Title taken from Guy de Maupassant, "Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist."

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By any and all accounts, it could have been any other day in the beginning of May in London.  The overcast was not threatening rain right now and the slight breeze added a little bite to the air, but nothing a jumper couldn’t fix. 

So, settled in the backyard with wireless streaming through the open window, Akiva watched as Gabe haphazardly threw a ball (sort of) for Lady to wrestle with and bring back, entire backside wagging in anticipation of another throw.  It was nice to watch something so innocent on a day that was usually reserved for stoic contemplation and prayer (if one was so inclined). 

She had spent some time during Gabe’s brief afternoon nap offering up prayers for the friends she’d lost and those that she didn’t know who fell beside them. There may have even been a special sort of spiritual recognition that it was actually Remembering Day that had set her life in the direction it took. But now, as the afternoon sun was starting to descend, it was time for something joyful.  Akiva could think of nothing more joyful than the sound of Gabriel’s dismayed squawk at the slime-covered surface of the ball. 

As he shook his hand and Lady went back at the ball with fervor, Akiva laughed brightly.   Being a mum prepared one for these situations and discreetly taking out her wand she performed a quick scourgify charm – much to the delight of her son.  He took off after Lady, chasing her with repeated cries of “Ball!” that indicated his very short-term memory in this game. 

Akiva beamed at him as she crossed her arms under her chest and just watched.  He made everything make a little bit more sense – he (or at least the promise of him and others like him) was part of the reason anyone fought and died in the Second Wizarding War.  While it didn’t make grief easier to experience, she at least knew when the pain scabbed over until it ripped again, there was something positive to look to – a certainty they hadn’t had the luxury of at the time. 

"Kiv----aughhhhhh!" Dreogan yelped as he wrestled the nearly-50 kilo terracotta pot in a vicious embrace. There was a sharp pain--something gave, and he nearly dropped it. "Ah--fffff..." he bit off the rest of the curse, going down onto one knee heavily.

"Dree! Whoah-hey..." came a deep voice, soothing Dree as though he were a high-spirited horse. Dree cringed, trying to get a good look at the source. Clive "Ironfist" Myers[1] was hopping their fence and, in a moment, grabbing the pot with both hands. Suddenly, with near superhuman force, Clive had almost entirely lifted the weight from him. Dree craned his neck and could just barely make it out--Clive's wand, pressed between his palm and the pot, carrying out some sort of levitation. With a bit of coaxing, he managed to get to his feet again.

"Thanks," he said between a puff of breath. With Clive's help, they carried the heavy, potted orange tree down the side yard and into the back, where Akiva and Gabe were at play. The moment the pot was down, Dree was nearly doubled over, hunched and rubbing his low back.

"You need to lift from your knees," Clive offered. Jaw clenched, Dree squinted up at him, trying to craft a neutral response through the pain. Sensing the offense taken, Clive lifted his hands in surrender. "Just a thought."

The wave of pain seemed to subside, and Dree rose to his full height again, shifting slightly. "Thanks, Clive," he muttered. "I, er... thought I could do it on my own, and didn't think magic'd..."

"You didn't want to mobilis it down Drury Lane." Both nodded. "Well, happy to help. You know, I may have a salve for that," he said, pointing to Dree's back. "One old man to another."

Dree's eyes widened. He was beginning to see why Clive and Adon got along so well. Dree felt he'd aged years overnight, recently, but it hardly was the sort of thing people should comment on. "M'fine. Really." Clive was looking at him skeptically, ready to chastise him at a moment's notice. "Really," Dree added emphatically, glancing over to Akiva for good measure.

"If you're sure," Clive shrugged it off. "Akiva, Gabe," he tapped his cap in farewell before exiting. Dreogan tried to smile through a grimace, rubbing bits of terracotta and soil off his tweet coat and trousers.

"So," Dree said, smiling a bit awkwardly at his family. "I brought you a surprise..."

1.	World-renowned dueller and next-door neighbor to the Katzes-Eleor

By the time Akiva was able to find a space to not only check on the cries of her husband, but also be able to keep an eye on their son, it was too late.  Their neighbor had come to his aid and when it registered that it was a very large orange plant that they were carrying, Akiva rushed to the gate and opened it for them to totter through. 

