The supplies were the first thing I thought about when the ground outside began to dry.<\/p>\n
I had tried not to worry.<\/p>\n
That had never been one of my strengths.<\/p>\n
I knew exactly what was waiting below us.<\/p>\n
Sacks of flour.<\/p>\n
Jars of preserved vegetables.<\/p>\n
Candles.<\/p>\n
Blankets.<\/p>\n
Tools.<\/p>\n
Firewood.<\/p>\n
Dmitri had gathered enough to help us survive for weeks.<\/p>\n
I had seen the shelves with my own eyes.<\/p>\n
Then I had heard water rushing into the cellar.<\/p>\n
I kept imagining the sacks standing in muddy water.<\/p>\n
The flour ruined.<\/p>\n
The firewood soaked.<\/p>\n
The blankets floating against the walls.<\/p>\n
I did not know whether any of that had happened.<\/p>\n
That was what made it difficult.<\/p>\n
The uncertainty.<\/p>\n
I looked toward the passage door.<\/p>\n
It was closed.<\/p>\n
Beyond it, the narrow route descended toward the underground shelter.<\/p>\n
I had not opened it since we escaped.<\/p>\n
The storm had passed, but that did not mean the passage was safe.<\/p>\n
I knew the difference now.<\/p>\n
I had learned it beneath the cedar.<\/p>\n
The rain could stop while the ground remained dangerous.<\/p>\n
Water could continue moving long after the sky cleared.<\/p>\n
I stood near the door and listened.<\/p>\n
The house was quiet.<\/p>\n
I could hear the children behind me.<\/p>\n
The baby made a small sound.<\/p>\n
Anna was speaking softly to Luke.<\/p>\n
Peter was moving something near the blankets.<\/p>\n
Julia came toward me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you thinking about the cellar?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you want to go down?\u201d<\/p>\n
I hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to know what happened to the supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan I come?\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the answer I expected from her.<\/p>\n
She had been beside me at the hidden hatch.<\/p>\n
She had helped lift it.<\/p>\n
She had carried the lantern through the flooding passage.<\/p>\n
She had helped with the younger children.<\/p>\n
And now she was ready to follow me back down.<\/p>\n
I looked at her face.<\/p>\n
She seemed so much older than she had before Dmitri died.<\/p>\n
I hated that.<\/p>\n
I wanted to give her a day when she did not have to be brave.<\/p>\n
I shook my head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked disappointed.<\/p>\n
I understood why.<\/p>\n
Doing something felt better than waiting.<\/p>\n
I felt the same.<\/p>\n
But fear was not always a reason to act.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it was a reason to examine what we knew.<\/p>\n
I opened Dmitri's notebook.<\/p>\n
The map showed the cedar.<\/p>\n
The marked circle.<\/p>\n
The location where we had found the hatch.<\/p>\n
The drawings explained parts of the house.<\/p>\n
But I could not find anything that told me what condition the cellar might be in after a flood.<\/p>\n
Dmitri had prepared the place.<\/p>\n
That did not make it invulnerable.<\/p>\n
I ran my finger over the map.<\/p>\n
The spring lay uphill from the cedar.<\/p>\n
The creek ran beside the hollow trunk.<\/p>\n
The ground sloped downward toward the lower grove.<\/p>\n
I thought about the storm.<\/p>\n
How fast the water had risen.<\/p>\n
How quickly it entered the cedar.<\/p>\n
How it had begun trickling down the cellar steps.<\/p>\n
I remembered waiting.<\/p>\n
Hoping it would stop.<\/p>\n
I had watched the water spread across the floor before accepting that we needed to leave.<\/p>\n
I felt ashamed of that delay.<\/p>\n
I knew I had been frightened.<\/p>\n
I knew the weather had changed quickly.<\/p>\n
But looking back, I could see how badly I had wanted to believe the cellar would remain safe.<\/p>\n
I had nearly allowed that wish to make the decision for me.<\/p>\n
I would not do it again.<\/p>\n
I closed the notebook.<\/p>\n
Julia was still waiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe'll look when we can do it safely.\u201d<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
I could tell she wanted a clearer answer.<\/p>\n
So did I.<\/p>\n
But there wasn't one.<\/p>\n
I turned toward the unfinished house.<\/p>\n
