How will we survive this?

Behind the house, I open a quilt over the lumpy land of weeds and grass.  There, I read you a book while I nurse the baby. 

Later, while the baby sleeps beside me, you and I watch birds as they beat their wings and hop and chirp. We watch the clouds as they fly across the sky. And with our fingers, we follow the breeze, pointing to a wave of wind as it travels from tree to tree and sometimes down to you and me. 

"There and then there and then there!" 

Eventually, you want to play pretend. You have invented so many stories while we have been in social isolation.  

Sometimes, we are skeleton pirates. You are "Luna." I am "Sunny." Your father is "King Luther." The house is our boat. The deck is our deck. The road is our ocean. The cars are invading pirates. We steal vegetables and fruit and plants from other boats. Occasionally, we discover gold. You have eyes that adjust to the darkness of night, while my character prefers the day. 

Sometimes we are teenage valley girls. You are "Janessa." I am "Uranus." Your daddy is "Gravy." We talk really fast and make costume plans for Halloween. Janessa and Uranus want to dress as witches, but Gravy insists on going as a mummy. 

Sometimes we play magical fantasy characters. You are "Primrose." I am "Fern." We live in a place called Plant Village. You have fire power. I have a big sword. You have a pet black bear named "Elsa." I have a wolf we call "Olaf."  We go on adventures together. 

Today, you want to pretend that you are my baby. You "goo goo gah gah" at me. I don't want to play and so I say, "I spy with my little eye a cluster of large pine cones way up high." 

You look. You point. You return to your baby play. 

"I spy with my little eye the color red!" 

"The berries on the holly bush?" 

"Yes."

I urge you to go to the bookshelf in your bedroom to retrieve another book. You want to stay and play.  

"All day long, you want to play pretend and I want to read books. What are we going to do, Amelia?! HOW WILL WE SURVIVE THIS?!!!" I ask, tickling you. You laugh in surprise. You want me to tickle you again. You like how it feels to have laughter fall from you.  Soon we are both laughing and saying, "How will we survive this!? HOW WILL WE SURVIVE???"

It isn't until later I realize we were answering the question all along. 

Laugher! That is how. Laughter.