She hadn’t expected him to bring anything like this home!  They’d talked about oranges, mostly in passing, especially in reference to her baking – but she never would have thought. 

The whole thing was a little overwhelming, and Akiva laughed out loud and clapped her hand over her mouth.  “Are you okay?!” she managed to squeak out as Dree rubbed his lower back and she went to his side.  “Thank you,” she smiled appreciatively at Clive before wrapping her arm around Dree’s shoulder. 

“You know, I may have a salve for that… One old man to another…”

While Dreogan was busy looking like a giant squid and insisting he was fine, Akiva discreetly made eye contact with Clive and nodded, mouthing ‘yes’ away from his periphery. 

He might have wanted to protect whatever small dose of vanity he had (Goodness knew he didn’t have the same level of care for his wardrobe – Kiv supplied most of that these days), and while Akiva had been interested in healing and picked up a few things from free time studying, she could do precious little for his back.  “Thank you so much, Clive,” Akiva added as she gently rubbed the space between his shoulder blades.  When Gabe was addressed, he turned his head and grinned, throwing his arms wide open and dropped the ball from his hand, Gabe shouted an incomprehensible greeting  with “Bear!” tagged on at the end, before turning and darting off after Lady again.  Akiva smiled after him and shrugged.  She looked at Dree: she knew the exact thought going on his head: and yes, sometimes it was all about cool Uncle Adon. 

As Clive retreated from their yard, Akiva dropped her arm, allowing Dreogan to sort himself out.  “So I see!” Akiva appraised with a grin and turned back toward him, “It’s amazing, Dree.”  She leaned in to kiss him, leaving her arms about his neck for the time being.  “Should we name it Nora?” she teased, alluding to the very beginning of their relationship – one of the good things to remember today.  “She’d approve, I’m sure.” 

Dree smiled into the kiss, quite pleased with himself. At the mention of Nora Dobbins, the matchmaking woman who'd taken them in--in gratitude for getting her out of a mob stampede--he could only smile.

"Haha," Dree instantly regretting the laugh: clenching his jaw and grimacing. He took a deep breath, processing. You used your back to laugh?! He curved his hand around the small of his back, thumb on his hip, fingers pressing beside the spine. There. Nondescript. He was fine. Gabe hadn't even noticed.[1]

"I'm sure she would," Dree conceded, at length. There was a bit of wind taken from his sails: Kiva'd practically already guessed the surprise. Well, still time for the reveal, regardless. "I'll say, before I go into any of this, that credit is due to Adon." Adon'd never pass on an opportunity to get credit, and Dree'd never pass on an opportunity to benefit from Adon's gift ideas. Dree held little importance in the physical--things were much more experiential; gifts sometimes seemed superficial. But not the way Adon did them. He had a knack, and his big brother was more than happy to mooch.

"So, during the Roman Period in Israel..."[2] Dree only got that far before blushing bright red. "...Okay, I hear it now," he said flatly. This is what people teased him about--mostly Adon--when they talked about professor mode. Clearing his throat, he muttered, "Well, suffice it to say," he looked at Akiva with raised eyebrows, daring her to laugh at his expense, "I thought this'd fit with the Israeli tradition of planting trees to commemorate loved ones and events... Added bonus: helps the environment." He smiled, pleased before adding under his breath, "and overcomingtheconsequencesofhistoricaldeforestation broughtaboutbysystematizedsubjugation." Another pause. "Sorry." As though he was going to pass that up.

He gestured to several mint plants, still in their white plastic containers, resting at the top of the pot. "Thought it could be a little family project to add to our garden." They were already breeding butterflies, and he heard they liked citrus particularly. He grinned, looking over for Gabe. "Gabe? Gaaaabe?"

There was a growled, indignant response of "Aaaaaaht?!" Dree looked over, puzzled at Akiva. They certainly didn't yell to each other through the house... did they? Oh, G-d. Was he picking up bad manners?