We still had work to do here.<\/p>\n
Not construction work I could not yet manage.<\/p>\n
Simple things.<\/p>\n
Keeping the children away from open places.<\/p>\n
Arranging our blankets.<\/p>\n
Protecting the notebook and deed.<\/p>\n
Making sure what little we had carried remained dry.<\/p>\n
I began with those tasks.<\/p>\n
Peter helped.<\/p>\n
He moved carefully, keeping his wooden boat tucked away.<\/p>\n
I noticed he was becoming particular about where he placed it.<\/p>\n
It had become more than a toy.<\/p>\n
It was a piece of his father he could hold.<\/p>\n
I understood.<\/p>\n
I felt the same way about the notebook.<\/p>\n
Anna placed her music box in the safest spot we had chosen.<\/p>\n
She checked it twice.<\/p>\n
Luke kept his horse close.<\/p>\n
He had begun treating the little carved animal as though it belonged wherever he went.<\/p>\n
I did not tell him to put it down.<\/p>\n
The baby slept.<\/p>\n
Julia helped arrange the blankets.<\/p>\n
I watched her work.<\/p>\n
Then I stopped her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked surprised.<\/p>\n
\u201cI'm not tired.\u201d<\/p>\n
I almost believed her.<\/p>\n
Then I remembered the way she had leaned against me after reading Dmitri's letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can rest even when you aren't tired.\u201d<\/p>\n
She smiled faintly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sounds like something Father would say.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought about Dmitri.<\/p>\n
He rarely followed that advice himself.<\/p>\n
He worked until his hands were sore.<\/p>\n
Then he worked again.<\/p>\n
I wondered whether the unfinished house was evidence of love or of a man who had pushed himself too far.<\/p>\n
Perhaps both.<\/p>\n
I did not say that to Julia.<\/p>\n
Some thoughts were too heavy to put into a child's hands.<\/p>\n
I sat beside the baby.<\/p>\n
The small knitted blanket covered the little body.<\/p>\n
I touched its edge.<\/p>\n
Dmitri had chosen that gift.<\/p>\n
He had been thinking of warmth.<\/p>\n
Comfort.<\/p>\n
The needs of someone too young to understand what was happening.<\/p>\n
I looked around at the unfinished room.<\/p>\n
The roof above us had held through the storm.<\/p>\n
The floor was dry where we had settled.<\/p>\n
We were above the rushing water.<\/p>\n
Those things mattered.<\/p>\n
I kept returning to them whenever worry about the cellar took over.<\/p>\n
Later, I went to the nearest window opening.<\/p>\n
The creek was still visible below.<\/p>\n
It had lost some of its violence.<\/p>\n
But the water remained muddy.<\/p>\n
Branches lay scattered near the cedar.<\/p>\n
The fallen limb was enormous.<\/p>\n
From the house, I could see how close it had landed to the hollow opening.<\/p>\n
I felt cold.<\/p>\n
If Luke had stayed there a little longer, everything might have been different.<\/p>\n
I gripped the timber beside the opening.<\/p>\n
I had been thinking about sacks of flour.<\/p>\n
And there was the broken branch that reminded me how close I had come to losing my son.<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
I could hear his voice again.<\/p>\n
\u201cMother! There's water!\u201d<\/p>\n
I had run toward him.<\/p>\n
I had taken his hand.<\/p>\n
I had brought him back.<\/p>\n
I wanted to remember that part.<\/p>\n
Not only the danger.<\/p>\n
The fact that I had reached him.<\/p>\n
I opened my eyes.<\/p>\n
Luke was sitting beside Anna.<\/p>\n
He was moving his wooden horse along the floor.<\/p>\n
He was alive.<\/p>\n
That was enough to bring tears to my eyes.<\/p>\n
I returned to the children.<\/p>\n
Peter looked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan we get the food from downstairs?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
He frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill it be ruined?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked toward the passage door.<\/p>\n
I could see that he was worried.<\/p>\n
I sat beside him.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He waited.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can lose supplies and still keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at his boat.<\/p>\n
I continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I can't replace any of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
His expression changed.<\/p>\n
He looked down.<\/p>\n
Then he nodded.<\/p>\n
I did not know whether he fully understood.<\/p>\n
Perhaps I was speaking to myself as much as to him.<\/p>\n
I needed to hear it aloud.<\/p>\n
Food mattered.<\/p>\n
Shelter mattered.<\/p>\n
The tools Dmitri had left mattered.<\/p>\n
But the children mattered more than every object in that cellar.<\/p>\n
I had almost forgotten that while worrying about the flood.<\/p>\n
That admission hurt.<\/p>\n
I had been so afraid of losing our last useful possessions that I had nearly convinced myself to risk going back too soon.<\/p>\n
I looked at Julia.<\/p>\n
She was listening.<\/p>\n
I could see her thinking about the same decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe'll check it,\u201d I told them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it's safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody argued.<\/p>\n
I was grateful.<\/p>\n
I was also aware that their trust placed another burden on me.<\/p>\n
I could not simply say things and hope they worked out.<\/p>\n
I had to make careful choices.<\/p>\n
I turned back to the notebook.<\/p>\n
Dmitri's plans were still there.<\/p>\n
The measurements.<\/p>\n
The drawings.<\/p>\n
The map.<\/p>\n
The iron key.<\/p>\n
He had left a way from the cellar to higher ground.<\/p>\n
That passage had saved us.<\/p>\n
Whatever else happened, I could not forget it.<\/p>\n
The cellar had been part of his protection.<\/p>\n
Even when water entered, the second door had given us somewhere to go.<\/p>\n
I wondered whether he had planned it for that reason.<\/p>\n
I could not know.<\/p>\n
But I was grateful he had made it possible.<\/p>\n
I thought about the old farmhouse.<\/p>\n
It had felt permanent because we had lived there so long.<\/p>\n
The bank had proved otherwise.<\/p>\n
The cedar had felt safe because its trunk was enormous.<\/p>\n
The storm had proved otherwise.<\/p>\n
The cellar had felt secure because it was built from stone and timber.<\/p>\n
The flood had proved otherwise.<\/p>\n
Now the unfinished house stood around us.<\/p>\n
I wanted to trust it.<\/p>\n
I needed to trust it enough to rest.<\/p>\n
But I also needed to see it clearly.<\/p>\n
I had begun to understand that safety was not something I could assume.<\/p>\n
It was something I had to keep checking.<\/p>\n
The children were quiet for a while.<\/p>\n
Anna opened the music box.<\/p>\n
The lullaby played softly.<\/p>\n
I sat and listened.<\/p>\n
Dmitri had chosen that tune because it comforted her.<\/p>\n
I wondered whether he had realized it would comfort me too.<\/p>\n
When it ended, Anna closed the lid.<\/p>\n
Luke leaned against her.<\/p>\n
Peter settled beside the blankets.<\/p>\n
Julia sat near me.<\/p>\n
The baby slept.<\/p>\n
I looked at them.<\/p>\n
Five children.<\/p>\n
Five reasons to be careful.<\/p>\n
Five reasons not to give up.<\/p>\n
The cellar could wait.<\/p>\n
The provisions might be damaged.<\/p>\n
We would deal with that when we knew.<\/p>\n
But I would not let fear of losing flour or firewood lead my children back into danger.<\/p>\n
I reached for the deed.<\/p>\n
I read my name again.<\/p>\n
Maria.<\/p>\n
The land remained ours.<\/p>\n
The house remained standing.<\/p>\n
Dmitri's notebook remained beside me.<\/p>\n
And the children were safe.<\/p>\n
For that day, I chose to protect what could not be replaced.<\/p>\n
Source: news1.shoptonytv.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The supplies were the first thing I thought about when the ground outside began to dry. I had tried not to worry. That had never been one of my strengths. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama-sory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10896,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10876\/revisions\/10896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nClick here to continue reading: PART 12: As I Looked Again at the Deed and the Unfinished Walls, I Understood What Dmitri Had Given Us and What He Could Never Repair<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"