“What do you want to do today, sweetie?”

  “We want to take a hike and picnic in the woods.”

  “Ok. What do you want to eat on this picnic?” I look to Awenasa and she smiles and looks in the fridge. “Do you have something special planned for the beef cubes?”

  “I was going to make stew, but we can get more.”

  “Ok, we’ll take these and the summer squash.”

  Shannon and Awenasa get into conversation about what they need to pack and start pulling ingredients out of the cabinets and gathering cooking utensils so we can build a fire in the woods to cook the food.

  “Uh, Kayla?” Jaime gently grabs my hand and pulls me out of the kitchen. “Are you able to take me home? I need to run some errands and start getting prepared to return to the studio tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, of course. Hey, babies, I’m going to take Jaime home. Do you need me to grab anything while I’m out?”

  “No, we’re good.” Shannon pulls a key out of the drawer by the fridge and hands it to me. “Here, this is your key to the SUV.”

  Jaime only lives five minutes away in a nice one bedroom apartment. Her apartment is immaculately clean and smells really nice like we keep ours. The décor is simple with neutral grays, black, and white with accents of color in the wall art. She has a really nice arrangement of framed prints above her couch with either black and white photographs of dancers, paintings of lilies, and sketches of landscapes.

  I set her luggage down next to her couch and she takes my hands as she steps in close with a small closed lip smile.

  “Your girls are really sweet. Dinner and breakfast with all of you was really nice.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t mind being stripped down in your sleep and tossed in a bed with me.”

  She laughs hard and wraps her arms around me, pressing the side of her face to mine. She runs a hand up the back of my neck into my hair and holds my face close to hers as she inhales deeply.

  “I sleep really good in your arms. I’ll never complain about getting that chance. It was really sweet of your girls to let me be in your arms when they haven’t seen you in a month.”

  “They are pretty amazing, aren’t they?” She laughs a little and kisses the side of my neck. “Yes. You’re all very lucky to have each other. Its good they realize what they have and do what they can to make sure they don’t lose you.”

  She slowly pulls her face back to look in my eyes. I get that familiar feeling that she’s trying to read something behind my eyes and it makes me smile. I’ve grown accustomed to the penetrating look and it makes me feel warm to have her golden eyes looking so intently into mine.

  “I guess I should let you go so you can go have your wild woods soul cleansing.” I smile really big and kiss her forehead. “I’ll talk to you soon. Do you need anything before I leave?” She gently caresses my cheek and shakes her head. “No, I’ll be ok.”

  I pull her in close again for a moment and then release her so I can leave. As I’m walking out the door, she grabs my hand and pulls me back.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure, what’s up?”

  “I want to do a ballroom dance workshop with my advanced classes before we leave town in December. Do you…”

  “I’ll be there. Just let me know when so I can plan for it.” She wraps her arms around me and kisses my cheek. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. See you soon.”

  When I get home, my babies have a couple bookbags packed with everything we need for the hike and picnic and are dressed in jeans, boots, and warm flannels or sweaters. They look beautiful.

  Shannon drives us to the state park with the giant pond that we floated lanterns on last year, and Awenasa and I take our girls hands and breathe in the scent of the cool autumn air.

  It’s a beautiful day. The sky is clear with a gentle cool breeze and the trees are bright with oranges, yellows, and reds. The ground is soft with a thin layer of the freshly fallen vibrant colored leaves and the woods are quiet, with only the sounds of tree branches gently rustling together and the occasional bird calling out to a friend.

  Awenasa leads the way and I pull up the rear with our girls between us as we follow the foot-worn path deep into the woods. After hiking for a while, Awenasa stops and looks around us. She closes her eyes and holds her hands out to her sides while she slowly rotates. After a few moments, she opens her eyes and points east.

  “There are hunters in that direction. We should stop here.” My girls look at her confused, and then jump when we hear a gunshot ricochet off the trees maybe a few hundred yards off in the distance. “How the hell did you know that?” Awenasa smiles at Sam and kisses her lips. “A lot of training.”

  “But, I don’t understand how you feel something so far away like that. I’ve been trying to be able to do that at home, sense Maddi and Shannon like you showed me, but I can’t, unless they are really close. Is that possible for anyone to do or do you need special abilities?”

  “Everyone has the ability to sense others, but the range each person has will vary. It’s just like any other gift. You can practice it and get better, but not everyone can master it. It’s like Kayla’s dancing. She can teach the same dance to a thousand students, but not every student will be able to execute it the same way. I have trained since I was a child to expand my range. I was born with a greater range than most, but I still had to practice to increase it and to be able to identify what I was sensing. My grandmother had incredible range and clarity. She could sense a shift and identify it clearly up to a mile away.”

  “That’s amazing. Why do you work so hard on that? I know it’s an awesome gift, but why do you do it?” Awenasa smiles and pulls the bookbag off her back. “Let’s sit and I’ll explain it.”