"Gabe," he called in an inside voice, beginning to walk over. Of course, if his back hadn't hurt, he wouldn't have shouted out to Gabe in the first place. But his back wasn't hurting all that bad, anyways. He came up to his son who stood motionless, holding the ball between his hands.

"Gabe," he repeated, bending down to look Gabe in the--"ooooh, ffffffffffffffffiiiiiil...lllibuster," Dreogan groaned, breathing heavily a moment. He straightened, opting instead to look down at his son. "Gabe, want to dig those plants?"

Gabe considered, looking between Lady, the ball, and the newly arrived tree. After a moment of deliberation, the ball was dropped unceremoniously onto the grass as he tottered over to the large pot, fingers already poking into the soil.  "We have shovels or something, right?" Dreogan asked, realizing he'd left out a minor detail.

1.

Because he was too busy thinking about Bear.

2.

Because our dear Dree's a bit sheepish, and our reader is curious: During the Roman Period, booming populations, unprecedented economic development, and heavy taxation led to stark deforestation in Israel. Wealthy landowners were taxed based on the number of trees on their property, meant to indicate the expanse of land and its prosperity. Instead, to evade taxes, landowners chopped down their trees.

Dreogan could not cover up the fact that his back was hurting.  Maybe he tried to play it cool, but Akiva saw the way his hand curled around his back and rested on his hip.  She regarded him with eyebrows raised and concluded she would absolutely be taking one of the loaves of bread she’d baked over to Clive in exchange for that salve and maybe a pain potion, if he had one lying about.  Perhaps her husband was not old, but it did not exempt him from hurting himself doing a foolish thing – like carrying a very large potted plant by himself for any amount of time. 

He might been too prideful to admit it: but he’d be desperately wanting it later.  He couldn’t really complain about having a helping hand in such a task, could he? 

If she didn’t complain over the fact that he was going to lecture her on Roman history, he wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.  Buttoning her lip, she nodded with a very pronounced “mmhmm,” hoping it might indicate he was doing it again.  She wasn’t one of his old students – a lecture was completely unnecessary, as she (and Adon) had told him time and time again.

It was at least endearing that he seemed to realize quite quickly and cut himself off.  Not that there wasn’t a charm in it, of course, but sometimes the time was short and the amount of information was vast – given this had to do with Israeli history, she imagined it was a lecture that could have rivaled a Binns speech on the third Goblin war.  Rather than tease him, she kissed his cheek again and shook her head fondly. 

Despite the fact she teased him, she liked that aspect of him.  His inclination toward academia was not wasted on her and it was a very thoughtful gift, even if it was Adon’s idea.  “It’s perfect,” Akiva gushed, completely genuine.  “I love it.”  She reached over and entwined her fingers with his, giving his hand a squeeze.  “I’ll write Adon a thank you note,” she added with a playful laugh and a genial nose wrinkle in his direction. 

While she contemplated just where it was going to go, Dreogan turned his attention to their toddler.  Akiva would be very hard pressed to find another child that was cuter than her son.  It was somewhat alarming, especially considering she definitely wanted more children.  Watching how big Gabriel was getting certainly didn’t help stop up that desire. 

And apparently they’d better hurry that up if Dreogan was having trouble bending over already!  She definitely needed to follow up with Clive.  It was a good thing Dreogan didn’t look at her; he surely would have noticed the look of absolute sympathy that took over her face.  He’d absolutely hate that, which made her shake her head and readjust a little bit.  After all, he asked a question she didn’t know the exact answer to – but she did know one answer. 

“Dree,” she raised her eyebrows at him, begging him to change his mind on his own.  But, it did not appear he would and now Gabe’s hands were already in the dirt.  “You can’t think you’re going to dig any holes today…” She looked him over again, shaking her head, “at least not until you’ve eaten something?” It was a lame offer, but it could possibly buy her just enough time to owl Adon… and have him drop by Clive’s on the way. 

It would probably absolutely mortify her husband though…  Adon would never let him live it down… and if she was totally honest, he was probably already at Maiko’s.  He’d been spending quite a bit of time there (which pleased Akiva, if she were going to be honest – not every day did one’s fantastic brother-in-law make a girlfriend of your friend). 

