Nova winced. “Hey, Nolan. Play me a beat on your new drum. It’ll help me tell my story.”
Nolan grinned. “Okay.” Like a natural, Nolan came up with a steady rhythmic beat, loud enough to drown the muffled sound of the fight happening two rooms away.
Nova shut her eyes and coaxed her mind to drift into a land of stories only she could explore. It was her joy and privilege to share the wonders she discovered from a world existing in her imagination with anyone who would listen. As wisps and talking animals and magical creatures drifted into the forefront of her mind, the all-out battle happening inside her home faded into the background.
Nova smiled and opened her eyes.
Nolan squirmed where he sat. “Do you have a story yet?”
Nova nodded. “I definitely do. Tonight—” she clasped her hands together, widened her eyes, and exaggerated her facial expressions, knowing that animated storytelling would be the only way she could hold her little brother’s attention “—I’m about to tell you the story of a girl with trees in her eyes and fire in her hair, and just like our night tonight, her story starts with a BANG!”
Nolan jolted in surprise before he returned his focus on his drumbeat and his sister. He giggled.
Nova grinned. She had her captive audience — a stuffed bunny and a four-year-old — and they were enough to pull herself and them into the safety of a good story.
No matter what horrible things were happening all around her, she could always lose herself in a story. To Nova, this moment was proof of that.
They entertained themselves until they exhausted themselves with nothing but a plastic drum, a stuffed bunny, a good meal, a wild imagination, and a generous dose of laughter. They fell asleep on the table cloth, with Nova hoping that the war in their household would soon come to an end and that her father, mother, and brother could be as happy as she, Nolan, and Gable were.
An excerpt from The One Who Wrote Away