  Awenasa and Shannon spread out a large blanket and we work together to gather materials to build a fire. Awenasa and I clear the ground with some branches, form a ring with stones, and build a tipi of kindling in the center. We get a good fire going and then make a greenwood tripod for roasting skewers to rest in. Shannon and Awenasa put gloves on and carefully skewer the seasoned meat and squash and we prop them over the fire. After the food is gently roasting above the flames. Awenasa sits and faces our girls with a smile.

  “Native American’s have always been very in tuned to the spirit world and with their own spirits. All things have a spirit and energy and all of those spirits and energies influence us in one way or another. Human spirits are much stronger and influential than the energy of a tree or the spirit of an animal, and are more easily recognizable. Being able to detect human spirits, especially from great distances, was mainly for defense, or locating lost hunting parties or children. In times of war, those with a strong range would be stationed outside of camp or outside of the village to sense approaching enemies and alert the tribe. If it wasn’t for this gift, we probably would be extinct today, because the colonials’ weapons and brutal warfare were just too advanced. We had some good victories in war, but many of those who survived only did so because they were able to escape before the enemy arrived to slaughter them. Many escaped and hid in mountains and caves, using this gift to evade and maneuver around the colonials for many years. We continue the practice today mainly to not lose our roots and to be able to help find someone when they go missing. The practice would fit in with what modern science calls extra-sensory perception or ESP, but it’s still widely discounted by most people as a myth or a trick.”

  “Is it hard being off the reservation, around so many of us?” Awenasa laughs and kisses Sam’s lips. “Around so many of you? What, white people?” Sam smiles in a shy way and blushes. “No, Sam. I don’t hold any bitterness towards white people. You and the millions of other white people living today and for the past couple hundred years did not have anything to do with what happened to my ancestors. I do not judge a person or group of people on their past. People are individuals and must be measured on their own by what they take from or contribute to society and the world.”

  “I like listening to you talk like this. Is this how you and Kayla used to talk when you were together on the reservation and at the summer gatherings?” Awenasa smiles and nods. “It is. We’d spend hours talking about our people’s histories and about teaching them to our children.”

  “While you were gone this month, we’ve been reading a book on the Trail of Tears to try to learn more. Were your ancestors a part of that?” Awenasa smiles in a sad way and takes Sam’s hands. “They were. Both of our families were. My Cherokee blood comes from my mother’s side and my Navajo blood is from my father’s side. My mother’s line traces back to the Trail of Tears. Kayla’s father’s side traces back to the Trail of Tears, but her mother’s line had escaped and hid in the mountains. Lena’s and my mother’s lines are part of the original clans that rebuilt the tribe on the reservation in Cherokee, North Carolina.”

  “Wow, Kayla, why didn’t you ever tell us that?”

  “Those parts of our history are hard for me to talk about. It hurts to think about and to consider that its possible for something like that to happen again, whether its Native Americans, homosexuals, or people of a certain religion.”

  “Is that why you were so affected by that older woman in the grocery store last year?”

  “Yeah, when she said she wanted all of us thrown in cages and tortured, I felt like I was living the fear and pain my people must have felt back then. A small part of it anyway since I wasn’t really in any immediate danger of that happening.”

  “I really hope we can get to the reservation before you leave for the concert tour. We really want to meet more of the family and learn more about your culture and history.” We smile at Madison and Awenasa takes one of her hands. “We will. I’ll just have to put my foot down with Sara that she can’t take Kayla from us for any jobs that month.”

  They laugh a little as they sit forward to kiss her.

  I get up to rotate the roasting meat and squash and add a little more wood to the fire before sitting back down with my girls. It feels really good to be out here in the woods away from everything and everyone, with a small fire slowly roasting a meal to share with my girls. I love just sitting together and talking, growing closer together, while we allow nature to cleanse our spirits.

  I close my eyes and take in the moment, allowing the energy of the forest to seep inside me and fill me with Mother Earth’s purity. I press my palm to the ground and feel the energy coursing through the earth. I pay attention to the wind on my face and in my hair.

  “It feels good here. I’ve missed the woods.” I slowly open my eyes and look at my girls. “Thanks for coming for a hike with us today, babies. We really needed this.” They smile and lean forward to kiss me and then kiss Awenasa. “We figured you’d both want to get into the woods soon after getting back. We were talking this morning while you were sleeping. What do you think of going to the Navajo reservation in Arizona the second week of December for our vacation?”

  Awenasa and I smile really big and share a look before we leap at our babies and tackle them to the ground. They laugh and wrap their arms around us, while we pepper them with kisses. We look down at them smiling, while gently caressing their cheeks and running our fingers through their hair.

  “That’s perfect, babies. Neither of us have been to the Navajo reservation, but we’ve always wanted to go. Are we doing a choreography event there?”

  “No, we’re just going on vacation. If you really want to do an event in December, we think it would be easier this time to just hop across the state border and stay local. We can do it the weekend before we leave. It would be too hard at this point to arrange something in Arizona and get all of the merchandise there.”

  “Ok. I really like this plan.”

  “Me too. Thank you for this.” They smile and reach up to kiss Awenasa. “We really do want to share in your culture and be a part of it. We’re not sacrificing anything by picking that location for our vacation. We’re all very excited to go.”