“’I’ll get take in,” she tempted, shimmying her shoulders with a little smile (hoping that would be at least a little enticing), “and we,” she gestured to their very dirty son, “can tell you all about what we learned on Muggly today,” she couldn’t even keep a straight face – she had to laugh as she tried to put her arm around his back and usher him into the house.  “It will be so riveting, that you may even have to have a lie down!”  Akiva was potentially the absolute worst at hiding her true intentions, but she continued smiling, hoping he would pretend that weren’t the case and allow the façade of relaxing at home with some takeout stand in order to make sure his back was alright. 

Dree frowned, trying not to let his irritation show, giving her a brief peck in exchange for her shimmy. "I thought that we weren't going to let him listen to that..." Not, at least, until it became an issue. If he ended up feeling left out in pre-school or wasn't fitting in because of it, they'd reassess. But he still had at least a year until that happened!

As soon as Akiva recommended the lie-down over the matter, however, Dree knew how this went. Akiva'd worry about every move he made until he at least made a display of humoring her. "I see," he said, pointing a finger in teasing accusation. "You almost had me, you know." At least he hoped that bit about Muggly was just a ploy. "Take in sounds fine, if you don't think it'll be too dark by the time we're done..." he said, wondering to himself if their barbeque utensils--the large spoons and other... sharp things--could be used to make holes in the sand. Dree had the good sense to avoid recommending anything from the kitchen be brought outside. Except perhaps the wood spoons? They came from nature anyhow. They could get that nice, natural, what was that word he'd heard someone used the last time they'd gone to buy vintage homegoods at the market... Ah! patina.

"I hate to waste the daylight hours when the weather's so nice." Dreogan was thrilled at the onset of spring and summer. The walking, even some rock climbing, picnicing out of doors... Dreogan loved nothing so much as being active, and while that was a hard feat to pull off in London, it was much easier to do once the weather cooperated. Just leave it to his body to throw him a wild card like this.

But that's just what it was--a wild card. If left to her own devices, Akiva'd probably be nodding knowingly and fretting. "It's a pulled muscle, Kiv," he said with a level, challenging gaze--and a smile, to soften it a bit. She was persistent, and he was stubborn, but neither of them liked to argue all that much, so he hoped he could leave it at that. "Gabe can do the digging for both of us."

Holding her hands up in mock surrender, Akiva knew the jig was up.  Muggly would only get her so far in this fight and his expiration date arrived much sooner than she would have liked. As was the peace offering of take in.  There was nothing sweet and sour chicken couldn’t fix, well except maybe his back… but they’d deal with that in due course.   

She just had to talk him out of this fool idea to start planting tonight.  The days were getting longer and he surely knew there was plenty of time to make this work.  But, Akiva would do her best to keep him away from anything that could be used for digging – especially if it came from her kitchen – and into a bed with a potion and perhaps some muscle salve and a back rub.  “No one said anything about wasting,” Akiva corrected, “just… repurposing those hours for another priority.”

And her line of logic was not going the way she wanted it to.  Pursing her lips for a moment, she looked over from Gabriel back to her husband and crossed to stand in front of him.  Akiva rested her hands on his arms and listened to his explanation.  “Pulled muscle or not,” Akiva smiled, “the fact of the matter is we don’t have any shovels and unless you’re going to let me use my wand,” she knew that was out of the question, given their muggle neighbors. 

“So, unless you let me do that,” she tilted her head to the side with a little smile, “it looks like our amazing orange tree and mint will just have to wait until tomorrow.”  It was not the sort of smile that meant she was going to back down.  They’d find a good compromise here somewhere, even if that meant they woke up early to do it.  Akiva gave his arms another squeeze before looking over to Gabriel.  “Right Gabe – tomorrow?” 

He squished his hands further in the dirt with a squeal of delight.  “See?” she wrinkled her nose at her husband and laughed.  “He’s perfectly happy to wait for tomorrow.”  Hopefully his father would be too.  And if that wouldn’t sweeten the pot enough to tempt him, Akiva slid her hands down and managed to gingerly go about his waist – hoping to avoid aggravating his back.  “Wouldn’t that – and a heating pad – be so much better tonight?”