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A quote: “All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.” ~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
I’ll start with a story …
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“Since childhood I’d fall asleep and wake up … somewhere. Back then I never went far. Usually places I had already been and was thinking about before sleeping,” She grinned, “I woke one time in an ice cream store. But I always went back home next I fell asleep.”
“Now you travel the world?”
“I don’t have to be there first anymore. A map and a great pic will do.”
“But the random …”
She puts a finger to my lips, “Still happens. But I can control it, too.”
Suddenly only that touch remains and the promise in her eyes.
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license.
It was supposed to be a quick intelligence-gathering mission, listening for “girl talk,” the sort of stuff a mother and her tween daughter was apt to hear from the neighborhood gossips. However, their cover wasn’t as tight as they’d thought, and they’d barely escaped with their freedom.
Elaine looked down at her daughter, sprawled fast asleep on the grass. Mary had handled their escape like a trooper, but as soon as they’d reached the marginal safety of this clearing, she’d collapsed in a heap of exhaustion.
Maybe I shouldn’t have told her Daddy was on his way to rescue us.
On the other hand, letting her sleep meant not having to deal with endless questions about how much longer they had to wait. Mary might be mature for her years, thanks to her rigorous upbringing as Spartan’s daughter, but she was still just shy of her twelfth birthday.
In the meantime, Elaine needed to stay alert. Her husband was on his way, but so might be enemies. People who believed her family were traife, dirty and defiled, less than human. Which meant she might have to make split-second shoot or don’t shoot decisions.
At least this wasn’t lion country, like the redwood forest around Sparta Point. But two-footed predators could be far more dangerous than any catamount — and far harder to tell from friend and family.
From beyond the brush a familiar voice spoke. “Go tell the Spartans.”
Elaine finished the recognition signal: “That here obedient to her laws we lie.”
The branches parted and out stepped her husband, holstering his pistol. His battle-scarred face curled into a smile. “Let’s go home.”
Dupin says: Where is she?
For someone who claimed to be totally exhausted, she hasn’t settled down one bit since we got here for vacation. I figured she’d grab a glass of wine and soak in the ensuite garden tub.
She couldn’t have gone far—didn’t bother with her sandals, but she’s outside somewhere.
Someone went through the tall grasses up the hill. It’s worth a try.
Aha.
This is so her, and it’s picture-perfect. Not even the click of the camera awakens her, lying amid the flowers under this huge shade tree. Relaxation deluxe, I think, as I join her.
Navig8r says: “Impossible! I had the drone and the field in view the whole flight. If there was a girl out there, I would have seen her. But here she is in the video.”
“Look at the blades of grass for scale.”
“Oh. So that’s what a female leprechaun looks like?”
“Bit small for that. More likely a pixie.”
“Let’s go back and find her!”
“I’m sure she’s long gone by now and been thoroughly scolded for her carelessness. What we’d find would be several toy dolls her people placed around so we would believe that is what the drone photographed.”
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