It felt odd to be placing a candle without the company of his family around him, but Emmett tried to assure himself he was doing it for them, tried to imagine their hands cupped around his own, ghostly and ethereal, supportive. Lighting the flame and approaching the Wheel, he looked up at it and wondered where he would be at this time next year.
He'd have a baby.
That thought made him whistle air out of his mouth, stress obvious in his wide eyes. There was gonna be a lot to work out. He'd found a moment to himself but couldn't think of anything but his upcoming child and the children he already had to care for. It was a lot for 19.
Gently he placed the candle. Emmett stayed there for a while, watching the flame flicker in the wind of the flowerbirth fields. Perhaps one day he'd be showing this to his child, he thought, keeping them away from the heat and laughing as they completed their first Fiat Lux.
What a weird idea. He sat lost in it, adrift among crowds of people.
Emmett
There's a saying where I come from
Playing 'round with fire gets you burned
Well, I'll wear my third degrees
And my heart upon my sleeve
Playing 'round with fire gets you burned
Well, I'll wear my third degrees
And my heart upon my sleeve
