Chapter 27
Leo finally understood his brother's obsession with hiking. The trees were beginning to bloom with a rich, lush color and scent he'd always missed living in LA. He tried to resist the thought, but his eyes and nose brought it home to him over and over again. The forest teemed with growth and new life. The most natural thing in the world, no matter that it made him melancholy and lonely.
Rebirth after a time of dark and stillness.
The same quiet and lack of people that had so unnerved him in the village was soothing out in the woods with the mama dog by his side. No, not quiet. Not really. More birds than he'd heard in years chatted and darted around him. Maybe he only noticed them walking without another person to talk to, but their songs were sweet. Small creatures he never
