Mountain Moonlight

chapter 16



A year later, in Arizona, Vala and Bram were curled up together on the couch in the living room one evening, watching Zorro attack his mother's tail and making bets as to how soon Sheba would give him a smack.

"She's got more patience than I have," Vala said.

Bram didn't answer and she saw that he had his head cocked to one side, as if listening.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Do you hear the baby?" Their daughter had been born prematurely and, though she was thriving now, Vala couldn't help worrying about her.

"Nope. Sounds to me like Davis is talking to someone." Listening, Vala heard a low sing-song. "It's more like he's telling a story. But who to?"

They looked at one another and nodded, rose and headed for the nursery, making no noise with their bare feet. Three-month-old Letty Hunter lay in her bassinet, her dark eyes fixed on Davis who was standing beside it, telling his baby sister a story.

"And so Quo-Qui, the littlest boy of the Ndee, the one they'd always laughed at, saved his people by his cleverness," he finished. Reaching into the bassinet, he touched Letty's hand and she curled hers around his forefinger.

"I like you, too," Davis said softly. "It doesn't matter that you got born too soon and so you're really, really tiny. That's why I told you about Quo-Qui, so you'd hear something good about being small. I'm your big brother and I'll always take care of you."

Letty made a tiny sound, more a squeak than anything else.

"Pretty soon you'll get bigger and then I'll take you for rides in your stroller," he went on. "Maybe I can show you a roadrunner, then, 'cause that's what Quo-Qui changed into. But even if you never do get real big, you don't need to worry about being small. Like the story says, the littlest will triumph in the end. Just ask me. I know."

Bram and Vala glanced at one another and she saw the tears in her eyes were reflected in his. They tiptoed away and embraced in the hall, holding tightly to each other.

Love might not cure all ills, but it lit up every moment of their lives as brightly as the Arizona sun.


The End