"Once upon a time..."
"Oooh, a story tonight!"
"Why, yes. It's been a long day." Over the course of the past month, Helena and I have been on the road quite a bit and not always together. We were lucky to spend her birthday at home together a few weeks ago between flying to California twice, Helena heading over to Iceland and me traveling over to Georgia with Pete. Sometimes Pete is with us, sometimes Claudia and/or Steve, regardless it's always bound to be a good adventure. We work best when we're artifact hunting as a team, complementing each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Helena brushes the hair away from my ear and settles down next to me on the bed. She holds me close to her with the intent of getting me to be as relaxed as possible. It's terribly childish, but I love it when I get a bedtime story from Helena. It gives her a chance to be creative with her mind and express her thoughts and feelings in such an inventive manner.
I keep asking her if she wants to write more, but she's hesitant about starting up again. When she wrote, it was all fountain pens and paper. Now it's keyboards, swipes on a screen or voice recognition software. I have seen her try to sit down at a computer and type out something that wasn't an e-mail. The result was a lot of frustration and complaints about how uncomfortable the seat/screen/desk configuration can be. Even though I told her those aspects can easily be modified, she insisted that pen and paper was the only way to go. When she first came back, she carried with her a little pocket-sized notebook and made notes in there, but those were too small and she went through them way too easily. It made getting her a birthday present a no-brainer this year: five imported A4 paper notebooks with heavy paper, a classy everyday fountain pen and a bunch of erasable blue ink cartridges. She loved her present; now she carries a notebook and her pen everywhere. I catch her furiously writing every day for at least 15 minutes, but I never bother her about it.
I adjust my pillow a bit more so it fully supports my shoulder. "Ready." I announce.
"Once upon a time there was a strong, beautiful maiden who lived in an enchanted forest. Now, this was no ordinary woman, this woman could wield a sword better than any knight in the entire country."
"Is that me?" I ask with a smile.
"Shush, let me continue." Helena says and tickles my side. "The fair maiden was in love with the talented and noble tinkerer, renowned for her gifted and practiced hands."
"Talented, definitely. Renowned, not quite sure anyone else knows."
"This house knows."
I groan and shift my head against the pillow. "Go on."
"The tinkerer and the maiden were madly in love and planned to be married in the spring. One day, a week before they were to be married, a podgy little bear strolled into the village. He said that some mean, vicious beasts invaded their part of the forest and were stealing all of their honey!"
"I feel like that bear is Pete." There's a pinch on my hip. "Sorry." I wrap my arm around her and she continues.
"The lovely maiden immediately ran to her home to collect her sword with which she was rather skilled. The tinkerer hurried back to the workshop to remove her work apron and pick up her grappler." I'm smiling at the thought of her defending bears with the grappler. "The two followed the roly poly bear back into the forest to fight against the beasts who were stealing the honey. Sword in hand, the maiden attacks as many evil beasts as possible, slaying all in her path to retrieve the honey for the bears. Meanwhile, the tinkerer shoots the grappler towards the branches and swings around, kicking away all the bad creatures from the honey.
"The maiden and the tinkerer succeed in eliminating all the beasts and returning the forest to complete safety. As a thank you, the bears give them a couple jars of honey and say they will call again should there be any trouble. And the maiden and the tinkerer, as well as all of those little bears, lived very happily ever after. The end."
"I like that one." I like all the stories that have us as a team, defending the world.