Sighing deeply, I saw the familiar pine trees come into view as the car rolled up the steep driveway, gravel crunching beneath its tires.

Excitement and anxiety filled the pit of my stomach. It had been so long since I had seen my dad’s family, and we didn’t end on a good note. I didn’t know how they and I’d react. Three boys waited on the top most step of the path leading up to the door, all grinning and waving at our vehicle. Even before we had come to a complete stop my cousins were at the doors of our car. Opening them, they emitted a babble of talk and sound, words jumbling together.

“We missed you so much!”
“How long are you staying?”
“Please stay a while.”
“How have you guys been?”
“I’m so glad you guys are here!”
After being pulled into three separate suffocating hugs we got into the house to put our luggage away.

“Anna, Katie!” my youngest cousin called to my stepsister and me. “I want to show you something.” Excitement gleamed in his eyes as he dragged me and Katie out the front door and to the cluster of trees I knew formed a forest beyond. The longer we walked, the more I felt the tension draining from my body. The long car ride and the stress I left behind at the house seemed lifetimes away. The chirping of birds and the cool autumn air soothed me. Soon we came to a little stream that seemed to split the woods in half.

My cousin plopped down on the bank and said, “It’s nice here, me and the boys come down here a lot to escape things or just hang out.”
I could see the appeal. The stream was located almost directly in the center of the woods, in the middle of my cousin’s house and the other neighborhood on the opposite side. The sound of water was relaxing and the trees provided enough shade from the sun.

“We’ve missed you a lot,” he simply stated looking at us. For the first time in a long time, as I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of nature, I