(May 31, 2026)
The Adventures of the Little Lovelies - Backyard Edition
The South Carolina Dream - Part II
Bitty didn’t wake up.
The dream just… changed.
One second she was in the diesel truck, watching the road out of Myrtle Beach. The next second she was standing in Ervin and Kaylee’s driveway in Inman, South Carolina.
The whole family was there. Mom. Dad. Psalm. Nation. Ocean. Harbor. Ervin. Kaylee. Mason. Hazel. Sulley. Grandpa Malcuit. Dassah. Freckles. Rowdy.
Ervin looked up. “Well?”
Kaylee laughed. “Let’s go.”
And they flew.
Like Superman.
Not with wings. Not with planes. Just up.
“WAAAAH!” Dassah yelled, shooting straight up ten feet, then giggling so hard she spun.
Bitty kicked off the driveway and went with her. The air was warm. It felt like jumping into a pool, but up.
They flew around Inman. Over Ervin and Kaylee’s house. Over the fifth-wheel trailer. Over the big diesel trucks. Over the trees and the little roads and the lake where they’d fished.
Mom and Dad flew side by side, holding hands, watching.
Dad shouted, “There go my lovely ladies!”
Mom shouted, “And my boogers!”
Mason was a natural. He did loops. Sulley, 1, was on Kaylee’s back, arms out, laughing.
But Hazel — Hazel was the star.
She flew in circles. She did flips. Her hair flapped in the breeze. She laughed the whole time, loud and free.
In dream land, Hazel could do everything. Talk and dance and eat and play and fly.
Bitty flew next to her. “You’re amazing!”
Hazel did another flip. “I’m the man! Sometimes!”
“Always!” Dassah yelled.
Then Ervin called, “Up! All together!”
They flew straight up. As a group. Through the air, faster and faster, until they hit the clouds.
White everywhere. Cool and soft.
Then — through.
And there it was.
A lake. In the sky.
Bitty stopped flying and just floated. It was unbelievable. Blue water, still as glass, sitting on top of the clouds. And on it, a long dock made of wood.
They landed on it, feet on the warm boards.
People were laying on the dock, reading their Bibles. Quiet. Peaceful. The sun reflected off the water and came up through the cracks between the planks, making little dancing lights on their faces.
Bitty and Dassah walked with Mason, Hazel, and Sulley. Mom and Dad walked behind them, smiling.
“We talk about Lovely Laws here,” Ervin said, sitting down on the edge.
Kaylee nodded. “Lovely Law #1. Love others as yourself. Even up here.”
Bitty sat with Freckles in her lap. “It feels like home. But higher.”
Dad put his arm around her. “That’s what love does. It lifts you.”
They stayed a while. Talking. Not needing to say much. The water was still.
Then, when the time was right, everyone just knew.
It was time to go back down.
“How we get down?” Mason asked.
Ervin stood up. “Same way we came. We dive.”
They all stood at the edge of the dock. Together.
“1, 2, 3,” Dad counted.
They dove into the lake in the sky.
But they didn’t get wet.
The second they hit the water, they were on the bottom side of the clouds, flying again like Superman. Down, down, down, through the sky over Inman.
The wind was in their hair. The whole family was laughing.
They landed — soft as feathers — right back on Ervin and Kaylee’s driveway.
The Campfire
That night, everyone gathered around a campfire. The fifth-wheel was parked behind them. The two diesel trucks glowed in the firelight.
Go-Diddy picked up his guitar.
“I wrote a song,” he said. “About today. It’s called ‘Where Your Love Flows.’”
He sang. Everyone got quiet, even Sulley.
“I close my eyes. I'm dreaming of a place up high. A lake in the skies. A place where people seek and find. The waters are still... in the land of your will. Your living waterfall fills the hearts that do your will. Take me home... to the place where your love flows. Take me home... to the place where your love flows. Teeming with life. The life given by your one and only Son. The land of your love. This life of you has only begun. Where the waters are still in the land of your will. Your living waterfall fills the hearts that do your will. Come and take me home to the place where your love flows. Lord Jesus take me home to the place where your love flows. Where the waters are still in the land of your will. Your living waterfall fills the hearts that do your will.”
When he finished, no one clapped at first. They just sat.
Mom had her head on Dad’s shoulder.
Ervin held Kaylee’s hand.
Mason had Hazel asleep on his lap. Sulley was asleep on Grandpa Malcuit.
Dassah was curled into Bitty.
Bitty looked around at all of them — her family, together, in South Carolina, under stars — and her heart felt like it couldn’t hold any more love.
It was too full. Too warm. Too perfect.
And then —
Bitty woke up.
She was in Wasilla. In her bed. Freckles under her arm. The house was quiet.
She could still hear the song. She could still see the lake in the sky.
She whispered, “1, 2, 3 Thank you, Lord Jesus.”
And she smiled, because even though it was a dream, the love was real.
The End... for now.