Chapter One
Naomi woke up from a restless slumber when the first faint light began to push away the inky darkness of the previous night. She hadn’t slept well at all—knowing that from today they were officially homeless.
Despite her plan to check out the cabin, that fact still didn’t feel good.
Last evening, she had told her four-year-old about “the adventure”, which had gotten Wendy so excited that she’d jumped up off the chair, wanting to start packing and leave immediately. She’d been so enthusiastic about it—it had taken the sting out of the reality of it even for Naomi.
But right this moment, in the waking hours of the early morning, said adventure didn’t sound so enticing anymore. Naomi wished she didn’t have to leave the bed at all today. She hadn’t eaten in a few days, and the exhaustion was getting to her.
Wendy was still fast asleep next to her, and her warm little body didn’t make it easier to lift the blankets and slide out of the comfort of their warm bed into the cold.
Lighting the small oil lamp proved to be a bit more difficult because there wasn’t much oil left in it, and Naomi’s fingers shivered a little too much to get the match lit immediately.
The small flame finally took, and Naomi got dressed as fast as she could.
The chill in the air had a real bite to it, and Naomi noticed the white clouds forming in front of her face with every breath she took.
The water in the small basin was frozen solid, so she skipped washing her face and made herself busy lighting a fire inside the stove to heat some water to make porridge for breakfast. Milk was another luxury they couldn’t afford.
Looking at their supplies, all they had left were a few handfuls of oats, a couple of cups of corn meal, and a few cups of beans, which would last them two weeks if they stretched it as much as they could. She would really need to find other means of getting food. She needed better resources.
She’d tried foraging and looking for leftover wild berries and fruit, and Naomi knew that this wasn’t really a feasible option anymore. It was too late in the season, and she had looked everywhere already; there wasn’t anything around anymore.
At this rate, Naomi should skip breakfast again to try and eat even less than she had the week before.
Her stomach complained with a loud growl at the thought of it.
The constant weighing of whether she should or shouldn’t eat was so stressful, Naomi was getting a throbbing headache.
Maybe she should eat just a little bit today to preserve her strength, seeing that they had to move to a different place today, and she would have to carry all of their things.
Defeated, she stuffed their remaining supplies into a satchel and packed up the rest of their clothes. It wasn’t much.
When Wendy finally stirred, the sun was shining through the still frozen window, though it kept disappearing behind gray clouds. Would they have bad weather today of all days?
“Good morning, Sweetheart!” she greeted her, making sure that her voice sounded cheerful. Whatever happened, Naomi would make sure that Wendy had a positive experience today.
“Good morning, mummy!” she mumbled sleepily, as she stretched her arms high above her head.
Her wavy chestnut brown hair was a complete mess, but her green eyes shone brightly as she climbed out of the bed.
Naomi hurried to get her dressed, because the house was still freezing cold.
An icy breeze kept blowing inside from beneath the door.
“Are we going to the secret house? Where the wild forest creatures live?” Wendy asked excitedly, as she shoved one of her arms into the sleeve of her thick woolen dress.
Naomi remembered the fairytale she’d told Wendy the night before. At some point during her storytelling, the abandoned cabin in the woods had turned into a secret hide-out where bunnies, deer, fox cubs, and colorful birds lived—just to make it enticing for Wendy to leave their home.
“Well, yes of course!” Naomi confirmed, trying to match her daughter’s enthusiasm, which earned her a happy nod. As soon as Wendy was dressed, she climbed onto the chair and inhaled the steam rising from her bowl of porridge. She smiled brightly when she noticed the second bowl standing there.
“Let’s have breakfast together, mummy!” she exclaimed happily. “But first we say grace.” Wendy stretched out her tiny hand to take Naomi’s to pray. “Can I say it today?” she asked. Her excitement was contagious, and Naomi couldn’t help but smile.
“Of course!” she replied, as she sat down next to her, holding both of her hands again. Wendy closed her eyes, and her face took on a solemn expression.
“God!” she said. “Thank you for listening yesterday! Thank you for mummy’s food.
We need it. We’re going on an adventure today!
