Twenty-Two
Freya took a deep inhale and tried to use that breath to cushion the hollow sensation opening up inside her, the fire’s strong, smoky scent permeating the tent walls and filling her senses. She wanted to stop talking, to keep the rest of her story to herself, but speaking about her past was too rare and validating, the pressure of what she constantly carried easing a little inside.
“That being said, long before I was born, my grandparents had stepped right out of my mother’s life. She’d taken a toll on them too, and they really only managed a few occasional visits, and by occasional, like, every few years. And one of those visits fell around about the time I turned twelve.”
She peered down, twisting the blue blanket laid out beneath her, that twisting somehow representative o
