#rivervale_lodge

***************

It's a chilly day, but it is spring, and the garden preparations must continue.

Brekke has invited Jack to help her turn the soil in the garden beds.

Jack is there, and while he's got a jacket on and long pants, he is ready to go

He is handed gloves and a hoe, and given an eyebrow if he makes off-color jokes. She shows him how to do the work, then lets him begin.

The boy is not so much off with the joking even about hoes, at least not now. He's excited! "Like you said, good soil makes good growth"

"This is true." She nods and works nearby at the same task. "Did you sleep well?"

"Better than I thought I would" He says "I thought I'd have.. uhn.. I thought I wouldn't but I did." A breath "is Frank okay do you know?"

"Yes, he is well, as are Dagmar and Vali. They stopped for the night when they got weary. Frank tells me that they helped people who were in a car accident."

"Whoa. He's like.. a hero" And a nod as if something is confirmed

"I agree with you."

"You expected to have nightmares last night?"

"Yes" He says after a pause.

"What nightmares did you expect?"

"The usual ones" He shrugs "I get them lots"

Connor is mostly quiet, and pokes at the dirt... listening.

"Please tell me." She continues working steadily, and asks as if it is of no great consequence.

A bite of his lip, then Jack Flap continues "Sometimes I dream about the black of the bag, and the way when you press against it, you can't break through, and it feels like there's no air."

"But mostly, it's watching my music, listening to it... seeing the joy everyone seems to get...and then.. their heads crack open... because they weren't looking.. they're grabbed, they're pulled and then they're done.. in my dreams they break like eggs, like eggs with blood inside..and it was my music that made it happen"

Brekke is quiet for some time, steadily turning the earth up to the sunshine.

"Those are very bad nightmares," she agrees.

"yes. I wish they'd stop forever. I got it already" Grumble , then a breath "I'm not brave enough to face em, but I can't get away anyway so... I try not to scream and ake folks up, but in my sleep I can't always stop. I'm sorry if I kept folks up."

She shakes her head. "No need to apologize. Nightmares are powerful foes." A pause. "Jack, do you know what the word 'exploitation' means?"

"It that the super team with the guy with the claws and the lady with the weeather powers?"

A chuckle. "No. Exploitation is when a person with power uses a person without power, specifically because the person without power cannot fight back and refuse to be used."

"Well, that sucks, and it isn't fair" A firm nod , his childling sense of justice poked

"No, it is not fair," she confirms.

After a pause. "It also changes who is to blame. If two people are of equal power, and one person tells the other to do a bad thing, then the person who does it is to blame, because it was a choice. But if one person is more powerful and forces the other who has no power to do a bad thing, then the one who does it is not to blame, because it was not a choice."

"I .." A pause "This is about me isn't it? "

"It is about your nightmares."

"My nightmares are xploting me?"

"Your nightmares are about you being exploited. Forced to do a thing without having a choice. You have guilt for the results. Jack...the guilt belongs to the the exploiters, not you."

"I don't think they'll be taking it back, Chief" He says with a somber face, then puts a hand (Possibly a dirty hand) on her wrist "But thank you. You and He-Chief make me feel better when you talk things through to me. It helps"

"I am glad. I do not want it to be hurtful. And I do want you to know...I understand bearing the burden of actions that have consequences, but while you might blame yourself, nobody here blames you."

"Hurt happens" He says "sometimes folks say things and it hurts and they don't mean ti to, but it does. and it would hurt if they didn't I guess. I.. I'll try to think on what you said that it's not my fault."

"Do that." She nods, and pats the hand he has rested on her wrist. "Now...do not forget that spot there." She nods at a corner of the plot near his hooves.

"Oh!" And he's redirected "Sorry, Ground. I got you" he apologizes and tends, he seems to be genuinely to like , well, the earth? nature? Nature is new to him, but it has not hurt him, it has not betrayed him or used him.

He talks to seeds and soil, not willowhispering, but rather having a running conversation.

"Hey, seeds, you're gonna get warm soon, and then grow...remember to go up, okay? You'll know by going up to where the warm light hits. You're gonna love it here. Folks are nice. Oh yes. "

She grins as he does so and continues to work. "It is good you are encouraging them. All young life needs encouragement."

"It's hard being little" He says with a nod, "Everything feels strong cuase you never felt it afore. Like... if you're in a bad place, you feel MORE worser scareder... and if you're in a good spot... and everything is nice, you feel more better happier because you din't know it could be so good"

"That is why it is important to help Dreamers, so they can imagine the good places while they are still in the bad places."

"What other good places do you remember? Even a small memory?"

He ponders , then "There... was a store...it sold musical stuff? Like used ones?"

"But that's not what was good about it. The place never did much business, but when it closed... when it got dark? he didn't go home...he and his friends would take the instruments on and they'd play! And..they had fun, you know? I ..never went in, but sometimes I'd get on the roof of the building and I'd hear it all coing up.. the laughter, and the music... and it was like.."

He grows wistful, "Like the world wasn't evil everywhere, like there was a spot where someone saw and heard better things. And I thought maybe one day I would to and it felt like ..not so bad. It made me think maybe the NEXT Day, youknow?"

She nods for him to continue.

"It felt like hope," she suggests.

"Oh, so THAT'S hope?" A smile "I liked it. It was... like getting your hand squeezed when you were scared"

"Yes, exactly like that." She nods. "Why did you not go inside?"