The day that Bella returned to Ithemba, she was excited to see everyone again. It seemed that nothing had changed. Nothing was falling apart at least. Everything still seemed to be in perfect order and running smoothly. Classes had resumed after the holidays, the animals were still well cared for, and there had even been a couple of animal rescues in the absence of the Dwyer family. A day after returning, however, Bella really missed Nathan and the kids.
Athena seemed to be moping around too, missing her cousins. Belie had told Bella that Athena wanted to return to London. She wanted to spend more time in the place where she was born and lived the first years of her life. It was understandable. As a child, Bella had longed to spend some time in Amsterdam where her father grew up. While they worked together on administrative tasks, Bella made a suggestion to Belie. “Maybe Athena can come with me when I return to London? I’d of course ensure that she keeps up with her studies and everything. Maybe she can even go to school for a bit. As long as we’re there, I mean.” Belie liked the idea, and Bella was already looking forward to returning to her family. Perhaps she was entering another phase of her life. Now that Ithemba could efficiently run without the Dwyers present, maybe it would give them some more freedom. More time to do things away from their wildlife refuge. Like travel. Or teach abroad, in Nathan’s case. Maybe Bella could find something to do in London too, once she returned. Her second night alone in Ithema, Bella was eager to chat with her family on Skype. When she saw Nathan’s face, her smile couldn’t grow any wider. “I miss you,” she said. “I miss you too. How are things there?” “As if we’ve never left,” Bella replied. “Everything’s in perfect order. I guess they do more than okay without us around. We should be proud.”
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“That looks really good, Mom.”
Bella glanced at Mya and smiled brightly. “It does huh?” She set the finished cake on the table and admired her work for a moment. “Are you sure we can’t just just a teeny tiny piece?” Eryn smirked playfully, quite obviously just teasing. Bella had quite enjoyed being in the kitchen with the kids. All three of them were a great help, and it had been a great change in pace to bake without a time constraint. Without classes to teach and animals to attend to, there seemed to be endless time. Bella still found herself texting Ollie and Ulwazi quite often, and even going online to access emails and such, but for the most part she tried to enjoy the time she had away from their work. She’d almost forgotten how much she enjoyed baking. But for the holidays she’d gone overboard and baked to her heart’s content. She and Nathan had even cooked a mini feast together for the family. With Nathan’s 42nd birthday following Christmas, Bella wanted to make it special. For one, they were away from home. London was a stark contrast to the warmth of their South African home. There hadn’t been any snow, but it was pretty nippy. Nathan didn’t mind the cold, he quite liked it in fact, but the change in temperature gave them all a mild case of the sniffles. Nothing that extra TLC and some orange juice couldn’t help. “Dad’s home!” came Ralphie’s voice. They’d all spent the morning hanging decorations in the living room for Nathan to see when he walked in. “Okay, girls, let’s go surprise your dad,” she said. They rushed out into the living room, and the moment Nathan entered, they jumped up and yelled “Surprise!” Maybe it was a little cheezy, but they didn’t often find time to do such things back home. Bella figured if they would be away from home, they had to make the best of it. |
Isabella Kaylee DwyerWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2017
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