. She laughed settling down in the wooden rocking chair that her late husband had made. "You've heard it a hundred times Bastean." She said to him. The little boy, with his wild black hair and kind brown eyes sat up and put his hands together. "Please grandma!"

"Bastean, quit pestering your grandmother and help your Papaw set the table." Bastean's mother said as she walked toward the chair her mother sat in. Bastean ran inside calling out back to his grandma, "I'll be right back grandma! So you can tell me the story again." His grandmother and mother laughed as he disappeared into the house.

Her daughter looked more like her husband; her thick brown hair hung beautifully around her face. "He sure loves your stories more than mine." She said to her mother. "A lot happened even before you were born, it's like your Papaw says..." She said with a smile. Both chimed together the phrase they had been taught "Repeat it often, repeat it well and it will never happen again!" Little Bastean was tearing out of the house as fast as his legs could carry him. The unusually tall blonde man followed him out. They both came to settle by the two women.

"Papaw I have a question." Bastean said to the man once he sat. "What is it Bastean?" "If you're grandma's dad, well why does she look older than you?" He smiled as he looked over at her. She still sat straight in her chair, but time had started to touch her face. Her once dark black hair now had streaks of silver. She smiled back at him. "For the same reason she's tiny and I'm big, Bastean. She got some traits from her mother and some from me. But she got enough from me that she has lived to be over a hundred and twenty years!" Bastean looked at her in awl only a child could make. "But why didn't grandpa live that long?" He asked. His grandmother leaned forward, "Remember I told you? Before the ship who lived on this planet?" She asked him. Bastean thought hard for a moment, "Humans!" His grandmother smiled, "That's right baby, Grandpa Kaleb was a human. I got to spend many wonderful years with him. And your mother and her brother had lots and lots of years with him. But just like the humans that lived here before us, his time ran out."

Bastean looked between the three of them for a moment and asked, "Do you still love him? Even though he's gone?" Trixie smiled and said, "With everything I am."