Aislen’s Arrival at the MegaStore

Havermouth, Present Time

Aislen smiled as she finally managed to lay Gera down in the cot and took a moment to admire the chub of her sleeping daughter’s cheek and the soft blonde hair that Heath had styled into pigtails that morning. In her sleep, Gera’s mouth worked, sucking on an imaginary breast although she was long weaned and onto blood, as if the memory of nursing lingered in her dreams.

Aislen crept across the room, avoiding the floorboards that squeaked but left the door open behind her as was their habit so as to hear when Gera woke no matter where in the house they were. With four parents with hybrid keen hearing, there had never been a need for a baby monitor in order to hear when Gera woke from a nap.

For a moment, Aislen contemplated returning to the art studio upstairs that she had appropriated from Rhett, though she let him use it if he asked nicely on his knees between her thighs. She paused with her hand on the newel post and one foot on the stairs, and then heard a