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Single Moms New World
Sweet Relief, Instant worry

Sweet Relief, Instant worry

Hannah rubbed her foot trying to figure out what she had tripped over when she heard a small whine from the bag. Her whole body tensed and every hair on her body was standing on end. The cabin was pitch black save for the crackling fire coming through the grates of the stove that heated her home. Something was in her home. She was surrounded by wildlife that seemed aggressive at least to other wildlife and she was protected by a fence, that she now assumed had a security issue, unless this was her benefactor. Trembling, she peeped out a wobbly, "Hello?" as she crept into a corner fumbling for something to protect herself with. Grabbing a large stick she gripped it in front of herself. In response she heard a whimper from the sleeping bag on the floor. Her hand barely kept the grip on the stick as she held it into the fire long enough to get it lit.

Every second felt like a lifetime. She took the stick and held it outwards toward the lump on the floor, seeing a small shape inside the bag. Grabbing another stick from the floor, she used it to quickly open the bag to see what crawled inside. Thrusting the blanket off the small creature she jumped back quickly, not knowing if it could be a snake or a porcupine. The animals on this world seemed like they didn't fear or understand humans, but that didn't make them any less deadly. She saw the teeth of the rabbits she's been eating. Even the birds had sharp beaks, and everything animal she's seen here has been super sized and splashed with color. Maybe that's why the wildlife ignored her. As she jumped back the light on the tip of her stick went out and she had to relight it. As she was frantically relighting the stick, the figure emerged from the blanket.

Trembling, Hannah held out the relit stick and repeated again, "Hello?" looking at the figure as his little head looked at the fire, scared. "Mommy?" he asked as he rubbed his eyes with his hand and his casted hand. "CALEB?!" screamed Hannah as she dropped her stick and rushed over to her son, throwing her arms around him, crying. "I missed you Mommy!" said Caleb over and over, as he started crying along with his mother. Holding his arm, she asked him, "What happened?". Caleb explained in his little boy way that his arm was broken by a mean lady by a bowl. It took a full twenty minutes to pull a full story out of him. He began to get distracted by the things around the cabin and that's when Hannah realized she wouldn't be getting sleep anytime soon. The house needed to be childproofed immediately.

She quickly began to instruct him on what not to touch and asked him to stay on the bed and try to go back to sleep while she got enough sticks to build a quick safety fence around the wood stove. Unfortunately it wouldn't be magicked or whatever tonight since the changes already happened, but it was better than having him burn himself. She refused to let him out of her sight as she looked around her cabin. She had been making this house livable enough for him to safely live here, but there were still modern conveniences that were going to be an issue. She was now in a world with no television, no daycare, and she hadn't even secured a way to get milk. Children need milk, right? And medicine. What was she going to do about medicine? Caleb's arm was going to need something, probably. She would have to cross that bridge when she got to it. She grabbed a scrap of the 'magic' paper and began to scrub together a list of projects to make the house safe and ready for her children. She smiled as she ran her hand through her son's hair. She wasn't alone anymore, but what did that mean for her son's future?

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As Caleb's smiling face drifted off to sleep Hannah wrapped up her list of projects to start before the next reset. She figured every night her projects would complete themselves how she saw them in her head. It shocked her when her items from home found their way into this new world, but it did bring her a sense of comfort when they appeared. When her wooden shelves turned into her mother's floating shelves that looked like clouds she loved and appreciated it, but there was a sense of loss every time her project took form without her hand in it. It was like her baby walking before it could crawl. Fortunately that was exactly the pace she needed to get this home ready for her family. And then she wondered, staring at the sleeping bag, if he wouldn't be the last person that showed up in that sleeping bag. Hope bloomed in Hannah's chest. Maybe she could see her Mom and Dad, Sarah, George and their kids, or even Chris without that Rachel tramp.

Hannah scolded herself for that last thought. She caught up with Chris at the reunion but they mainly talked about their past and not their present, like they were avoiding the the fact that their closeness had ever ended. Fortunately Jenna hadn't been in town for the reunion so Chris was his old self. She had stopped asking her old friends about Chris a year after Caleb was born and he had married Jenna. Losing him hurt too much, but they were two different people who chose to live different lives. It was like they were speaking two different languages but when they spoke to each other they could still understand each other in a profound way. Their world died that year in high school, and for one brief night she let him relive it. And then she woke up.

Chris was a sore that would always be open, but Hannah slapped a band aid on it, and thought of all of the other people who could benefit from this world, who could be a benefit to this world and what needs they would have. Hannah spent another fifteen minutes jotting down a list of projects to get done, and ideas to try to make more sleeping bags. She had theories as to how to bring people over and how to keep bad people from crossing over. These lists were the only semblance of order she felt she had in this chaotic world. Everything was always changing and she felt like she wasn't in control. Just this little list helped her pull her thoughts together and take back control of the situation, and keep her son safe.

Hannah was exhausted since she had been up all night working on the smoker. Little did she even realize that the whole machine had been upgraded overnight. As she jotted down her last thought her head finally dropped on top of the pillow next to Caleb's. Hannah's face was smudged with charcoal and her arm was wrapped around her son under the soft blanket, her other hand clutching her list as the morning sun crested the hillside peering through the leaves and another day began.