Dinner with the Kings

Part fiction, part reality. One from many stories about moving from a warm busy city to the wilderness in the north of Norway.

Joe King had lost his wife back in 2008 after a long fight with cancer. And while some people would fall into depression and work long hours, numbing the pain of loneliness and life in general, Joe had decided to sell his company and travel around the world, showing his kids how people lived in other places.

Joe wasn't the typical rich guy traveling with his kids. Neither was he the typical hippy wannabe who had left the commodities of a fixed job to find his purpose on a vegan kumbaya community far from everything. Joe was me, was you, was any of us who simply get enough courage to show the finger to this egoistic, individualistic b***h that is modern life.

Cathrine had once again set a feast for us. With the weather becoming colder outside, it was somehow cozy to enjoy that gelid breeze coming from the arctic mountains. Despite Cathrine's energy, there was silence everywhere. Silence existed in that place just like the trees and the birds, just like the mountains and the lake. It was part of the land and it filled our lungs with melancholy on every breath we took.
Joe was part of another kind of silence. His mind was always far, just like someone who's trying to  remember something from a book he read long time ago. Sometimes I thought he was only allowed to say a limited amount of words per day, creating the need of making every word count.

Milda (8) and Olivia (11) were chaos, if chaos was well behaved. They ran around ran around with the music playing on the back while waving the sparklers Cathrine had found for them. There was so much peace around me that for a moment I felt I would start to cry.

The dinner was served. Piles of steaming food filled the table just like a medieval feast. "A king's feast for the Kings" Said Cathrine laughing loudly as she always did.
As I reached for some dark homemade bread, Olivia looked at me with disapproval. "Papa always to thanks for the food".
Joe smiled at me and nodded while we held hands. We stood in silence for about a minute. Nobody uttered a single word. Nobody sang, danced or made any unnecessary movement. We just stood there, looking and smiling at each other.
And just like a stronger breeze coming unexpectedly expected, Milda starts laughing, followed by Olivia and Joe, and finally by the rest of us holding hands.
It was time to eat.

Author's Note

I didn't proofread it yet for grammar mistakes. For now I'm more interested to get feedback on the context, structure, and how engaged readers got while reading this text.