Lilo Talei
A good night’s sleep and a hearty meal did me so well after a hard day yesterday! The whole world looks brighter and more vivid and more exciting. Ariel and Thaddeus had cooked up a whole breakfast by the time I finally woke up, and the sun rising in the east was putting on quite the show. They’d managed to find some eggs and mushrooms, and with the herbs we packed at our long stop, it was a whole feast.
I asked them where they’d learned to cook like that, and it started a whole other conversation about family and everything. I guess Ariel’s sister used to work at a cafe or something, and Thaddeus said that he’s been living alone for so long that he taught himself to cook just to have something to do.
I also learned that Thaddeus is in for some kind of blackmail or money laundering, or some boring non-violent crime. Figures. I didn’t peg him as a real criminal, and this just confirms it. Still trying to figure out what Ariel did—she’s harder for me to read, but I know I’ll sleuth it out eventually.
The day is still young, and we’ll be getting on our way soon enough. The sky really is the bluest shade of blue I’ve ever seen. The birds are singing—like, really singing. I swear there’s a songbird around here somewhere chirruping “Danny Boy”.
Maybe we really will get out of here alive.
Thaddeus Diggory
Elena, would you be proud of me for learning to converse openly and honestly? Or would you berate me for only picking up the skill fifteen years too late?
I told Lilo and Ariel about my sentencing today. I was still high on surviving the river yesterday, and our breakfast turned out magnifique, if I do say so myself. We built a tremendous fire and roasted up a handful of mushrooms that Ariel uncovered along with some good-sized eggs from a bird’s nest I didn’t recognize, and Lilo asked some trivial question. It’s always been easier for me to be honest while working on something, and this was no exception. I told them all about how quiet it got after you and the kids left, how I tried to fill the quiet with anything that made me feel less alone… more alive. How desperate I was to win you back, and how foolish I felt after I was caught. As if illicitly becoming a millionaire would impress you.
What I wouldn’t give for just a letter from you and the children. Just a word passed on by a friend.
Do you even know I’m here? Did anyone tell you what I did? Do they have any memory of me, any fondness for me?
These questions have haunted me for so long, and yet the burden of them feels lighter when shared with others… dare I say, with friends?
We’ve just broken for lunch—just leftover breakfast, I’m afraid—but things are looking up. Maybe there really is something to be said for this experience after all.
Ariel Irene
We talked a lot today—much more than usual, especially after lunch. I’m beginning to wonder if maybe that wasn’t the mushroom I thought it was. Thaddeus seems… cheery.
Too late now.
Hearing all about Thaddeus’ family and his cooking expeditions and his crazy plan to make his life more exciting after his wife left him made me want to tell them about Esther. I think she would’ve liked them. But I kept getting distracted by the clouds—they’re so sparkly today. Everything seems so beautiful today.
You’re reading The Ravenswing Report, a rapid-fire, limited-run serial from Sara Dietz at Blinking Blue Line. To learn more and access the Table of Contents, click here.
For a minute there I was so nervous because I thought it was a poisonous mushroom, and then I realized that they may all just be high on shrooms. 😂 A bird singing “Danny Boy” indeed!
"OH DANNY BOYYYYY, THE PIPES THE PIPES ARE CALLIIIIIING...."