Prologue

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They sat quietly on the hill, staring into the sun. Summer was nearing its end and soon, the weather would be too cold for days of lying in the sun. It had been a beautiful summer, though the word beautiful could not begin to underscore the magnitude of the past months. He could have used the word new to describe it but the novelty of the word itself had been lost; it was so often used for events that were actually quite insubstantial.

“Tell me about him”, she gently spoke while staring away at a tree close by.

Startling out of his dream state, “Who?” he stuttered. He hadn’t the slightest clue what she meant.

She chuckled, only to be reciprocated by a blush she didn’t turn to see.

“The little boy”, she replied.

His response at first was a soft “oh”. But then he began to understand. “It’s going to take quite some time, that story.”

She looked off into the sky where the sun was still hovering over the horizon. She knew the summer was coming to an end and there wouldn’t be many more days like this in a while. And besides, she’d always wanted the two of them to go star gazing.

“Well then, we should get started,” she said as she smiled and lay in the tall grass, the blades leaving only an outline of her figure.

A warm wind blew across the field, stirring up a small nest of birds nearby.

After a short pause , he opened his mouth and began, “It started…