  We lay on their chests, and they squeeze us tightly against themselves. We say I love you to each other and we just lay in each other’s arms for a few minutes, before we sit up to check the food.

  “Oh, and if you still want Jaime to go, we’re ok with that.”

  “I’m fine with it either way, but why do you want Jaime to come with us?”

  They look between themselves and Madison and Sam settle on Shannon, looking to her to answer me. She smiles at them and looks back to me.

  “Jaime is going to be a big part of your life this next year, and possibly for a long time. She may see you more than we do this next year, so we just want to be able to get to know her better. Not because we don’t trust you, but we want her to be comfortable around all of us and understand our family better. I guess we mainly want her to feel like she can be friends with all of us and that we don’t see her as just your dance partner. Since she is going to be with you so much, we just want to make sure she’ll be able to be there for you when we can’t be and help you unwind after a stressful day.”

  “What do you mean, help me unwind?” They laugh a little and shake their heads. “We don’t mean sexually. If you need to talk or vent or even just cuddle. We know you’re a cuddly person, even with your friends, and that doesn’t bother us. We want her to understand we’re ok with those things, so you have the support you need while you’re away.”

  “Is that why you tossed all of us in bed together last night?” They blush and laugh a little again. “Yeah. She wasn’t weirded out by that, was she?”

  “No, she thought it was cute and considerate. Why did you put pants on me, but not Jaime and Awenasa?”

  “You asked for them. You said you were cold.”

  “I don’t remember that.”

  “All of you were half-conscious when we helped you out of your clothes and into the bed. We figured you wouldn’t remember anything.”

  “Thanks for taking care of us last night. We barely got any sleep this month. We really needed that last night.”

  “We know, baby. Do you have any regrets about doing all of this? Do you want to slow down?” I smile and shake my head. “No way. We’re just getting started. We have an empire to build, and you can’t build an empire without a lot of hard work. I’ll keep driving the horses as long as you’re not too overwhelmed or feeling neglected.”

  “It’s really hard when you’re both gone for a month at a time, but we know it won’t always be like this. A lot of the upcoming traveling you have to do is during our breaks from school, so we’ll be able to come with you more.”

  “I’m really excited about that. I can’t wait to have all of you with me for some of this. I wish I could have all of you with me all the time, especially for the fun parts, like the parties and going out to eat. I really miss all of you like crazy when I’m at those.”

  I pull them into a hug and just hold them for a few minutes, trying to memorize the way they feel against me and the way they smell. I kiss each of them on the neck and lips and slowly pull back to look at them. They smile, and one by one, they lean in to give me a full kiss with their sweet lips and tongues making me fall harder in love with them.

  Awenasa checks the food and Shannon hops up to help her pull the skewers off the fire and plate the food. Shannon pulls out several bottles of water and some dipping sauce for the meat and then we sit in a tight circle to eat from the same plate. It’s a beautiful moment. We love the flavor of fire roasted meat and veggies, and sitting here in the middle of the woods all alone, sharing a meal, is so rejuvenating.

  While we eat, we laugh and talk about anything and everything. It’s been too long since we’ve had a moment like this and I’m relishing every second of it. We’ve been talking daily, but I don’t get to talk this long when I’m away. I love hearing more stories and details about what’s been going on in their lives with school and work. Awenasa shares more stories from our trips and what it’s like being on set watching from the sidelines while we work. We talk, kiss, and cuddle for hours.

  It’s starting to get dark by the time we decide to leave. I pour the rest of our waters out on the fire and then kick dirt overtop of the burnt wood to make sure that its well suffocated so it won’t be able to burst back to life after we leave.

  We take each other’s hands and look around the woods smiling. This place gave us exactly what we needed. All of us needed this cleansing and recharging – something only the woods can offer. I say a silent thank you to this place, to Mother Earth, and we walk out of the woods hand in hand.

  Chapter Four

  Getting out into the woods was exactly what I needed. As soon as we get home, I have an energy I haven’t had since before we left home a month ago. After putting everything away from our picnic, I pull my girls to the bathroom and we strip each other down and take a family shower. I love family shower time. Space is tight, so we have no choice about helping each other wash, which almost always results in caressing, teasing, kissing, and usually sex.

  I’m so happy to be back with all of them that I quickly find myself on my knees in front of each of them, devouring their delicious nectars of honey, maple, and apples. I love how each of them feels wrapped around my face and how each of them tastes. Their sounds of pleasure and the way their hands dig into my back and tangle in my hair is enough to make me ravenous to keep going on and on forever.

  Unfortunately, the water heater can’t keep pace with my appetite for my girls and we have to quickly shut the water off as it starts to shower us with ice water while I’m getting ready for my second round of holy dessert from their perfect chalices. We hop out of the shower laughing and clinging to each other for warmth. We wrap up in towels and I wrap my arms around all of them.

  “Damn, you’re all so beautiful. I love when you smile like that.”

  Their smiles widen and they attack me with kisses, before pulling me to the bedroom. They pull our towels off and pin Awenasa and I down on the bed next to each other with them hovering above us with the most beautiful happy smiles.