We’ll see bunnies and foxes. And deer babies.
It’s a secret house. I’m so excited! Thank you.
Amen.” Then she pulled her hands back, grabbed the spoon and piled a big portion onto it, which she shoved into her mouth as if it was the most delicious food she’d ever eaten. Naomi chuckled.
“Amen,” she said with an amused smile, and the porridge really did taste good. It warmed her from the inside, and Naomi felt a little less nervous about the day ahead.
Shortly after, when they were ready to leave, Wendy bounced toward the door, and when she opened it, she cheered excitedly.
“Look, mummy! Look! It snowed!” she exclaimed, jumping up and down.
It wasn’t deep, but deep enough to pull a sled—the only thing Harrison had ever built.
This changed things because now they could move their belongings by pulling rather than carrying them.
Naomi looked up at the sky, which thankfully was still only partially cloudy.
“Thank you, Lord! I appreciate your help very much today!” she said gratefully, before she trudged toward the side of their house, where the sled was leaning up against the wall.
Wendy kept singing and dancing, and made snow angels, giggling happily as if this was the most perfect morning and nothing was amiss.
Naomi couldn’t help it; her daughter’s excitement got to her, and the day started off so much lighter than she’d anticipated.
When they were all packed up, Naomi closed the door of the house and didn’t look back. This chapter was finally over, and she would not waste another minute dwelling on it.
Wendy bounced around her, singing yet another made-up song.
The sun broke through, and it felt warm on her face as Naomi led the way toward the small cabin, which was only about an hour away along the tree line.
The more time passed, the more it really did feel like an adventure, and when they finally arrived at the small building, Naomi was pleasantly surprised.
Though it was abandoned, it was in almost better shape than their old house.
The roof was solid, the walls were sturdy, and the door closed fully with no chance of it falling off its hinges.
There was even some firewood, which had been stacked up against the outside wall.
Naomi was so relieved, she was almost happy.
Maybe all of this is God’s doing and He led us here for a reason, she thought.
Naomi made it purposefully exciting when she told Wendy to carefully open the door to the inside, just in case the bunnies were sleeping. Her daughter’s wide eyes were full of wonder when she gently pushed the door open.
Naomi already knew that there wouldn’t be any woodland animals sleeping inside—or at least she was hoping that they wouldn’t—but she was happy to see that there was some furniture.
It was crude, but there were a table with two chairs and two separate cots, which led Naomi to believe that this was some kind of hunter’s cabin.
If that was the case, then she could only hope that those hunters wouldn’t suddenly show up in the middle of the night.
All in all, it was a decent enough shelter, and Naomi was a little less anxious about their overall situation. It wasn’t perfect, but it would work.
Things didn’t seem too bad, right then. They didn’t seem bad at all.
“Thank You for Your guidance and all Your help, Lord in Heaven! We couldn’t be more grateful!” she said into the cold air. Time to make a fire.
***
Two weeks had passed, and things were starting to go from bad to worse.
After the initial week of them moving in, Naomi had been able to make the place feel as homely as she possibly could.
Thankfully, so far no hunters had shown up, and nobody seemed to care that they’d just occupied this place without asking anybody for permission.
Naomi felt incredibly lucky that she’d found it just in time.
However, once Wendy found out that bunnies and foxes didn’t actually live there, the initial excitement about the adventure started to wear off.
This wasn’t the home she knew; she had no room to run around and play, and since they’d only taken the bare essentials, the place still looked bare.
Wendy even complained that she missed the rocking chair, whining more and more that she wanted to go back home.
So, Naomi finally told her the truth about their situation and that they would never be able to return to that old house ever again. Wendy was visibly upset about that and got very quiet. It got to the point where Naomi started to worry when Wendy didn’t even want to pray anymore.
“What’s the point?” she pouted. It broke Naomi’s heart to see her so defeated.
Just to appease her, they went back to their old place the next day, to see if there was anything they could take with them—like the old rocking chair.
But before they actually got there, Naomi could see people walking in and out of the old house.
They were men wearing dark suits holding clipboards, and they’d looked very official.