It feels like a cold wind is blowing blindly through the vent directly above her desk.  The girls are home from school today and Veteran’s Day celebrations and memorials dot the social media landscape. Lyllian wishes she was home with them. Warm on the couch watching the late morning fare of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and Arthur a hot mug of English tea scalding her throat as she sinks into just being.  Her youngest, Vivienne, sprints up and down the hallway from her ‘middle’ pink room and the living room, the cats, brothers, close on her heels, whooping with laughter and squeals. Her oldest, Frankie, wanders by in her faded fluffy pj bottoms in search of cereal. Her IPOD has been confiscated again and her sullenness at being seemingly without contact to the outside world hangs like a black cloud over her sleep tousled head. Seemingly because we do in fact own a telephone; it’s even a wireless one!

 “I know what I’m gonna do tomorrow, and the next day, and the next year, and the year after that.”~ George bailey

Next Chapter: Anya, Volgograd Russia, 1919