AN: MERCI énormément pour toutes vos reviews et vos alertes ! (and to the English readers, it would be good to hear from you as well. :D)

Les hommes ont oublié cette vérité, dit le renard. Mais tu ne dois pas l'oublier. Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé.

~ Le Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Wilding a Tame Heart

"Do not under any circumstances let the cat in!"

How tame we have become in our old(er) age, how very domesticated - a house, two cars and a cat to our names. He sits with his book by the fireplace, legs crossed, brow furrowed, looking very professorial with his glasses, greying hair and weathered skin. I am editing my review of Stephen Schwartz's opera "Séance on a Wet Afternoon". I consider asking him for an opinion but am loath to disturb the tranquil scene.

Ours is a placid existence, a bottomless river without ripples.

"She's killing a bird and I do not want it squawking and bleeding all over the carpet."

Or not.

I smile to myself thinking this was how it was always meant to be, our happily ever after. Still waters run deep but time heals everything. I struggle to remember clearly those turbulent years when we were but two wild things fighting to get out.

I stand quietly so as not to disturb him - he is so very close to falling asleep, his mid-morning nap – and move silently across the room to the sliding doors. She looks at me, savage and proud, a huntress returning triumphant to her tribe. I open the door and frown at her.

"Put the bird down!" I order, prying it gently from her jaws before letting her back into the warm house. I place the poor dead thing on the railing with the intention of burying it later this afternoon. Ivo wouldn't want it in the rubbish. It doesn't belong there. "It was only a baby bird," I scold her as she walks away. "Not a real kill."

She pauses to turn and glower at me - two cool pale blue moons that remind me of someone else - before striding off to plant herself on Ivo's lap for her mid-morning nap.

I look at them curled up comfortably together – two peas in a pod – and smile to myself.