…one day
when you discover
just why I ran
ran away, ran away from you lover
I know I’m to blame
I feel so ashamed
call out your name
…after the rain

The next morning, they all gathered in Bette’s kitchen once again.

Alice and Helena watched the children play, intervening from time to time.  “Wilson, I think Angelica wants that doctor’s kit…” Helena tried to mediate for the only young one who could not yet speak.

“Hey mummy, remember when I heard Angelica’s heart?” Wilson screamed. Alice and Shane had given him a chocolate croissant and now he was slightly hyper active.

“Yes darling…no, wait…I don’t…what are you talking about?”

“In Tina’s belly!” Wilson walked over to Tina, staring curiously at her now flat stomach. “Tina, are you going to have another baby?” He asked politely. Tina smiled down at him, and ruffled his hair.

“I don’t think so.” She responded.

Bette, ignoring the obvious reference to a time when Tina and Helena dated, looked sadly at Tina. “Really? No more babies?” She wondered what that meant. She also wondered what it would mean if Tina did have more kids. Whose kids would they be?

“Probably not.” Tina said. “but I suppose there’s that possibility.” She thought about Henry, and about being with a man again, and she visibly shuddered.

Alice snorted, choking on her bagel. “Omigod…” She said, finally calming down. “Tina, you’re back on our side, aren’t you.”

“Your side, my side, there are no sides.” Tina shrugged. “I don’t see gender, I see people.”

Bette and Helena rolled their eyes; Alice and Shane nodded. Jenny whispered,

“Me to.” Then she looked up at the ceiling, waiting for the fallout from her statement. When the sky did not fall, she relaxed and went back to eating her granola.

“Girls, we’re eating all of the camping food before we even get to the camp.” Helena laughed, seeing the spread that Bette continued to add to. “Do you think we have enough?” Bette shrugged, digging into her favorite dried fruit and nut bars. She had already eaten five and Shane quickly helped her to polish off the rest.  Tina and Alice were demolishing a loaf of freshly baked bread, which would have been good for their first lunch or—at the rate they were going—dinner in the cabins.