This is the 51st installment of a 100-day challenge to write a new vignette every morning.
2020 is stressful. Here, have something gentle:
Twin 4-month-olds slept in the shade of the palm tree while the mother tanned in the sun. She relished this rare moment of quiet. Was this the first time she could hear herself think in four months?
She stirred her lemonade and listened to a dove somewhere overhead. The palm fronds rustled as a breeze rippled through them. It stirred her neighbor’s wind chimes, too, and carried the gentle clinking over the fence and all the way to her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
This is what it had all been for. All the desperately cold nights. All the missteps and heartbreak. All the wandering and searching. It had all led up to this moment—sitting quietly beneath a tree with the two people she loved most in the world.
Miles Away 