“Is this the end?”

“I hope you never give up when life gets hard.”

….

~ Austin ~

“Have you decided on their names yet?” I asked the now focused Alyssa.

I had once assumed art was the only thing that could cause her to zone out. How wrong I was. She’d been knitting a blue jacket for over an hour now and hadn’t moved nor spoken a word.

Though we were seated opposite each other, she on her knitting chair and I on a couch bed, as I read the daily newspaper. It was almost as if I was the only one in the room.

“Oh… I like the name, Daniel. So I am thinking of Daniel and Daniella?”

“Do they have to rhyme?” I chuckled.

“Maybe.”

“How about Hayden and Caden?”

Her eyes went wide at my words. “That’s so cool. How come I never thought of that?”

“Simply because you didn’t.” I say with a smile.

“What are their meanings?”

“Caden means little fighter and Hayden means Hay valley.”

“Never thought you’d sound religious one day.”

“And maybe I am slowly becoming religious.” I say, standing up after dropping my newspaper o