Urban Legends
To my relief… and somehow disappointment… Emilia slowly drifts away from the “lego table,” talking idly with the other adults. Atlanta is soon drawn away to the videogame console, too, asking a young man who has just settled there, through cruder signs, if she can join in the game. Left alone, I immediately abandon the table and amble round the large, cluttered room, occasionally subtly animating a figurine, miniature or stuffed animal while a child is looking at it or handling it.
But soon, I find myself drifting towards the chatting adults seated on the colourful rug by the bookcase, as my ears, through the cacophony of game and toy noises and children’s voices, catch them talking about Nalla.
They are exchanging tales about their prior experiences camping and/or travelling with Nalla, in fact. And they unhesitatingly expose their fervent wishes to experience it one more time, or at least gift such chance to their young charges.
“You know? Nalla once told me that she gave us fun times in memory of her twins,” one of them murmurs into a lull in the conversation. “One’s dead and the other kidnapped, and they were just newborns.”
My breath hitches. `If only….`