Alexi leads the way from the garden, scooping up my shoes as we pass and splits away from me to jog over and tell his family we are leaving. I idle by the path at this far edge and pull my shoes on as I wait for him. Watching him with a strange contentment stilling my nerves as various family members hug and kiss him. Looking so at home with them and much more relaxed than when we arrived. My stupid tears have stopped, and I just feel in great need of being naked and joined to him to wipe away my dumb insecurity.
I note his father giving him a goodbye hug that lasts longer than anyone else, but his mother is nowhere to be seen. I shrug it off, wondering if she has returned to her basement to go throw some bat wings in her cauldron. Maybe gone to stuff more decapitated heads for her secret
