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A quote: “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~~ Plato
I’ll start with a story …
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I thought it was a curse when I lived. My parents, my brother, all taken in the night while they slept. But I was left. Alive and … well … whole.
Others are being taken, complete families, during these dry summer months and rolling blackouts. Police say “close your windows, lock your doors”. Politicians say, “Remain calm.” Yet they lock themselves away, fierce men with hard faces and large weapons protecting them.
I stalk the midnight streets armed and with one small hope from the horror the night I worked late in my studio.
I am the hunter in red.
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, from Adobe Stock, standard license.
“No heartbeat!” Frederick’s hand rested on the figure’s chest. “He dead, John.”
He’d complained about pain all morning, now he lay unmoving.
“John, ain’t no one else a mile ‘roun.’ They’s the boat. Other side’s Illinois. We’s free.”
I’m educated, Frederick isn’t. He doesn’t speak correctly. He can’t think.
“What would we do, Fred? We’re fed. No worries about tomorrow. If we run, they’ll blame us.”
“John, we knows how to work. Go north, make our way. We’s free.”
Crazy talk. I swing at Frederick. He ducks, counterpunches, I fall. He pushes off, leaving me with our overseer.
I weep.
Cameron says: This was the part of town where anything was for sale if you knew who to ask. She looked up at me with tired eyes and said what she’d do and for how much.
I smiled and said “How much to just have a meal with me?”
Her…handler tried to protest. He saw the error of his ways after I leaned in close and whispered Truths about him in his ear. And her? She accepted my offer.
Part of my work on Earth is guiding people towards a better path no matter the sacrifice. Tonight cost me a nice dinner.
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