The come and filter in as the woman calls. Joy spreads over her chest as the preteens gather, manifesting in a wrinkled smile. Wild grey hair halls as the wind twists it from her bun, and she tucked stray locks behind her ears as she moved to each of the children. She gathered the materials each of them would need before folded legs. As she moved to each child she gently smiled at them, picking a few leaves from Mateo's wild hair and touching Edmund's head gently. Paige and Everest went without a touch, however, as the woman's intuition told her it might not bode well.
"You are right," smiled Ruth, her diamond eyes staying soft on Paige, "basket weaving is a helpful skill to have." Ruth hobbled back over to her own supplies and, with surprising flexibility, sat on the ground criss-cross and started her instructions. "The materials bend together when wet. If you try to weave the strands dry, they will crack and break. Isn't that much like our own selves?" She let her eyes fall to her work, showing the children how to dampen the strands of wood to make them pliable. "When we are dry, crusted, closed in on ourselves rather than drenched in the sustaining water of love, we break."
"You are right," smiled Ruth, her diamond eyes staying soft on Paige, "basket weaving is a helpful skill to have." Ruth hobbled back over to her own supplies and, with surprising flexibility, sat on the ground criss-cross and started her instructions. "The materials bend together when wet. If you try to weave the strands dry, they will crack and break. Isn't that much like our own selves?" She let her eyes fall to her work, showing the children how to dampen the strands of wood to make them pliable. "When we are dry, crusted, closed in on ourselves rather than drenched in the sustaining water of love, we break."
RUTH
