The Everlasting Story of Nory

41. In Real Life

‘It was only pretend,’ Nory said to reassure Samantha and Racooch when she was finished whispering herself the story — in case one of them had been only dozing lightly and caught some of it, or was only pretending to sleep, as Nory sometimes did herself, so she could hear a glimpse of things she wouldn’t normally hear. ‘In real life there are no dragons with long fingernails,’ she said to her dear babies. ‘There are, it is true, many terrible things in real life, but you two are young and you don’t need to know about all of them yet. There will be plenty of time for that. You just need to try to do your best to be as good as I know you can. I will cradle you away from anything that might harm you, because I love you very much, as you know.’ She kissed them in their sleep, and then it was unavoidably time for her to conk.