Rest

At twilight I leave with Naillil to buy wood for the fire. I am hefting back three large logs when the red clouds begin melting into the tree line. When we return my host mother asks me to watch a pot of rice boiling over the fire pit. Although there is nearly always music playing somewhere, tonight the village is very quiet. I am sitting on a green plastic chair feeding the fire when Pel crawls onto my lap. She sits sucking the juice from an orange as we watch the flames together. I close my eyes and breathe the soft of baby skin, firewood and desert dusk.