The Outskirts

Part 1: Faith

The bed I lay on felt like I had never laid anywhere else. Who laid next to me was the only person who could open my eyes to a God above. Her brunette hair was a perfect, beautiful mess. Looking at the world outside, I cannot help but see it the same way. Though I'm now fully aware this world will never be perfected. I also know, however, that the same can't be said for those of us who follow Him. The ones who cleansed our world. Our room was dark, but the light could easily be let in. The only thing blockading it is that which keeps us blind.

I decided not to wake Hope, as we both we were suffering from major sleep deprivation. Instead, I quietly left through the trial of a creaking, rusting old door. My fathers' house needed several repairs. Living within in it made me sulk my mind into the past far too often. Thinking about the old world hurt all of us in more ways than one.

From our bedroom, I made my way to the purely hand-crafted, stone walled garage my people rebuilt. A decade was enough time for all of us to make an amazing amount of process. Even with all the changes that our world had went through, I still held onto parts of myself, from before. The parts that made me myself. One of those things, I felt, was my love of wood work. This old skill was always a great way to give anniversary gifts. In recent years, however, I've been feeling as though a gift involving carpeting would be too predictable. Even after ten years however, the beauty in these objects' simplicity never seemed to fade.

Today, I decided to craft an oak wood necklace. I carved it into the shape of a heart. On it, I had engrained the words, "Faith, Hope, and Love." I felt as though the simplicity in it meant it could be handed down to the next generation, and all the generations to come. I let it rest within a small, black box that stayed stagnant in my pocket for a long while.

Once this was all done, our children began to rise, as did the sun. Our dog, Gracie, began to howl at the door, wanting to be free to explore the outside world. The quiet, peaceful morning, disappeared into the past. In full acceptance of this, I walked to our windows, and opened our blinds.

Hope groaned, and pulled the covers over her head

"Rise and shine, Hope!" I exclaimed, pulling the covers off her face.

"No! Never, I'm going to sleep forever." She muttered, in an almost zombie like, mono tone.

"Hope." I chuckled. "You have to wake up eventually."

"You want to bet on that?" She declared, with a surprising amount of determination to prove me wrong.

"Nah." I said, beginning to lean towards her. "But I'd like to bet on some other things."

I embraced her for a short time, before I heard Grant call to me, with the same request as usual. "Dad! We're hungry."

I was slightly frustrated, but fully aware of how unreasonable that being the case was. "Hey bud. Can you uh... Wait for your sisters?"

He sighed. "They're hungry too."

"Okay, buddy. Hope?"

"Have you ever made pancakes before?"

I considered this question for a moment. "Not a good one." I concluded.

"I've got faith in you." Hope confidently insisted, just as she seemed to faint back to sleep.

I walked to the kitchen, with Grant. He pulled on my hand, making this situation unescapable. He had a surprisingly strong grip for his age. When we arrived at the kitchen, he watched everything I did, carefully.

"What are you doing, kid?" I wondered, aloud.

"Supervising."

I smirked. "Supervising, huh? Making sure your employee isn't sleeping on the job?"