Standing near the crack, Joseph faced upriver into the village. Calarapan's stronghold—he wasn't ready to call it his yet. Not until it was taken apart all the way—had taken the place of several of the structures where the villagers conducted their work. Yet, they worked in that area still. Already with hammers and pickaxes in their hands, some had finished surveying and were selecting their portions of the structure to dismantle.
He and Tamara watched them. She was pressed into his side, her arms wrapped around him, her head resting against his chest. He was stroking her hair.
"I have to leave soon." He said. "I gotta see what this looks like in the physical world."
"Ya participate in both worlds." She said.
"But I'll be back." He added. "Also gotta see how much you've improved."
She closed her eyes, cherishing the feel of his fingers in her hair. "Day grow. Talk like us. Maybe next time."
Watching the villagers converse among each other, hearing their backward voices, he said, "I hope so. Then we can have actual conversations."
"An day learn name of new land." She said.
"I wish I could declare it now." he said.
"Delay not long." She offered.
He looked down at her, "You think so?"
Her eyes having been opened moments ago, she was watching the villagers, "I start seeing new tings."
He couldn't see her expression, but the way she spoke those words, he might have thought she sounded preoccupied. Chantale said she was maturing in matters of this land. What was she seeing, he wondered. Gazing down the path, watching the villagers crossing from one side to the next, carrying their tools, all he saw right now was the beginning of progress.
"It always hurts to have to leave." He said.
Tamara brought her head from his chest to look up at him. She found a sad smile on his face.
"I feel like I'm missing out on everyone's lives because of the separation." He said. "Everything everyone does for me, and I have to be absent, only to show up after the work is done."
"Ya work in dah physical world." She said. "Corresponds wid work we do here. We see ya results and work wid'em."
"I can only step away from that life for so long." He said. "When I get back, what time will it be? Only an hour after I had went to sleep? After all this excitement, I'll have to deal with the afterglow alone…in the wee hours of the morning. I won't get to skip ahead to see the results of everything once everyone else starts their day."
"You are lonely dare?" she asked.
"It does get that way." He offered.
Lowering her head and pressing the side of her face against his chest, she closed her eyes and said, "Ah not give ya shirt back. Ya wake up widout it."
Joseph grinned and started stroking her hair again.
"Dat be reminder." She finished.
After a few moments of watching the villagers work, he bent down to kiss her on top of the head.