Late the following evening, a light tap on the door startled Irenya. With Mikey asleep in the bedroom, she had thought it a good time to start keeping notes of his progress. She got up from her small desk and opened the door. It was Elaaron, still fully dressed, his face drawn and the lines around his mouth deeper.
A warning finger to her lips, she waved him to a chair, then pointed to the open bedroom door. ‘I need to check Mikey,’ she whispered. A glance confirmed he was asleep and she quietly closed the door. ‘I am glad you’ve come,’ she admitted, settling herself in another chair. ‘Much to my surprise, Mikey tells me he wants to “get on with it”. Today, I introduced him to the cirayla, and I took him on a walk through the old peach orchard. It’s a novelty for him to pick ripe fruit an
