Chapter 23: In My Wooden Bones

Dmitri woke Anya in the hidden away bedroom in the banya bright and early one Saturday morning come spring. 

“Da?  Ugh.  I was out late last night cheering on the Friday night game.  Please let me sleep just five more minutes.”

“Anya, you are spending so much time with your friends and young men, I fear that you are forgetting your family.  That is why today, I am taking you out hunting, just like old times!”

“But daaaa, it is nighttime-

Dmitri chuckled, a quiver of arrows over his shoulder, handmade bow in his broad blue hands.  “No, my dear, it is eleven in the morning, one of the best times to catch game, when prey are lazing.  Let your old man take you on a hunting trip like we used to before you grew too busy with high school and football games and homework.”

Anya groaned, burying her face in her pillow.  “Five more minutes?”

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