Vineyards covered every hillside around Bacharach.

For days, we’d walked among them.

The boys hardly noticed.

On our last evening, something clicked.

~

We’d set out, for one last family hike to the Postenturm tower.

Both boys grabbed their wooden swords from the toy shop, and off we went.

The trail was damp, the air cold.

Sun-warmed stones and rain.

Corbin stopped almost immediately.

Dandelions covered the path.

He pulled one.

“No weeds.”

Another.

“No weeds.”

Another.

We waited.

He pulled another.

At home, he loved helping Dani with the yard. Here, there were millions of dandelions, and apparently every one of them needed his attention.

We started walking again.

He stopped.

Another flower.

By the time we reached the vineyards, our progress had slowed to a crawl.

Corbin looked up.

“Wait.”

He pointed at the vines.

“These are grapes?”

“Yes.” Dani said.

“Grape vines,” I corrected.

He stared across the hillside.

Rows of vines climbed one above another, disappearing around the bends in the mountain.

“Then… where’s the grapes?”

“Not yet.”

“But I want to eat them.”

Corbin tugged at a vine.

Nothing.

He checked the next one.

Nothing.

“Maybe these ones have grapes.”

He reached for another, slowly twisting off a bud from under its leaves.

I reached for his hand to stop him from.

“Just leave it alone.”

Then Avery joined him.

“I want grapes too.”

We kept walking.

They searched every few yards.

~

At the tower, the boys forgot about grapes.

They ran screaming up the wooden stairs, wooden swords bouncing against their backs.

Dani and I followed more slowly.

“Careful.”

“Stay away from the edge.”

“Come back.”

They peered through the rails anyway.

We finally called them down.

~

The sun was dropping behind the hills.

We had planned to turn around, but the path continued upward through the vineyards.

So we kept going.

One tier.

Then another.

The boys ran ahead.

We climbed until the tower below us looked small against the hillside.

At the fifth tier, we found a bench and stopped to admire the sunset.

Bacharach spread below us, the Rhine beyond it, the vineyards rising around us in every direction.

Corbin looked across the vines.

“Where are the grapes?”

Dani sighed. Then looked at me.

“Let’s see if the grocery store has some.”

~

Back at the apartment, the boys sat on the floor eating green grapes from a plastic container.

Corbin held one up.

“See?”

Then he ate it.